Time Of The Week: Brand New Character Comedy Series Launches 11pm 6th July on BBC Radio 4
Starring Sian Clifford and Lorna Rose Treen
London: 21st June 2024: Brand new four-part character comedy show, Time Of The Week, produced by DLT Entertainment will begin airing on BBC Radio 4 from 6th July. Created by award-winning comedian and former BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour producer Lorna Rose Treen and Jonathan Oldfield., Time Of The Week parodies live women’s current affairs and talk shows and stars BAFTA award winning actress Sian Clifford, who will play self-obsessed host Chloe Slack.
Presented as a live radio show, with the pressures and battles that brings - each episode contains interviews, location reports and features, as well as panel discussions and voice notes from listeners.
Championing ridiculous ideas and bold new characters, Time Of The Week warps the shows being parodied into surreal and satirical shapes - you’ll hear Chloe speak to the first woman to put her whole forearm into her mouth, an MP campaigning to ban the menopause and a woman who has had so much plastic surgery she now looks like a car.
As well as Sian Clifford, Lorna Rose Treen and Jonathan Oldfield, the series features an ensemble cast including Ada Player Alice Cockayne, Aruhan Galieva, Em Prendergast, Jodie Mitchell, Mofé Akàndé, Sara Segovia.
As well as Jonathan and Lorna, the writing team includes Alice Cockayne, Catherine Brinkworth, Jodie Mitchell, Priya Hall and Will Hughes.
The series is produced by Ben Walker for DLT Entertainment with Doanld Taffner, Jr. and Darren Smith Executove Producers. The commissioning editor for Radio 4 is Julia McKenzie
DLT Entertainment is committed to supporting this creative venture by absorbing all production costs. After covering third-party expenses, such as marketing, the remaining funds will be distributed among the cast and creatives. This initiative highlights DLT's dedication to nurturing talent and ensuring that creative contributions are adequately rewarde
Donald Taffner Jr., President of DLT Entertainment, said: “we have been thinking of doing table reads at The Fringe for a number of years, but needed the right partner, and Monkey Barrel Comedy is that partner. We look forward to working with the talented comedians and writers, and inviting audiences to experience a fundamental step in the television development process.”
"We are incredibly excited to partner with DLT Entertainment for 'Table Reads’. This show represents a significant opportunity for new and emerging writers to have their work seen and heard, and we’re delighted to bring such an exciting new project to the festival," said David Bleese of Monkey Barrel Comedy.
Table Reads: New Comedy Script Showcase is set to be one of the highlights of this year's Edinburgh Fringe. Be sure to catch the next generation of comedy talent as they bring fresh and hilarious new scripts to the stage at Monkey Barrel 4 (July 30-31, Aug 1-25, 11:20AM, 60 mins).
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Further information:
Gaby Jerrard, on behalf of DLT Entertainment: Gaby@gabyjerrardpr.com
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Sian Clifford:
Sian Clifford is a BAFTA-winning, Emmy, SAG and Critics Choice Award nominated actress, best known for her role as Claire in the global phenomenon and critically acclaimed Fleabag. (winner of numerous awards including six primetime Emmy awards, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Critics Choice, and SAG Award.) Sian has worked extensively in British theatre on some of the UK’s most illustrious stages to great critical acclaim. She starred in the highly celebrated west end production of Consent, directed by Roger Michell and Good Grief, the film-play hybrid written by Lorien Haynes and directed by Natalie Abrahami.
Sian’s film credits include the mystery thriller See How They Run, with Saoirse Ronan and Sam Rockwell; Chevalier; Real Love, opposite Rosie Day and Russell Tovey; The Magician's Elephant; and Young Woman And The Sea with Daisy Ridley and Stephen Graham.
Sian other television credits include Hitmen (Sky One), The Second Season Of Psychological Thriller Liar (ITV), Two Weeks To Live (Sky One), alongside Maisie Williams, The Duke, with Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren; An Appearance in BBC’s dark comedy Inside No. 9; season 3 Of His Dark Materials (BBC); Life After Life with Thomasin Mckenzie (BBC); Netflix’s Unstable (Netflix) and The Suspect (ITV). Sian starred as one of the leads in Stephen Frears’ Quiz (ITV/AMC) alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Michael Sheen, which went on to become ITV’s most-watched TV drama of 2020.
2020 saw Sian win the BAFTA For Female Performance In A Comedy and Actor Of The Year at Stylist’s Remarkable Women Awards.
About Lorna Rose Treen:
Lorna Rose Treen is an award-winning character comedian, improviser and writer. Before becoming a comedian, Lorna worked as a producer for BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Her solo character comedy show ‘Skin Pigeon’ received multi-5-star reviews. Awards: Chortle Awards’ Best Sketch Act 2024. Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe Winner 2023. Chortle Awards’ Best Newcomer 2023. First-ever double Funny Women Awards Winner (Stage award, Comedy short award) 2022.
Lorna studied theatre at the renowned clown school Ecole Philipe Gaulier. She’s written for BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 2 and Nickelodeon. She can be heard in Jazz Emu’s The Sound of Us (BBC R4), Katy Wix’s Nora Meadows’ Week of Wellness (BBC R4), and seen in The Emily Atack Show (ITV) and the BBC New Comedy Awards (BBC 3).
About Jonathan Oldfield:
Jonathan Oldfield is an award-winning actor, comedian, writer and director. He directed Lorna Rose Treen’s sell-out character comedy show ‘Skin Pigeon’, and is currently directing Joe Kent Walters is Frankie Monroe: Live!!! (BBC Comedy Award 2023, Best Show Leicester Comedy Festival 2024). His storytelling show ‘One Way Mirror’ has had sell-out shows at Soho Theatre, Pleasance Theatre and Brighton Fringe. Alongside Lorna, he’s a member of Criminally Untrue - the Completely Improvised True Crime Documentary. Both Jonathan and Lorna are alumni of the Improverts, Edinburgh Fringe’s longest-running improv troupe. Awards: Leicester Square Theatre Sketch-Off Second Place 2024. Brighton Fringe Trapeze Media Award 2024. Pleasance Associate Artist 2024. Patricia Routledge Award Bursary Winner 2019.
About Jonathan Oldfield:
Jonathan Oldfield is an award-winning actor, comedian, writer and director. He directed Lorna Rose Treen’s sell-out character comedy show ‘Skin Pigeon’, and is currently directing Joe Kent Walters is Frankie Monroe: Live!!! (BBC Comedy Award 2023, Best Show Leicester Comedy Festival 2024). His storytelling show ‘One Way Mirror’ has had sell-out shows at Soho Theatre, Pleasance Theatre and Brighton Fringe. Alongside Lorna, he’s a member of Criminally Untrue - the Completely Improvised True Crime Documentary. Both Jonathan and Lorna are alumni of the Improverts, Edinburgh Fringe’s longest-running improv troupe. Awards: Leicester Square Theatre Sketch-Off Second Place 2024. Brighton Fringe Trapeze Media Award 2024. Pleasance Associate Artist 2024. Patricia Routledge Award Bursary Winner 2019.
Jonathan is a trilingual actor, training at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and his credits include ‘The Power’ (Amazon Prime), and ‘The Mosinee Project’ (Winner of the 2024 New Diorama Theatre and Underbelly Untapped Award.)
About Jonathan Oldfield:
Producer Ben Walker brings a wealth of experience in comedy and comedy entertainment production and development across radio, podcasts and TV. His audio credits include Sony Radio award-winning sketch series Here Be Dragons, anthological comedy series The Casebook of Max and Ivan and comedy entertainment series Danny Robins Music Therapy for Radio 4, and a range of projects for Audible and Bertelsmann Content Alliance’s podcast label Storyglass – where credits include The Harrowing (for which he won the Gold Award for Best Drama Producer at the Audio UK Audio Production Awards), Max & Ivan: Fugitives and Who Exploded Vivien Stone. Further production and development credits include award-winning independent comedy podcasts RHLSTP with Richard Herring, raucous panel show Do The Right Thing, interview series The Things We Do For Love with Isy Suttie and anarchic gameshow Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown.
About DLT Entertainment:
With headquarters in London and New York, DLT Entertainment Ltd. is engaged in every aspect of television distribution and production around the world, as well as stage production in the US and in the UK where it owns London’s Shaftesbury Theatre and talent representation business, with ownership positions in MMB Creative, The Soho Agency, Blue Book Artist Management, The Galton Agency, Gag Reflex and Mark Watson’s Impatient Productions. Expanding its own production activities in the UK, DLT also acquired Vera Productions.
Founded in 1963 as a distribution company by Don Taffner Sr., the company added television production to its portfolio in 1977. It has enjoyed terrific success in its sixty one year history with legendary hits on both sides of the Atlantic including the multiple award-winning and BBC Trust praised sitcom My Family, As Time Goes By, Three’s Company, Too Close For Comfort and Meet My Folks. In addition, DLT has built a reputation as a leading distribution company with classics such as The Benny Hill Show, The World at War, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, The Russ Abbot Show, Michel LeGrand and Friends, and Dara O’Briain’s Go 8 Bit.
In 2018 DLT expanded its own production activities in the United Kingdom through the acquisition of Vera Productions whose past productions include Getting On, Million Pound Jewellers, Bremner, Bird, and Fortune, and numerous Dispatches such as President Trump’s Dirty Secrets and Politicians for Hire: Cashing in on Brexit. 2020 saw further expansion with an investment in Mark Watson’s Impatient Productions.
2020 saw the creation of a podcasting division with the release of When No One’s Watching featuring Richardson & Matt Willis and Very Modern Quests starring Alice Levine as well as Panic Room hosted by John Robins for Audible.
DLT is also a significant player in the artist management business with key investments in The Soho Agency, Milburn Browning Associates, Blue Book Artist Management, and The Galton Agency.
The Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where Mrs. Doubtfire, The Musical continues its West End run, is owned by DLT.