Clara’s Verdict
There is something genuinely valuable about archiving live panel comedy, and the BBC has been commendably thorough in making its Radio 4 catalogue available in audio form. The News Quiz 2012 is twelve hours of Sandi Toksvig in the chair at a moment in British public life that feels, from a certain distance, almost quaintly manageable: the Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympics, HS2 in its early stages, the Scottish independence question beginning to take shape, Nick Clegg still apologising for tuition fees. Listening from the mid-2020s, some of the topical material has acquired an almost nostalgic quality – not because the underlying political dynamics were simpler, but because they were at least recognisably connected to the world most listeners inhabited.
The comedy, however, remains as sharp as it ever was. Toksvig at her best is one of the more precise and quick-witted chairpeople in the history of Radio 4 panel comedy, and the ensemble she works with across these three series is consistently strong.
About the Audiobook
This BBC Audio release collects three complete series of The News Quiz from 2012: Series 76, which spans the Christmas 2011 period and includes both the standard episodes and the panto special Oh No It Isn’t… The News Quiz, co-written by John Finnemore; Series 77 from spring 2012, covering the Jubilee, the Olympics, and the political currents of the first Cameron-Clegg coalition; and Series 78 from autumn 2012, taking in the Paralympics, the Edinburgh Agreement on the Scottish referendum, Hurricane Sandy, and more. The combined running time of twelve hours and eighteen minutes makes this a substantial document of a single political and cultural year as filtered through Radio 4’s satirical sensibility.
The Christmas panto special is a particular highlight: Finnemore’s co-written script applies the News Quiz format to pantomime conventions with characteristic wit and formal self-awareness, and the expanded cast – including Michael Buerk, Barry Cryer, and Nicholas Parsons – gives it an occasion quality that sits comfortably alongside the regular series episodes. The full regular cast across all three series reads like a comprehensive directory of British comedy talent from the period: Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel, Susan Calman, Miles Jupp, Phill Jupitus, Rebecca Front, Roisin Conaty, Hugo Rifkind, and many others, with Toksvig managing the ensemble with consistent authority and evident pleasure.
The political landscape of 2012 rewards revisiting. The Jubilee and the Olympics produced a brief period of something that looked, from certain angles, like national contentment, while underneath the surface the austerity programme was producing consequences that the panel were already tracking with their characteristic mixture of anger and wit. The Leveson Inquiry into press standards was underway, providing material that has only become more rather than less resonant in the years since. Listening to Hardy, Steel and their colleagues work through this material with the intelligence and urgency they brought to it is a reminder of what British political satire at its best can do.
The Narration
Michael Buerk provides the linking narration, and his delivery has the well-worn authority of a man who has read the news professionally for long enough to find its absurdities genuinely amusing rather than professionally wearing. As host, Toksvig is the performance at the centre of all three series: her timing is immaculate, her management of both the panel and the material is generous without ever losing command of the room, and her pleasure in the format is evident throughout. This is archived live performance rather than narrated fiction, and the recording quality is clean and consistent across all the material collected here.
What Readers Say
The News Quiz has built its audience across more than five decades of continuous broadcast, and the devoted listenership for archival releases of this kind tends to be knowledgeable and demanding. Releases of this type have been consistently praised for preserving performances that would otherwise exist only in broadcast archives inaccessible to most listeners, and the 2012 collection represents a particularly coherent year – long enough after the events to provide some perspective, recent enough that the political texture is still legible. Toksvig’s chairmanship and the consistent quality of the regular panellists make this one of the stronger entries in the BBC Audio archive catalogue.
Who Should Listen?
For Radio 4 comedy enthusiasts and anyone interested in British political satire of the early 2010s. The material rewards some familiarity with the year’s events – casual international listeners may find specific political references opaque, though the comedy of Finnemore, Hardy, Steel and others transcends the topical context for the most part. Best consumed in episodes rather than as a continuous twelve-hour block: this is archive radio designed for the commute, the kitchen, and the evening, not for sustained binge listening. A strong recommendation for anyone assembling a collection of the BBC comedy catalogue’s best years.
Listen to The News Quiz 2012 on Audible UK – also available on Kobo and Scribd.
