91Èȱ¬

There's some more political comedy coming your way in the form of The Vote Now Show which starts tonight. Hope you enjoy it and let us know what you think.

Here's Jane Berthoud, Head of 91Èȱ¬ Radio Comedy, with her thoughts on voting for laughs:

"After weeks of waving a starting pistol in the air saying "May 6th Probably" Gordon has finally fired the thing. And they're off - the politicians, the party workers, the political journalists, the news broadcasters, the sketch writers, the pollsters, the statisticians - and the comedians. Because, thankfully, in this country, on radio especially, the tradition of political comedy thrives.

The Friday evening topical comedy show at 6.30pm on Radio 4, alternating between series of The Now Show and News Quiz, draws weekly audiences of between 1.2 and 1.5 million, with another million or so tuning in for the repeat on Saturday lunchtime. A million now download the podcast of the show too, which regularly tops the podcast charts. Recent series of The Mark Thomas Manifesto and Tom Basden's Party were also big successes. So it makes sense that as part of Radio 4's election coverage Mark Damazer the Controller of Radio 4 has commissioned hours of satire and comedy.

Elizabethan fools have been described as "clever peasants who use their wit to out do people of higher social standing." Now leaving the relative incomes of these people in today's world aside (peasants many comedians are not!) this is still a fairly accurate description of what political comedy sets out to do. The politicians have the power. The comedians have the gags which more easily than any other commentator, can question the need and wisdom of that power. Deflate over inflated egos. Sometimes even expose the real fools.

Last week's Now Show asked such burning questions as: which would have a more lasting effect on some of our lives - the election or changing the rules of scrabble? Why did the Queen travel all the way from Windsor to Buckingham Palace to meet Gordon Brown, couldn't they just have met somewhere in the middle, say at Heston Services? And when people like Gordon and Obama have their big meetings do they ever wish they could just chase one another round the table shouting "monster"? Bring down governments it may not, but helping us all to keep a sense of proportion it just might. . .maybe it's the comedy equivalent of "picturing them naked"

On the night, it will sound effortless, off the cuff, even improvised, but little of it will be. It will all have been checked and double checked by the producers in the same say the news programmes have to be, against all 91Èȱ¬ criteria for impartiality and libel. Even more so during the election. The editorial policy meetings have been going on for weeks. But in the end laughs will be what sets these shows apart. And that's why thousands already have their tickets for The Vote Now Show, which starts recording tonight. These are the audiences who like their elections to be serious and funny. At times even seriously funny. Enjoy!"

The Vote Now Show Mon to Weds at 11.00pm on Radio 4
News Quiz Fri at 6.30pm on Radio 4