Listen to this! Comedy from the BBC
ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG (star of ITV's Life Begins, C4's Armstrong and Miller, R4's Sony-winning The Sunday Format, and host of Have I Got News For You,) as randy, devious, sexist, work-shy and drink-sodden John Weak, Marketing Maestro and Totty Magnet.
CLARE PERKINS(Bullet Boys, Family Affairs) as secretary , philosopher and male ego crusher, Hayley, who would be top totty if he could empty her venom gland.
GEOFFREY WHITEHEAD(The Worst Week of My Life, The Rotter's Club, Mort) as CEO Sir Marcus Rigsby, who would have Weak's genitals for a desk accessory, if he weren't preoccupied with organising a secret hair transplant from Simon Armitage in accounts.
and
RON COOK(Thunderbirds, He Knew He Was Right, 24 Hour Party People, Topsy Turvy) as Director of Long Lunches and Work Avoidance, Bill Peters.
What's it about?
John Weak puts the man into management. He's Radio 4's new bastard: a high-flying Marketing Director with razor-sharp skiving skills, like how to do strategic planning using only a pair of dice and an Argos catalogue, how to get a big company car and drive it so that cyclists stay on the pavement, and how to do absolutely nothing at work whilst giving all the appearance of adding value and moving the organisation forward in a meaningful way.
Most weeks he hangs on to his position as Marketing Director of Smokehouse, a major global company that makes processed food products from ingredients you'd never consider eating individually. But only by having the skin of a rhino, the morals of a skunk, and the brain of a one-celled organism. The Writer writes and performs GUY BROWNING'S SMALL TALK for Radio 4, and is a regular contributor to The Guardian, where he also writes the HOW TO... and OFFICE POLITICS columns. He combines all this with a career as a top management consultant and innovation coach, and it was from this career that the character of John Weak emerged, first appearing as a very successful spoof column in Management Today.
Guy's latest book 'Never Hit A Jellyfish With A Spade: How To Survive Life's Smaller Challenges' was a runaway hit in 2004, spending weeks at No. 2 in the non-fiction best-seller list before Christmas (pipped only by Michael Palin).
"A brilliant one-off in which everyday matters are skewered with deadpan style and deadly accuracy." Sunday Times
His other books include The Social Survival Handbook; Double Your Salary, Bonk Your Boss, Go Home Early; Innervation; Grass Roots Management; and Weak at the Top.
Guy will be performing GUY BROWNING'S SMALL TALK at the Pleasance Theatre throughout the 2005 Edinburgh Festival.
'Indecently Funny' Financial Times
'An unerring instinct for the comedy G-spot' The Guardian