Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Satire

Award-winning comedian Alan Davies stars in his own BBC Radio sitcom. Meet Alan. He's a struggling actor trying to cope with life in the 90s - the friends, the work, the romance... Meet the friends: Murray is a local journalist, who's given a crash course in tabloid sensationalism when the entire staff comes down with Peruvian flu. Kate is a primary school art teacher, who tussles daily with the obnoxious seven-year-old Tamara and tries to save time by getting the children to write their own reports.

Follow the uproarious antics of the Edwardian Fosdyke family as they work their way out of the mining pits of Lancashire to become rulers of a global tripe empire. An empire that the villainous Roger Ditchely will stop at nothing to try and bring down... A classic tale of struggle, power, personalities, and offal. Based on Bill Tidy's hugely popular Daily Mirror cartoon strip, this full-cast production is a laugh-out-loud parody of John Galsworthy's classic, 'The Forsyte Saga'.

Frustrated copy man Ken Handley cannot help but conceive of the world in advert form. Over three series witness Ken coping with a drunken boss, straight-laced colleagues and an overactive mind, as we follow his exploits and moral dilemmas in this advertising satire. Martin Jarvis stars as Ken, alongside a cast that includes Miriam Margolyes, Imelda Staunton, Christopher Godwin and Joss Ackland.

A deliciously black satirical comedy about the dinner party from hell. The fastidious host, Paige, decides to throw a dinner party in honour of her husband, Lars, who is celebrating the success of his pop psychology book, Beyond Belief. She carefully plans a surprise menu that will mark the occasion and anxiously checks with the waiter she has employed to make sure that everything is perfectly prepared. Her lucky guests include a postfeminist vegetarian artist, a distinguished microbiologist, a TV journalist and an uninvited guest who ends up staying for dinner.

Paperback Hell takes a wry look at well-known genres riding high in the publishing charts and mercilessly lampoons them to hilarious effect. Featuring choice chapters culled from titles that bear a striking resemblance to something you've read before, it's the book show that seems determined to destroy the good name of literature.

How would you start the first week of the rest of your life? When housemates Donna, Johnny, Patrick and Abigail wake up on Saturday morning they are surprised to discover they are the last four people left of Earth. It might be the end of the world, but that won't stop them from enjoying themselves. In this witty comedy drama, follow the four friends as they try to keep calm and carry on doing what they usually do.

Dubbed 'the father of the English novel' by Sir Walter Scott, Henry Fielding is well known for his ribald humour and ironic, satirical fiction. Collected here are four of his most famous works, including his comic masterpiece Tom Jones, as well as a fascinating documentary exploring the foundling motif in fiction.

This tale charts the exploits during the First World War of ‘European Forrest Gump’ Svejk, in his progress through the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army. Good-natured and garrulous, Svejk becomes the Austrian army’s most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of the First World War - although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it.

This is a BBC Radio adaptation of J. M. Barrie's classic satire about the changing fortunes of Crichton, the perfect butler. Liberal aristocrat Lord Loam favours a return to nature, with masters and servants living together as equals, but Crichton is the perfect butler and the perfect snob who adores the intricacies of the class system. He cannot help but be horrified by his master's opinions, and it will take a sea change to alter them.

The hilarious BBC Radio comedy show where every sketch has been written by the public. The complete series of the ground-breaking comedy series, which called for submissions from members of the public. With over 12,000 sketches sent in from 1,500 different people, The Show What You Wrote spans such diverse comedy topics as Crime & Thriller, Kitchen Sink, Body & Soul, and "Geography", and features sketches about heaven's unexpectedly strict dress code, the Shopping Forecast, the grammar police, and some very literal highwaymen.

Anglo-Irish author Oliver Goldsmith was one of the most accomplished writers of the 18th century. A novelist, playwright, poet and essayist, he came to fame with his novel The Vicar of Wakefield and comic play She Stoops to Conquer. Both those classics are included here, with star casts including Julia McKenzie, Amanda Root, Peter Jeffrey and Sunny Ormonde.