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''Ed Reardon's Week'' is a sitcom on BBC Radio 4 recorded semi-naturalistically in the style of a radio drama. It concerns the story of a curmudgeonly 50-something writer described in the show's publicity material as an "author, pipesmoker, consummate fare-dodger and master of the abusive email". The title, while referring to the past week of the protagonist's life, is a pun on "Ed Reardon is Weak", as the character's actions repeatedly demonstrate. The names of two central characters, Ed Reardon (played by Christopher Douglas) and Jaz Milvane (played by Philip Jackson), are references to the characters Edwin Reardon and Jasper Milvain, who appear in George Gissing's 1891 novel ''New Grub Street'',〔Dominic Maxwell ("Re-opening the grouse season", ) ''The Times'', 11 December 2006〕 which is set in the hack-literary London of the late nineteenth century, although Edward was revealed to be his given name in the second episode of the third series and Milvain is referred to as Jaz Milvane. The central conceits of the comedy are that Ed lives in precarious circumstances with his cat, Elgar, scraping a living as a hack by working through commissions for coffee table books such as ''The Brands Hatch Story'' and ''Pet Peeves'', a book of celebrity pet anecdotes. Much of this work comes through his agent Felix (John Fortune), and Felix's assistant Ping (Sally Hawkins and, in the second and fifth to seventh series, Barunka O'Shaughnessy) – an archetypal Sloane Ranger who rejects the amorous advances he makes occasionally in early episodes. He makes a small income from running a creative writing course at the local night school, where his lessons frequently mention the single episode of ''Tenko'' that he wrote. Ed also earns an occasional £10 fee for taking part in identity parades at his local police station. He is an alumnus of Shrewsbury School. The programme contains many references to the location of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, where Ed lives. The series is written by Chris Douglas and Andrew Nickolds, and produced by Simon Nicholls (first three series) and Dawn Ellis (fourth series onwards). ==Origins of the character of Ed== Speaking on ''Pick of the Week'' Christopher Douglas explained where Ed's character came from: "Simon Gray's published diaries were mainly about how badly treated he'd been by producers, actors, critics and electronic machinery. His impotent rage against his employers was one of the inspirations for Ed Reardon, the character I co-write, perform and in some ways resemble. Ed often rants from the point of view of appalled gentleman author, but he can also play the thwarted radical." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ed Reardon's Week」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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