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

He's back - the man they call 'Britain's Funniest Milton', Milton Jones. And this time he's moved from his 'Very World' all the way to a house. The House Of Milton Jones is the sort of house where washing machines explode, ghost hunters hover and there's a wasp doing Tai Chi on the lawn.

Were you terrified of the Daleks? Has the familiar Doctor Who theme tune ever sent a shiver down your spine? Did Saturday teatimes once mean gathering round the television to see where the TARDIS had landed each week? If so, Doctor Who at the BBC is for you. In this special release, Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney take a journey through the archives and uncover the history of Doctor Who on BBC radio and television.

Brian Cox stars as the 63-year-old Servant in these wickedly funny full-cast email exchanges Born and bred in Dundee, Bob Servant sees himself as the people's champion. Once a cheeseburger magnate and part of what he claims to be 'the largest window cleaning round in Western Europe', he's now...

When Ram Mohammad Thomas, an orphaned, uneducated street kid from Mumbai, wins a billion rupees on a live TV quiz show, he finds himself beaten up and thrown in jail by the programme's producers. During his interrogation he explains, through a series of flashbacks, how he knew the answers to all the show's questions. What he describes about his life is jaw-dropping: "You learn a lot about the world by living in it." he says.

In series 1, Rhys examines his privileged status, chats to his mum and dad, and reluctantly speaks to a girl he had a crush on in school. He also explores the topic of wisdom in his own unique way, by reading a letter he wrote to his future self at 10 years old. In Series 2, Rhys attempts to become more politically engaged by one week trying out one set of opinions, the next week, another. He asks questions such as why we are not doing more to save the planet, whether Facebook is actually spying on us and whether gender-neutral toilets are really worth it.

Alex Edelman, the 25-year-old Bostonian native and winner of the prestigious Best Newcomer Award at the 2014 Edinburgh Comedy Festival, brings his unique wit to a discussion of the issues that affect the millennial generation. This collection includes two of his BBC Radio 4 series.

Henry Normal uses poetry, storytelling and comedy to tackle big subjects with his trademark humour. This collection includes five of his funny and moving BBC Radio 4 shows: 'A Normal Family' is centred around Henry's son, Johnny, who was diagnosed with autism. 'A Normal Life' continues to draw on Henry's experiences of bringing up a child with autism. 'A Normal Love' sees Henry explore love, romance and other unreasonable expectations. 'A Normal Imagination' looks at why humans create. 'A Normal Nature' is an exploration of unsung nature, from the point of view of a busy urban human.

In this fascinating 10-part series, Lenny Henry traces the long and painful road that black Britons have travelled on stage and screen, from the overt racial discrimination of the 19th century, via the thinly veiled slurs that persisted through the first 70 years of the 20th, to today's more equal society. Interviewing playwrights, actors, directors and filmmakers - including Mustapha Matura, Roy Williams, Lolita Chakrabarti, Michael Buffong, Horace Ové and Steve McQueen - he tells the story of black drama and the influential artists who have shaped it over the past hundred years.

Against his better judgement, Andrew Patterson accepts a job as a lecturer in English literature at a remote Northern redbrick university. His departmental colleagues are an eccentric bunch: doddery Head of English Professor Misty, who looks like he went to school with Little Dorrit; Amy Spade, who's suffering from an identity crisis and given to sending anonymous letters, and man-eating Melissa Murgatroyd, the honeypot of the Senior Common Room. Fortunately, Patterson has old friend and fellow lecturer Victor to show him the ropes - but even so, his first day does not go well.

Roguish Londoner Milkie leaves a glittering society gala to do a favour for glamorous actress Beth Williams. But no good deed goes unpunished, as Milkie soon discovers when an unexpected trip to the Welsh mountains sees him embroiled in a murderous conspiracy.

In these series, Rhod Gilbert and Chris Addison introduce a line-up of the best and brightest stand-ups, inviting fresh faces and old hands onstage to display their comic talents. Each programme features three different stars - a newcomer who performs the opening act, an established comedian or double act offering up sketches, musical numbers or character pieces and a final headline artist. There’s some top-notch comedy from the compères, too, as they showcase their funniest routines.

Welcome to the all-encompassing Museum of Everything – feel free to take a wander round our infinite gallery of strange exhibits, stranger exhibitors, disgruntled guides and obsessed visitors. The items on display range from the Elgin Tiddlywinks to the birds and the bees, and you can learn about the history of wicker and the origins of scampi, enjoy a display featuring the worst-selling author of Victorian times, get inducted into the Mock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and discover the real identity of Jack the Ripper.

Alun Cochrane has a 25 year mortgage which he can only pay off by being funny. In this series he takes us on a room by room, stand up tour of his house. He has a fridge that beeps at him when he doesn't move quickly enough and a fire alarm he can't reach. His relationship with his house is a complicated one. A hoarder of funny and original observations on everyday life, Alun invites us to help him de-clutter his mind and tidy his ideas into one of those bags that you hoover all the air out of and keep under your bed.

A BBC Radio 4 drama in which a Children's Hearing has to decide if Nicole (13) and Scott (4) should be taken into care or be allowed to return to live with their mother. But is she fit to look after them now? 'Care' was originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 8 March 2011. Michelle has...

Award-winning stand-up Boothby Graffoe presents his individual brand of comedy in BBC radio’s The Big Booth and Boothby Graffoe in No Particular Order. The only British comedian named after a Lincolnshire market town, Boothby Graffoe has won a cult following (and a Time Out Comedy Award) for his surreal stand-up routines and cerebral comic songs. This collection contains his two critically acclaimed BBC Radio 4 comedy series, crammed with great gags, marvellous monologues, straw polls, sketches and ditties.

Tommy Franklin and Sheila Parr, winners of the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest, find themselves unexpectedly thrust back into the limelight. The trouble is, they can no longer stand the sight of one another. As fame beckons for a second time, they must put aside their differences to deal with publicity problems, a threat from Tommy’s dodgy past and their sneaky agent’s scheme to sell off their back catalogue.

Arthur Haynes was the most popular comedian in Britain from the late 1950s. His hit TV sketch show ran for 15 series, winning him the Variety Club Award as ITV Personality of 1961, and the following year it was adapted for BBC Radio. Included here are a collection of the best surviving radio episodes, featuring the classic comic battles between Haynes and his long-suffering straight man, Nicholas Parsons.

Ouida – the pseudonym of English novelist Maria Louise Ramé – wrote over 40 novels as well as children’s books, short stories and essays. One of the most popular authors of her day, she achieved fame and fortune with her ‘sensation novels’ which scandalised and intrigued Victorian readers, but her extravagant lifestyle resulted in her dying in poverty in 1908. This collection brings together her pioneering novel Moths with two engrossing biographical portraits of Ouida herself.

Stand-up comic, musician and conductor Rainer Hersch has performed in comedy clubs worldwide, made numerous appearances at the Edinburgh Festival and put on several comedy-concert series at London’s Southbank Centre. This audio anthology brings together two of his BBC Radio series, All Classical Music Explained and Rainer Hersch’s 20th Century Retrospective, plus the standalone programme Gershwin’s Horns and some stand-up comedy from Rainer at London’s Comedy Store.

After winning the ARIA gold award former teacher and mother of three Laura Smyth returns with a hotly-anticipated stand-up series, Your Mum, where Laura and her guests share hilarious anecdotes, advice and sayings from the mouths of mothers and examine why maternal relationships can occasionally drive us up the wall.