Call Jonathan Pie
4.3/5
Critic Rating
Political journalist Jonathan Pie gets a radio phone-in show and as his personal and professional worlds collide we see why he's so incredibly angry about absolutely everything.
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Patricia Nicol • The Times UK • Jun 28, 2023
"To my ears this is the most consistent, compelling satire and sitcom to have been aired by the BBC this decade...Sharply observed and close to the knuckle (especially about the BBC), it is a spoof that speaks truth to power."
Score: 4
Edward Wickham • Church Times • Jun 16, 2023
"Call Jonathan Pie is made by the independent production company Yada Yada Audio; but hearing this on a BBC platform is like listening to the desperate laughter of a friend recounting in as light-hearted a manner as he can muster some recent catastrophic trauma. The experience gets no easier or or less compelling. Pie, for all his personal flaws (of which the greatest are gross insensitivity and narcissism), articulates brilliantly and eviscerates savagely familiar arguments...Call Jonathan Pie is brilliant, but exhausting."
Score: 3
James Marriot • The Times UK • Jun 16, 2023
"The early signs were not promising. Thankfully such easy-peasy partisanship is impossible on the politically cautious BBC. Perhaps that’s why the writing on Call Jonathan Pie is cleverer and edgier than I expected. The main problem is that Walker’s character can’t quite keep up with this level of nuance. Teasing out Pie’s hypocrisies would make the show more convincing but it would require Walker to tinker with a successful character."
Score: 5
Miranda Sawyer • The Guardian • Jun 10, 2023
"You’re constantly flipping between sniggering at Pie’s pompous buffoonery and nodding along with him. It’s very odd. The interactions between him and his producer are comic and well-drawn, and it’s always funny hearing a host move seamlessly from sweary off-mic apoplexy to smooth on-air persona. "
