''Ankle Tag'' is a situation comedy series which aired on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

in 2017 and 2018. The show was aired as a pilot in November 2015 before two series were broadcast from August 2017. It stars

Elis James Owain Elis James (born 3 November 1980) is a Welsh comedian, broadcaster and actor originally from Haverfordwest. He grew up in Carmarthen and later lived in Cardiff. He is now based in South London. He is bilingual in Welsh language, Welsh and ...

Katy Wix Katy Victoria J Wix (born 28 February 1980) is a Welsh actress, writer, author and artist. She is best known for her television roles as Carole in '' Stath Lets Flats,'' Mary in '' Ghosts'' and Jules in ''Big Boys''. She has also appeared as a ...

and

Steve Speirs Steve Speirs (born Steven Roberts, 22 February 1965) is a Welsh actor and writer who has appeared in films such as '' Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'' and '' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest''. Early life He was born as ...

, and was written by

Gareth Gwynn Gareth Gwynn is a comedy writer, performer and radio presenter. He is the co-writer of the television sitcoms ''Bull'' and ''Tourist Trap'' and the radio sitcoms ''Ankle Tag'', '' Passing On'' and '' Social Club FM.'' Career Writing Gwynn began h ...

and

Benjamin Partridge Benjamin Partridge (born 1986) is a Welsh comedy writer, performer and producer. He created the '' Beef And Dairy Network Podcast''. Career Partridge's professional writing career began when he was awarded the BBC Radio Comedy Writers Bursary i ...

. Series 3 started on 28 May 2020.

Cast

as Gruff Evans *

Margaret Cabourn-Smith Margaret Alice Cabourn-Smith (born 1975) is an English comedy actress with appearances on ''Catastrophe'', ''The IT Crowd'', ''Psychoville,'' ''Peep Show'' and ''Fresh Meat''. Her TV work includes playing regular characters on '' Miranda'', ' ...

as Alice Bishop *

as Bob Evans Katy Wix appeared as Alice in the pilot, all episodes of series one and first two episodes of series two. Margaret Cabourn-Smith took over the role of Alice for the final two episodes of series two. Wix returned as Alice for the third series.

Plot

Gruff (Elis James) and wife Alice (Katy Wix) live with their one-year-old daughter Carys. They receive a surprise when Gruff's ex-convict father Bob (Steve Speirs) is released on licence from a fraud conviction, and cons his way into living with them.

Episodes

Pilot

Series One

Series Two

Series Three

Broadcast history

A pilot episode entitled The Beginning was first aired on 18 November 2015. Three episodes making up series one were broadcast from the 30 August 2017. A second series of four episodes were broadcast weekly from the 31 October 2018. The third series, consisting of six episodes, was aired from 28 May 2020. Repeats have been aired on both BBC Radio 4 Extra and BBC Radio Wales.

Critical reaction

The Independent described the pilot episode as "original and promising". It also received a nomination for the Best Scripted Comedy at the BBC Audio Drama awards in 2017.

References

{{Reflist BBC Radio comedy programmes BBC Radio 4 programmes 2015 radio programme debuts