''The Next Programme Follows Almost Immediately'' (TNPFAI) was a cult

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

comedy of the 1970s. The programme starred Bill Wallis,

David Jason Sir David John White (born 2 February 1940), known professionally as David Jason, is an English actor. He has played Derek "Del Boy" Trotter in the sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses'', Detective Inspector Jack Frost in the drama series '' A Touch ...

, Denise Coffey, David Gooderson and Jonathan Cecil. The basic story revolved around a comedy factory, Allied British Comedy, with manager CMD (Wallis) and secretary/announcer Iris (Coffey). It was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the late night Friday slot, as a summer replacement for '' Week Ending''. '' Lines From My Grandfather's Forehead'' occupied the slot as well. A running joke was that Cecil, an actor with a very distinctive voice, played many character parts, all the same apart from a slight twang, which the actors in the programme would discuss before the story resumed. Cecil often dropped the accents, Welsh, American and so on, after a few lines. Jason and Gooderson played most of the voice parts, and Jason had a recurring role as Charlie, the sound effects man. The series was not a success and was dropped, after 13 episodes being recorded, as too difficult, surreal and "clever." Most editions are now thought lost though parts of one were broadcast on BBC 7, picked by late BBC producer

David Hatch Sir David Edwin Hatch, (7 May 1939 – 13 June 2007)
"''Just a Minute''" site w ...

as one of his favourite programmes. The scripts were by

Chris Langham Christopher Langham (born 14 April 1949) is an English writer, actor, and comedian. He is known for playing the cabinet minister Hugh Abbot in the BBC sitcom ''The Thick of It'', and as presenter Roy Mallard in '' People Like Us'', first on ...

, Peter Spence and David Renwick and most episodes were produced by

Simon Brett Simon Anthony Lee Brett Order of the British Empire, OBE Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL (born 28 October 1945 in Worcester Park, Surrey, England) is a British author of detective fiction, a playwright, and a producer-writer for ...

. The piano was played by Peter Pontzen who has also written musical plays for children. The audience frequently had lines and, in one episode, the entire factory and audience went on a day trip to Gravel Hall, a stately home in England.

Sample humour

Iris: ''I see they've invented SmelloVision'' Other: ''I know, I saw it on PanAroma'' CMD: ''We'll go on a trip to Gravel Hall'' Audience (in unison): ''Can we come too?'' CMD: ''Yes, it's about time you all came to!'' A: ''Lance Lieutenant Tooting reporting for duty sir.'' FX: ''Beep beep'' B: ''What was that?'' A: ''Me sir, Tooting.'' B: ''Well, don't let it happen again!'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Next Programme Follows Almost Immediately BBC Radio comedy programmes