Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Walker, Lucy Pearman, Aqib Khan, Nick Revell, Daniel Abelson, Bob Sinfield, Rob Curling, Adam Byron, Bryony Corrigan, Emma Thornett, Liz White, Cole Anderson-James, Ellie Dobing, Sarah Gabriel, Ed Kear, Hope Leslie, Thanyia Moore, Jonathan Taffer, James O’Brien.

Think of how many great artistic creations come from the depths of the soul in which their opinions are more memorable than perhaps the face which delivered the immortal lines.

Those names are numerous, the comic genius which allows the rant of the inclined to surface from the otherwise genial and gracious is forever captured, and those who openly have a resentment for many in high power are the ones in which we hold a special place in our hearts, for they are the one who are unafraid to truly hold others accountable.

Jonathan Pie is the brainchild of Tom Walker, and in the very best tradition of antagonised political pundit becoming their own cause-celebre, the creation has become its own behemoth, moving on from five-minute walk-ons via the world of Facebook and Twitter, to a successful stage adaption, and now in a ten-part series that appears on BBC Sounds. It is this sense of growth, delivered with timing and sharp insight of the ‘angry’ radio late night caller brigade who wish to divulge their sometimes often personal, nearly always bigoted point of view, live to the nation.

The ten-part series is a near perfect extension of the five minute videos that have come through various media as and when something disturbingly political takes root in the public conscious, and if the character is the seamless deliverer of our own thoughts at the inane resolve of idiocy and alarm pomposity of the political class, then this series extends the beef further by adding the confines of the studio in which Jonathan Pie has to traverse the inner workings of safe space and its own political wranglings, as well as that as introducing his family in a more stable manner than has been eluded to before.

All this makes for what would be considered great radio, even though in effect it is a scripted podcast on BBC Sounds, and with topics such as the continuing spectre of Brexit, race relations, drugs, women’s issues, and the corporation itself, Call Jonathan Pie is arguably one of the most adept and skilfully indulgent programmes of its kind, up there satirically with Drop The Dead Donkey, a faux phone in show where the beast, the creature created, is given carte blanche to steer the listener through the complex questions of the day with as much anger as possible.

A tremendous satire, a worthy addition to the genre, and one on which Tom Walker, Lucy Pearman, Aqib Khan, Nick Revell, and the cast of assorted callers absolutely excel.

Ian D. Hall