Ed Reardon's Week

''Ed Reardon's Week'' is a sitcom on BBC Radio 4 recorded semi-naturalistically in the style of a radio drama. It concerns the story of a curmudgeonly middle-aged writer described in the show's publicity material as an "author, pipesmoker, consummate fare-dodger and master of the abusive email". The names of two central characters, Ed Reardon (played by Christopher Douglas) and Jaz Milvane (played by Philip Jackson), are references to the characters Edwin Reardon and Jasper Milvain, who appear in George Gissing's 1891 novel ''New Grub Street'', which is set in the hack-literary London of the late 19th century, although ''Edward'' was revealed to be his given name in the second episode of the third series and Milvain is referred to as Jaz Milvane.

Ed lives in precarious circumstances with his cat, Elgar, scraping a living as a hack writer by working through commissions for coffee table books such as ''The Brands Hatch Story'' and ''Pet Peeves'', a book of celebrity pet anecdotes. Much of this work comes through his agent Felix (John Fortune), who Ed believes still owes him royalties, and Felix's assistant Ping - shortened from 'Pandora Ingleby-Thomas' (Sally Hawkins in series 1, 3, and 4, and Barunka O'Shaughnessy in the second series and the fifth series onwards) – an archetypal Sloane Ranger who rejects the amorous advances he makes occasionally in early episodes. The character of Felix was written out in Series 7 as John Fortune died in 2013.

He makes a small income from running a creative writing course at the local night school, where his lessons frequently mention the single episode of '' Tenko'' that he wrote. Ed also earns an occasional £10 fee for taking part in identity parades at his local police station. He is an alumnus of Shrewsbury School. The programme contains many references to Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, where Ed lives.

The theme music is a dixieland version of " Am I Blue?" It was recorded at the 606 Club in London, performed by session musicians present.

The series is written by Chris Douglas and Andrew Nickolds, and produced by Simon Nicholls (first three series) and Dawn Ellis (fourth series onwards).

Origins of the character of Ed

Speaking on '' Pick of the Week''
Christopher Douglas explained where Ed's character came from: "Simon Gray's published diaries were mainly about how badly treated he'd been by producers, actors, critics and electronic machinery. His impotent rage against his employers was one of the inspirations for Ed Reardon, the character I co-write, perform and in some ways resemble. Ed often rants from the point of view of appalled gentleman author, but he can also play the thwarted radical."

Ed's literary background

Ed considers himself a serious writer but there is little evidence to support his view of himself. His only novel, ''Who Would Fardels Bear?'', was published in the 1970s, and was adapted into a film (''Sister Mom'') by Ed's friend, Jaz Milvane (played by Philip Jackson). Because the setting was moved from Oldham to California and the lead role was taken by Sally Field, the film's faithfulness to the novel is in doubt. Milvane is a successful British Hollywood film director in the mould of Tony Scott or Adrian Lyne. Ed's only other screen credit is a 1982 episode of the BBC
...