After the BBC’s homage to modernist architects in The Brits who Built the Modern World, someone in the commissioning department must have decided it was time to redress the balance. Last Friday, we had the first episode of The Architects, a satirical and very funny four-part BBC Radio 4 comedy focused on the misadventures of a group of employees in a struggling architecture practice.
The practice is headed up by Sir Lucien, an ageing and sexually-depraved eccentric who unexpectedly reveals that the business has “no money and no new commissions”. Sadly, a job to build a library in Basildon has been cancelled, to be replaced by a very large branch of Greggs.
In a bid to get some creative inspiration to win new work, Sir Lucien and colleague Tim decide to take a trip to the spa resort of Baden-Baden in Germany to undergo “the great purge” and purify their bodies and minds on a diet of beetroot, saurkraut and frauleins.
The Architects (l-r): Aisling Bea, Geoffrey Whitehead, Ingrid Oliver, Dominic Coleman, Alex Carter
Meanwhile, fellow architect Matt tries to get the practice’s last chance at a project past the planners. The problem is the family house in suburban Sutton is in the shape of a giant seven storey spike, referred to as The Point, and designed as “an ironic disruption of the suburban aesthetic”.
Tim, a self-proclaimed idealist, refuses to allow his artistic vision to be sullied by the “petty bourgeois banality” of the planners, who want it reduced in height to four floors, the footprint reduced by 40%, and the rusty steel cladding replaced by London Brick. “I’m not removing several storeys, I’m designing a point, not a nub, I won’t be castrated,” he exclaims.
Despite the project’s initial rejection, his colleague Sarah manages to get it approved after promising to reignite a previous sexual relationship with the planning officer.
In the finale, Sir Lucien returns to London from Baden-Baden with the idea to start designing a range of luxury dog kennels in the “Bau wow wow haus” style. “What dog wouldn’t want to live in a beautifully proportioned, clean and sharp machine for living?” he asks.
The first episode, What’s The Point?, written by Jim Poyser and Neil Griffiths, was broadcast on Friday at 11.30 and you can catch it here
Episode 2, entitled Fracking Hell, is aired this Friday at 11.30am.
