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Hello and welcome to The Spectator's Book Club podcast.

I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor of The Spectator, very pleased to be joined this week by Lissa Evans.

Now, Lisa is known as one of our finest comic novelists whose books include small vomit dimpley and V for Victory, but she's here to talk about a prior life, as described in her new book, Picnic on Craggie

Island, the surreal joys of producing Father Ted. Lissa, welcome. I had no idea you'd produced Father

Ted. How did you come to be doing that? Well, I seem to compartmentalise my life in extraordinary ways, really.

I started off by doing medicine a long, long time ago,

and really hated, hated, hated being doctor.

And I was largely doing comedy while I was doing medicine.

And so I joined the...

What stand-up?

Well, I was very, very poor.

I was in a sort of satirical comedy group that was a bit like the old programme

weekending only in Newcastle pubs.

You know, we were well known at the time, but that was at the time when there were

about three groups on Pruddy Serbik.

So when I let medicine,

I really, the only thing

I had my CV, a part of medicine,

...