Slaps and a lot of tickle

SHREDDING an entire week inside three hectic days for the benefit of TV cameras occasioned an unparalleled amount of physical distress for the two principal week-shredders, Sanjeev Kohli and Donald McLeary. As recently became evident to listeners to Sanj And Donny's Shredded Week on Radio Scotland, the duo's crazed brand of comedy generally just produces the type of industrial injury common to the mirthmaker's calling.

You know the sort of thing: sides split by laughter, ribs overly tickled, thighs slapped to the point of red rawness, etc, etc. However, when it came to transferring Sanj And Donny's Shredded Week to the telly for the Scottish division of the Beeb's digital channel, BBC Choice, the two writer-performers found themselves literally living up to the name of their own Glasgow-based independent production company. Jings, the men from Square Go were actually brought to the point of proper fisticuffs!

''It happened at the end of our three tiring days when we were filming in Glasgow's Tron Theatre,'' says McLeary. The duo had adopted the combative personas of two of their established characters, the Jeggy brothers, Alan and Govinder, a couple of neds who - rather fancifully, methinks - hail from the Bridgeton Cross Hare Krishna Centre.

''There we were, previewing some arts event or other by pretending to batter one another, when it all kicked off for real in a flurry of over-enthusiastic face-slappage,'' says McLeary, pointing ruefully to a discernible hand-print just below his left eye.

Thankfully, the duo's real-life creative partnership remains unaffected by the odd spontaneous cuffing. Indeed, since the two got together by chance three years ago, their friendship has acted as a veritable powerhouse of comedy.

Having met up as part of a team of budding comedy writers when the Radio 4 topical satire show Week Ending opted out of London for a four-week trial spell in Glasgow, Sanjeev and Donny soon afterwards went to London themselves to write topical quips for Johnny Vaughan on Channel 4's Big Breakfast.

They then endured an ill-starred metropolitan sojourn on Talk Radio prior to returning to their heathery native heath to craft a Radio Scotland play; pen gags for Chewin'

The Fat and Goodness Gracious

Me, as well as create the emergent bi-media success story which is Sanj And Donny's Shredded Week .

''One of our fellow partners in Square Go, former BBC producer Alan De Pellette, got us together,'' says McLeary, a native of Rutherglen who trained in acting at

Glasgow's RSAMD. ''Writing and performing together was always our long-term goal,'' adds Glasgow West End boulevardier Kohli, name-checking the other quarter of the Square Go axis, dramatist and gagsmith David Cosgrove.

McLeary and Kohli's joint ambition flowered most recently on Radio Scotland in the form of the well-received Community Service, a drama written by McLeary and in which he also co-starred alongside Alex Norton. Kohli acted as the play's script editor.

Encouraged by BBC Scotland's commissioning editor for independent productions on bi-media, Ewan Angus - who also helped pilot the aforementioned Chewin' The Fat along a similar route - the current TV incarnation of Sanj And Donny's Shredded Week follows on from its genesis only weeks ago as a six-part Sunday-night radio series. This fast-track success has been especially heartening for Kohli.

''Just the other week, going up the stairs into Moby's gig at Barrowland, I was congratulated by my first hip young fan,'' Kohli beams.

Until now, you see, Kohli's media career has tended to win him plaudits from a more mature and less groovy audience - he's the presenter of BBC2's decidedly mainstream Asian daytime magazine, Network East.

''I have to wear a suit for Network East,'' says Kohli with a regretful air. ''I also have to introduce rather a lot of cookery items and chat about chicken with chefs. But you do it in a cheeky, scampish fashion,'' interjects McLeary supportively

''In fact, I'd go so far as to say you were the Asian Alan Titchmarsh.'' At this statement, Kohli appears to be considering further impromptu face-slappery.

Paradoxically, perhaps, the twosome's most painful comedybiz experience was the one from which they learned the most: Talk Radio. ''Doing a weekly two-man, two-hour phone-in comedy show on that station was our worst mistake,'' says Kohli. ''We were pulled after the second programme, mercifully. As well as our not enjoying being metaphorically sandwiched between Russell Grant and James Whale, there was a tabloid mentality about the whole operation that didn't suit us.

''It rankles that we were reportedly fired for having used bad language after I'd asked people to phone in with their funniest anecdote about having been caught short in the lavatorial department. It was put about that we'd used the s*** word. In fact, we used a euphemism of which we both remain proud to this day: 'Ring us if you've ever caught one in the hammock.' ''

Charming. The stress of the Talk Radio experience was one in the fizzog for Kohli. ''It affected my health very badly. In fact, I blame it for the fact that I contracted Bell's palsy,'' he says. ''But at least we learned from the misery of Talk Radio that you should never do everything you're offered, unless it's the right thing to do. The idea for the programme was someone else's and it was never going to work for us.''

McLeary adds: ''And it taught us that we didn't need to go to London to work. By staying here in Scotland we might have a lower career profile, but we're much happier.''

Shred the week with Sanj and Donny, and you'll be happier, too.

n A listings show with a

freewheeling comic bent, Sanj And Donny's Shredded Week goes out tonight at 11.30pm on BBC Choice.