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

Sophie still lives at home with her mum in Hull. They make a living doing car boot sales at the weekend. Except they don't really make a living because her mum can't bear to get rid of any of their junk. Plus, they don't have a car. As their house gets more cluttered, Sophie feels more trapped. She dreams of moving to London to meet her dad and to become a famous actress. Will this dream ever come true?

In this fourth treasury of rare archive material, our irrepressible hero forms an association to save Fred’s Pie Stall in a newly restored 1959 radio episode of Hancock’s Half Hour. From the BBC TV series comes The Italian Maid (1959), in which Tony and Sid are bowled over by the lovely Silvano. Also included in this treasury are interviews with Paul Merton, Roger Wilmut and Freddie Hancock, who all talk about the life and career of Tony Hancock.

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.

Dot's had quite enough of making tea in the Cabinet War Rooms. When she finds a cryptic message in the newspaper she enlists the help of her gals - will this be the big break Dot's been waiting for? Follow Dot as she gets squiffy over Agent Bertie Whiff-Whaff, concocts stirring yet pithy slogans for the war effort and goes on a mission to St Horribly Vulture’s School for Boys to enlist a teacher for...'shhhh...Bletchley Park!'

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.

Immensely popular and hugely influential, The Goon Show changed the face of British comedy. This 14th and final collection returns to the programme's fourth series and includes the episodes 'The History of Communications', 'The Kippered Herring Gang', 'The Tooth-Paste Expedition', 'The Case of the Vanishing Room', 'The Greatest Mountain in the World', 'Collapse of the British Railways Sandwich System', 'The Case of Agent X2 (aka The Silent Bugler)', 'The Story of Brain [sic] (aka Western Story)', 'The Saga of the Internal Mountain' and 'Bank of England Robbery'.

 This 'shamelessly nerdy...deeply silly' (Radio Times) space extravaganza features fewer close-ups of Professor Brian Cox looking cool in front of a rocket than Wonders of the Universe but more weird, wonderful and occasionally woeful stories about the geniuses, Nazis and Satanists who plotted to propel humankind to the stars. Find out the many and varied ways to leave the planet as It Is Rocket Science takes you on a 'gleefully irreverent' (The Scotsman) whistle-stop comic tour of the Great Brains who put monkeys, ladies, dogs and gentlemen into orbit.     

A BBC comedy drama set in the world of a 'pile 'em high university'. Karen Poynter is the new head of the Geography Department - renamed Geographical Tourism - at Hayborough University, which is definitely not part of the elite Russell Group of top universities. Ranked 132nd in the UK academic league table; if you have a pulse, you can have a degree.

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.

Multi-award-winning storyteller Sarah Kendall brings her critically acclaimed, funny and moving live shows to audio. In the first trilogy of shows, each takes us on a trip, giving us a unique snapshot of small-town life in Australia in the late '80s and early '90s. At a time when most people were seeing Australians through the filter of Home and Away and Neighbours, Sarah presents a darker underbelly to the stereotype of the sun-loving, happy-go-lucky Aussie teenager.

Vincent Franklin, Rebekah Staton, Kieron Hodgkin and Julia Deakin star in four episodes of the BBC Radio 4 sitcom written by Jack Bernhardt. Welcome to The Lentil Sorters, a sitcom set in the Office of Local & National Statistics which, depending on who you ask, is either where the real power of government resides or the place where fun goes to die.

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.

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.

Rebecca Front and Jeremy Front star in this series of spoof documentaries looking at the lives of some extraordinary and unforgettable characters. We meet some truly remarkable women, such as controversial children's writer and wolf enthusiast Eleanor Fane-Gore; ‘Media Integrity Czar’ Valerie Panther; MI5 whistle-blower Helen McKee; fashion guru Tish Watts; child star Mandy Fenwick; Irina Stonkus, soon to be the first woman on Mars; and National Treasure Dame Cicely Leyland. 

Ian D Montfort is a celebrity spirit medium and psychic, and star of a brand new series for Radio 2. A comedy character created by Tom Binns (the man behind hapless hospital radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury) Ian D Montfort has been a hit at the last three Edinburgh festivals with his combination of magic and laughter. In each radio show Ian makes contact with the celebrity 'spirit guides' secretly chosen by audience members and reveals personal stories that make them laugh-out-loud one moment and gasp in surprise the next.

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.

Award-winning comedian Alan Davies stars in his own BBC Radio sitcom. Meet Alan. He's a struggling actor trying to cope with life in the 90s - the friends, the work, the romance... Meet the friends: Murray is a local journalist, who's given a crash course in tabloid sensationalism when the entire staff comes down with Peruvian flu. Kate is a primary school art teacher, who tussles daily with the obnoxious seven-year-old Tamara and tries to save time by getting the children to write their own reports.

A deliciously black satirical comedy about the dinner party from hell. The fastidious host, Paige, decides to throw a dinner party in honour of her husband, Lars, who is celebrating the success of his pop psychology book, Beyond Belief. She carefully plans a surprise menu that will mark the occasion and anxiously checks with the waiter she has employed to make sure that everything is perfectly prepared. Her lucky guests include a postfeminist vegetarian artist, a distinguished microbiologist, a TV journalist and an uninvited guest who ends up staying for dinner.

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 unless it makes you scratch your head, stroke your chin or, at the very least, go 'Hmm'. Secondly, it is almost completely empty. Fortunately, helping to fill its vacant plinths is a gathering of the world's most original minds.

A fascinating collection of rare and remastered broadcast material starring Tony Hancock, Sid James and others. This first volume features the recently discovered soundtrack of 'The Horror Serial', a television episode of Hancock's Half Hour from 1959, plus remastered versions of the following radio shows: 'The Blackboard Jungle', 'The Student Prince' and 'The Test Match'. Also included are previously unreleased editions of 'Variety Bandbox', 'Calling All Forces' and 'Educating Archie'.