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

Pierce Egan's renowned 19th-century comic novel adapted by Dan Tetsell is a rollicking real tour of the sprawling post-Regency metropolis in the years before the Victorians turned up and made everything boring.

In these ten witty, dark and disturbing episodes some of Britain’s best comedians come together to perform simultaneously hilarious and unsettling stories that will have you gripped. Sticky situations on ski slopes, placating an unruly ghost, a boy stuck at the bottom of well and an unusual adventure weekend with romantic overtones - are just some of the scenarios from comedy writers Mark Maier and Daniel Maier (a long term collaborator of Charlie Brooker and Harry Hill).

From a problematic meeting with an alien princess to a horde of space tourists on a holiday from hell, life on the cruiser is never less than eventful. Indecisive Captain Taylor is faced with disaster when another of the fleet’s spaceships, The Indestructible III, suddenly explodes; relentlessly nice Communications Officer Karen embarks on a forbidden romance with ship’s engineer Stuart; and medical scientist Clive 55 causes chaos when he is arrested for murdering his 136 clones, and experiments with dark matter to catastrophic effect.

Jack & Millie is the brainchild of Jeremy Front who, with his sister Rebecca Front had been improvising these two characters for years - and now they've been brought to life in a new show. The second series of this new comedy show is written by Jeremy Front (writer of the Charles Paris mysteries for Radio 4) and stars Jeremy Front and Rebecca Front as Jack & Millie Lemman - an older couple who are fully engaged with contemporary life whilst being at war with the absurdities of the modern world....

Simon McGrath is a nice chap - he donates blood, he recycles, he cares about the world. He just happens to work as an arms dealer - or a 'defence and security equipment system solutions broker', as he prefers to call it. It wasn’t planned, and what he really wants is to pursue is his career in electronic music, but until that takes off he’ll stay where he is. After all, he has to pay his mortgage like everyone else....

This is a compilation of readings from the book of the same name by the co-creator of the comedy series, Knowing Me, Knowing You. Iannucci proffers his inaccurate insights into science, the arts, and such topics as the first fist-fight on the moon, an official history of noises, the war between savoury eaters and the sweet-toothed peoples, and the existence of nonsense. Facts and Fancies is read by Armando Iannucci.

The Godfather of alternative comedy, Alexei Sayle, mixes memoir and philosophy from behind the counter of his imaginary sandwich bar, serving up wit, wisdom and illusory baguettes as he muses on a multitude of topics. In these 12 shows, he explores his impulse to pretend and his love of sandwiches, discusses his childhood in a communist household and his physical attraction to Boris Johnson, explains why he will never go on Strictly Come Dancing and draws a striking comparison between capitalism and all-you-can-eat buffets.

In this sitcom, Harry Hill stars as the governor of Britain’s remotest prison. In Series 1, he has to contend with the prison inspectors, mysteriously malfunctioning CCTV cameras, escaping prisoners and even the prison being attacked by a pair of mating whales. In Series 2, he and the team pitch a new invention to Dragon’s Den, he tries to get his stomach around a food shortage and a self-destruct button is found in the prison.

Raunchy, risqué and rebellious, early Restoration comedies were a breath of fresh air for 17th century theatregoers. With Charles II restored to the throne in 1660, Oliver Cromwell's ban on stage performances was rescinded, and for the first time, women were invited to tread the boards as actresses. Playwrights developed a new style of social comedy, packed with amorous escapades, bawdy humour, wicked wit and sexual innuendo. This scintillating anthology showcases six leading lights of early Restoration drama.

Aspiring actor Robert is always on the look out for work, and isn’t too fussy about what he takes. Chauffeur, prison performer, children’s TV, part-time teacher - he’ll take it all, and one day he’ll be famous. Maybe the next job will be his big breaK. From the writer behind The Vicar of Dibley, this lively comedy stars John Gordon Sinclair, Caroline Quentin, Gary Waldhorn and Gina McKee.

All three series of the BBC Radio 4 comedy drama about the collision between the old and the new in the Jewish community of Hillfield. Abraham Fine lives a settled, comfortable life as Rabbi of Hillfield’s Orthodox synagogue. But his world is turned upside down when a new Reform synagogue opens, led by a female Rabbi, Su Jacobs. Young, single, trendy and full of new ideas, she soon sets about modernisation - much to Rabbi Fine’s consternation.

Over 14 episodes, we eavesdrop behind the scenes and in front of the camera, as the hapless team endeavour to capture the zeitgeist and stay ahead of the cultural curve. From exposing heavy metal band Tanks n’ Daisies as closet anoraks, to interviewing sizzling Animalistic Impulse star Karen Stone and schmoozing Hollywood royalty at the Cannes Film Festival, they’ll do anything to boost the show’s ratings – and their own profiles. But whether they’re tangling with a country-and-western legend, delving into lottery corruption or facing an alien incursion, things rarely go according to plan...

Irene Bruce spends her days pulling pints in Millport, the only town on the Isle of Cumbrae, a few miles off the west coast of Scotland. Frustrated and going nowhere fast, she yearns to escape to the mainland for a better life - or at least a bit of fun. Just over the water, there are clubs, cinemas and discos, so why is she stuck at home with tea, Scrabble and her boring sister Moira?

August in Edinburgh, and thousands of performers of all stripes have flocked to the Fringe Festival. Among them is Charles Paris filling in at the last minute after a student actress breaks a leg and has to drop out. Showcasing an earnest one-man show in a sea of stand-up comics is a bit of a gamble, but at least he's acting, and with a Charles Paris production, what could possibly go wrong?

Maggie and John had a passionate but disastrous affair in their younger days, but it didn't last. Now in their late 60s, a surprise encounter gives them another chance to take up where they left off. Will they manage to find the best in each other and finally get together? Or will old wounds and an awareness of their ageing bodies deter them? Will the treadmill created by the high-cost, high-pressure 21st century, and their endless other commitments and interruptions large and small, overwhelm them? Or will they take the final risk?

For fifteen years between 1962 and 1977, The Men from the Ministry kept audiences laughing over the course of 13 series, plus a fourteenth series recorded for overseas in 1980. This third volume features the complete Series 8 and 9, eleven episodes from Series 10 and the 1971 special ‘Gone to Pot’. We pay another visit to the General Assistance Department, where eager executives Deryck Lennox-Brown and Richard Lamb (‘Number One’ and ‘Number Two’) are flummoxed once more by the challenges that come their way.

The master turns sleuth and spy in this quintet of radio dramas. Actor, playwright, songwriter, director, author and star - as far as we know, Noël Coward never added ‘detective’ or ‘undercover agent’ to his astonishing achievements. But could the intriguing gaps in his memoirs be hiding a thrilling secret life?

When Squire Fenton Babblewick inherits his uncle's Yorkshire estate, it's the perfect opportunity to realise his utopian dreams. He attempts to become a member of parliament, reform beetroots, win the love of lovely Lucinda, be a musical composer genius and buy a workhouse to turn it into a school. His ever present manservant - August Snipe, the true brains - watches in dismay as his master makes mistake after mistake. A sit-com set in the 18th century.

Enter the Carnival of Monsters, a bizarre and hilarious world of sketches, stories and characters, presented by the sinister Ringmaster. Meet such monstrous yet strangely familiar oddities as: Thwor - the mighty (but Leeds-based) god of Thwunder; Len Parker - Nottingham-born martial arts and transformers enthusiast; Anna Mann - outrageous star of such forgotten silver screen hits such as Rogue Baker, Who's for Turkish Delight and A Bowl for My Bottom; and many more.

Are You Being Served? was a comedy juggernaut, running for 10 series between 1973 and 1985 and often attracting audiences of over 20 million. A family favourite, it was a fun-packed mix of double entendres, slapstick and larger-than-life characters – including cat-loving Mrs Slocombe and camp menswear assistant Mr Humphries, with his famous catchphrase, ‘I’m free’!