Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 The People Have Spoken Ep1. Andy Cool'em Down'em
24 snips
Aug 21, 2026 
Alasdair Beckett-King, comedian and writer, brings sharp satire and panel banter. Maisie Adam, stand-up and actor, delivers character sketches and playful riffs. They lampoon novelty candidates, invent a ticklish political persona, debate small fixes for high streets and mock scandals while riffing on heatwave survival tips and theatrical solutions to topical headlines.
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Public Creativity For Silly Space Fixes
- The audience suggested imaginative technical fixes like satellites that eat other satellites to address space clutter.
- Ian Smith framed the idea as playful public creativity, showing the show's approach of crowdsourcing absurd solutions to big problems.
Clacton By Election Became A Novelty Contest
- Ian Smith summarised the Clacton by-election as Nigel Farage beat a bin in a race of 34 candidates where major parties boycotted.
- The show mocked novelty candidates and low female representation, asking why there weren't more women among joke candidates.
Use Tickling To Expose Unscrutinised Politicians
- Maisie proposed a novelty candidate, Polly Tickle, who gets tickled while answering policy questions to break political media training.
- The idea aimed to force raw, unscripted reactions from politicians on issues like climate change.