Starting on radio 4 at 6.30 pm on Tuesday 6th October is a new radio comedy about a tourist information centre. Called “Too Much Information” it tells the continuing story of this town called Waft, somewhere in the North of England. The problem with Waft is there seems to be no reason why any tourist should want to go there. As the BBC blurb says “It’s twinned with a town near Chernobyl and is the perfect place to stop off on the way to Alton Towers to ask the way to Alton Towers – or just to use the toilet.”

We all know places like this, Dungeness comes to mind along with that estate agent selling a cottage there and managing to take a photograph of it whilst omitting the huge power station that dominates the landscape.

I went along to a recording of two episodes (there are only 4 so far so maybe the BBC doesn’t have a lot of confidence in it yet) and found it amusing. I some cases it was too close to comfort as you see characters trying to put the best gloss on what little tourist attractions there are. That Beatrix Potter didn’t go near Waft doesn’t stop one character having the Beatrix Potter tea-room. There is even the sitcom standard, the country yokle played and played well by Paul Barnhill.

But Neil Warhurst, the writer, has done his homework and you’ll giggle along at how tourists can be conned into believing that it is worth visiting some places that are better left unseen!