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. A 45-minute special containing new material was broadcast on 27th May 2023, the end credits hinting at a possible new series to follow. All nine series have been released on CD. The series contains sketches and character monologues, with only one major recurring character, a storyteller (a fictionalised version of John Finnemore) 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...". This segment occasionally serves as a coda to several connecting sketches within a single episode, such as several small cons made in preparation of a milliner's heist or a time machine's journey into the future. The only other recurring character between episodes is an interviewer played by Carrie Quinlan named Patsy Straightwoman, whose interviewees are often played by Finnemore. The format of the Interview sketches was briefly modified with Straightwoman becoming an investigative journalist for a programme called Behind Closed Doors. 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 Stares. Stares 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.