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

Living in flats in a converted house in North London, a group of middle-aged neighbours navigate their careers, love lives and family dramas in this charming sitcom full of heart.

In this brilliantly weird and hilarious sketch show, Dan Antopolski, Tom Craine and Nat Luurtsema find themselves trying not to annoy their accountant, taking a theatre trip to see Les Misérables, dreaming of opening a cattery, and singing a song in praise of fathers-in-law. Add to that a telling off to Clark Kent from his editor, a will reading with some rather odd twists, a bit of trouble with a life support machine and a very confusing cocktail bar, and you've got Jigsaw.

Wheeler-dealer snooker club owner Geoff Bryant and his wife Jenny have recently moved onto a new estate in Whittleshulme, Cheshire. Described in the brochure as an 'exclusive village development', it's squarely aimed at yuppies, the nouveau-riche and high-fliers. The trouble is, there are no local teenagers to babysit, leaving the residents to juggle careers and kids as best they can. So when local bigwig Julian Percival sets up a babysitting circle, it seems like the ideal solution.

When his marriage breaks up and he loses his job, Dave Preston has no choice but to move all his possessions – and himself – into The Storage Garden. But he’s not alone in his predicament – his fellow storage dweller, the mysterious and slightly psychotic Geoff, is in the same situation, and both are under the watchful eye of cultured security guard Ron. As he hunkers down among the boxes of pebbles, unidentifiable bits of metal and cups without saucers, Dave picks over his failed relationship with ex-wife Sarah, and prepares to face the future.

Terry Lyon, assistant head keeper of Southwood Zoo, trusts animals because most people think he’s a waste of space. But as the zoo lurches towards bankruptcy, his future looks bleak. As if managing hungry elephants and contrary polar bears wasn’t complicated enough, the humans in Terry’s life pose their own challenges. Having had to move back in with his parents after his divorce, life becomes complicated when Terry’s ex Margaret starts seeing his best friend Richard.

Explore the green and nether regions of the South West with ‘Bob Bradman’s Bed & Breakfast’; join Quentin Montreal for ‘New Movements’, as he looks into such disturbing trends as the suffragette diet, fox hunting in Maida Vale and blind motor racing; and help yourself to a heaped spoonful of Sugar Cane, the sultry Detective Sergeant whose hand is firmly wrapped around the throbbing pulse of crime.

First broadcast on the BBC Home Service, We’re in Business ran for two series between 1959 and 1960. It starred Peter Jones as dodgy small-time businessman Dudley Grosvenor, who’s always looking to make a fast buck with his crooked schemes – usually at the expense of his hapless sidekick, Harry (Harry Worth). Dudley spends his life lurching from one crisis to another, secure in the belief that “it might never happen" – but when it inevitably does, both men end up in a fix…

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…

Cartoonist Steven Appleby asks where reality ends and fantasy begins, as he gives us his distinctly abnormal insights into everyday life. In these two series, he takes a look at a few of life’s fundamental topics, including Love, Death, Science, Truth and Oceanography.

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.

From a problematic meeting with an alien princess to a horde of space tourists on a holiday from hell, life on the cruiser is never less than eventful. Indecisive Captain Taylor is faced with disaster when another of the fleet’s spaceships, The Indestructible III, suddenly explodes; relentlessly nice Communications Officer Karen embarks on a forbidden romance with ship’s engineer Stuart; and medical scientist Clive 55 causes chaos when he is arrested for murdering his 136 clones, and experiments with dark matter to catastrophic effect.

Life for supply teacher, Phil (Jim Sweeney), is turned upside down when his wife, Sarah (Caroline Quentin), is offered a new job. Phil agrees to give up work and become a stay-at-home dad to daughter Sophie - after all, how hard can it be? Phil quickly realises parenthood isn’t all coffee mornings and cake. He has to grapple with playgroups (when he can find them), new friends (some a little more ‘out there’ than others), a ‘helpful’ mother-in-law (she isn’t) and when Sarah goes to Paris with work, can Phil contain his jealousy?

Dublin-based Dessie (David Kelly) and Violet Doyle (Pauline McLynn) are trying to keep their theatrical costumier business afloat amidst drama, scandal and farce so brilliant it should be on stage itself. Attempting to embrace modern working practices, the pair find themselves in uproarious situations with a cast of colourful characters and multiple narrative threads… Listen and laugh as the beleaguered couple embrace an offer from a local nun’s drama group which might help, if only they don’t get things mixed up with the Gaiety Theatre’s opera production.

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.

Martin Christmas is a local government worker in the Sanitation department, whose days are shaped by endless recycling initiatives and green league tables, and whose nights are shadowed by his failed relationships and curmudgeonly interior monologues. While Martin is trying to cultivate his inner peace, things keep getting in his way.

Sir Lenny Henry has had a long and successful career as a comedian, impressionist, actor and presenter. Having starred in several plays in the West End and on radio, he was inspired to complete an MA in screenwriting and in 2011 penned his first radio drama, Corrinne Come Back and Gone, which opens this collection. He continued his writing career with three more Radio 4 plays and nine episodes of his comic monologue series Lenny Henry’s Rogues Gallery. Collected here for the first time, listen to these poignant and humorous original dramas.

Set up the deckchair, pop a hanky on your head and order an ice-cream with a flake, as you settle in for a hilarious trip to Llantwit-on-Sea. It’s the 1950s, the Great British holiday is booming and recently widowed Eirlys Richards runs a lively boarding house in this Welsh seaside town. Promenade Rock is a sunny seaside comedy that will have you in stitches. Listen now to the hilarious complete series, available to download for the time.

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.

When long-serving council leader Roland Whittaker loses his seat to a Monster Raving Loony Party candidate with the same surname and initials, he is both flabbergasted and furious. Young Robin Whittaker (who conducted his entire campaign dressed in a chicken outfit and a Viking helmet) isn’t happy either – he only stood for election as a student prank. Everyone expects him to resign, but he’s persuaded to stick it out, and it’s not long before he’s being proclaimed Mayor (and appointing a very unconventional Mayoress...)

This is the complete series of Niall Ashdown and Luke Sorba's (strictly non-autobiographical) hilarious sitcom about two men in their forties who really don't know what to do with themselves. The duo attempt (and mostly fail) to make their mark on the world and prove that they really aren’t as pointless as they feel. Embarking on a series of haphazard adventures covering everything from the human condition to sex, food and some surprising things in-between, they are keen to prove to old school friends they have actually achieved in life.