''Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting'' was a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

situation comedy show written by and starring Linda Smith. It ran for two series of six episodes each from July 2001 until July 2002. Set in

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

, where Smith herself lived, ''A Brief History of Timewasting'' concerned the struggle of a single woman to fill the day, helped by her inept, sugar-loving, live-in builder Chris (

Chris Neill Chris Neill (born 1968) is a British comedian, producer, and writer who features regularly on BBC Radio 4 Margaret John Margaret John (14 December 1926 – 2 February 2011) was a Welsh, BAFTA award-winning actress, known for her role as Doris O'Neill in ''Gavin & Stacey''. Early life Born in Swansea, as a child she wanted to be a nurse or vet, but she could n ...

), and minicab driver Worra ( Femi Elufowoju Jr). Supporting roles were played by

Jeremy Hardy Jeremy James Hardy (17 July 1961 – 1 February 2019) was an English comedian. Born and raised in Hampshire, Hardy studied at the University of Southampton and began his stand-up career in the 1980s, going on to win the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, ...

and

Martin Hyder Martin Hyder (born 1961) is an English actor and writer. Profile Hyder was educated at Abingdon School leaving in 1980. He has worked closely with the BBC since 2000 contributing and appearing in BBC Radio and BBC Television. His television cre ...

. Many familiar voices from Radio 4, including then-chief announcer Peter Donaldson, ''

Thought for the Day ''Thought for the Day'' is a daily scripted slot on the ''Today'' programme on BBC Radio 4 offering "reflections from a faith perspective on issues and people in the news", broadcast at around 7:45 each Monday to Saturday morning. Lasting 2 minu ...

'' regular Rabbi Lionel Blue, and ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...

'' stalwart

Jenni Murray Dame Jennifer Susan Murray, (''née'' Bailey; born 12 May 1950) is an English journalist and broadcaster, best known for presenting BBC Radio 4's '' Woman's Hour'' from 1987 to 2020. Early life Murray was born in Barnsley, West Riding of Yo ...

, appeared as themselves. The programme's page on the Radio 4 website says that the show was set in an East London

tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. ...

, but details of Chris's building work demonstrate that Linda and Betty lived in neighbouring

terraced house A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

s. Following Smith's death in 2006,

revealed that Linda had been working on a third series.

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2

References

External links

BBC Radio 4 pageModern (less informative) BBC page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting BBC Radio comedy programmes 2001 radio programme debuts BBC Radio 4 programmes

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2

References

Further reading

External links