Foiled: The Radio Show That Refused To Dye
Axed BBC Radio comedy Foiled is available to listen again - right here ✂️
Happy Friday!
And a warm welcome from the Ness.
For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel, half of the team behind BBC Radio comedy Foiled, Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society, and Advanced Wilderness Therapeutic Guide in training.
Yes, that is too many hats.
In this newsletter, I write stories that help you and me understand the world (and ourselves) a little better.
Sometimes I eat the cheese with the chocolate.
Passable Jokes About Hair: Back Online!
The eagle eyes among you will have already noticed that I recently uploaded to Substack all four series of Foiled, a radio comedy series set in Bleach For The Stars, a celebrity hair salon and spa in Cardiff Tonypandy, Wales.
The series was written by Beth Granville and David Charles — that’s me — and produced by Rubber Chicken for BBC Sounds, from 2017 to 2021.
One of the annoying things about licensing is that the BBC only paid to broadcast each episode of Foiled twice, which meant that all sixteen shows disappeared from the internet after less than a January’s worth of days.
Despite this egregious penny-pinching — which arguably denied millions of people the opportunity to listen to some passable jokes about hairs — Foiled easily became Radio Wales’ most downloaded comedy show ever.
Unfamiliar mainstream success was impossible for Radio Wales commissioners to believe, preferring to accuse Beth of ordering extended family members to stay up all night punching the download button on the BBC Sounds app thousands and thousands of times than to admit audiences actually enjoyed Foiled and they should really give us a telly series.
Over four triumphant years, Foiled played host to a veritable cavalcade of star guests on the show — including at least three who have starred in major Hollywood films and one who had a bit part in Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey?!
A-listed stars included Felicity Montagu, Ralf Little, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Derek Jacobi, Vicky Vox and David Charles as Pets World Shop Announcer.
But the heart of the show was always the regular cast — Beth Granville, David Oakes and Stéphanie Siadatan, with scene-stealing appearances from Garnon Davies, Tom Price and Miles Jupp.
One of the peak experiences of my life was sitting opposite the actual Miles Jupp as he read the actual words that I’d written for the actual Miles Jupp. Goosebumps.
I don’t expect your arrector pili muscles to respond in exactly the same way as mine, but if you’re curious, you can hear Miles in Everything’s Puzzles, Everything’s Plants and Everything’s Crocs.
So finally, after an internet absence of five years, you can discover or rediscover the madcap celebrity-studded world of Sabrina Edwards, Senior Stylist and Manageress, for yourselves.
To get you started, here’s Everything’s Chairs — one of my all-time favourite episodes, starring Francois Pandolfo as the mysterious Emiliano and Garnon Davies as Tariq, Tonypandy’s very own baguettes supremo.
Happy birthday, Beth!
Thank You
Huge thanks to all the paying subscribers who helped make this story possible. You know who you are. Thank you. 💚
If you enjoyed this one, then go ahead and tell me. It’s the only way I’ll know. You can tap the heart button, write a comment, share the newsletter with friends, or simply reply to this email.
If you’re not into the whole Substack subscription thing, then you can also make a one-off, choose-your-own-contribution via PayPal. That’d make my day.
As always, thank you for your eyeballs and thanks for your support.
diwyc,
dc: