Editing Radio Active (radio series) (section)

===Recurring elements===

The show had its origins in the [[University of Oxford]] student drama community, especially in the musical parodies of Philip Pope, which were regularly featured on ''Radio Active''. The best known of these is the [[Bee Gees]] parody ''[[The Hee Bee Gee Bees]]'', with their song "Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices)", which became a moderate 1980 hit.

Pope was also responsible for the very long and very contemporary [[jingle]]s presenting the station [[telephone number]] for [[phone in]]s (with a false ending) and introducing the [[radio commercial|commercials]]. Each week's show has its own one-off jingles, which initially resembled the sort of generic jingles used by real radio stations, but later became elaborate musical pastiches in their own right.

The "commercials" feature many parodies of current TV adverts and other running jokes, including conversations between housewives Mary (Fenton Stevens putting on a high-pitched voice) and June (Atkinson-Wood); goods and services of dubious legality offered by "Honest Ron – the others are a con" (Stevens); and "blindingly obvious" patronising public service announcements ("Do not throw boiling water over a child").

Mike Flex presides over the rigged "Master Quiz" with ever-changing rules and format, although the prize remains the same: a [[chateau]] in the [[Loire Valley]], which curiously goes un-won from week to week. The '''Radio Active Drama [[Repertory]] Company''' usually give a performance with wild misreadings of the scripts ("She's seriously one hundred and eleven. (Pause). She's seriously ill.") and miscued sound effects.

Each programme starts and ends with a comical handover to the Radio 4 continuity announcer.