Tom Allen is Actually Not Very Nice

All four episodes of Tom Allen's brilliant BBC Radio 4 show - plus two series of The Correspondent

Award-winning comedian Tom Allen is one of Britain's best and brightest stand-ups. He's appeared on Mock the Week, The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice and Live at the Apollo, toured several sell-out solo shows, starred in his own TV pilot and even written an autobiography.

He's always seemed pleasant and polite on the surface: but the truth is, he's a monster - or so he says. In Tom Allen's Actually Not Very Nice, he stages a stand-up intervention to find out what turned him from sweet to naughty, and how he can get back on the straight and narrow. With help from his friend Gabby Best, and the studio audience, Tom works out how best to navigate some tricky social situations - like sacking your personal trainer, dealing with other people's children, sitting through an entire play and being set up on a date. Can he learn how to keep a lid on his fury in the face of life's small injustices?

Also included in this collection are Series 1 and 2 of The Correspondent - eight bittersweet comic monologues charting Tom's professional and domestic misadventures. From handling the frustrations of his horrible job to coping with his family at Aunt Leslie's funeral, Tom's life is just one long round of miserable mundanity. But there are welcome distractions with the discovery of a new mystery friend in the workplace, and the possibility of finding love online.

And in a bonus programme from Radio 5 Live's in-depth interview show, Headliners, Tom chats to Nihal Arthanayake about growing up in '90s suburbia, coming out and his hilarious memoir No Shame - as well as revealing what he thinks of Nihal's newest dessert recipe...

Tom Allen Is Actually Not Very Nice
Written by Tom Allen
Featuring Gabby Best
Produced by Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 5-26 December 2019

The Correspondent
Written by Tom Allen and Jon Hoggarth
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
First broadcast BBC Radio 7, 26 March-16 April 2007 (Series 1), and BBC Radio 4, 21 January-11 February 2009 (Series 2)

Headliners: Tom Allen
Presented by Nihal Arthanayake
With Tom Allen
First broadcast BBC Radio 5Live, 12 November 2020


Photo credit: Aemen Sukkar
(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd