Julie Mayhew, whose play Stopgap, really made you care about the characters. Photograph: Guardian Yesterday’s Afternoon Play (Radio 4) – Stopgap, written by Julie Mayhew – was especially good on the exquisite awfulness of office life. I liked the awkwardness of a scene in which two temps face each other after a one-night stand, both [...]

In on the joke: Radio 4 newsreader Alice Arnold. Photograph: BBC Listen Against (Radio 4) returned last night, and did so in splendid form. I’m not so keen on the bits where real presenters appear, in on the joke for a sketch, but otherwise this is a gem of a satirical swoop at radio and [...]

Kathy Burke made a funny and searingly honest appearance on Desert Island Discs. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features On Desert Island Discs, actress turned director Kathy Burke described her younger self variously as “a minx”, “a horrible little so-and-so” and, best of all, “a grumpy eejit”. She told a surprised Kirsty Young, whose enjoyment throughout the [...]

Forget about telly . . . A wireless world The Wireless World of Gerry Wells (BBC World Service, Friday) was a terrific portrait of an eccentric. It was also a love letter to radio: Gerry Wells, as presenter Dan Shepherd noted, “has spent his life mending wireless sets”. His south London home is a museum [...]