His Master's Voice is a satirical comedy series on BBC Radio 4. It is written by both Mark Tavener, who also wrote the satirical novel In The Red and the satirical radio series Absolute Power, and Steve Punt. Their writing satirises both the hard-right Conservatism and "caring Conservatism", along with the rest of British politics. Following Tavener's death in October 2007, no new series have been produced.

Plot

It is set in the office of a Conservative magazine called "The Blue Touch Paper" owned by South African media mogul Lord Malan (Robert Hardy). To revive its failing sales, Malan hires a new editor Keith (Tony Gardner), who was previously the "token Tory" at the left-wing Guardian (and is thus nicknamed "Toynbee", after Polly Toynbee from the Guardian, by Malan). This angers Anna (Amelia Bullmore), the magazine's political commentator (and its acting editor for the last 3 months), who had been hoping to become full editor. Much to the discontent of Malan and Anna, Keith then moves the magazine away from its traditional hard-right standpoint to views more in line with David Cameron's new "caring Conservatism", such as environmentalism. Anna, Malan and hard-right Tory backbenchers therefore try to ensure that Keith fails to make a success of the paper, often using Malan's three other national papers to do so. However, their attempts usually backfire, with Keith's brand of conservatism increasing rather than decreasing the readership.

Episodes

Quotations

Production and broadcast

The series was recorded at The Drill Hall in London on 16 May and 22 May 2007, and was broadcast on Wednesday evenings at 6.30pm between 4 July and 25 July 2007.

Cast

Cultural references