History Radio / TheMastersonInheritance

''The Masterson Inheritance'' was a BBC radio show which mixed [[{{Improv}} improvisational comedy]] in the style of ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' with a parody of {{Generational Saga}}s. Each half-hour episode would see the cast (Josie Lawrence, Paul Merton, Phelim [=McDermott=], Creator/CarolineQuentin, Lee Simpson and Jim Sweeney, several of whom were already regular or semi-regular players on the UK version of ''Whose Line'') be given a particular historical setting and, incorporating suggestions from the audience, improvise a new chapter in the saga of the irrepressible Masterson clan. One of them, usually Lee Simpson, would act as {{Narrator}} and keep the plot running, while the rest would play the various characters that appeared, always ending up with multiple roles.

''The Masterson Inheritance'' was a BBC radio show which mixed [[{{Improv}} improvisational comedy]] in the style of ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' with a parody of {{Generational Saga}}s. Each half-hour episode would see the cast (Josie Lawrence, Paul Merton, Phelim [=McDermott=], Caroline Quentin, Lee Simpson and Jim Sweeney, several of whom were already regular or semi-regular players on the UK version of ''Whose Line'') be given a particular historical setting and, incorporating suggestions from the audience, improvise a new chapter in the saga of the irrepressible Masterson clan. One of them, usually Lee Simpson, would act as {{Narrator}} and keep the plot running, while the rest would play the various characters that appeared, always ending up with multiple roles.

* {{Corpsing}}: Occasionally one or more of the performers will crack up at a joke.

''The Masterson Inheritance'' was a BBC radio show which mixed [[{{Improv}} improvisational comedy]] in the style of WhoseLineIsItAnyway with a parody of {{Generational Saga}}s. Each half-hour episode would see the cast (Josie Lawrence, Paul Merton, Phelim [=McDermott=], Caroline Quentin, Lee Simpson and Jim Sweeney, several of whom were already regular or semi-regular players on the UK version of ''Whose Line'') be given a particular historical setting and, incorporating suggestions from the audience, improvise a new chapter in the saga of the irrepressible Masterson clan. One of them, usually Lee Simpson, would act as {{Narrator}} and keep the plot running, while the rest would play the various characters that appeared, always ending up with multiple roles.

* TalkingToHimself: Roughly OnceAnEpisode; the narrator would set up a situation so that two characters played by the same actor would ''have'' to have a conversation with one another. Paul Merton got the brunt of these, and would often wriggle out of it by having one of the characters tell the other to shut up -- or just knocking out or killing off whichever one had the most annoying accent.

* AllWomenAreLustful: Most of the female characters seem to be, as both Josie Lawrence and Caroline Quentin keep making sex jokes.

** Invoked, {{Lampshaded}} and parodied in the episode ''The Sweat of the Mastersons'', where Phelim [=McDermott=] in one early scene is more or less forced into the role of Josie Lawrence's mother. This eventually leads into one of the two major plots of the episode, in which another (male) character played by Phelim gets a job as a "female impersinator."

* CrossDressingVoices: Mostly averted; the male performers play male roles while Josie Lawrence and Catherine Quentin play the female roles -- but on a few rare occasions there is a call for one of them to play a character of the opposite gender.

* TalkingToHimself: Roughly OnceAnEpisode; the narrator would set up a situation so that two characters played by the same actor would ''have'' to have a conversation with one another. Paul Merton got the brunt of these, and would often wriggle out of it by having one of the character tell the other to shut up -- or just knocking out or killing off whichever one had the most annoying accent.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Several times.

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: All the episodes, titles suggested by the audience, have the name "Masterson" in them, because Lee Simpson took care to request this -- but on two occasions he forgot this, leading to two [[OddNameOut episodes in which the name "Masterson" is not mentioned]], ''Scurvy!'' in the first season and ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext The Quest For The Other Rabbit's Foot]]'' in the second season.

** Invoked, {{Lampshaded}} and parodied in the episode ''The Sweat of the Mastersons'', where Phelim [=McDermott=] in one early scene is more or less forced into the role of Josie Lawrence's mother. This eventually leads into one of the two major plots of the episode, in which another (male) character played by Phelim gets a job as a "female impersinator.

** Even more regularly, each episode would end with the narrator making a small, dramatic or semi-philosophical speech about the ending, always finishing with a line about how this was a part of "the Masterson Inheritance."