Genre Comedy Country United Kingdom Home station BBC Radio 4 | Running time 30 minutes Language(s) English | |
Starring Linda Smith, Chris Neill, Margaret John, Femi Elufowoju Jnr | ||
Linda Smith’s A Brief History of Timewasting was a BBC Radio 4 situation comedy series 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, 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), morbid elderly neighbour Betty (Margaret John), and Cab driver Worra (Femi Elufowoju Junior). Supporting roles were played by Jeremy Hardy and Martin Hyder. Many familiar voices from Radio 4, including then-chief announcer Peter Donaldson, Thought for the Day regular Rabbi Lionel Blue, and Woman's Hour stalwart Jenni Murray appeared as themselves.
Despite the claim of the programme’s page on the Radio 4 website, many of Chris’s antics revealed that Linda and Betty did not live in neighbouring flats in a tower block, but in neighbouring houses.
Following Smith's death in 2006, Jeremy Hardy revealed that Linda had been working on a third series.