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Comedy was consistently the most popular genre of radio programme. In a 1946 US survey, 59% of respondents listed comedy as their favourite form of programme. 1 This is perhaps not surprising, given the background first of economic depression and later world war. People wanted to be cheered up. But radio imposed certain restrictions on comedy. Visual comedy such as slapstick was impossible. Comedy needed to be predominantly verbal and radio was the home of
Othello begins at the moment when comedies end, with a happy marriage. It begins, too, where The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night leave off, with the question of ethnic or social outsiders – Shylock, Malvolio – as the catalysts for the destructive elements within society. It might seem that here the terms are reversed, with the
that form the narrative's source material. As this chapter discusses, the reality of these injustices, many of them still unresolved, severely complicates attempts to position Philomena as a ‘feel good’ comedy. The critical exploration it undertakes in this regard is two-fold, reflecting on the framing of the film as a comedy in a promotional sense and the role of comedy in its storytelling. In both instances, this chapter finds that the comedy on display is ‘uneasy’ precisely because it cannot be detached from the state- and church-sanctioned tragedy on which