Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Literature & Fiction

Sixteen TV soundtracks from the award-winning TV show collected together for the first time, starring David Jason as ambitious market trader Del Boy Trotter and Nicholas Lyndhurst as his younger brother, Rodney Trotter. For 15 years the brothers of Trotters Independent Traders PLC have entertained us both with Del's extreme optimism and scams and, quite simply, Rodney's reactions upon hearing those scams.

Crabby, crusty, and curmudgeonly he may be, but Victor Meldrew, played brilliantly by Richard Wilson, voices the exasperation of the once silent majority. Accompanied by his long-suffering wife Margaret (Annette Crosbie), Victor's howlingly funny battles against what he perceives as modern-day ills have turned him into one of the great comic creations of our time.

For three decades, Rupert Hardacre was one of the big beasts of advertising: he worked hard, played hard, and lived hard. But he fell harder. Driven out of every reputable agency in town for drinking all their whiskey and sleeping with all their wives, he used the remains of his fortune to found Hardacre's, the best (and only) advertising agency on the M25. Now he's so confident that his name alone will take him back to the top, he's happy to leave all the actual work to the creative department.

All four series of the Eastern bloc embassy sitcom starring Dinsdale Landen. Set in a British embassy somewhere in Russia as the Cold War draws to a close, this entertaining sitcom follows Her Majesty's Ambassador Mr Mackenzie as he navigates the idiosyncrasies of life behind the Iron Curtain. Together with his first secretary, William Frost, and personal assistant Helen Waterson, he manages matters ranging from dissidents to diplomatic dinners, all while maintaining his urbane, unflappable demeanour.

Meet the gang in these four classic BBC TV episodes! Enjoy the exploits of the Royal Artillery Concert Party, a motley troupe of military thespians seconded to India during the Second World War. In 'My Lovely Boy', When RSM Williams realises the love of his life is Parky's mum, he sets about recruiting him for the concert party. In 'The Supremo Show', a VIP visit calls for a very special show - but when Gloria sprains his ankle, the Sergeant Major must take his place.

Mention Milton Jones to most people and the first thing they think is 'Help!' So he's set out on a mission to help anyone, anywhere—whether they need it or not. Armed with a new motto, 'No problem too problemy', and accompanied by his faithful assistant Anton and landlady Pauline, he sets out to assist people in any way he can.

In Monte Guano, a ridiculously small and penniless principality in Renaissance Italy, Prince Ludovico II finds his rule constantly undermined by those around him: his shrewd wife, his official mistress and his three disappointing—if not outright humiliating—sons. As well as having to manage the ever-increasing tributes demanded by the Pope, Prince Ludovico must also contend with feeble conscripts in search of war booty, getting on the pilgrim map, fake currency, religious battles and worst of all, English tourists.

Bill and Faith are both divorcees, late in love but new to each other. As they battle to forge a relationship together, they discover that the course of true love doesn’t always run smoothly. In these 31 episodes, they move in together, plan a wedding and deal with the challenges of married life – all the while trying to balance the demands of Bill’s ex-wife, Liza, and her teenage children, Hannah and Joe.

With its wickedly funny mimicry and on-point parodies, Dead Ringers became an instant classic when it hit the airwaves in January 2000. In these four series, first broadcast between 2020 and 2023, the team give us their inimitable impersonations of the famous and infamous: from Donald Trump and Joe Biden to Liz Truss, Professor Chris Whitty and Holly Willoughby.

Four classic episodes from the original TV series: Arrival, Songs of Praise, Easter Special and The Christmas Lunch Incident. Welcome to Dibley, a perfect village full of some perfectly peculiar people - including Alice Tinker and her underactive brain, Owen Newitt and his overactive bowels, and Letitia Cropley and her orange cake with Branston pickle icing.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, these classic cult comedies sparked a critically-acclaimed BBC TV show that ran for two series between 2002 and 2003. Starring the much-missed Sean Lock, these tower block tales revolve around a sardonic misanthrope who, despite his best efforts, can't seem to keep the world at bay. Holed up in his flat in Elderberry House, he's constantly bothered by friends, neighbours and confused tourists - so he hides microphones all around the block to listen in to the other residents.

Stephanie Cole, Benedict Cumberbatch & Roger Allam star in the fourth series of the hit sitcom about the tiny charter airline for whom no job is too small, but many, many jobs are too difficult. By John Finnemore (The News Quiz, Mitchell & Webb).

Featuring the hilarious exploits of the bumbling bureaucrats of the General Assistance Department, the show starred Wilfrid Hyde-White and later Deryck Guyler as the hapless ‘Number One’, with Richard Murdoch as his hare-brained sidekick ‘Number Two’. Together, they muddled their way through Whitehall, creating chaos with their mix-ups, misunderstandings and mismanagement – to the consternation of their boss, the self-serving Permanent Under-Secretary Sir Gregory Pitkin (Roy Dotrice and Ronald Baddiley).

After the death of her GP husband, widow Sarah is battling to bring up her strong-willed 18-year-old daughter, Clare, hindered by her meddling mother, Eleanor. Living on the middle floor of the family home, with Clare downstairs and Eleanor upstairs, Sarah finds herself besieged from above and below as she tries to cope with the demands of both her mum and her daughter. Luckily, she finds solace at work, where her best friend and boss at Bygone Books, Russell, provides a sympathetic ear.

Expensive, expansive, fun-filled and frantic, cult classic The Million Pound Radio Show ran for 11 years between 1985 and 1992, and won the 1991 British Comedy Award for Best Radio Comedy. Included here are all five series and six Specials, featuring a feast of quick-fire gags, stinging satire, comic chat and snappy sketches.

John Fuller-Carp, the Machiavellian head of chambers at Forecourt Buildings, is determined to become a QC and will perform almost any moral contortion to achieve his goal. When left-wing Ruth Quirke, rumoured to be a High Court judge's daughter, applies to join his chambers, Fuller-Carp's imagination goes into overdrive and promotion seems inevitable. However, his attempts to project a 'New Labour' image cut no ice with Ruth, and the two are soon at each other's throats.

Series five & six of the BBC radio sitcom starring Harry H Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell, adapted from the much-loved TV series. Steptoe and Son ran for eight series on BBC TV and even spawned two feature films. Such was the series' popularity in the mid-1960s that the cast specially recorded several episodes for BBC radio. Here, collected together for the first time, are all episodes from the fifth and sixth radio series, scripted by Hancock's Half Hour creators Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

All four series of the hilarious historical sitcom set just before and during the American Revolution. Baltimore, 1770, and shopkeeper Samuel Oliphant has much to worry about. Storm clouds are gathering, business is bad and to make matters worse, he’s been forced to play host to two British soldiers. Hapless officer Captain Brimshaw is decent enough, but his fellow redcoat - the one-eyed, one-eared, one-armed and one-legged Sergeant McGurk - is a shameless rascal obsessed with money and sex.

TV’s first ecclesiastical comedy, All Gas and Gaiters was enjoyed by more than 10 million viewers on BBC One between 1966 and 1971. Written by husband-and-wife-team Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, it was so popular that a selection of scripts were revised and re-recorded for radio with the same star cast as the television series. Robertson Hare starred as the archdeacon of the fictional St Ogg’s Cathedral.

Stranded on prehistoric Earth, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect find escape in the form of a time-travelling sofa. But as eleven homicidal, bat-wielding robots proceed to blow up Lord’s Cricket Ground, it seems that Arthur is far from Home and Dry. In fact, he is not even Home and Vigorously Towelling Himself. Off. Soon he is on an explosive quest to save the Universe, equipped with only a rabbit bone, a worn dressing gown, and a spaceship which looks remarkably like an Italian bistro.