''Vent'' is a dark comedy series produced for

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 2006. It is written by Nigel Smith. The producer is

Gareth Edwards Sir Gareth Owen Edwards CBE (born 12 July 1947) is a Welsh former rugby union player who played scrum-half and has been described by the BBC as "arguably the greatest player ever to don a Welsh jersey". In 2003, in a poll of international ...

. The story revolves around an unsuccessful writer named Ben Smith (

Neil Pearson Neil John Pearson (born 27 April 1959) is a British actor, known for his work on television. He was nominated for the 1994 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for '' Between the Lines'' (1992–1994). His other television roles include ''Drop the D ...

), who is in a coma. While his wife Mary (

Fiona Allen Fiona Allen (born 13 March 1965) is an English comedian and actress, most known for her work on Channel 4's ''Smack the Pony'' between 1999 and 2003. Career Allen has appeared in many sketch shows, including ''We Know Where You Live'' (Channel ...

) and his mother (

Josie Lawrence Josie Lawrence (born Wendy Lawrence; 6 June 1959) is an English actress and comedian. She is best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series '' Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' and as Manda Best in ...

) hash out their emotional issues at his bedside, he lives in a fantasy world with his 2-year-old daughter "Blitzkrieg" (real name Beatrice;

Leslie Ash Leslie Ash (born 19 February 1960) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles in ''C.A.T.S. Eyes'' (1985–1987), the BBC sitcom ''Men Behaving Badly'' (1992–1997), ITV drama '' Where the Heart Is'' (2000–2003), and BBC me ...

), miraculously grown up, and remembers incidents from his life. An imaginary

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

, apparently written by Ben and concerning a coma ward in a hospital, plays in the background. A second series of 6 episodes began broadcasting on

on 25 September 2007. A third series describing Ben's return home, still clinging to his fantasy life, began broadcasting on

on 24 November 2009. While the flashbacks in the first series concern Ben and Mary's courtship, pursued somewhat reluctantly on Mary's part, the second series shows the slow process of recovery for Ben in parallel with their marriage, her pregnancy, and Ben's lapses of commitment. Ben's fantasy life revolves around him giving up total control of his fantasy world before returning to a real world where he has no control at all. The third series was preceded by an interlude episode broadcast as the Friday Play on 20 November. In this episode Ben is out of his coma but is suffering from

locked-in syndrome Locked-in syndrome (LIS), also known as pseudocoma, is a condition in which a patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for vertical eye movements and bli ...

. He still experiences memories and fantasies while his wife and mother try to communicate with him. Meanwhile the hospital authorities are considering whether to continue with rehabilitation or ship him to a care home. Writer Nigel Smith spent some time in a coma himself, later describing it in an article in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' and in an autobiography published in 2007.

Episodes

Series One

Series Two

Special

Series Three

References

External links

* (BBC Radio 4 Extra site) *
Episode Guide, Cast List, Synopsis and Broadcast Dates
BBC Radio comedy programmes BBC Radio 4 programmes 2006 radio programme debuts {{UK-radio-show-stub