Patterson is a BBC radio sitcom about a hapless university lecturer. It was billed as a comedy series in eight parts, written by Malcolm Bradbury and Christopher Bigsby but strictly speaking, it is a serial. The show was produced by Geoffrey Perkins. It tells the tale of Doctor Andrew Patterson (Lewis Fiander) who is cajoled by his wife Jane (Judy Parfitt) into accepting a job in the dysfunctional English department of a provincial red-brick university. This is the catalyst for a catalogue of unfortunate events which sees his life rapidly crumble around him, bit by bit. The series occupies a unique position in the history of BBC Radio 3 as it remains the only sitcom ever to be broadcast on that station.