A British Radio Comedy Christmas Quiz

Answer: Clare in the Community

This excellent sitcom was first broadcast in 2006 and a ninth series was transmitted in 2013. It has won a Sony Award for the outstanding performance of Sally Philips as the title character, Clare Barker. Clare is a social worker at the Sparrow Hawk Community Centre and is self-consciously politically correct and hyper-critical of everybody else while being seemingly oblivious to her own shortcomings. There have actually been two seasonal episodes of 'Clare in the Community', series one's 'Combat Zone' about an office Christmas dinner that goes badly wrong and the series three episode 'Merry Christmas Mrs. Lawrence' which is the episode described in the question.

The wrong answers are all real radio comedy shows, this will be the case for all incorrect options in this quiz so trying to eliminate options by spotting fake programme titles will not help much I'm afraid!

Answer: The Men From the Ministry

'The Men From the Ministry' was broadcast between 1962 and 1977 and dealt with the bungling antics of the staff of the General Assistants Department, Derek Lennox-Brown and Richard Lamb and their secretary Mildred Murfin, who persistently manage to bungle every job they are given, usually due to an elaborate series of mix-ups and misunderstandings much to the annoyance of their permanently irascible boss Sir Gregory Pitkin. Derek Lennox-Brown was played by Deryck Guyler and Richard Lamb by Richard Murdoch while Norma Ronald played Mildred Murfin. The episode in question is 'The Christmas Spirit', a remake of a much earlier episode 'The Magic Carpet' which is believed to be missing. The remake was part of a series of re-recordings of early episodes of the series recorded in 1980 for the BBC's overseas transcription service. Another festive episode of 'The Men From the Ministry' entitled 'Post Office Panto' sees the men taking on the important job of answering letters to father Christmas.

'The Men From the Ministry' was a surprise hit in Finland where it continued to be broadcast long after it had ceased being aired on British radio.

Answer: Think the Unthinkable

This very clever and funny show ran for four series from 2001 to 2005 and followed the work of 'Unthinkable Solutions', a firm of management consultants whose modern and supposedly innovative approach to their work and penchant for utterly meaningless corporate jargon, as wellas a seeming lack of understanding for how business actually works, causes disaster for almost all of their clients. The team's manager is the nice but dim Ryan Packer, played by Marcus Brigstock, who is particularly fond of meaningless metaphors and buzz words and who seems to be oblivious to the destruction his company leaves in their wake. The other staff at 'Unthinkable Solutions are Daisy, played by Catherine Shepherd, a sweet and idealistic girl who seems to understand little that goes on around her and to possess no discernible skills, Sophie Stott, played by Emma Kennedy, by far the most capable member of the team, efficient and with a no-nonsense approach, unfortunately, she also has sociopathic tendancies which can lead to violent outbursts when she is angered and Owen, played by David Mitchell, the team's computer technician, who, while he is an expert in computer programming, is lacking in social skills, he also has a very serious and unrequited crush on Sophie.

The episode described in the question is entitled 'Christmas Party' and the titular event is the focus for most of the action in this episode. The party in question consists of a trip to a pantomime organised by an 'affirmative action theatre group', where Ryan finally gets an idea for the management book they've been asked to write, and a trip to a night club where excessive consumption of alcohol may lead to Owen's dreams and Sophie's nightmares coming true simultaneously!

Answer: The Small, Intricate Life Of Gerald C. Potter

The humour in this show is extremely gentle and based entirely around the strange workings of the literary minds of Mr. and Mrs. Potter where a conversation can take so many twists and turns away from its original subject that neither can remember what they were supposed to be discussing in the first place. Gerald C. Potter himself is a writer of detective novels, unfortunately, though he goes out to his writing shed to begin work early every morning, he does not find the creative process an easy one and spends most of the series working on the same novel 'Who Killed Bruno Travers. Diana Potter, who writes under the pseudonym Magnolia Badminton, is a romantic novelist who, despite starting work much later than her husband, seems able to churn out entire books in no time at all, her books also sell far better than Gerald's titles. However, despite a little professional rivalry, the Potters are extremely fond of each other.

The episode referred to in the question is entitled 'The Cousin', and was broadcast between series three and four in 1977. In this episode Gerald decides to help out by writing Christmas cards before discovering that Diana has already sent them. There follows a discussion about the names of the Magi and an argument about a missing bottle of sherry before Diana makes a horrible discovery when reading a Christmas card from her aunt in Chicago which she had previously overlooked and which announces that her cousin will be coming to visit her at Christmas. Unfortunately, the Potters do not usually celebrate Christmas (as they always seem to forget about it) so a trip to the shops to stock up on food and decorations to provide their visitors with an old-fashioned English Christmas is necessitated.

Answer: Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show

The eponymous Count, played by Steve Delaney, is constantly mentioning his numerous minor TV appearances and supposed celebrity chums, unfortunately, his forgetfulness and penchant for spoonerisms makes many of his showbiz stories hard to follow! The episode mentioned in the question is 'Count Arthur Strong's Christmas Show' and features a classic example of the Count's inimitable way with words as he manages to mangle the nativity story beyond all recognition.

Unfortunately, a misunderstanding after his performance at the retirement home leads to him being mistaken for a resident.

The seventh series of 'Count Arthur's Radio Show' was broadcast on Radio 4 in 2012 and it made the move to BBC Two the year after, but, in my opinion, the radio version is always the best version! Thankfully, though the last full series of 'Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show' was broadcast in 2012, he has not forsaken Radio 4 entirely, returning in 2014 and 2015 with two new and extremely funny one-off Christmas episodes.

Answer: Hancock's Half Hour

'Hancock's Half Hour' was a very popular sitcom which featured Tony Hancock, Sid James, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. The character of Hancock is pompous, selfish, arrogant and often foolish, all traits which Sid James' character uses to con him out of large sums of money. Bill Kerr plays Hancock's extremely dim-witted friend, Hattie Jacques plays Hancock's strict secretary whose weight is the butt of many jokes and Kenneth Williams appears in a different capacity in each episode, though he is always playing the same type of character, who appears at an opportune moment and always manages to annoy or inconvenience Hancock. The episode mentioned in the question is 'Hancock's Happy Christmas', thanks to Miss Pugh's kind-hearted interfering the misanthropic Hancock is forced to entertain two orphans over Christmas, Hancock's dislike of children, Miss Pugh's terrible cooking and a visit from the department store Father Christmas, played naturally by Kenneth Williams, help to make Christmas every bit as miserable as Hancock had feared it would be!

There are two other surviving festive episodes of 'Hancock's Half Hour', 'Bill and Father Christmas' in which Bill has a nervous breakdown on discovering, at the tender age of thirty-four, that Father Christmas does not exist and 'The Christmas Club' in which Hancock and Sid are looking forward to a bountiful Christmas thanks to the Christmas Club to which Hancock has been contributing all year until a mix-up with a police charity envelope leaves the Christmas cupboards bare.

Answer: Ed Reardon's Week

Ed Reardon's literary career began promisingly when he published his first (and so far only) serious novel as a young writer and was featured in a newspaper article along with other bright young things who were being tipped for stardom. While Ed's friend and rival Jaz Milvane, who was featured in the same article as Ed, went on to become a popular, rich and successful director of trashy big-budget movies, Ed has been reduced to ghost-writing celebrity memoirs, cookery books and Christmas annuals, including 'The Stig's Bumper Christmas Book of Speed Cameras', 'Armando Ianucci's Carpathian Walks', 'Jane Seymour's Household Hints' and 'Pet Peeves'. The only other piece of work that Ed Reardon appears to be proud of is an episode of the prisoner of war drama series 'Tenco' which he wrote and which he regularly forces his writing class to watch. Divorced and living an impoverished life in a flat in London with his pet cat Elgar, Ed supplements the meagre writing commissions he receives from his hopeless literary agents by teaching creative writing to a small class of hyper-critical pensioners at a local adult education college, taking part in police line-ups and doing seasonal work with Royal Mail. Ed is in a constant state of fury with the assininity he sees around him and spends much of his time writing angry e-mails or taking on the '12 year-olds' whom he believes are running the country.

The episode described in the question is entitled 'Ed Reardon's Christmas Week' and was broadcast on Christmas day 2012. In this episode he squanders the money his girlfriend, Fiona, had given him to deal with a flea infestation in his flat and when she finds this out she revokes his invitation for Christmas lunch. Ed's grown-up children offer to invite him for Christmas as long as he agrees to a long list of requirements that include not complaining about the quality of Christmas TV, something which he obviously cannot manage. Consequently, he ends up with the prospect of spending Christmas with the person he was least hoping to see when Jaz Milvane comes to visit. In Series 2 there is an episode called 'Rogue Mail' which is also set in December and follows Ed's trials working at Royal Mail during the Christmas rush while trying to write a book about royal stamp collections.

Answer: The Clitheroe Kid

'The Clitheroe Kid' was played by diminutive comedian Jimmy Clitheroe, he was in his late thirties when he first began playing the incorrigible scamp and continued to play the role into his fifties. The 'Kid' became a hit on radio, delighting audiences of all ages with his antics. His regular sidekick was his prim sister Susan's extremely gullible boyfriend Alfie Hall, who was almost invariably coerced into giving money to Jimmy or joining him on some course of mischief or other. Other regular cast members included Jimmy's mother, grandfather and sister who spend most of their time attempting to keep Jimmy out of trouble. Although 'The Clitheroe Kid' is still enjoyable, it has not aged quite as well as some other classic comedy shows such as 'Hancock's Half Hour' as much of the humour has dated badly.

The episode described in the question was entitled 'It's A Gift' and finds the kid in what appears to be an uncharacteristically selfless mood has he works hard to earn enough money to buy a special bottle of perfume for his mum, however, events later in the episode may suggest an ulterior motive for his good behaviour! In two other episodes 'Double Trouble' and 'Every Dog Has Its Christmas Day' the festive season seems to bring out Jimmy's kinder side as he does his best to help those in need. Meanwhile, in yet another festive episode 'Christmas Crackers' we get to visit the Clitheroe household on Christmas day as they prepare for a party and Susan practices for her role as Cinderella in the local pantomime.

Answer: The Shuttleworths

'The Shuttleworths' is a very gentle and slow-paced comedy series which follows aspiring singer and keyboard player John Shuttleworth as he goes about his daily business, this usually involves doing household chores, chatting to friends and family about nothing in particular and playing little ditties on his keyboard, when Mary isn't ordering him to move it! The other principal characters in 'The Shuttleworths' include Mary, John's bad tempered wife who works as a school dinner lady, Karen, the Shuttleworths' teenage daughter, Ken Worthington who is the Shuttleworths' neighbour and John's agent and once came last on 'New Faces' in 1973 and Joan Chitty who is a colleague and friend of Mary and is a trained physiotherapist even though she has never had a client. All of these characters are played by the very talented Graham Fellows. John and Mary also have a teenage son called Darren but we never hear him speak. 'The Shuttleworths' ran for five series as well as a number of Christmas and new year specials. John Shuttleworth and his family have also starred in a number of other Radio 4 comedy shows including 'Radio Shuttleworth', 'John Shuttleworth's Open Mind' and 'John Shuttleworth's Lounge Music'.

The episode described in the question is entitled 'Plonker's Baby'. Episodes of 'The Shuttleworths' are usually fifteen minutes long but this particular episode runs for half an hour. John is excitedly planning to stage a nativity play for guests at the family's Christmas Eve party, although he admits that most of the attendees will also have to perform in it! He is planning to take on the role of Joseph himself while Mary will, naturally enough, take on the role of her namesake and Ken will play the inn keeper. John has managed to borrow a baby from his son Darren's friend Lee or 'Plonker' as he is better known, who happens to have access to his baby that day and is willing to let him make his stage debut playing the baby Jesus. Unfortunately for John, not everyone shares his enthusiasm, Ken is disatisfied with his role and Mary thinks that Christmas Eve is far too late to put on a nativity play and thinks John should be focusing on cleaning the bathroom and washing the windows. However, despite all of these disagreements and interruptions John is inspired to go ahead with the performance during a transidental experience at the garden centre. Eventually he and Plonker's baby are able to put on the play, even if nobody is around to see it! This episode includes festive songs such as 'I'm Joseph' and 'Shepherd In Jeopardy which form part of the nativity play.

There are numerous festive episodes of 'The Shuttleworths' including 'Christmas Eve with the Shuttleworths' where John's plans for a family Christmas sing-along are ruined when all his family abandon him for the evening, 'The Leg End of Robin Hood' where John and Ken's planned performance at an old people's home is derailed when Ken injures his foot in a mysterious accidend, 'A Shuttleworths Christmas Carol' where a glum Ken Worthington decides he might be able to regain his Christmas spirit if he were to be visited by some helpful spirits but needs help from John and Mary to make his 'A Christmas Carol' style conversion possible.

Answer: Old Harry's Game

'Old Harry's Game' has amassed a large and devoted following during its long run on Radio 4 and has been praised both for its wit and its social commentary. The show's creator and star Andy Hamilton plays a devil who, while he is cruel and sadistic, is also oddly human. His enjoyment in dreaming up imaginative and fiendish punishments for newcomers to hell is dampened by the relentless grind of the job. He has to deal with staffing issues, potential coups and the constant memories of everything he gave up when he rebelled against god and was banished from heaven. The contrast between his current monstrous form and his previous angelic body cause him much regret. His situation is made worse when a mortal who clearly does not belong in hell arrives in his kingdom. 'The Professor' as he is known, is a gentle, kind and tolerant man who ends up in hell because he is an atheist and Satan has qualms about punishing him because he has done nothing that deserves retribution. Over the first few series Satan and 'The Professor' develop an uneasy friendship and 'The Professor's' constant questioning leads Satan to confront several uncomfortable questions about his own existence and behaviour. When James Grout, who played 'The Professor' left the show Satan's new foil became Edith, a historian who Satan has asked to write his biography. Other characters include Scumspawn, Satan's right-hand demon who is utterly devoted to his devilish boss but is not much good at his job, since he is far too kind-hearted to torment anyone properly, Thomas who is described as one of the most evil souls in hell and frequently bears the brunt of Satan's, often creative, anger and a cast of figures from history who make cameo appearances in various episodes including such diverse individuals as Joan of Arc, Jane Austen and Humphrey Bogart.

In 'The Christmas Spirit', the episode described in the question, Satan is reminded that the annual 'Christmas rush' is about to descend on hell when a drunken reveller arrives in his kingdom. By this point in the series Satan has already begun looking at ways of preventing people ending up in hell as the over-crowding problem worsens. With this goal in mind he goes to the 'world of man' to attempt to discredit Christmas. However, despite a number of valiant attempts at ruining Christmas, including taking on the guise of the pope and saying that Jesus doesn't exist, appearing on Radio 4's 'Thought for the Day' as the Bishop of Scunthorp and urging people not to 'embarrass' Jesus by celebrating his birthday and becoming editor of 'The Daily Mail' and printing numerous scare stories about the dangers of mince pies and turkey, Christmas remains as popular as ever. In fact, Satan is not even able to prevent the Christmas spirit taking root in his own kingdom as, while the devil is away trying to destroy Christmas, Scumspawn is doing his best to ensure that Edith and Thomas are able to enjoy an 'old-fashioned' Christmas, even if the carols are sung by demons and the wrapping paper, christmas tree and fake snow are all made out of dried mucus. Scumspawn proves unexpectedly good at charades and even manages to locate Bing Crosby to come and sing 'White Christmas' to them. Unfortunately, it is just at this moment when an infuriated Satan returns from his failed mission and is not best pleased to find a choir of demon carol singers and a tinsel-bedecked hell.

Answer: Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off

'Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off' ran on Radio 4 for five series, with the last being broadcast in late 2011. However, the inveterate traveller also appeared in a number of one, two or three part specials in which he visited Glastonbury, organised trips to the World Cup and delivered party political broadcasts. In the first three series Giles was on a seemingly endless gap-year while taking a break from his rigorous 'Canadian Studies' degree. Giles is from a very posh family who live in Budleigh Salterton in Devon and his cloistered upbringing and general stupidity mean that he often unwittingly upsets and offends residents of the countries he is visiting, though he usually seems blissfully unaware of the mayhem left in his wake. Following the third series, Giles, who has graduated and become engaged to his long-term girlfriend Arabella, starts up his own travel company along with his sister Charlotte and former teacher Mr. Timmis in order to offer bespoke holidays to customers. Giles is convinced that his extensive travel experience makes him the perfect travel agent, unfortunately, such are Giles' organisational skills that a successful trip is one from which at least half of the tourists come home in one piece!

The episode mentioned in the question is 'Lapland' and Giles spends most of it unconscious after taking a speeding snowball to the head. However, he does have a very vivid dream which takes up most of the episode. He meets an elf with the voice of Charlotte and a reindeer with the voice of Mr. Timmis and they inform him that Father Christmas needs his help urgently. Giles is overjoyed to meet Father Christmas, who is one of his heroes, and is more than happy to defeat the ice queen who is planning to destroy Christmas, especially when he discovers she has imprisoned 'Princess Bella' in an icy tower. Giles' boundless optimism and love of Christmas eventually save the day just before Giles comes round. This episode also contains a parody of the classic movie 'It's A Wonderful Life' when a well meaning angel has difficulty finding any way in which Giles has improved rather than ruined anything he has been involved with.

Answer: Bleak Expectations

'Bleak Expectations' was written by Mark Evans and ran for five series between 2007 and 2012. It told the story of Pip Bin and his sisters Pippa and Poppy, his best friend Harry Biscuit and, of course, his eternal nemesis and erstwhile guardian, the ironically-named, Mr. Gently Benevolent.

The first series is a more-or-less straightforward spoof of a great number of tropes found in the works of Charles Dickens. Pip and his sisters lose their father under mysterious circumstances and their mother goes mad with grief leaving them to the 'care' of their evil guardian Mr. Benevolent who spends most of the first series attempting to kill Pip Bin and steal his inheritance. He initially attempts to kill Pip by sending him to 'England's cruelest school' (the name of which I cannot mention on a family-friendly website) but Pip and his new friend Harry escape along with his sister Pippa who has been sent to an equally horrific school next door to theirs. After a spell in the workhouse Pip invents the bin and makes his fortune but he still has to endure one final showdown with Mr. Gently Benevolent before he can have his happy ending. In this series Harry also falls in love with Pippa Bin and they marry. The subsequent series are progressively less connected to the works of Dickens (though frequent Dickensian references abound) and many other works of literature such as 'Frankenstein, 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' and 'War of the Worlds' are mercilessly parodied! At the beginning of series two Mr. Benevolent is brought back from the dead by one of his numerous henchmen and expands his focus from just wanting to kill Pip Bin to wanting to take over the world. In series two Pip marries Miss Ripely Fecund who subsequently becomes a regular character for the rest of the show's run. The last three series are fundamentally a continuation of the 'Mr. Benevolent wants to destroy the world' storyline begun in series two but still manage to be extremely funny. In an homage to the classic Alec Guinness movie 'Kind Hearts and Coronets', Mr. Benevolent has a new henchman each week, all of whom have suitably evil-sounding names, meet a sticky end by the end of each episode and are all played by veteran actor Geoffrey Whitehead.

The episode mentioned in the question is episode six of series five and is entitled 'A Loved-Up Life Potentially Totally Annihilated' and was broadcast on Christmas Day 2012. In this episode Pip Bin must do battle with his nemesis one last time and sacrifice himself to save the universe from destruction, but he doesn't seem in a rush to lay down his life and Harry Biscuit thinks the end of the world might not be a terrible thing as it would solve his conundrum of what to buy Pippa for Christmas.

Answer: An Actor's Life For Me

Poor Robert Wilson, despite being very keen to make it as a thespian he is constantly thwarted by his completely useless agent Desmond and his exasperated and unimpressed girlfriend Sue. However, Robert's main stumbling block to achieving his stage dreams is his own lack of much real talent, not that he lets this stop him! He does also seem to be beset by poor luck on stage, repeatedly sneezing then coughing while he was supposed to be a corpse, being beaten up live on television by a glove puppet and making a disasterous Shakespearian debut are just some of the calamities that have befallen him.

The episode referred to in the question is entitled 'Pantomime Cows'. In this episode Robert angers the minor celebrity playing the dame in the panto who insists that Robert is sacked and replaced with the celebrity's girlfriend. Desmond however, being an experienced agent, manages to ensure that Robert is still part of the show, although he has been demoted to the front half of the pantomime cow. However, Robert is determined to still be the star of the show and so decides to expand his role somewhat by making the cow a magic talking creature and stealing every scene.

Answer: On the Town With the League of Gentlemen

The 'League of Gentlemen' are a group of friends who have been performing together since the early 1990s. In 1996 they won the prestigious Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival and a year later their radio series was broadcast. It remains the only 'League of Gentlemen' radio series though individual members of the group have worked on numerous other radio dramas and comedies in the intervening years. In 1999 the first series of the team's television show simply entitled 'The League of Gentlemen' was broadcast to critical and popular acclaim on the BBC. The tone of this first TV series was much darker and more sinister than 'On the Town With the League of Gentlemen' had been and broke new comic ground with its use of darkly surreal situations and characters and its use of horror movie tropes in a comedy series. The second series was, if anything, even more bleak and frightening than the first though it continued along similar lines, the first two series being described as a 'sitcom' but actually being closer in form to a thematically-linked sketch show where the characters lives are connected by over-arching events in the town whose name was changed to Royston Vasey for the TV show. The third and final series was something of a departure from the structure of the first two comprising 6 episodes each of which tells a separate story about a character or group of characters all of which are revealed in the final episode to have occurred simultaneously.

'The League of Gentlemen' is one of the very few shows which I think were slightly improved by a transfer from radio to television however, 'On the Town...' is a truly excellent series and contained a great deal of the material that would be later used in the TV series. The episode described in the question is 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' and it sees the wrapping-up of several storylines that have run through the series and culminates with most of the characters gathering in the nuclear power plant for a Christmas party which will include a performance of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' including all the birds mentioned in the song, unfortunately they have employed Dr. Chinnery to take care of the animals during the recital, what could possibly go wrong?

Answer: Cabin Pressure

'Cabin Pressure' tells the story of a tiny 'airdot', which the owner, Carolyn, calls her one-plane charter firm because you cannot put one plane in a line, and its mismatched crew. The crew consists of Carolyn, the owner of the plane, a shrewd and often bad-tempered woman who does her utmost to keep her rag-tag crew in check, Captain Martin, a man who has always dreamed of flying planes but, unfortunately, is not naturally good at it, he is a stickler for the rules and is very fussy and easily flustered, First Officer Douglas, a smooth and smarmy self-proclaimed 'sky god' who always has some scheme or other in hand and who, while he is constantly breaking the rules, can always be relied upon to get the crew out of a jam and Arthur, Carolyn's son and the plane's steward, a very sweet and cheerful but not very intelligent young man who is the butt of the rest of the crew's jokes. While all the crew are very different from each other and are constantly squabbling, when an outsider is mean to any of them they rally round to protect each other and, by the end of the series, they have become more like a disfunctional, but fundamentally affectionate, family than like co-workers. 'Cabin Pressure' debuted in 2008 with the episode 'Abu Dhabi' which began the trend of each episode's title destination beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. After four six part series and one Christmas special, 'Cabin Pressure' folded its wings with the final two part episode 'Zurich' which was broadcast at Christmas in 2014. 'Cabin Pressure' is an extraordinary comedy show with flawless scripts by John Finnemore and peerless performances from the whole cast, not just the four main players, Stephanie Cole, Benedict Cumberbatch, Roger Allam and Finnemore himself, but also outstanding contributions from a stellar supporting cast including Geoffrey Whitehead, Anthony Head, Prunella Scales, Timothy West, Helen Baxendale, Alison Steadman and Matilda Ziegler. Each episode is an absolute joy to listen to and it has become one of Radio 4's biggest hits of the last decade, praised by listeners and critics alike. When the climactic episode 'Zurich' was due to be recorded, such was the demand for tickets for the recording that it smashed all records for similar ticket applications in the past. Many fans were sad that John Finnemore had decided to bring the show to an end but he did provide a deeply satisfying and heartwarming conclusion for everyone in 'Zurich'.

The Christmas episode, 'Molokai', was broadcast between series two and three on Christmas day 2010. In this episode Martin and Douglas pull out all the stops to ensure that Arthur still has a lovely Christmas, even if he is stuck in a plane all day. However, Douglas is not so filled with altruistic festive spirit that he can't use the 'Secret Santa' present swap to try and con Carolyn out of an expensive bottle of wine which she has stolen from an obnoxious customer. Meanwhile, Carolyn is desperately trying to impress a Russian yacht-broker in order to ensure the future of MJN Air. It is probably my favourite episode of any comedy series ever, which is why I have left it till the last question!