Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Entertainment & Performing Arts

In interviews ranging from 1975 to 1990, Margaret Thatcher talks about being a woman in politics, managing men and women, her response to the media attacks she received in the early days of her career and the importance of wearing the right clothes. She also recalls her memories of home, including working in her father's grocery shop, the radio and TV programmes she enjoyed (including The Two Ronnies) and following sports like cricket and tennis.

Since winning the Perrier Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, Dominic Holland has gone on to become one of the UK’s best loved comedians. He’s worked with Armando Iannucci, Rob Brydon and supported Eddie Izzard on tour. He is also the father of Tom Holland (best known for starring in the blockbuster Spider-man movies) and made the brilliant 2017 Dominic Holland Eclipsed Edinburgh Fringe show out of the experience of being a superhero’s dad.

Like a treasured piece of furniture, Just a Minute has graced the living rooms and kitchens of radio listeners for more than 50 years. Comfortable, relaxing and easy to sink into, it has long been the seat of sparkling comedy, infectious laughter and intelligent humour. We invite you once again to enjoy the fine patina of another top-drawer collection of classic episodes.

Dr Helen Ash is coming to terms with the fact she has just nine months to live, when she's emailed a video of a boat mysteriously sinking in stormy seas. And the email is from her dead father. As she and Freddy try to find out whether the sunken ship really exists, they realise that they are being followed. And disaster awaits.

Julian Rhind-Tutt reads Sapper's thrilling adventures of private detective Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond, as heard on BBC Radio. In these six episodes, the demobbed officer offers his services to any client offering adventure. This leads him into danger and dashing escapades, as he finds himself grappling a gorilla, trying to save the realm from dreadful peril, protecting a Duchess's pearls and battling to foil the evil Peterson, who is planning to overthrow the Government.

Sinéad Cusack, Anna Massey, Patricia Routledge, Andrew Sachs and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies star in this 1974 BBC Radio full-cast production of Chekhov’s classic play.Madame Ranyevskaya and her daughter Anya have returned home from Paris to discover that their family estate - which includes their beloved cherry orchard - has to be sold to cover the family’s debts.

In this brand new series, Mark Watson reignites his quest to improve the world. He is nimbly assisted by Tim Key and Tom Basden, with the additional help of the listening audience. Mark asks the big questions that are crucial to our understanding of ourselves and society, and in a dynamic and thought-provoking new format, he opens the floor to the live audience and asks them to jump into the conversation via tweets and messages, to work out how we can all make the world a better place.

On the 31st of October 2019, Britain finally didn't quite yet leave the EU. To celebrate this, Matt Lucas and David Walliams returned for a special episode of their much-loved sketch show Little Britain, the hit comedy that moved from radio to TV in 2003, running for three series, and went on to win back-to-back BAFTA awards for best comedy programme. News of the show was kept secret right up to the moment Matt & David walked out on stage to a tremendous roar.

Alistair Cooke looks back on a rich and varied life, one which has taken him across the ocean but never far away from the BBC.

David Hockney has been described as Britain's 'greatest living artist'. In this fascinating collection of archive interviews, we hear - in his own words - about his paintings, his schooldays and the attitudes he had while growing up. Hockney discusses the influence that his family had on him, as well as his passion for drawing and his work rate. He also touches on the importance of different types of medium, the different periods in his life - and his future.

A three-part thriller by John Dryden. In Part 1, 'The Present', Dr Jan Roldano, microbiologist and WHO advisor on infectious diseases, arrives in Bangkok to give a keynote lecture at a medical conference. But when a virulent strain of bird flu emerges, he finds himself trapped in Thailand.

Laura Solon won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005 with her sensational debut show. She now returns to Radio 4 with a new series of her bittersweet comedy show packed with characters, monologues and sketches from this extraordinary writer and performer. There will be talking, not talking, some stories, and a lion made out of china. Aided by Rosie Cavaliero, Ben Moor and Ben Willbond, Laura Solon is a remarkable talent with an astonishing eye for detail and ear for voice.

Ken Dodd and a supporting cast give us Ken's unique look behind the scenes of the show at his fictional theatre, the Palace of Laughter. Enjoy more hilarity from the Squire of Notty Ash in these four classic radio shows, recorded in 1986 and 1987 at the Wigan Little Theatre, the Southport Little Theatre, Crewe's Lyceum Theatre, and the Garrick Theatre, Stockport, respectively.

Protagonist Kris Kelvin arrives at a scientific research station hovering above the surface of Solaris where research has been ongoing for years on the strange ocean life form. When Kris and his colleagues become more aggressive in trying to force contact with Solaris, the ocean's response is to experiment with the researchers' minds by confronting them with their most painful and repressed thoughts and memories through the materialization of complex human constructs.

Bergerac-obsessed Will Smith has one guiding force in his life - an audiobook of John Nettles reading the ancient Chinese text of the Tao. He has always used this audio to illuminate problems in his life, to find a way through when the road seems blocked. Now, Will brings the Tao of Bergerac to his audience, as each week he navigates the minefield of love, justice, individuality, and machismo with the help of some special guests from his favourite TV show.

From Tony Blair and David Frost to Aziraphale and Hamlet, Michael Sheen has taken on a host of iconic roles, inhabiting each one with complete conviction. But – whether he’s transforming himself into real figures or bringing fictional ones to life – how does he go about immersing himself in his characters? The answer lies in an obscure Russian theatre technique that has evolved to become a central plank of modern-day acting training.

Brian Johnston covered cricket for BBC Radio and Television, at home and abroad, beginning in 1946. After Eton, Oxford, and The Guards, he joined the BBC only by chance. In this reading from his book, he covers his career and family life from the start.

Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett star in highlights from their BBC TV series. Includes such sketches as Mispronunciation; Night, Night; Cheers; Cricket Commentators; Train of Events; and, not forgetting, the News according to The Two Ronnies. There’s also All in a Day's Wonk; Sex Equality; Pam Ayres; The Castaway; and You’re Welcome, Milord. Taken from the TV series The Two Ronnies, first transmitted June to August 1976.

Patrick Troughton battles to save mankind in this classic six-part "lost" television adventure, with linking narration by Frazer Hines. The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria to the south coast of present-day Earth. Something nasty is lurking in the gas pipelines of the North Sea, and before long the nearby refinery is under attack. Landing on a foam-covered beach, the travellers are at first mistaken for saboteurs.

A leading light of British stage and screen from the 1950s onwards, Ian Carmichael made a career out of playing the amiable, bumbling nincompoop in films such as Private's Progress and I'm All Right Jack, and TV shows including Bachelor Father and The World of Wooster. This dithering persona was expanded and amplified in his first radio comedy, Play It Cool. Written in 1964 by Beyond Our Ken's Eric Merriman, it sees him joined by Carry On's Joan Sims and radio veteran Hugh Paddick (Beyond Our Ken, Round the Horne) for a series that mixes music and comedy to provide a slice of 1960s cool.