''Rubbish'' is a British radio series written by Tony Bagley, who also wrote ''

Married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

''. It was first broadcast 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 October 2006. A second series began broadcasting on 31 October 2007.

Plot summary

Martin Christmas (

Reece Dinsdale Reece Dinsdale (born 6 August 1959) is an English actor and director of stage, film and television. He is a Huddersfield Town fan. In 2017 he became a patron of the Square Chapel, an arts centre in Halifax. He is also an honorary patron of The ...

) is a "local government officer" in the Sanitation department, whose days revolve around endless recycling initiatives and whose nights revolve around failed relationships and cynical interior monologues. Much of the program is Martin narrating his life, in between conversations with the various deranged people around him. His boss agonizes over competition with other departments to come top of " greenness" league tables. His smug colleagues constantly swap girlfriends, or as they say, recycle them. Random bursts of insanity break into his world, as with the stranger from another department who accuses Martin of conducting a neo-pagan rite for a woman who had renounced

paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...

, followed by the pagans in the council attempting to recruit him. Unwillingly attending a diversity course Martin somehow achieves an inner peace and, to his surprise, beds the instructor, Sarah (

Nicola Walker Nicola Jane Walker (born 15 May 1970) is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various British television programmes from the 1990s onwards, including that of Ruth Evershed in the spy drama '' Spooks'' (2003–2006 and 2009–2011 ...

). Much of the rest of the series revolves around their on-and-off relationship, her somewhat masochistic yearnings, and the highs and lows of his moods. She augments her own meagre income by teaching courses in "life editing" and similar fads at adult education colleges, dragging Martin along to make up the numbers, but not to participate. Ever present is the " Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse, Embarrassment" who pays regular visits, especially when Martin lets himself be led into temptation, such as by scaling the tower at the local fire station, in the nude, with a couple of adventurous neighbours. Like the hero of ''Married'', Martin is a world-class

curmudgeon Curmudgeon may refer to: * '' Dyskolos'', sometimes translated ''The Curmudgeon'', an ancient Greek comic play by Menander * ''Curmudgeons'' (film), a 2016 short film See also * '' I, Curmudgeon'', a 2004 documentary film by Alan Zweig * The Co ...

who deconstructs the world around him in long literate sentences.

External links

* {{bbc.co.uk, id=radio4/rubbish, title=''Rubbish'' BBC Radio comedy programmes BBC Radio 4 programmes