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Sir Terry Pratchett was a much-loved writer who gained international fame for his Discworld fantasy series. In this recording we hear—in his own words—about science-fantasy and comedy writing. He discusses his fans and followers, how he enjoys writing and the importance of the Discworld characters. We hear his thoughts on fame and isolation, his attitude to money and about his reaction to diagnosis with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Alan Bennett is one of the country's most celebrated and best-loved authors. This unmissable collection of diaries and memoirs brings together for the first time Telling Tales, Diaries: 1980-1990, the autobiographical section of Untold Stories, which covers the period 1997-2004, and Keeping On Keeping On: The Diaries 2005-2014. With wit, wisdom, sharp social commentary and perceptive impressions, Alan Bennett's memoirs and diaries are a joy to discover, and a delight to hear again.

Between 1975 and 1978, when they were at the peak of their popularity on television, Morecambe and Wise also starred in their own radio series, with each episode scripted by the one and only Eddie Braben. This feast of gags, sketches and song and dance numbers - plus of course Ernie’s ‘plays what I wrote’ - features a host of special guests including Ann Hamilton, Anita Harris, Gayle Hunnicutt, Richard Caldicot, Percy Edwards, Nicola Pagett, Brian Wilde, Des O'Connor, Vince Hill, Penelope Keith and The Nolan Sisters.

Alfie Moore spent 18 years on the Humberside police force before turning to stand-up comedy. In each episode of this live stand-up show, he takes his audience through a scenario based on a real-life case and tasks them with deciding how they would have acted in the circumstances. Along the way Alfie spills the beans on what it's really like to be one of Britain's finest, tells us some great anecdotes about law breakers and makers that he's come across and gets his audience to divulge secrets about their own, sometimes less than strictly law-abiding lives.

In each episode of this BBC Radio 4 series Mark Steel visits a UK town and researches its history, heritage and culture, after which he performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents. Mark's destinations in Series 1 & 2 are Skipton; Boston; Lewes; Walsall; Merthyr Tydfil; Portland; Dartford; Wilmslow; Dumfries; Penzance; Gateshead and Kirkwall. Duration: 6 hours approx.

Jack Higgins (the pen name of Henry Patterson) was the internationally bestselling author of 85 novels. He shot to fame with The Eagle Has Landed, which sold 50 million copies worldwide and became a hit film. Adapted for radio, it is included here, together with its gripping sequel The Eagle Has Flown and the sensational Falklands War thriller Exocet.

An all-star cast attend a mysterious private club in this hilarious parody of classic horror tales. Membership of the exclusive Mausoleum Club isn't for the faint of heart. The Honorable Clarence Green wants in, but to join he must first hear the spine-chilling stories of the existing members, before enthralling them with one of his own. But are their stories fact or fiction? And will Green still want to join after hearing the horrors they have to tell?

Andy Hamilton is a familiar and much-loved voice on Radio 4. With this collection he presents a collection of observations and reminiscences about both his personal life and his 40 years working in comedy. Andy looks at Childhood, Politics, The Human Body and Animals. Using comic observation and personal anecdotes he explores each theme, examining how much (or how little) things have changed in the 60-ish years he's been on this planet.

All eight series of the comedy drama series set in a Donegal town in the 1950s and '60s. Ireland in the '50s, and the days of mass tourism and indoor plumbing have not yet come to rural Co. Donegal. But in the small, sleepy town of Ballylenon, change is coming, and trouble is brewing. A power struggle is under way for control of the town, with two rival forces aligned against each other.

For years they thought it was just them. Irritated and tormented by everything around them from call centres to nose studs, from speed bumps to ring tones. Then along came the BBC2 series Grumpy Old Men, and the subsequent best-selling book, and they knew they were not alone.

Welcome to Concrete Cow, the sketch show where anything is possible. Written by James Cary, who won a Silver Sony Award for Think the Unthinkable, this silly, surreal and ingenious comedy stars one half of ‘Mitchell and Webb’, Robert Webb. Also featuring are Oscar-winning actress and comedian Olivia Colman, as well as Sally Hawkins, Chris Pavlo, Beth Chalmers and more.

A gripping collection of 15 BBC Radio full-cast dramas written by Bert Coules, inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories. In the 56 short stories and four novels Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about his great detective, how many times did Dr John Watson tantalise us with references to cases which were never written about in full? These original adventures flesh out those unrecorded cases to wonderful effect. Clive Merrison plays the great sleuth himself, with Andrew Sachs in the role of Doctor Watson.

Chaired by Simon Brett (author of the hugely popular Charles Paris series), this intriguing, interactive panel show challenges professional crime novelists to put their experience and expertise to the test as they try to unravel various mind-bending mysteries. Each episode features a death and a denouement - with various red herrings and misdirections along the way. As the murder scenario is described and the clues laid out, our writer-detectives take turns cross-examining the suspects.

Julie Walters, Alan Rickman, Dora Bryan, Jim Broadbent and Celia Imrie, Hugh Lloyd, and many more join Victoria Wood in this positively bloated bumper collection oozing with songs, sketches, and monologues.

David Tennant and Liz Carling star in the sitcom about a young couple, Daniel and Lucy, and their circle of friends. In the first series, Lucy sets up Daniel's party, but their mates seem too busy with kids. Then, when a top author gets writer's block, Lucy and Daniel get landed with an unwelcome guest. In the third episode, Daniel and Lucy's plans for a quiet weekend are hit by a stream of unplanned visitors and are later hit by other people's baby blues.

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.

Here's Dicken's Christmas classic of Ebenezer Scrooge and his encounter with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Originally published in 1843, A Christmas Carol has continued to be one of the most popular and enduring Christmas stories of all time.

Five classic novelisations of TV adventures featuring the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, led by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. In Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion by Terrance Dicks, the newly regenerated Doctor grapples with murderous waxwork replicas and shop window dummies. In Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters by Malcolm Hulke, subterranean reptile men wake to find their planet overrun by humans. In Doctor Who: Inferno, a drilling project to penetrate the Earth's crust has potentially catastrophic consequences.

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.

The News Quiz began on Radio 4 in 1977 and continues to be hugely popular to this day. The first host was Barry Norman, and subsequently Barry Took, Simon Hoggart, Sandi Toksvig, Miles Jupp, Nish Kumar, Angela Barnes and Andy Zaltzman have all take the chair. The show's guests have been drawn from the cream of British comedians, journalists and politicians: Alan Coren, Richard Ingrams, Ian Hislop, Peter Cook, Linda Smith, Jeremy Hardy, Clive Anderson, Jo Brand, William Hague, Boris Johnson, Edwina Currie, Matthew Parris and many more.