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

All 14 episodes of Amanda Murphy's sitcom about the will-they-won't-they romance between best friends Cassie and Pete. Cassie's 30, single, and miserable. All her friends are getting married - even Ugly Paula (albeit to someone on a life sentence in a Kentucky prison) - but nobody loves her. Except for Pete. And he's her best mate, so he doesn't count...or does he? Over the course of three series, we follow Cassie and Pete as they attempt to answer that critical question, and sort out their complicated feelings for each other.

Based in the little town of Bridgeford, High-Lites salon boasts the most misanthropic hairdresser in Britain: sharp-tongued, mean-minded Bev. With the help of her soft-hearted (though slightly dim) assistant, Shirley, she tends to the tresses of a motley crew of local characters. As she cuts their hair, she finds out everything that's going on in their lives - and wastes no time in spreading some gossip of her own.

Three top actresses show off their comedic talents in the very first all-women sketch show written for BBC Radio 2. In these six episodes, Lynda Bellingham, Gwyneth Strong and Joanna Monro present a feast of skits and music with a distinctly feminist flavour. Highlights include the 'Classic Serial' strand, featuring strangely familiar titles such as Madame Ovary, Lady Chatterbox's Lover and Donna Karenina, and 'The History of Feminism', in which we learn the truth about Florence Nightingale, suffragettes, women drivers and Boadicea.

When the middle-class Empsons move from London to picturesque Winterleaf Gunner, they find themselves totally unprepared for country life - and utterly reliant on Winston. Handyman, village poacher, scholar, gentleman romantic and out-and-out rogue, Winston transforms their lives, fixing up their dilapidated house, introducing them to the works of Kingsley Amis - and giving Nancy a lesson in love.

Expect a summer festival with a difference as some of the nation's favourite comics turn curators and host a virtual festival featuring their favourite performers from the worlds of comedy, literature and spoken word. They'll be in control of everything (even the weather) as we're taken along...

Angus Dry has no friends, no job and still lives at home with his mum. But he's quite happy to spend his time taking bubble baths, splashing his dole money on a motorised water laser and recapturing the joys of childhood. His busy mother has an international career as an arms dealer and a string of lovers. He feels terribly sorry for her. In these eight episodes, unambitious Angus tries to reconnect with his old schoolfriends, agonises over the death of a bee, steps out of the confines of his sheltered life to go on a date and writes a requiem to himself.

Frustrated copy man Ken Handley cannot help but conceive of the world in advert form. Over three series witness Ken coping with a drunken boss, straight-laced colleagues and an overactive mind, as we follow his exploits and moral dilemmas in this advertising satire. Martin Jarvis stars as Ken, alongside a cast that includes Miriam Margolyes, Imelda Staunton, Christopher Godwin and Joss Ackland.

All 10 episodes of the BBC radio comedy about three women who embrace the world of salsa while adjusting to life after cancer. After their treatment for ovarian and breast cancer, Chippy is mad, Jill is sad and Terri is definitely dangerous to know! Seeking to regain their zest for life and love, they throw themselves into dance classes at Bad Salsa, the club where everyone knows your name but no-one knows your prognosis.

When Tom Caine wakes one morning to discover he can't stop bursting into song, his life takes a dramatic turn for the worse. Who are the strange bunch of musicians following him around? And why can no one else see them? When one of his impromptu performances gets him arrested for inciting a riot at a football match, Tom realises he needs to try and take control of the imaginary band inside his head. But can he keep his job, his girlfriend and his sanity in the process?

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?

Comedy drama set in Hardacre's, the worst advertising agency in London For three decades, Rupert Hardacre was one of the big beasts of advertising: he worked hard, played hard, and lived hard. But he fell harder... Driven out of every reputable agency in town for drinking all their whiskey and...

Recorded in front of a live audience, these wry, funny tales introduce us to the varied creatures who make their homes on the shoreline, in garden ponds and in our attics. In 18 comic monologues, they reveal the truth about what life is really like in their respective habitats - and it's much more eventful than you might think.

When 60-something musician pals Roy and George attend the funeral of an old bandmate, they realise that since they stopped performing, they've got stuck in a rut. Retirement's all well and good, but they seem to spend most of their time in front of the TV, or propping up the bar at the Hen & Pewter. Believing that jazz players should keep swinging while they've still got rhythm, the duo decide it's time to recreate the good old days, and start a new band.

Get ready to be dragged kicking and screaming into the world of family life, Stockport-style, as 15-year-old Jason introduces us to the Conroy clan. There's dad Eddie, cabby and wannabe champion organist, mum Maureen, who's easygoing but wasn't born yesterday, older brother Michael, lead singer of The Sweater Girls, and sisters Colette (married to uptight bank clerk Dave) and Karen (newly returned from uni with a Sloane Ranger boyfriend).

The final two series of A. L. Kennedy's wry comic drama about love in later life. In their youth, John and Maggie had a tempestuous on/off affair that ended badly. Now in their 60s, they've decided to give their romance another chance - and discovered that love doesn't get any easier when you're older but no wiser. Having survived dating and moving in together, the duo face the next big test for their relationship: tying the knot.

Acclaimed sketch duo Two Episodes of Mash (a.k.a. Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson) present their surreal sketch show packed full 'low-key, mundane glamour', with support from a cast including David O'Doherty, Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce and Jimmy Carr. Meet the human cannonball, who has been blasted to Ilford from Belgium by mistake. Discover what happens when Rapunzel gets an intercom. Learn how Joe has blown the programme budget on a life-size ice sculpture of Tim Henman. And prepare for a fly-on-the-wall documentary about working behind-the-scenes on a sketch show.

North London barber's shop Tony's might not be the trendiest salon in town, but it's definitely the cheapest and the cheeriest. Run by exuberant Italian Tony Fucetti, it's the place to go if you want a bargain cut and blow-dry from apprentice Maisie, or a short back and sides courtesy of Scottish hairdresser Hector (just watch out for his razor).

For the first time ever all three much-loved series featuring the legendary creations Uncle Mort and Carter Brandon are brought together in one collection. As the pair tour Britain, Uncle Mort's recollections make for some hilarious moments. Uncle Mort and his Yorkshire based family first appeared in Tinniswood's novel A Touch of Daniel which earned them a run of four series of I Didn't Know You Cared on BBC TV from 1975-1979.

These 29 episodes encompass classic cosmic conundrums - including whether there is intelligent alien life out there, if infinity exists and how wormholes could allow us to time-travel - as well as probing more down-to-earth human quirks like our differing pain thresholds, our attraction to 'bad' foods like chips and chocolate and our varied regional accents. Plus, the duo embarks on a cheery evolutionary thought experiment as they wonder what would happen if humanity became extinct....

Sisters Alison and Maud are joint landladies of the Abbeyfield Guest House, dispensing hospitality to a variety of demanding clients while also looking after their irascible, bedridden father downstairs in the granny flat. Dreamy ornithologist Alison has just moved back from Bloomsbury, while...