IT IS likely that God Squad (Radio 4, last Friday) is the first comedy to get a laugh out of the Farrer-Goulder hypothesis. (“It puts the fun back into fundamental reappraisals of New Testament source history.”) Scripted by Barney Fishwick and Jack Chisnall, who, according to their production company blurb, have taken spiritual journeys in opposite directions, this is a rare example of a religious sitcom that does religion and manages proper laughs in the process.
Last Friday’s episode was, to all intents and purposes, a pilot: let’s hope that it impresses those commissioning editors who have never had the joy of studying the Synoptic Gospels.
The set-up is a student Christian Association (for which read CU), led by three stock comedy types. At the freshers’ fair, the team do battle with indifference and ignorance: the best gag of the show comes when one of our heroes offers to quote “the words of Matthew 16”. “I don’t care what some teenager thinks,” comes the retort.
Most threatening of all are the blandishments of Dan, a relativist who lures the group into the multifaith world: “I believe in God, not in religion,” he declares with clichéd glibness. “My twin poisons are Hitchens and Dawkins.” Dan turns out to be more interesting than irritating, and is a character to listen out for, assuming that we get the chance.
Whether the show has staying power will depend on the strength of the writers’ ambition to explore the genuine and often comedic tensions arising from living a life of faith in the world; and not simply make this another sitcom about a bunch of deluded, marginalised idealists.
As the big guns meet in Glasgow for COP26, Tom Heap entertained another in the person of Arnold Schwarzenegger for last Friday’s episode of 39 Ways to Save the Planet (Radio 4).
Mr Schwarzenegger’s real life rather than cinematic strategy for saving the planet involves good communication. “If you are selling a movie, don’t talk about what lens you used . . . or how you did the special effects; you have to tell the story.” And the story that works best with business is pollution. If we can convince business that carbon dioxide is a pollutant like any other, then we can agree on measures for reduction. Nobody likes pollution, not even big business.
As the clocks turned back in the early hours of Sunday, Radio 3 began a series of eight beautifully crafted reconstructions of the daily office, in Music for the Hours. Matins came first, followed by lauds, prime, and the others, each adorned with chant and polyphony sung by the Tallis Scholars. Indeed, the impeccable nature of these performances became the chief drawback of this otherwise worthy venture.
With no sense of environment, of place, these exquisite renditions might just as well have come from the choir’s vast discography as from a real liturgy in a real church. An element of the piety in singing lauds at 3 a.m. is the physical challenge. It all sounded a good deal too easy for these virtuosi.