Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Dark Humour

Welcome to Hell—where nobody can ever quite catch the barman's eye. In this collection, which contains all seven series of Old Harry's Game, get ready for some wicked one-liners and scorching satire. Satan is fed up after a millennia in charge of Hell, especially given the prospect of an eternity still running the damned place. Although he does enjoy playing pranks on the world of the living and devising wry torments for the souls in his keeping, he often wistfully recalls his past as an archangel.

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.

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.

In Jim the Great, Jimmy Edwards stars as the titular medieval chieftain who has more on his plate than whatever the huntsman's brought in. From using the Venerable Bede to research the King's (perhaps questionable) ancestry and attempting to build himself an empire as cheaply as possible, to settling a debt with a Viking by way of a duel and accidentally losing his Kingdom before becoming a grumpy galley slave rowing to Rome, King Jim's adventures are history as you've never heard it before.

All 10 episodes of the dark, surreal comedy featuring Matt Berry's twisted regression therapist. Unorthodox, unpredictable and verging on the unprofessional, Dr Berry is a deeply disturbing hypnotherapist. His experimental regressive technique is both strange and terrifying and involves taking unsuspecting clients on unsettling journeys through their subconscious.

Knut Ångström is a brooding, alcoholic, maverick Swedish detective from the mean streets of Oslo. Following the deaths of his beloved wife Christa and cheeky duck Elvin, he is posted to the Njalsland peninsula, where he becomes embroiled in a labyrinthine mystery which bears an eerie similarity to the Askeladden killings - a case from his distant past.

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).

Hugh Laurie, Rory Bremner and Morwenna Banks star in this six-part comedy series that sends up both politics and traditional sitcom conventions.

Not long after their mother's death, sisters Maureen and Lesley are packing up their family home. It's a painful duty, with Maureen trying to control the worst of Lesley's projectile lamenting. Then a strange man knocks at the door and introduces himself as David Johnson, a friend of Maureen's neighbour. He'd like to view the house if they are thinking of selling - which Maureen definitely is.

One of the 21st century's most celebrated authors, Hilary Mantel won the Booker Prize twice: for 2009's Wolf Hall, the first in her phenomenally successful Thomas Cromwell trilogy, and its 2012 sequel Bring Up the Bodies. The third novel in the series, 2020's The Mirror and the Light, won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. This collection includes three of her best works of contemporary fiction, ranging from the Gothic to the blackly comic.

When Bullet Head, Fingers and the other B Block cons meet Prisoners' Aid society members Charles Forbes and George Evans, trouble ensues. Soon, they are embroiled in daring escapades involving an upmarket department store, the Tower of London and the Bank of England.

Viktor Alekseyevich Zolotaryov is an aspiring writer in Ukraine, with only his pet king penguin, Misha, for company. After Viktor gets a job writing obituaries for a local newspaper, he soon finds that his articles are being used as a hit list by some unknown organisation. Feeling as lost and unhappy as his penguin, Viktor’s life takes a complicated turn when he takes in Sonya, the young daughter of an old friend, and hires Nina to be her nanny. Can Viktor protect everyone and keep himself (and his penguin) alive, or is he destined to become the subject of the paper’s latest obituary?

Dave is one of Irwell Cars' best drivers, although his life doesn't always reflect that. A run-down office with an uncertain future, Irwell Cars isn't offering Dave much—except the chance to pine after Lind, the long-suffering radio operator and his secret crush, and panic over what will become of him if the firm closes. Add in a crucial darts match, a 'Brief Encounter' themed date night, some former school bullies and a rather difficult omelette, and Dave is beginning to feel like even his pick ups are bringing him down...

In series 1 and 2, as his mum and wife, Mary, sit round his bedside and wonder how to wake him up, Ben’s mind is busy elsewhere. In his imagination, he lives with his two-year-old daughter, Blitz (now miraculously grown up), encounters celebrities such as Sue Lawley, Elvis Presley and Tom Paulin, relives memories from his past and gets into a compromising situation with a fellow inmate at a strangely familiar Torquay hotel. Meanwhile, an imaginary sitcom written by him, about coma patients in a hospital, plays in the background.

Eight dark comic dramas narrated by Alexei Sayle and adapted from his original short stories. Dramatised from Alexei Sayle's hilarious, highly acclaimed fiction, these satirical, surreal and surprising tales feature some of the UK's foremost comic actors, and are introduced by the award-winning comedian himself.

Explore the green and nether regions of the South West with ‘Bob Bradman’s Bed & Breakfast’; join Quentin Montreal for ‘New Movements’, as he looks into such disturbing trends as the suffragette diet, fox hunting in Maida Vale and blind motor racing; and help yourself to a heaped spoonful of Sugar Cane, the sultry Detective Sergeant whose hand is firmly wrapped around the throbbing pulse of crime.

Thermonuclear war erupts in Kerry Shale's award-winning 1993 dramatisation of the classic apocalyptic black comedy. Dr Strangelove came to prominence in the 1964 film, directed by Stanley Kubrick. Based on the novel Red Alert by Peter George, it famously starred Peter Sellers in multiple roles. As well as scripting the dramatisation, Kerry Shale also takes multiple roles: Dr Strangelove, Lieutenant 'Sweets' Kivel, Lieutenant Barney Goldberg, Lieutenant Lothar Zogg, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, General Jack D. Ripper and President Merkin Muffley.

All six episodes of the gloriously gritty comedy crime drama. Taggart meets A Touch of Cloth in this parody police procedural featuring DI Bob Boxer and his sidekick DC Shona Doberman. They're an unlikely couple of cops - he's grizzled, old-school and wears a cardigan; she's young, instinctive and wields a Blackberry. But together they tackle cases so tough, they'd make Frost flinch and Rebus run away....

Sir Lenny Henry has had a long and successful career as a comedian, impressionist, actor and presenter. Having starred in several plays in the West End and on radio, he was inspired to complete an MA in screenwriting and in 2011 penned his first radio drama, Corrinne Come Back and Gone, which opens this collection. He continued his writing career with three more Radio 4 plays and nine episodes of his comic monologue series Lenny Henry’s Rogues Gallery. Collected here for the first time, listen to these poignant and humorous original dramas.

The late Gregory Patterson was a stalwart of the Roman Catholic Parishioners. With his passing, how will Mrs Patterson cope with her headstrong daughter, Barbara? And can young Robert step into his father’s shoes and face up to new responsibilities? The man with the answers would appear to be football-crazy priest Father Benedict who tries to help the grief stricken family as best he can…