''Robin and Wendy's Wet Weekends'' is a

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 Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

comedy series written by and starring

Kay Stonham Kay Stonham is a British actress, writer and academic. Background Stonham attended William Morris Senior High School in Walthamstow, East London, leaving in 1974. She then graduated from Rose Bruford College in 1977. Stonham has a master's degre ...

and

Simon Greenall Simon James Greenall (born 3 January 1958) is an English actor, producer, writer and voice artist. He has portrayed Michael in the BBC television series ''I'm Alan Partridge'', as well as in '' Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa,'' the Caretaker in ...

, which ran from 2001 to 2005. It revolves around the

mundane In subcultural and fictional uses, a mundane is a person who does not belong to a particular group, according to the members of that group; the implication is that such persons, lacking imagination, are concerned solely with the mundane: the ...

lives of Robin and Wendy Mayfield who live on an anonymous

estate Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representat ...

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Ste ...

. Robin tends to be self-centred, demanding and controlling in his relationships. Wendy, however, always seems to see the positive side of any situation, and, while often frustrated, copes with Robin admirably. Both Robin and Wendy have relatively meaningless

bureaucratic The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...

jobs. Robin manages shipping and receiving for a warehouse, and Wendy works in local government. To their disappointment (mainly Wendy's), they find themselves unable to have children. Consequently, their considerable energies are channeled into building and maintaining Mayfield, the

model village A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally phys ...

in their

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: * Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicl ...

. Robin drives a decrepit

Triumph Herald The Triumph Herald is a small two-door car introduced by Standard-Triumph of Coventry in 1959 and made through to 1971. The body design was by the Italian stylist Giovanni Michelotti, and the car was offered in saloon, convertible, coupé, est ...

, claiming it to be a "classic British car". Wendy becomes pregnant in the penultimate episode of Series 3, due to an affair with a patient at the hospital where Robin lies in a coma after an accident at work. The arrival of the baby is a major element in Series 4. Their next-door neighbours Derek and Maureen also have no children, although Derek has children from a previous marriage. Before suffering burnout and a breakdown, Derek was a legend among salesmen. Now he is usually undergoing treatment with one or more drugs to address his psychological problems, which often trigger erratic behavior when he takes too much or too little. Maureen tends to be involved in the latest

get-rich-quick scheme A get-rich-quick scheme is a plan to obtain high rates of return for a small investment. The term "get rich quick" has been used to describe shady investments since at least the early 20th century. Most schemes create an impression that partic ...

, although none of them turn out to be too successful. To make matters worse, she dumped her previous husband for Derek, and openly regrets having done so. Each episode focuses on one particular event or activity and details the usually absurd outcome brought about by the group. The

humour Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

is gentle, yet the storylines encourage

sympathy Sympathy is the perception of, understanding of, and reaction to the distress or need of another life form. According to David Hume, this sympathetic concern is driven by a switch in viewpoint from a personal perspective to the perspective of an ...

for the characters. The first series was broadcast on

in 2001. Four series and one special, a total of 19 episodes, have been broadcast up to the end of 2005. Early episodes were co-written by

, who also plays Wendy, and

who played Robin. In the third and fourth series Robin was played by

Brian Capron Brian Capron (born 11 February 1947) is an English actor who trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He is best known for his role as serial killer, Richard Hillman, in the long-running ITV soap opera, ''Coronation Street'', ...

and Kay Stonham was the sole credited writer. The show is repeated from time to time on

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...

and occasionally on Radio 4.

Critical reaction

The Financial Times called it "wonderfully nerdish... a dash of Ayckbourn tinged with

Mike Leigh Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design ...

, only loopier."Hoyle, Martin, "CRITICS' CHOICE RADIO" ONDON 1ST EDITION Financial Times ondon (UK)24 November 2006: 12. The Times called it "gently humorous, rather sad, slightly surreal"."Radio choice", Times, The (London, England) – Wednesday, 11 March 2009: page 21

Episode list

References

External links

* *{{British Comedy Guide, radio, robin_wendys_wet_weekends
radiolistings.co.uk
BBC Radio comedy programmes 2003 radio programme debuts