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

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.

Barney and Cathy. Evan and Fiona. David and Alice. Three couples who have beaten the odds and stayed married - but is that simply because they haven’t got around to divorcing yet? In these three series, we follow this group of friends throughout weekends away and tricky date nights, weddings and funerals, Christmas celebrations and counselling sessions - all of which give them plenty of opportunity for flirting, fighting, competitiveness and reprehensible behaviour. We listen in to their innermost thoughts, feelings and motivations as they break the fourth wall.

Meet Dr Anthony Webster and Dr Ruth Anderson, two pathologists attempting to live normal lives in an atmosphere of death, decay and seriously unpleasant smells. Anthony loves his chosen profession, finding every cadaver exciting and surprising: 'they're like Kinder eggs that have died'. Ruth, however, longs for a juicy murder mystery, instead of one routine autopsy after another.

Childless couple Robin and Wendy have developed an obsession with Mayfield - the model village they've built in their garage. However, running a model village is slightly more complicated than they expected, especially as they live next-door to Derek, a former superstar salesman who is struggling with the erratic side effects of mental health medication, and Maureen, who is always getting involved in get-rich-quick schemes.

The complete collection of the hilarious show-within-a-show about two daytime TV presenters. Sit back, dip your biscuit in your tea, and relax...because Mike and Sue are here! In each episode of this mid-morning spoof, the sofa-bound host couple Mike and Sue and their live studio audience tackle various topics of the day - no matter how clumsily.

This is the second series of one-off comedies written by the genius behind the smash-hit radio sitcom Cabin Pressure - John Finnemore. The first series won the coveted Writers Guild of Great Britain award for Best Comedy. Each show is a comedy perfumed by just two actors - including (across the series) famous household names such as Martin Clunes ( Doc Martin), Julia McKenzie ( Fresh Fields) and the inimitable voice of Carolyn in Cabin Pressure, Stephanie Cole.

Miranda is an unconventional woman. She’s six feet tall, self-conscious and posh. And is frequently mistaken for a man. She’s also invested her inheritance in a joke shop that she runs with her friend Stevie while trying to deal with her outrageously embarrassing mother. Though surrounded by chocolate willies, Miranda is determined to suss out what it takes to be a girly girl and to not look a complete idiot every time she meets the gorgeous Gary.

Ever since he fell off the stage live on Question Time, Labour MP Duncan Stonebridge has been stuck in political limbo. Struggling with a tiny majority and a career that's going nowhere, he's caught between the impossible demands of his constituents and the dictates of Westminster—and constantly afflicted by the bane of all politicians: events. Whether he's getting wound up about a wind farm, saving his party agent from a rabid Russian oligarch, fending off accusations or losing a laptop full of reports, life never runs smoothly for the beleaguered backbencher.

Parsley Sidings ran for two highly successful series from 1971-1973 and was the only radio sitcom (other than Dad’s Army) to star the much-loved Arthur Lowe. As Horace Hepplewhite, station master of a sleepy railway station, he spends his time dealing with small crises and supervising his errant staff - including his son, ticket clerk Bert; blonde bombshell Gloria the station announcer; crafty Cockney porter Percy; and ancient signalman Bradshaw - not to mention his nemesis, Phineas Perkins, who manages the station one stop down the line.

Meet the hapless management consultants of Unthinkable Solutions - idealistic team leader Ryan, sociopathic Sophie and hippy-dippy Daisy. Enthusiastic and enterprising, they’re strong on jargon (and always ready to ‘imaginate, reincentivise and skin the leopard’), but short on practical ideas - unfortunately for the unsuspecting corporations that come to them for help.

Miles Jupp stars as fussy food writer Damien Trench in the complete four series of this much-loved BBC Radio 4 sitcom. Well-known cookery writer Damien Trench is famous for his book A Year in the Kitchen, a diary of everything he cooked and ate over the course of 12 months. Now, for the follow-up volume, In and Out of the Kitchen, Damien undertakes to open up the doors 'not only to my kitchen, but also to my life'. But is Damien’s life as idyllic as his listeners might suppose?

When Merv and Pam got divorced, that should have been the end of their relationship. But here they are, trying to turn a veggie-and-vodka bistro in a cyber café, while Merv is still living in Pam's front garden in a small caravan. Merv's dreams of being a rock star failed a long time ago, so the Cyber Pass is now his only hope.

Hamish and Dougal, two elderly Scotsmen played by Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden, have for many years been a popular feature of the hit BBC Radio 4 comedy show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Now they've got their own series, with Mrs Naughtie (Alison Steadman) and a local Laird (Jeremy Hardy), regularly keeping the duo busy.

Based entirely on audience suggestions, this hysterically funny historical drama tells the thrilling extended story of an aristocratic family at war with itself. From ancient Rome to 1920s Hollywood, we follow the Mastersons’ turbulent history across the centuries as their fortunes wax and wane and their fates hang on objects as diverse and unlikely as a tumble dryer, a rabbit’s foot and a pair of Siamese twins.

Between 1947 and 1957, Ealing Studios produced a series of immensely popular, darkly funny film comedies that made the West London borough famous throughout the world. Almost 50 years later, four of these timeless films were recreated for BBC Radio 4, and are now collected together for the first time.

Welcome to Spent, an isolated and rather odd town somewhere in the North. Its singular inhabitants lead blackly comic lives, from Dr Chinnery, the lethally incompetent vet and Pauline, the monstrous Restart Officer at the Job Centre, to the hideously exacting Dentons who impose their disturbing habits and pet toads upon their visiting nephew Ben.

What happens when a Prime Minister suddenly stops being Prime Minister? That's the question facing Henry Tobin—Britain's least popular, shortest-serving post-war PM, who's forced into retirement 30 years early after a bruising election defeat. But he's not going to let failure crush his spirits. Instead, he plans to pick himself up, repair his battered reputation and make his name in some other field—though he's not quite sure what that will be.

Six more episodes of BBC Radio 4's multi-award-winning sketch show, written by and starring John Finnemore. John Finnemore, writer and star of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore's Double Acts, returns for a seventh series of his hugely acclaimed Souvenir Programme, which won him Radio Broadcaster of the Year at the 2016 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. Expect sketches! Expect songs! They're what made up the previous series, so it seems a pretty safe bet that that's what will be in this series as well.

Here is a new audio edition of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of Anthony Trollope's gently satirical tales of provincial life, available together in one download. Nearly 20 hours of ironic, witty, and wonderfully written drama is contained in this audiobook. The cast includes Anna Massey, Alex Jennings, David Haig, Rosemary Leach, Kenneth Cranham, Emma Fielding, and Brenda Blethyn.

Welcome to Flamford, the town sanity forgot. Edgy, sharp-tongued City burn-out Andy Chambers has been advised, for the sake of his health, to take a break from his stressful London lifestyle and get some rest. So he goes to stay with his estranged uncle, Jeff Whitaker, at his seaside home in Flamford - but, as he soon discovers, living with his relative is far from relaxing.