John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme


John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme is a sketch comedy series broadcast on BBC Radio 4. John Finnemore is the sole writer and performs with Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan. The first series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011, and further series have followed annually. A special edition recorded at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was broadcast in 2012. All eight series have been released on CD.
The series contains sketches and character monologues, with only one major recurring character, a storyteller who narrates a tall tale in the last five minutes of most programmes, and who also provides the show's only recurring catchphrase, opening each story with "Well, since you ask me for...". The only other recurring character between episodes is an interviewer played by Carrie Quinlan named Patsy Straightwoman.
Many episodes include a comic song with words by Finnemore and music by Susannah Pearse. Some of these songs include a cello played by Sally Stairs. Sally also appears in the Stoppable sketch as a tram driver and in an Orchestra sketch as a cellist. Many episodes also include a recurring sketch that comes up two to four times in the episode. There are four sketches which parody the BBC Radio 4 series The Archers, portraying the show as it supposedly sounds to people who do not regularly listen to it. Starting in the fifth series the performers often break character, usually to complain to John about the sketches or to provide 'footnotes' highlighting factual errors. Another series of sketches involves a man and the 'voice in his head' which appears only to give bad or unhelpful advice.
A pilot programme with a different supporting cast, titled John Finnemore, Apparently, was broadcast in 2008, starring Tom Goodman-Hill and Sarah Hadland. Many of the sketches in the pilot were subsequently remade for the series.

Awards

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme was voted Best British Radio Sketch Show in the British Comedy Guide Awards 2011. In 2014, it was awarded Silver for Best Comedy at the Radio Academy Awards. It was also shortlisted for Best Radio Comedy in the 2014 Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards.

Original broadcasts

Multimedia

The show has been released in both Audible audiobook format and on CD, with physical releases published by BBC Physical Audio.
ReleaseDate
Series 123 August 2013
Series 25 September 2013
Series 3 & 413 November 2014
Series 57 April 2016
Series 62 March 2017
Series 75 April 2018
Series 819 September 2019