Situations

There's an episode of Futurama in which Fry has to write an episode of an Ally McBeal spoof sitcom in order to save the world from destruction at the hands of angry, TV-addicted aliens. What does this have to do with the return of Ed Reardon's Week yesterday? Bear with me, there is a connection. 

For those of you not familiar with Ed Reardon's Week, it pretty much does what it says on the tin. Ed is an impoverished writer who is barely surviving on his meagre repeat fees from a single episode of Tenko and several extremely implausible ghost written books. The episodes follow his desperate attempts to get by in life while he antagonises pretty much everyone around him. It's grumpy, wonderful and very Radio 4.

In Futurama (When Aliens Attack) Fry tries to write an epic storyline that will save the planet but, in the end, he concludes the episode by undoing all the progress the main character has made. As he puts it, "at the end of the episode, everything's always right back to normal." 

As I ranted previously, I've been listening to some past series' of Ed Reardon and, while I thoroughly enjoyed them, there's a definite pattern.  By the end of a series, Ed's career (or life) is teetering on the edge of exploding (or becoming comfortable). There was the promise of a new film deal, the viral success Elgar Writes (his blog in the voice of his cat) and his brief stay in the alms house sheltered accommodation. But, without fail, when the next series comes round things are always right back where they started. Ed is stretching every penny, writing eloquently vicious letters and poor Elgar is back to sharing his voles. 

So when I tuned in yesterday evening I felt quite certain that Ed would have found some spectacular and original way to destroy his blossoming relationship with Fiona (played by Jenny Agutter - another reason I felt certain Ed would be single once again). But far from it, he's now going to DIY shops on weekends and planning mini breaks in Paris. Okay, so he's still forced to scrounge the money to pay for his passport but it's a real change of pace, especially for such an established series.

I still have a pretty strong suspicion that Ed will be single again by the end of episode six but it's going to be interesting to see what he'll have to navigate for the next few weeks while trying to maintain the spark with the all-too-tolerant Fiona. After all, this is the eighth series and I imagine there are only so many ways in which he can vent his feelings about Jaz, Ping, Dave Wang and his writing class.

 There's an extremely thin line between the risk of becoming formulaic (Count Arthur Strong) and a "courageous" - Sir Humphrey style - decision to change the situation at the heart of your sitcom (3rd series of Revolting People). But, if there's any series that can walk that line without falling down one precipice or the other, I think it's probably Ed Reardon's Week.