Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Comedy & Humour

From a problematic meeting with an alien princess to a horde of space tourists on a holiday from hell, life on the cruiser is never less than eventful. Indecisive Captain Taylor is faced with disaster when another of the fleet’s spaceships, The Indestructible III, suddenly explodes; relentlessly nice Communications Officer Karen embarks on a forbidden romance with ship’s engineer Stuart; and medical scientist Clive 55 causes chaos when he is arrested for murdering his 136 clones, and experiments with dark matter to catastrophic effect.

Simon Mayo hosts a comedic battle between three teams to find out which is the funniest generation. Will the Up and Comers, the Current Crop or the Old Guard be crowned as the Golden Age of Comedy?

Brian Cox and Robin Ince return to take a witty, irreverent and unashamedly rational look at the mysteries of the universe in these four series. Joining them for some hot science and flagrant comic nerdery are a panel of eggheads and entertainers, all eager to take a deep dive into topics ranging from cosmic dust to coincidence.

Just a Minute is the grandaddy of panel games, entertaining Radio 4 listeners since 1967 with wit, whimsy and wonderful wordplay. To mark the show's 55th anniversary in December 2022, here are five fantastic series from 2011, 2012 and 2013, all chaired by the legendary Nicholas Parsons. Among them is Series 62, which commemorated JAM's 45th birthday with an episode tackling the same subjects given out in the very first series, and featured two special editions from Mumbai.

Highlights from the much-loved '90s comedy shows Harry Enfield's Television Programme and Harry Enfield and Chums In 1990, one of BBC TV's most popular sketch shows, Harry Enfield's Television Programme, was born. Later retitled Harry Enfield and Chums, it featured Harry and co-stars Paul...

Immensely popular and hugely influential, the groundbreaking series The Goon Show changed the face of British comedy. Now, for the first time, this box set collection presents the episodes in chronological order as they were scheduled to be broadcast. This volume includes: 'Spon', 'The Junk Affair', 'The Burning Embassy', 'The Great Regent's Park Swim', 'Treasure in Tower' (aka 'The Treasure in the Tower'), 'The Space Age', 'The Missing Battleship', 'The Policy', 'King Solomon's Mines', 'The Stolen Postman', 'The Great British Revolution', 'The Plasticine Man' and more.

The Secret World is an impressions show with a difference – it shines a light on the imaginary alternative lives of famous folk. Each episode takes place over one day, with stories unfolding and overlapping from morning to night. In these 22 episodes, we hear about the bizarre habits of celebrities from Lady Gaga to Keith Harris and Orville. Al Pacino reveals his alternative life as a balloon twister, Barack Obama becomes a Pearly King; Professor Brian Cox finds himself stalked by various women, including the Queen.

Kate and George Starling are just beginning their lives as young newlyweds and are already experiencing the frustrations, as well as the joys, of marriage. But although they have their ups and downs, their mutual love and mistrust gets them through.

When Squire Fenton Babblewick inherits his uncle's Yorkshire estate, it's the perfect opportunity to realise his utopian dreams. He attempts to become a member of parliament, reform beetroots, win the love of lovely Lucinda, be a musical composer genius and buy a workhouse to turn it into a school. His ever present manservant - August Snipe, the true brains - watches in dismay as his master makes mistake after mistake. A sit-com set in the 18th century.

The show that grabs listeners by the waist, swirls them round in time to a Strauss waltz, and then trips over the banana skins of convention.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation starring Michael Hordern as Jeeves and Richard Briers as Wooster. Steeple Bumphleigh is the sort of picturesque place where you can't throw a brick without hitting a honeysuckled cottage or beaning an apple-cheeked villager. But for Bertie Wooster, it is a...

A compendium of radio sitcoms and retrospectives celebrating the legendary duo: Ray Galton and Alan Simpson were Britain's best-loved and most successful comedy writing partners. Together, they created two of the greatest sitcoms of all time, Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son. This compilation brings together some of the finest programmes from their 60-year career, as well as interviews with them both.

In these 19 episodes, recorded from their home studios and broadcast to a remote audience, presenters Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by a plethora of special guests including Lucy Porter, Huge Davies, Gemma Arrowsmith, Zoe Lyons, George Fouracres, Jena Friedman, Darren Harriott, Lost Voice Guy, Eshaan Akbar, Jessica Fostekew, Chris McCausland, Daliso Chaponda, Janine Harouni and Laura Lexx.

The Emperor Domitian has informers everywhere; no-one is safe. He rules Rome with a rod of iron, and he is dangerously unstable and paranoid. In the snake pit of Imperial Rome, all Pliny the Younger wants to do is get his letters ready for publication. Except if he, his mother, their Greek cook Doris (who narrowly missed out on becoming the next Oracle at Delphi), and Venta, their slave with secretarial skills, have any chance of surveying, they are going to have to negotiate a political minefield, keep their eyes peeled for spies and, most of all, not do anything to annoy the Emperor.

Rediscovered and restored by radio enthusiasts, The Radio Circle, it was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on the 10th May 1955, just two days before Tony Hancock’s 31st birthday. Tony Hancock had taken an unscheduled trip to Italy, leaving Hancock Half Hour’s producer to ask Harry Secombe to step in to star for the first three episodes of the second series. The fourth episode saw Tony return, and begrudgingly make ‘A Visit To Swansea’, to thank Harry Secombe for stepping in.

Richard Briers stars in this sparkling sixties comedy about a newly qualified young doctor and his two best friends, Taffy Evans and Tony Benskin. When Simon Sparrow (Richard Briers) lands his first job as a ship's doctor, he soon realises life on the seas is far from plain sailing. First of all, he falls in love with the chairman's daughter, Wendy, but is distracted from his affections by the discovery that he suffers from seasickness, and is expected to perform surgery with only cutlery and a hefty dose of brandy...

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.

First broadcast in 2007, Fags, Mags and Bags delivers shop-based shenanigans and over-the-counter philosophy, courtesy of Ramesh Mahju and his trusty sidekick Dave. Ramesh has built his shop up over the course of 30 years, and it is a firmly entrenched feature of the local area. He is ably...

Sketch trio The Penny Dreadfuls made a name for themselves with The Brothers Faversham, telling the stories of nine extraordinary siblings in the Victorian era. In these 10 comedy dramas, they step away from the 19th century to revisit famous stories from history and literature. Featuring unforgettable characters, from the face of British treason to the last of the Plantagenets, their fresh, funny reimaginings are full of suspense, rip-roaring entertainment and gags galore.

Writer, poet, and broadcaster Pam Ayres has been making her fans smile for more than 30 years, since her first television appearance on Opportunity Knocks. Now some of her best sketches, verses and songs are brought together in this complete collection of series 1-6 of her Radio 4 show, Ayres on the Air. Each series consists of 4 episodes, with Pam performing witty and wonderful pieces on subjects as diverse as getting older, shopping and a surfeit of beige, bored chickens and school plays.