"I was in stitches when I first heard Armando Ianucci's Charm Offensive on Radio 4. That's because I was recovering from a frenzied knife attack. And by that, I mean that Armando's comedy blade stabbed me all over, until my sides split, spurting bloody belly laughs.
"What I'm trying to say is that it was really funny. Here was a satirical panel show with a key difference: Armando's unique mix of controversial and random humour. As the panel's chair, he prods comedy from his guests and knits together the results with his Italo-Glaswegian mirth needles. Which I like.
"That's why I wanted to go to an actual recording of the show, so the other week I got on a train to that London town with a lovely free ticket in my hand. The producer introduced the audience to the three panel guests first. They were Lab Rats writer Chris Addison, ace comedienne Miranda Hart, and journo / comedy writer David Quantick.
"Now, here's the thing. A lot of what was said wasn't very funny. It was like a big loose comedy cannon. Some of the ammo hit the spot - which it inevitably would if you sat at a table for two hours, just saying stuff about the economy and Noel Edmunds. Armando, who described Edmunds as a bearded cack pixie, provided most of the pinpoint accuracy when it came to producing laughs.
"I didn't expect the final, broadcasted result to be a classic, and I think I was right. Sure, maybe I was naïve. I'd witnessed the reality of a panel show recording, which is scripted jokes, retakes, and toiling on the same subject until it (as well as the panel and the audience) are exhausted. Or maybe it was because it was the last show in the series. Or maybe it was because two of the three guests had been involved with Ianucci projects before (Quantick's worked on The Day Today and The Saturday Night Armistice; Addison on In the Thick of It and the Ianucci-produced Lab Rats) and the undeniably sharp, quick fire comedy that such productions created could not be reproduced in a panel situation. Ouch!"
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