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

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. 

All six episodes of the gloriously gritty comedy crime drama. Taggart meets A Touch of Cloth in this parody police procedural featuring DI Bob Boxer and his sidekick DC Shona Doberman. They're an unlikely couple of cops - he's grizzled, old-school and wears a cardigan; she's young, instinctive and wields a Blackberry. But together they tackle cases so tough, they'd make Frost flinch and Rebus run away.... 

Faye Walters knows that today's women are sorted and stylish. They have the job, the house, the colour co-ordinated capsule wardrobe. They cope with the pressures of singledom, marriage and having kids with peanut allergies. And they all do it effortlessly, with nothing more than a women's mag and a poem by Pam Ayres to guide them. So why can't she pull it off? 

The Secret World is an impressions show with a difference – it shines a light on the imaginary alternative lives of famous folk. Each episode takes place over one day, with stories unfolding and overlapping from morning to night. In these 22 episodes, we hear about the bizarre habits of celebrities from Lady Gaga to Keith Harris and Orville. Al Pacino reveals his alternative life as a balloon twister, Barack Obama becomes a Pearly King; Professor Brian Cox finds himself stalked by various women, including the Queen.

Now that their children have left home, George and Carol finally have time for themselves again. Carol's looking forward to it being just the two of them. George, however, thinks the time is right to finally be honest with his wife - and introduces her to his alter ego Georgina....

We join them in September - the start of the farming year - as daughter Megan, a brainy 'plain Jane', sets her sights on Mr Bootle - only to find he's really just interested in birdwatching. December brings 'Goose-Feathering Night' - but Megan's determined to save Gudrun from a plucking. February finds her desperate to get into Oxford University but fearing rejection: could the creepy Mr Jenkins offer a solution? 

Nerdy Nick's life takes an abrupt turn into surreal chaos when he returns to England to find the mysterious Ronnie Hazelbeach living in his late father's house. Ronnie has certainly lived an interesting life. He's been a wrestler, a sailor, a thief and a jailbird, a gambler, a husband, a conman, a salesman, a getaway driver, a cook, a priest and much more. James can learn a lot about life from him. Ronnie hatches a plan to help Nick get his ex-girlfriend back. But just as the unlikely pair find domestic harmony, they are visited by an unwanted guest.

TV’s first ecclesiastical comedy, All Gas and Gaiters was enjoyed by more than 10 million viewers on BBC One between 1966 and 1971. Written by husband-and-wife-team Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, it was so popular that a selection of scripts were revised and re-recorded for radio with the same star cast as the television series. Robertson Hare starred as the archdeacon of the fictional St Ogg’s Cathedral. 

An uplifting comedy drama about the life, loves and misadventures of wheelchair user Maz. Nicknamed Tinsel Girl by her best friend Lisa because of her sparkly view of life, wheelchair user Maz is one of life's eternal optimists. She has just turned 30, only to become all too aware that not only is she single but also disabled. Her degenerative disease means she now has to use a motorised wheelchair, which isn't exactly the sexiest accessory a girl can have!

A dark, quirky parody of Desert Island Discs, Desolation Jests is a post-apocalyptic sketch show that takes a not-altogether-accurate look at the history of comedy. Featuring faux interviews with spurious celebrities, conducted by the Roy Plomley-esque host JP Doom, it poses the question ‘Which comedy sketches would you most want at your side to face the end of the world?’

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.

Meet the hapless management consultants of Unthinkable Solutions - idealistic team leader Ryan, sociopathic Sophie and hippy-dippy Daisy. Enthusiastic and enterprising, they’re strong on jargon (and always ready to ‘imaginate, reincentivise and skin the leopard’), but short on practical ideas - unfortunately for the unsuspecting corporations that come to them for help. 

Miranda is an unconventional woman. She’s six feet tall, self-conscious and posh. And is frequently mistaken for a man. She’s also invested her inheritance in a joke shop that she runs with her friend Stevie while trying to deal with her outrageously embarrassing mother. Though surrounded by chocolate willies, Miranda is determined to suss out what it takes to be a girly girl and to not look a complete idiot every time she meets the gorgeous Gary. 

Buy Me Up TV is a live, 24-hour cable channel, described by its CEO, Jacky Tanner, as ‘the crop of the top of the television shops’. Its perky presenters Angela and Bob are experts at flogging you everything you could possibly want for your home, wardrobe and lifestyle – and if the price isn’t right, the Bargain Bee will sting it right down. From ceramic hammers and a home Satanist test, to Robert Mugabe beach towels and a guitar bra (with matching banjo briefs), it’s all on special offer for a limited time only – buy now, while stocks last…

Anton and Liam are the Eric and Ernie of the fish world. Liam is a slippers-and-cardigan, Friday-night-in-with-a-Dick Francis-and-a-box-of-Terry’s-All-Gold kind of goldfish; whereas Anton is erudite, philosophical, sophisticated and fluent in several languages. Thrown together by fate, their only company in their bowl is some gravel and a little plastic castle as they closely observe the tumultuous relationship between their owners, Martin and Susan. In these two series, Liam and Anton contemplate the meaning of their existence, ponder the concept of time, and learn about sex.

First broadcast in 1953, A Life of Bliss ran for six series and 118 episodes on radio, concluding in 1969 when a TV series was made. Sadly, most are missing from the BBC archive (including the first seven, starring David Tomlinson) - but 19 were rescued and rebroadcast by BBC Radio 4 Extra, and are included here. They chronicle the misadventures of shy, absent-minded bachelor David Bliss, who goes through life with his head in the clouds and his mind in a fog. 

Media mogul Lord Malan is the billionaire owner of The Blue Touch Paper, an old-fashioned, hard-right weekly magazine with traditional Conservative values. But the paper is so true blue, it’s losing its touch. Sales are falling and circulation is down – mainly because its core readers are either on the brink of death or foam-flecked with rage. It’s time for a new editor, and political commentator Anna is sure she’s a shoo-in for the position. Much to her disappointment, however, Malan picks a different candidate: Keith, the Guardian’s token Tory, who champions compassionate Conservatism.

Expensive, expansive, fun-filled and frantic, cult classic The Million Pound Radio Show ran for 11 years between 1985 and 1992, and won the 1991 British Comedy Award for Best Radio Comedy. Included here are all five series and six Specials, featuring a feast of quick-fire gags, stinging satire, comic chat and snappy sketches.

Gush is the stunning saga of the bitter rivals Foxwell Cravate and Max Pomeroy whose destinies are tragically intertwined. Set in Durban at the Transworld Oil Conference and packed with the flair, fun and parody of the best TV mini-series of the 90s, this is comedy that will have you laughing out loud.

Featuring Norman Rossington as Big Jim, listen to these six funny and anarchic tales from those demob days “when we was going to build the new Jerusalem – you know, before the world turned lax and sour”. Set on the building site of a seaside town in the1950s, and narrated by comedy legend Bernard Cribbins, this is classic BBC comedy at its best.