Showing titles in Entertainment & Performing Arts

Join Professor John Lloyd and curators Jimmy Carr, Humphrey Ker, Phill Jupitus and Sarah Millican as they plunge down the badger hole of ignorance in a search for the universe's most mind-boggling oddnesses. The Museum of Curiosity is BBC Radio 4's monumental comedy edifice and the only one with gargoyles in the foyer. It allows nothing inside that doesn't make you scratch your head, stroke your chin or, at the very least, go 'hmm'.

No one does glamour, severity, girlish charm or tight-lipped witticism better than Dame Maggie Smith, one of Britain's best-loved actors. This new biography shines the stage lights on the life and career of a truly remarkable performer, one whose stage and screen career spans six decades. From her days as a West End star of comedy and revue, Dame Maggie's path would cross with those of the greatest actors, playwrights and directors of the era.

Twenty episodes from the second BBC Radio series, starring Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn. In 1973 the BBC adapted its hit TV series for radio, featuring the original TV cast and characters. Three series were broadcast between 1974 and 1976, with episodes adapted from their TV counterparts by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles. Now you can enjoy once again these unique recordings, with a supporting cast including John Laurie, Arnold Ridley and Ian Lavender.

From First Footing to Samhain, Fringe Festival follies to whisky lore, Sam and Graham guide listeners through a year of Scottish legends, traditions, historical and contemporary events, sharing personal stories and tips as only these two chalk-and-cheese friends can. As entertaining as it is practical, The Clanlands Almanac is a light-hearted education in Scottish history and culture, told through the eyes of two passionate Scotsmen. The perfect escapist guide, The Clanlands Almanac is intended as a starting point for your own Scottish discoveries.

Stephanie Cole ("Doc Martin"), Benedict Cumberbatch and Roger Allam ("The Thick Of It") star in the complete second series of the hit sitcom about the pilots of a tiny charter airline for whom no job is too small, but many, many jobs are too difficult.

Available only in audio, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Makers, Mysteries and Magic lifts the lid on the moviemaking secrets behind the latest installment in J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts series. Narrator Dan Fogler (who plays No-Maj Jacob Kowalski) will guide you through the process of creating the magical on-screen world and explore the story, themes, and characters of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

Ade Edmondson smashed onto the comedy circuit in the 1980s, stormed The Comedy Store and, alongside Rik Mayall, brought anarchy to stage and screen. How did a child brought up in a strict Methodist household – and who spent his formative years incarcerated in repressive boarding schools – end up joining the revolution? Well, he is part Norse. Could it be his berserker heritage? With wisdom, nostalgia and uniquely observed humour, Ade traces his journey through life and comedy.

Author Scott Dikkers will tell you how to write jokes. He’s a master joke writer, founder of the world’s most popular humor site TheOnion.com, number one New York Times best-selling humor author, professional public speaker, and successful cartoonist. In this definitive joke-writing handbook, he'll teach you comedy writing and how to write a joke with a simple comedy-writing and joke-writing formula you can use right now to write your own jokes.

After a live performance at the Hollywood Bowl, The Pythons made their last performance together in 1983 in the hugely successful Monty Python's Meaning of Life. Writing and acting in films and television then took over much of Michael's life, culminating in the smash hit A Fish Called Wanda (for which he won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor) and the first of his seven celebrated television journeys for the BBC.

Written to take advantage of the brief window between the end of lockdown and Jimmy getting cancelled for saying something unforgivable to Lorraine Kelly, this book is as timely as it is unnecessary. Because you might be interested in Jimmy's life but he's damn sure you're a lot more interested in your own, Before & Laughter is about both of you. But mainly him.

More Rules for Life is the latest collection from comedian and rule-maker Kitty Flanagan. Following the success of her best seller, 488 Rules for Life, Kitty realised there was still a lot of work to be done. What if there were people who didn't know that you're supposed to take the lettuce off the sandwich before toasting it? Or that you should never make eye contact with someone while eating a banana? What if young people didn't realise that TikTok is not actually a job? And what about old men on ladders? Someone needs to tell those guys to get down.

Another bumper collection of classic fun and games from one of BBC Radio 4's best-loved and most enduring comedy panel games. The inimitable Humphrey Lyttelton is in the chair for these 25 hilarious editions (including the very first episode from 1972) plus two volumes of vintage 'Live' recordings (ad libs, retakes, warm-ups and all), a 35th anniversary special edition, and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Desert Island, in which famous fans Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent and Germaine Greer choose their favourite 'Clue' moments.

Emmy Award-winning actor Jeff Daniels brings his iconic career to life in Alive & Well Enough, a captivating audio-only adventure produced with his son, Ben.

We're Alive is an award-winning audio drama that follows a group of Survivors in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles now ruled by the "Infected."It begins with “A Story of Survival” which spans from Chapters 1-48. Our survivors band together, fortify a safe haven known as the Tower, and discover that the Infected are far from the biggest threat they will have to face.The adventure continues with:“Lockdown” - A small group of inmates and prison guards are trapped in the T-block at Twin Towers Jail. They are forced to work together and find a way to escape while the rest of the world ends ...

Join Kenya Barris and Malcolm Gladwell as they bypass pleasantries and promotional banter to deliver raw, unfiltered conversations with some of today’s most influential figures. Featuring titans across a spectrum of professions (from Olympic gold medalists to trailblazing Fortune 500 CEOs and everything in between), The Unusual Suspects with Kenya Barris and Malcolm Gladwell pulls back the curtain to offer listeners unprecedented access to the minds of the world’s most extraordinary individuals and their distinct paths to success.

Please note: this series contains mature content and listener discretion is advised.

On Tuesdays and Fridays The Moth’s podcast feed presents episodes of the Peabody-Award Winning Moth Radio Hour and original episodes of The Moth Podcast. Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating. Since 2008, The Moth podcast has featured many of our favorite stories told...

David Mitchell hosts the hilarious panel show which turns honest men into lying cheats. In this devious and delightfully funny competition, four comedians have the audacity to lie through their teeth for victory. They compete against each other with lies, untruths and dishonesty. Tall tales, white lies, blatant bluffs and misdirection rule. Can they smuggle the truth past each other, or will they be caught in the act of lying?

A voice is calling across the land, "Bombardier Milligan." "Bombadier Milligan is dead," I replied in a disguised voice. The voice replied, "Then he's going to miss his breakfast." The fourth volume of Spike Milligan's legendary account of his time in the army during World War Two begins as he and his regiment land in sunny Italy in 1943 ("The ship touched the beach very gently, so gently I suspect it's not insured").

David Mitchell, who you may know for his inappropriate anger on every TV panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, his look of permanent discomfort on C4 sex comedy Peep Show, his online commenter-baiting in The Observer or just for wearing a stick-on moustache in That Mitchell and Webb Look, has written a book about his life.