Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in All Categories

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.

The complete BBC Radio adaptations of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency featuring Botswana's only female private detective agency, run by the irrepressible Precious Ramotswe. Based on the hugely popular novels and brought to life with music and full casts, these evocative productions return us to Botswana, where Precious has more mysteries to solve.

Writer, broadcaster and recovering comedian Natalie Haynes mixes comedy and conversation to bring the ancient world entertainingly up to date in these four radio series. Each episode sees her profiling a key figure from ancient Greece and Rome, and, aided by her special guests, creating a stand-up show around them.

M. R. James was the master of the uncanny. His classic supernatural stories have haunted readers and listeners for over a century and been adapted countless times for radio, TV and film. This collection features dramatisations of 12 of his most popular stories: The Mezzotint, Casting the Runes, The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, A Warning to the Curious, Rats, Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come To You, My Lad, The Tractate Middoth, Lost Hearts, The Rose Garden, Number 13, Martin’s Close and Count Magnus.

A Murder of Quality, set in the early 1960s, sees George Smiley investigating a murder in a public school. When the wife of one of the masters is found bludgeoned to death, Smiley, out of loyalty to an old friend, agrees to look into the case. But his investigation raises a multitude of questions. Who could have hated Stella Rode enough to kill her? Why was her dog put down shortly before the murder? And what did Mad Janie see on that fatal night?

Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker star as the Doctor in these seven narrated full-cast TV soundtracks of classic Doctor Who TV serials. The stories are 'The Tomb of the Cybermen' (narrated by Frazer Hines); 'Doctor Who and the Silurians' (narrated by Caroline John); 'The Sea Devils' (narrated by Katy Manning); 'The Curse of Peladon' (narrated by Katy Manning); 'The Monster of Peladon' (narrated by Elisabeth Sladen); 'The Pirate Planet' (narrated by John Leeson); and 'Destiny of the Daleks' (narrated by Lalla Ward).

Inspired by Henry Cecil's 1955 comic novel of the same name, Brothers in Law first appeared on BBC One in 1962, providing Richard Briers with his first starring role on television as idealistic young barrister Roger Thursby. Adapted by Richard Waring from TV scripts by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, it took to the airwaves in 1970, running for three years until 1972. As the series opens, the rookie lawyer is in his first year at chambers, and struggling to learn the ropes.

Miss Marple is told that her old friend, Carrie, is in danger and she goes to stay with her at Stoneygates, a home for maladjusted adolescents. While she is there, tragedy strikes as Carrie's step-son, Christian Gulbrandsen, is shot dead. There are at least seven suspects and two more murders follow. But the man with the obvious motive has a cast-iron alibi, as he could hardly be in two places at once - or could he? June Whitfield once again stars as the indomitable amateur detective.

Tom Baker stars as the Fourth Doctor in 15 full-cast audio dramas written by Paul Magrs. Also included in this edition are a previously unheard interview with Tom Baker, outtakes from the original studio sessions, promotional trailers and a PDF booklet featuring sleeve notes by writer Paul Magrs.

A unique collection of eight Alan Bennett stories, read by the author. Alan Bennett is one of Britain's best-loved authors and an acclaimed storyteller. This exclusive compilation includes eight of his best tales, collected together for the first time. Here is his celebrated, iconic memoir 'The Lady in the Van'; as well as two fascinating autobiographical accounts of his family and childhood.

Lady Tresselian invites several guests to stay at her seaside house at Gull’s Point. Against her better judgment she has allowed her late husband’s ward, handsome tennis ace Neville Strange, and his wife Kay to come at the same time as Neville’s ex-wife Audrey. Other guests include Mary, Lady Tresselian’s companion; Ted, Kay’s ever-present friend; Thomas, a family friend who has just returned from spending the war in Africa and Lady Tresselian’s old friend Lord Justice Treves.

The collected BBC radio adaptations of George Eliot’s pioneering Victorian novels, known for their realism and psychological insight. Includes Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda.

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.

As highly prized as a Ming vase or a Regency sideboard, this fine collection of 14 vintage episodes of BBC Radio 4’s long-running panel show - chaired by Barry Took, Simon Hoggart, Bill Tidy and Sandi Toksvig - is at last available for all to hear. Those in the know will discern a clear patina of sensible, silly and salacious news items from Britain, America and all around the world.

The Martin Beck books are widely acknowledged as some of the most influential detective novels ever written. Written by Swedish husband and wife team Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö between 1965 and 1975, the 10-book series set a gold standard for all subsequent Scandinavian crime fiction. Long before Kurt Wallander or Harry Hole, Beck was the original flawed policeman, working with a motley collection of colleagues to uncover the cruelty and injustice lurking beneath the surface of Sweden's liberal society.

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.

Here are all six episodes of the BBC Radio 4 sitcom written by and starring Ben Willbond and Justin Edwards about two incompetent science teachers who work at a college that specialises in drama, and whose world is turned upside down by the arrival of a new boss.

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.