Podcast Corner: Green Wing and two other shows to amuse
Green Wing, with Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan, etc has been revived in podcast format.
It’s almost 20 years since Green Wing debuted on TV screens. A hospital sitcom that seems even more oddball watching it back in 2024, it starred the likes of Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan, and Olivia Colman, with US late-night star John Oliver in a recurring role too.
It felt like a word-of-mouth cult hit back in the day - did every college house in Ireland have a copy of the show on DVD?
Anyway, the original cast is back for Green Wing: Resuscitated, a six-part podcast series exclusive to Audible that picks up 12 years after the events of the original, with Guy Secretan (Mangan) now a media personality - the podcast opens with him chatting up a therapist’s receptionist.
It’s almost like a sketch show as it zips along, with some hilarious lines and oddball asides along the way. It’s just over four hours long in total - episodes clock in around 40 minutes. A fun trip - though it’s a pity it’s not made the return to TV screens instead.
RTÉJr’s surreal, oddball children’s show Nero’s Class is back for season two. The brainchild of Bobby Aherne, who makes surreal, oddball music under monikers including Sir Bobby Jukebox, among others, the first series won the best family award at the Irish Podcast Awards 2023, where it was also shortlisted for best comedy and best fiction. Season two picks up after Professor Nero’s first week on the mythical island of Mrunglody, where he’s found himself teaching three children who are every bit as unorthodox as their homeland.
Voiced by Hugh Cooney, he pronounces early in the opening episode: “It’s certainly been a most memorable week, but I have a feeling, deep down inside of me, so deep in fact that it’s practically in my ankles, a feeling from now on, things are gonna be extremely straightforward and incredibly normal.” No chance!
The cast includes youngsters Rian Sheridan (Rowan), Elsie Akinduko (Jacaranda), and Penny O'Dwyer (Scoochie Kaboochie), who reprise their roles from season one.
All three were cast as the result of a nationwide open call, which saw hundreds of audition tapes submitted. They’re brilliant and are accompanied by a cast of musicians and comedians including social media favourite Peter McGann.
“The world’s first family-friendly podcast designed to get you from A to B,” is what comedian Harry Hill dubs his new venture.
He delves into the childhood memories of guests including Alan Carr, Ravneet Gill, and Suzi Ruffell.
His humour is, like that of Aherne, quite off the wall - the show begins with Hill imagining Labour leader Keir Starmer falling down some stairs, for some reason, and has some seal sounds play the White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’.
We’re not quite sure why it starts out this way but it might get the kids giggling in the backseat.
