Return Of The Timewaster Letters (Tom Thorne Novels)

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You’ll also get to hear a selection of Popper’s world-famous prank phone calls, in which he poses as the hapless and hopeless Robin Cooper. It didn't help with the audio version that he put on this high-pitched nasal voice which whilst offset slightly by Dawn French and Peter Serafinowicz (who it turns out has a voice I would listen to all day long) there isn't enough of them to make it worth listening to a voice that makes me feel like someone is assaulting my eardrums. Audible has commissioned Popper, Dawn French and Peter Serafinowicz to read out the letters, which were written by Popper, using the pen name Robin Cooper, in 2005 and 2007. Robert Popper is a writer, producer and performer, best known for creating the Channel 4 smash hit comedy, Friday Night Dinner, as well as the award-winning spoof BBC2 science show, Look Around You. He has worked on many of Britain’s top comedy shows including Peep Show, The Inbetweeners, The IT Crowd and Stath Lets Flats, as well as writing on South Park. In the tradition of the Henry Root letters comes a new collection of letters that do what the title describes. The time wasted, however, is not the reader's - only the terminally humourless could fail to be delighted by this volume - but that of the many put-upon secretaries and public relations officials who have been naive enough to take Robin Cooper's enquiries seriously and respond to them.

A new audio version of Robert Popper's hit prank books The Timewaster Letters and Return Of The Timewaster Letters has been recorded. Robert Popper said: “I’m sorry I’m not available to comment, as I have just fallen under some ice”. Popper seemed to do this for a laugh in the late ’90s, with the results proving funny enough to add together into this excellent collection of fun. Hurray! The Timewaster Letters Audible secured worldwide English language audio rights to The Timewaster Letters Compendium, from Jo Unwin at JULA Ltd. And now, exactly 15 years, 5 months and 26 days after the first Timewaster Letters book hit our shelves, you can listen to these hilarious letters, as they’re brought to life in this Audible exclusive by comedy giants Dawn French, Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper.Both series won the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy, and Popper won a BAFTA for series 4. Popper was the script editor on all three series of The Inbetweeners. [5] He was also the script editor on Graham Linehan's The IT Crowd and the BBC3 comedy Him & Her. In 2009 Popper and Serafinowicz wrote, produced, and performed in a 30-minute podcast entitled The Other Side. The comedy purported to be a radio show coming from the only radio station ("Radio Spiritworld") to broadcast from the afterlife. Robert and Peter also created the online world religion, " Tarvuism", making a variety of shorts. The pair created a number of web videos on YouTube showcasing their surreal humour, including "Birds of Britain", "Markets of Britain" and "Intermission". [ citation needed] Popper wrote on the fourteenth series of South Park; he was signed up by creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker following a week-long brainstorming session, and worked on the final four episodes of the first half-season. [7] I have never before felt so utterly let down and lied to by a bunch of cover acclamations. “Downright hilarious”, claim the Observer and “the funniest book you’ll read this year” state the Guardian. Ugh. I should have guessed, I suppose, when I saw the other acclaims written by comedians such as Avid Merrion (of Bo’ Selecta! fame) and Matt Lucas. The truth is, I simply don’t find them funny. I would rather not be slapped in the face with silliness and blatancy, but that is a personal preference. Robert has written on a number of shows, including BBC’s BAFTA-winning Harry & Paul, and The Peter Serafinowicz Show. He has also script-edited some of the country’s most exciting comedy programmes, including the multi award-winning The Inbetweeners, Graham Linehan’s EMMY award-winning IT Crowd, Peep Show series 5, 6 & 7 and Him & Her.

The Timewaster Letters was a big hit and received endorsements from many celebrities. The reason? It’s bloody funny and ridiculous. The one time he does get a telling off is when he suggests he paint a new colour he has discovered on a nearby bridge, which receives an angry response about vandalism. okay okay I admit it I'm cheating a little bit I didn't read this book but the audiobook of the compilation of the three books but after getting to the end of book one I just couldn't do anymore. I felt like I deserved some credit for what I did get through and there is no audiobook for book one by itself so here I am. The concept is that Cook writes letters to companies with oddball ideas/comments and publishes them, together with the replies he gets. The result is a very funny book that sometimes makes you feel sorry for his 'victims' but also, at times, makes you respect the restraint and dignity of the people who are giving polite replies to letters obviously written by a complete nutter. His letter to a 'Secondary Metals....' organisation saying they should have more confidence in themselves and rename themselves the ' Primary Metals...' org is funny, but gets a kind and helpful reply explaining what secondary metals are, a win for the 'victim' there I think! The staff at Dorling Kindersley come out of it very well, although his letters to them are surreal!

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Jones, Ralph (12 March 2020). " 'Friday Night Dinner': "We're ready to say goodbye to these characters" ". NME . Retrieved 14 March 2021. The Timewaster Letters Compendium brings together The Timewaster Letters and Return of the Timewaster Letters along with exclusive audio content. There’s a new Introduction by Popper, a chat with Serafinowicz reflecting on the 20 years since Popper sent off his first fateful letter. Plus, a world exclusive - The Cement Murder Mystery, the first thriller story penned by Robin Cooper himself and read by Jonathan Keeble. We don’t want to make promises, but it might also be the worst-written story of all time. Robert produced Peep Show for Channel 4, winning a BAFTA for series 4 and British Comedy Awards for both series 3 and 4. With Peter Serafinowicz, Robert created, starred in and composed the music for the BBC 2 spoof science comedy, Look Around You, winning the Rose D’or for Best Comedy in 2006 plus a BAFTA nomination.

http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670918515,00.html?strSrchSql=Andrew+Rawnsley*/The_End_of_the_Party_Andrew_Rawnsley [ dead link] Popper is one of the unsung heroes of modern British comedy – you’ll probably have no idea who he is, but he’s been instrumental across a wide variety of cult TV shows such as Look Around You.What makes these letters glorious is the flawless deadpan of Cooper's style - 'Thank you ever so much for your charming letter of 12 March (the date, incidentally, of my mother's birthday!) But that is, sadly, irrelevant' - which engenders entirely serious responses - 'Dear Mr Cooper, I'm afraid we have been unable to identify the manufacturer of your wife's hair station and are therefore unable to help you'. PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Timewaster_Letters_-_Robin_Cooper.pdf, The_Timewaster_Letters_-_Robin_Cooper.epub Now comes a new generation of 'wits' and standards have clearly fallen. Robin cooper has also had the idea of writing provocative, obviously spoof letters to various people and organisations and printing both sides of the correspondence. i say 'obviously' spoof because of the low standard of deceptive prose, but the victims seem not to spot it.

Under his pseudonym, Robin Cooper, he wrote The Timewaster Letters books, which have so far sold over 300,000 copies.

Cooper's letters are obvious, shrill and unfunny which probably explains why the replies are similarly leaden and flat. He is the classroom wag and the cheeky chappie on the playground but he is nowhere near publishable meterial. In donaldson's hands the spoofs would have been smooth parodies of the skill of craig brown. Boing Boing Video. "Markets of Britain, a short film by Lee Titt". Youtube. Boing Boing . Retrieved 19 June 2023. This book, then, is a compendium of pointlessness and absurdity – Popper’s alter-ego, Robin Cooper, is a meandering, well-meaning, but daft individual who wastes everyone’s time with a relentless series of utterly irrelevant, often bizarre or inappropriate, letters to all manner of industries and organisations across the UK. Here’s an example: More recently he’s written the pretty decent sitcom Friday Night Dinner, but he’s also worked for the often excellent Peep Show. Robert apperared regularly on Charlie Higson & Paul Whitehouse’s Sony Award-winning Radio 4 series, Down the Line, as well as their BBC2 show, Bellamy’s People. He also appeared in Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s movie, Hot Fuzz, saying just three words – “I’m not Janine”, and worked in Los Angeles as a writer on Sacha Baron Cohen’s movie, Bruno.