What in the Very World?

According to BBC Genome, on 13 August 1998 at 11pm, the very first of what would be many, many pun-heavy Radio 4 series starring Milton Jones began airing, with the opening episode of The Very World of Milton Jones.

13 August 1998, 23:00 on BBC Radio 4 FM

The Very World of Milton Jones

A four-part comedy series starring Britain's funniest Milton.
Written by and starring Milton Jones
With Alexander Armstrong and Melanie Hudson. Producer David Tyler

And the listings for the remaining three episodes are as follows:

20 August 1998, 23:00 on BBC Radio 4 FM

The Very World of Milton Jones

Second dollop of the four-part comedy series starring Britain's funniest Milton. Written by and starring Milton Jones. With Dave Lamb and Melanie Hudson. Producer David Tyler

27 August 1998, 23:00 on BBC Radio 4 FM

The Very World of Milton Jones

Part three of the four-part comedy series starring Britain's funniest Milton. Written by and starring Milton Jones
With Joanna Scanlan and Alexander Armstrong

Producer David Tyler

3 September 1998, 23:00 on BBC Radio 4 FM

The Very World of Milton Jones

Last of the comedy series written by and starring Britain's funniest Milton. With Joanna Scanlan and Dave Lamb

Hang on, what's this?

6 September 1998, 12:30 on BBC Radio 4 FM

The Very World of Milton Jones

Second in the new comedy series written by and starring Milton Jones. Repeated from Monday

Okay, let's try and work this out. 06/09/98 was a Sunday, and this repeat goes out in the lunchtime slot reserved for the repeat of Monday's 18:30 comedy which is strongly associated with Just a Minute, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and The Unbelievable Truth. So if we believe the later Radio Times listing as being more up-to-date, the second episode of The Very World did not debut on 20/08/98 at 11pm, but on 31/08/98 at 6.30pm. What does the Radio Times claim was broadcast on that date?

31 August 1998, 18:30 on BBC Radio 4 FM

Only Connect

Arabella Weir hosts the panel game. This week's guests are Charlie Higson, Maria McErlane, Kevin Day and Jackie Clune. Written by Nigel Crowle. Producer Liz Anstee

Repeated Sunday 12.30pm

This was the third episode of the short-lived panel show Only Connect -- a programme which ran for just one series, and which has remarkably little information about it available online. One of the few pages about it is on UKGameshows.com, which fortunately tells us all we need to know:

This show -- game is too strong a word for it -- invited three comedians to make a series of lateral leaps to link the first item with the last. Quite often the intended 'answer' was not given so we were left in the dark about who won a lot of the time.

The programme was part of a series of unpopular changes by the then controller of Radio 4, James Boyle, who greatly increased the number of panel games on the station in lunchtime and teatime slots. Of these, only Puzzle Panel and X Marks the Spot survived with dignity. This idea, like many of the others commissioned at the time, was much panned by listeners and got shunted back from 6.30pm to 11pm after just one episode.

So only the first episode of Only Connect TXed in the 6.30pm slot as scheduled, on 17/08/98. By 24/08/98, it had been replaced. This is where we have to use some guesswork, but it looks like The Very World was swapped over with it, and episode 1 was repeated on 24/08/98 at 6.30pm, having been aired in the 11pm slot on 13/08. (Edit: See below for an update on this.) As far as we can tell, Episode 2 was premiered in the 6.30 slot on the 31st August, but only by the episode 2 repeat on the 6th September has the Radio Times reacted to the change.

The Radio Times lists the last three episodes of Only Connect as premiering in the 11pm slot on 17/09, 24/09 and 01/10; working backwards, we can arrive at the conclusion that the second episode debuted in the graveyard slot on the 3rd September. It may have been the case that the first episode was also repeated in its new home on the 27th August, but again, that's guesswork.

If all this is giving you a headache, here's an episode guide for the first four episodes of The Very World of Milton Jones:

The Very World of Milton Jones episode	Originally planned TX	Actual TX
#1.1 (“Falling Through the Air Without a Parachute”)	13/08/98, 11pm	13/08/98, 11pm (probably also repeated 24/08/98, 6.30pm)
#1.2 (“Confronted With a Charging Bull”)	20/08/98, 11pm	31/08/98, 6.30pm (may have also aired on 20/08 as scheduled?)
#1.3 (“Confronted With a Jungle Cobra”)	27/08/98, 11pm	07/09/98, 6.30pm
#1.4 (“Stuck in Concrete and About to Be Shot”)	03/09/98, 11pm	14/09/98, 6.30pm

(Update! Thanks to Jopijedd "Icicles" Erasmus on Bluesky, who has dug out the minidiscs they recorded the first series of TVWoMJ on; the first episode has the date 24/08/98, confirming that it was indeed repeated in the 6.30pm slot. Episode 1 would have been heard three times in as many weeks on Radio 4, all in different slots: the originally planned 13/08 11pm airing, the 24/08 6.30pm repeat it was parachuted into, and the 30/08 12.30pm repeat.)

I can also provide something similar for Only Connect:

Only Connect episode	Originally planned TX	Actual TX
#1.1 (Kevin Day, Maria McErlane, Charlie Higson, Jackie Clune)	17/08/98, 6.30pm (presumably also repeated 23/08/98, 12.30pm)	17/08/98, 6.30pm (may have been repeated 27/08/98 at 11pm)
#1.2 (Rhona Cameron, John Moloney, Jo Enright, Robert Llewellyn)	24/08/98, 6.30pm	03/09/98, 11pm (presumably)
#1.3 (Day, McErlane, Higson, Clune again)	31/08/98, 6.30pm	10/09/98, 11pm (presumably)
#1.4 (Cameron, Moloney, Enright, Llewellyn)	07/09/98, 6.30pm	17/09/98, 11pm
#1.5 (Steve Punt, Jane Bussman, David Quantick, Sarah Parkinson)	14/09/98, 6.30pm	24/09/98, 11pm
#1.6 (presumably Punt, Bussman, Quantick, Parkinson again)	21/09/98, 6.30pm	01/10/98, 11pm

The one wrinkle here is that the second episode of The Very World may have been aired in the 11pm slot before the decision to swap the two shows over was made, but it's hard to tell for sure.

But let's carry on searching the Genome for The Very World. After the 6th September, the RT correctly bills episode 3 as premiering on 07/09/98 at 6.30pm, with a Sunday lunchtime repeat, ditto episode 4 on the 14th and 20th September...

21 September 1998, 18:30 on BBC Radio 4 FM

The Very World of Milton Jones

Another instalment of the comedy series starring Britain's funniest Milton. Written by and starring Milton Jones

With Joanna Scanlan and Alexander Armstrong. Producer David Tyler

28 September 1998, 18:30 on BBC Radio 4 FM

The Very World of Milton Jones

The final episode of the comedy series starring Britain's funniest Milton. Written by and starring Milton Jones

With Dave Lamb and Julia Davies

Producer David Tyler

...Oh.

Note that these aren't repeats, or phantom episodes: despite the Radio Times listings for the first four episodes stating there were four episodes, the first series of The Very World of Milton Jones was definitely six episodes long, as proven by all repeat runs on BBC Radio 7 and 4 Extra and the audiobook release (they are nicknamed "Choking and Ending Up in His Own Gut" and "Tied to a Railway Track"). Were these added at the last minute when the series was bumped up to the 6.30pm slot? It doesn't seem terribly likely -- those two episodes don't give the impression of being hurriedly thrown together, although it's possible Milton cannibalised his stand-up for them -- but it's hard to see how the Radio Times could have made that sort of confusion over number of episodes, and 4 episodes is a pretty typical order for a Radio 4 series starting out in the late-night slot...