STRIPPING on the radio? It'll never catch on.

Ah, but this is a comic strip turned into a sitcom - and it is already tipped for success. Co-written by York man David Ramsden, Clare In The Community is a six-part series beginning this Friday at 11.30am on Radio 4.

Clare's cartoon adventures have been entertaining readers of The Guardian for nearly ten years. She is a painfully politically correct social worker with enough jargon to confront everyone's problems - except her own.

When the strip's creator Harry Venning was asked to see if he could turn Clare into a sitcom, he struggled. So he asked his friend, former Archbishop Holgate School pupil David, to work with him.

David, 41, trained as an actor in Harrogate and London, and turned to writing in between roles. He now lives in Islington.

His parents, John and Valerie Ramsden, of Acomb, travelled to the capital to watch the first two episodes being recorded in front of an audience. "It was very funny, but then I'm biased," said John.

You needn't take dad's word for it. The radio show has garnered impressive previews. "Well worth catching," said the Observer, but our favourite came from the Daily Mail.

"The heart sinks at the prospect of a sitcom based on a Guardian cartoon strip about a social worker - but don't be put off," it begins. "It's quick-paced with an intelligent script, and this episode has a great, if risqu, pay-off."

Some years back, David and Harry co-wrote a TV pilot of Clare In The Community which starred Julia Sawalha. This was lost in the BBC labyrinth. But Radio 4 has a tremendous track record of nurturing TV comedy hits (League Of Gentleman, Little Britain). And the new series has an excellent cast, headed by Sally Phillips, from Channel 4's Smack The Pony.

So listen now and you'll be able to say: "I heard it here first."

WHY is it that guitar shop owners spend so much time standing in the doorway?

TRACING your ancestry has never been more popular, as proved by another BBC show, Who Do You Think You Are?

For the next three days, genealogists can find help at the You And Your Family Tree exhibition in York.

It will feature practical displays and advice on how to start your own family tree - and how to explore new avenues, if you have already begun. Exhibitors include the York And District Family History Society, the University of the Third Age and local history groups. The IT bus from BBC Radio York is there on Friday.

"We will have expert advisers available to help visitors discover their family's past," said exhibition co-ordinator Stephen Munzer.

The event is being held at the chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, West Bank, Acomb from 6pm-9pm tomorrow; from 10am-5pm on Friday; and from 10am-6pm on Saturday. Free car parking is available.

DON'T know what to get the swashbuckler in your life for Christmas? The Diary may have stumbled upon an answer.

"You will not beat our price on swords," states the notice in the window of the Surplus shop on Fishergate.

Another sign backs up this claim. "Set of three swords with stand £20. Single swords from £10. Clocks from £5."

Updated: 09:14 Wednesday, November 24, 2004