Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Literature & Fiction

Michael (Marcus Brigstocke) and Maxine (Kerry Godliman) Wilson and their teenage daughters, Lola and Cat, (plus their bearded dragon Chomsky, and about 150,000 bees) have resolved to live a cleaner, greener, serener life. They are attempting to live ethically...whatever that means.

In this radio reboot, Pete Baikie, Morwenna Banks, Moray Hunter, Gordon Kennedy, John Sparkes and Gus Beattie revisit some of their much-loved comic creations, and introduce some hilarious newcomers. We listen in on the meetings of the highly confused Stoneybridge Town Council; hear pearls of nonsense from Calum Gilhooley, Edinburgh's most boring man; and the Little Girl gives us her take on topics including Tonsils, Teenagers, The Truth and Time's Up.

Nominated for a British Comedy Award for Best Radio Comedy, The Harpoon is a nostalgic, spiffing spoof of adventure story papers for boys from yesteryear - but on the wireless. In the style of publications such as the Boys' Own Paper - but with its tongue firmly in its cheek - it features a veritable feast of thrilling serials, 'How-Tos', readers' letters and patent cures - all introduced by 'your old chum, the Editor'.

The fast-talking glamorous musical drama set in a 1930s Chicago radio studio A radio caper set in Hollywood's Golden Age, Big Broadcast sees radio station WKAZ's most successful programme, 'The Hour of Charm', face trouble from gangsters, sponsors, moral guardians and politics, not to mention...

Improv masters Josie Lawrence and Jim Sweeney perform hilarious off-the-cuff sketches based entirely on audience suggestions No script, no props and living by their wit - in this side-splitting series, two of the funniest stars of The Comedy Store Players and Whose Line Is It Anyway? join...

When newly widowed Jessica decides to rent a room to recently divorced Rex, she's a little apprehensive. She's never had a lodger before, and he's not used to being a tenant. Neither are quite sure how their relationship works—and to make things trickier, they're wildly different people. But unbeknownst to either of them, they share a secret—they both keep a diary. Taking turns to read from their respective journals, they relate their thoughts, hopes, dreams and first impressions of each other, which are somewhat less than flattering.

Julius Hutch has planned to spend his retirement years 'pottering' and worrying about his bills, but wakes one morning to discover a foreign merchant bank has put four million pounds into his account—and won't take it back. So Julius, a humble man, sets out to spend the money helping other people, and wooing Pauline, the local bank teller. Up against an enormous banking corporation and an unsavoury property developer, Julius soon discovers that rather than being crushed by these financial giants as he would have been in the past, he is rendered rather more delightfully impervious.

Bank clerk Sam Baker spends all day surrounded by other people's money. For four years, he's been hopefully filling out a pools coupon every week and dreaming of a big win - but with no joy. Then one day, Lady Luck finally smiles on him. To his total amazement, he wins half a million pounds - enough to change his life and that of his wife, Annabel. The duo are delighted with their good fortune and head off to London to collect the cheque and celebrate.

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1950, Life with the Lyons was the first UK 'situation comedy'. More than 11 million listeners tuned in to the hilarious fictional misadventures of real-life Hollywood stars Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyons and their two children, Barbara and Richard, as well as Scottish housekeeper Aggie and next-door neighbours Florrie and Mr Wimple. Such was its popularity that the series ran for 11 years, spawning a TV spin-off, a West End play and two feature films.

Newly rebranded Deer Park Academy is struggling to turn itself around after being placed in special measures. Hoping to inspire the students (and tick the 'creative learning' box for the next Ofsted inspection), the headmaster decides to put on a production of Romeo and Juliet. But inspiration can be dangerous, and when has-been ex-TV star Geoff Cathcart is brought in to direct, he opens a Pandora's box of problems.

Once upon a time, there was a struggling writer named Woodhouse Carton, who tried to make his name as an author while simultaneously running his own creative writing class. Over 12 episodes, we follow the frustrated scribe's fruitless search for fame and fortune as, supported by his long-suffering wife, Gila, and feckless sidekick Seamus, he tries to write the definitive biography of philosophical novelist Wolf Heinrich Graubart - or compose the hit song that will set him up for life.

Yvette Miller is acting head of a Salford secondary school that has just joined Quays Academy Trust, a successful group of academies headed by the charismatic Sir Ken - a keen advocate of freeing schools from the shackles of Local Education oversight. Yvette, meanwhile, is somewhat more sceptical. How will she - and East Salford Academy - fit within the new regime?

When the Reverend Elaine Metcalfe is inducted as the vicar of Pontvale, she hopes the job will have more to it than lending out spare sets of keys. She soon discovers there's plenty of challenges in her new home - not least the daily needs of her parishioners, which range from community theatre productions, arranging a wedding and a funeral for the same day, and local scandal over the vicar's culottes.

George Orwell - the pen name of Eric Blair - was a writer and political commentator who is very hard to pin down. He is a complex mass of confusions - an antiestablishment, pro-English, ex-Etonian, ex-policeman and socialist who was ardently antiauthoritarian. He was as antifascist as he was anticommunist, a former Spanish Civil War soldier who was antiwar but pro the Second World War.

A hilarious comedy by Daniel Thurman, first broadcast in the BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play slot. 'Cleaner...only dirtier' is a slogan unlikely to be used by your average domestic cleaner. But Rita is anything but your average domestic cleaner, as an unfortunate former mayor is about to discover. Starring Geoffrey Whitehead as Fawcett, Anne Reid as Mrs Randle, and Janet Dibley as Rita, with Piers Wehner and Emerald O'Hanrahan. Directed by Toby Swift.

Strap in for an hour of rip-roaring comedy as Clever Peter bring you a pygmy hippo, a mystery voice, a leap across a ravine, and a sexy clown. This is the complete first series of the debut Radio 4 show from this award winning sketch team. From the team that brought you Cabin Pressure and Another Case of Milton Jones comes the massively bonkers and funny Clever Peter, hot off the Edinburgh Fringe and wearers of tri-coloured jerseys.

Produced by Sydney Lotterby of Yes Minister and Porridge fame. Each instalment featured a mixture of sketches (some foreshadowing Bennett's subsequent television dramas, others mocking television clichés, such as documentaries about working-class Northern writers and discussion programmes featuring pretentious critics). This is a never before broadcast compilation of sketches and extracts from the TV series before the tapes where wiped.

Good eventide, earbandits. You are invited on a journey of shelf discovery, as you take a trip to Wunderland - the Poundland of magical realms. It’s a kingdom much like our own, yet also nothing like it in the slightest. There, you’ll meet waifs and strays, wigshops and witches, murderous pensioners and the squirrels of this delightful land as they go about their bizarre business. Experience the delights of Wunderwoods Widderday, take a trip through time with Lady Bowie to Ye Olde Wunderlande and tremble as the land is threatened by an Unclear War.

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.

Can't Tell Nathan Caton Nothing tells the story of young, up-and-coming comedian Nathan Caton, who becomes the first in his family to graduate from university - only to opt for a career in comedy - much to his family's annoyance who want him to get a 'proper job' using his architecture degree. Can Nathan persuade his family to support his career choice?