Kicking off the second half of the second series is the second episode written by T. A. Woodsmith, who brought us She Stoops to Conquer last year.  This time, an undertakers' convention is coming to Piffling and - against all the odds - Funn Funerals are asked to host it, with Rudyard set to give the keynote address. Meanwhile, Antigone has grown tired of Georgie's unflappability and is determined to provoke some kind of extreme reaction...

Flip Flap Flop allows all members of the central cast a moment to shine, though what particularly drew me to Tiff's script was the opportunity it gave to make Rudyard increasingly sympathetic without changing who he is. He's so determined to do what he thinks is a good job in the face of overwhelming opposition that I challenge any of our listeners not to be cheering him along by the end! Tiff also finds an entertaining new role for Eric as the drunken life and soul of the party, which allows him a shade more vulnerability than usual, and she was one of the first writers last year to realise that Antigone and Georgie made an excellent pairing for dialogue and action. We'll be seeing more of that throughout the remainder of this season.

We've also got three fabulous guest actors portraying the convention delegates: Fiz Marcus is the rambunctious society chairperson Audrey Warrington, who has a spot of history with Eric Chapman; the dour Thomas Johnson is given an undertone of quiet menace by Timothy Block; and playing the young hotshot Miles Farenheit is Ben Norris, who has been recently touring his outstanding one man show The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Family around the UK. We've also got appearances from other prominent members of the Piffling population, including a quick visit from the island's only physician, Dr. Edgware, voiced with weary aplomb by David K. Barnes. A fine actor, that boy. He'll go far, mark his words.

You can download Episode 5 from iTunes (where a review is always appreciated!) or from the Wooden Overcoats website. You can also enjoy this trailer for our continuing series of Live Shows, featuring a cracking clip of Felix Trench and Paul Putner from last year's performance of The Trial of Rudyard. 

Next week: Rudyard Makes a Friend

Utterly thrilled that I'll be starting off 2017 with a production of my new stage comedy Birthday Suit, for a full four week run at the Old Red Lion in London. The ORL is one of my favourite fringe theatre venues and I'm extremely pleased to get something performed there! It's being directed by Alice Malin and produced by pluck. productions, led by EJ Martin and Philip Honeywell. 

“This is where the magic happens!”

It's Richard's birthday, the big 4-0. He's throwing a party and inviting all his colleagues. Diane is new to the firm and, delighted to be asked, she's brought along her boyfriend Nick, who has promised to be the spirit of party itself. There's trifle. Lots of trifle. And nibbles. There's just one problem: nobody else is coming to Richard's party. 

It looks like Diane and Nick are in for a long evening, trapped with their peculiar host and their own worst anxieties. Until, that is, someone does turn up. Someone with a lot of history and an appetite for revenge.
​
'Not interrupting anything? I let myself in...' 

A sharp and biting new comedy from one of the UK’s funniest up-and-coming writers, Birthday Suit asks: at what point we do give up our dreams and join in with the real world?

The cast will be announced towards the end of the month but tickets are already on sale. If you think you'll fancy a bittersweet comedy come January, book your seats now!

The latest episode of my funereal sitcom Wooden Overcoats is now available for your ears! Antigone wins the opportunity to design her own chocolates - but is Piffling Vale really ready for them? I'm delighted to discover that this episode is picking up special praise from our listeners, which is particularly nice for me as it was by far the hardest episode of both seasons to write.

The script was a relatively late replacement for a storyline that would have seen Rudyard getting roped into a spot of espionage by Agatha Doyle, but the middle of the season was lacking a sufficiently strong story for Antigone (for whom I'd yet to write for as much as I'd wanted). I belatedly scrapped my earlier idea and got to work devising a new narrative. With Take a Letter, Miss Crusoe focussing on Rudyard's relationship to Georgie, I decided the following instalment should do the same for Antigone and Eric. I also needed to retain a strong role for Agatha Doyle, having already booked the magnificent Alison Skilbeck for that recording session, and I had also yet to find a place for two more of our most beloved characters from the previous season. The somewhat free-wheeling nature of The Sweet, Sweet Taste of Death is the result of this "shopping list" of elements, which all needed to cohere into a satisfying drama that furthered the character arcs I'd devised for the season (and had at that time already begun concluding in my script for the finale).

The exact structure and content of the story changed many times over the course of its agonisingly slow first draft. However, at its heart lies Antigone's expression of her deeply held beliefs regarding the inevitable consequences of death, and I'm indebted to Beth Eyre for the long conversations we had on this topic which provided Antigone with her motivation. I also did a spot of research with Alastair Gower of The Chocolate Tree in Edinburgh. Alastair is an incredible chocolatier who designs exquisite confectionery to meet all manner of briefs and I'd like to think that mine posed a challenge for him: how do you encapsulate the feeling of death in a chocolate? 

To find out, you'll have to listen to The Sweet, Sweet Taste of Death, which features a veritable smorgasbord of beautifully-pitched performances and our weirdest selection of sound effects to date. There's Tom Crowley at his heroic best and Beth Eyre giving her most dynamic portrayal of Antigone so far. Say hello to the return of a few old friends, and meet the enigmatic Mr Crumble in action... 

You can download Episode Four from iTunes (please leave a review - we're not far off 100!) or from your preferred podcasting client, or listen to it on the main Wooden Overcoats website. And if you enjoyed it, tell your friends! 

Till next week, when I'll be saying to you: Flip, Flap, Flop​.

Our third episode of the new series is one of my own scripts: Take a Letter, Miss Crusoe. This episode puts Georgie front and centre for the first time in Wooden Overcoats and sees her quitting the funeral business to take up a job elsewhere. Can Rudyard win her back? 

Georgie has long been one of my favourite Piffling residents to write for, though it wasn't until we cast Ciara Baxendale in the role - way back in May 2015 - that the character came together in my head. Initially she was to have been an archetypal long-suffering lackey, and that's how she was written in my earliest drafts, yet she wasn't really leaping off the page and my fellow Series 1 writers weren't entirely sure what to do with her. I decided to take the character in a different direction. Making her entirely unflappable - and great at everything - gave us all far more to work with, and then Ciara's casting provided that distinctly deadpan delivery that made her seem, if anything, more surreal than anybody around her. I'm very pleased to have written the first "Georgie episode," which gives her a chance to interact with the wider world of Piffling - and places her in the middle of a very difficult situation indeed... 

This episode also sees the return of the Piffling Vale Village Counsel, with recently appointed Vice Chairman Eric Chapman, an increasingly distracted Reverend Wavering, and Catriona Knox giving us a delightfully potty performance as Lady Vivienne Templar. Presiding over all, however, is the formerly Right Honourable Mayor Desmond Desmond, saddled with a crippling fear of secretaries and still hoping to turn Piffling Vale from a village into a town. Steve Hodson was sadly unable to reprise the role but we were incredibly lucky to have Sean Baker, who turns in a masterful study of childlike joy and spiralling paranoia. 

You can download Episode Three from iTunes or your preferred podcasting client, or listen to it on the main Wooden Overcoats website. And that's not all: if you're in London on Monday 14th November, you can even catch the second in our current series of Live Shows. We'll be performing both Take a Letter, Miss Crusoe and next Thursday's episode The Sweet, Sweet Taste of Death before it's even been released online! Our last show sold out so book here to nab a ticket while you can.

Our second episode of the new series is written by James Hamilton and James Huntrods, who have teamed up before on Cartoon Network's The Amazing World of Gumball, and earlier this year released their own podcast sitcom, Hector Vs The Future (with a number of Wooden Overcoats names amongst its cast and crew).

Their episode, A Funeral House Divided, began life as two separate story ideas which I asked them to combine into one narrative, knowing it was the perfect opportunity to really pit Rudyard and Antigone against each other. The Funn twins have both devised fool-proof methods of defeating Eric Chapman once and for all, but can't agree on which plan to go with. What results is the twistiest-turniest episode we've had in Wooden Overcoats so far, with the James's delivering some terrific gags and situations.

On the casting front, this episode introduces Alana Ross as Jennifer Delacroix, roving reporter and the voice of Piffling FM (audience: limited). We'll be hearing from her again later in the season! We also welcome back Maxwell Tyler, Pip Gladwin and Holly Campbell as Jerry, Bill and Tanya, the perpetual onlookers of events in Piffling Vale. Fun fact: Holly also provides all of Madeleine's squeaks, working alongside the other actors to ensure the very best human/mouse interaction. And our guest this week is the entirely splendid Hugh Fraser as Antigone's very first client, Roger Noggins. Hugh is best known for having played the Duke of Wellington in Sharpe and Captain Hastings in Agatha Christie's Poirot. The latter has always been one of my favourite TV series ever since I was a wee child, so finally being able to work with him was a special joy. ​

And make sure you listen beyond the credits for a special musical treat: the Ode to Noggins, composed - as with all our music - by James Whittle and performed by the Piffling Philharmonic!