Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in All Categories

Detective Inspector Gwen Danbury comes from a family of investigators. Her father was a policeman, and her mother Joan often discussed cases with him - on one occasion helping him to solve a tricky murder. Gwen already has a capable, efficient sidekick in the form of DS Henry Jacobs - but nevertheless, her mum insists on helping Gwen with her inquiries.

Two series of the BBC Radio 4 sitcom about an alien invasion of a small village, starring Hattie Morahan and Julian Rhind-Tutt with Peter Davison and Jan Francis. When the small Buckinghamshire village of Cresdon Green is invaded by an alien race called the Geonin, the local residents come up against Uljabaan, the smooth-talking leader of the aliens.

The TARDIS is under attack. Alien plants have taken root in its corridors, strange flowering tendrils that threaten to rip the Doctor's ship apart. New companions Brandon and Alex venture into the heart of the TARDIS to discover the source of the infestation. Instead they find a secret door and a forgotten world. The Doctor has unfinished business with the Arborites, living trees with long memories.

Eve Best, Danny Sapani and Shaun Dooley star in this modern, riveting and magical production of The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare. The Winter's Tale treads new dramatic ground embracing tragedy, poetry, folklore, magic realism, music, comedy and the infamous stage direction 'exit pursued by a bear'. One of Shakespeare's mesmerising later productions, it is often considered a 'problem play' as it starts with a tragedy and ends in a romance. 

We seem to have forgotten how to argue about important things without descending into tribalism, insults and generally thinking the worst of our opponents. This is no good. We'll never get out of the bitter divisions cleaving society if we don't learn to disagree fruitfully.  In this series, Timandra Harkness explores the best ways to disagree with other people - constructively.

It's the summer solstice weekend, and 150,000 people have descended on a farm in the northeast of England for an open-air music festival. Reporting on the event is journalist Zoe Meadows, who files her copy from a food van run by her friends Sam and Lisa. When some of Sam's customers get sick, it looks like food poisoning, and it's exacerbated by the mud, rain and inadequate sanitary facilities. It's assumed to be a 24-hour thing until people get home and discover strange skin lesions, which ulcerate and turn septic. More people start getting ill - and dying.

Inspired by the real-life memoirs of Edinburgh's first detective, James McLevy, here are more fantastic fictional adventures featuring the tenacious Victorian crime-solver. Once again, McLevy and his faithful sidekick Constable Mulholland patrol the dark wynds and back alleys of 1840s Leith tracking down evildoers—aided by a surprising ally: the beautiful and resourceful brothel-keeper Jean Brash.

Dave Mabbutt is having a crisis. He’s the richest man in Britain, a bona fide rockstar with fans, fame and fortune. He even has a personal assistant called Mr. Tumble, who is in fact an elephant - but he’s not happy. When you have more money than sense life can have hilarious consequences. And how rock and roll does it really feel to have your mum at every gig?

2012 was full of historic milestones - London hosted the Olympics, the Queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, and The News Quiz marked its 35th anniversary. Sandi Toksvig is in the chair for these three series, as the team debate these and other top stories of the year.

Meet Budleigh Salterton's most famous son, Giles Wemmbley Hogg: bumbling backpacker, fearless investigator of cultural diversity, connoisseur of Eastern philosophies and upper middle-class student ponce. In these five series, armed with his trusty portable DAT and his Charterhouse rugby shirt, Giles bravely ventures forth to far-off foreign lands and records his adventures. His meanderings take him from the Sudan to Las Vegas - but wherever he goes, he always manages to make a thumping great prat of himself.

When Tony Hardstaff breaks the bank playing ‘Snap!’ at the St Petersburg Casino, he is swept up in a maelstrom of romance and adventure. Seduced by the sultry Natassia Fillipovna Karamazov – a woman with curves so perfect they could make a geometry professor spontaneously combust – Tony is caught in flagrante by the Russian mafia, and flees for his life.

It’s 2025, and advances in gene therapy have led to the eradication of many once-common diseases. But the ability to engineer and re-engineer the brain has provoked fear – for it means that a truly artificial consciousness is within reach. The idea that humans may no longer be the only sentient species is so unthinkable that legislation is hastily passed, rigorously controlling genetic experiments. But there are certain people who seek to circumvent the law...

An acclaimed crime novelist and dramatist, Alison Joseph has scripted over 25 plays for BBC Radio. This collection showcases four of her original crime dramas, all specially written for Radio 4 – beginning with an apparently open-and-shut case for Sister Agnes that turns out to be anything but...

 It’s 1964, and 22-year-old Trisha moves into a West Hampstead bedsitter to escape her controlling suburban parents and her boring fiancé, Keith. She’s determined to make it as a swinging, get-ahead girl-about-town, but finds herself struggling with homesickness, loneliness and the challenges of cooking a decent meal on a single gas ring. Then she rescues a grotty wardrobe from her landlady’s attic, and it yields a surprising treasure – a copy of Cooking in a Bedsitter, which becomes her bible.

Looking for a sign from God, nun Martina leaves her convent and becomes a temporary chef – only to walk straight into a catering crisis of epic proportions. Valentine’s Viennese Patisserie supplies classy Austrian snacks for corporate events, but now their pastry cook has left, no-one knows how to make any of the delicacies they’re offering. And that’s not their only problem – they’re also being chased by clients, up to their necks in bills and cancellations, and stuck with a clapped-out delivery van that keeps breaking down.

Roy Hitchcock is a provincial hack journalist and inveterate daydreamer. When he meets his former English teacher at his old school’s prize-giving ceremony, his private fantasies run wild and he sets out to capture her heart. Unfortunately, his attempts to get in Miss Callaghan’s good books constantly backfire – and the more he apologises, the less impressed she is. There’s also another major obstacle in his path, in the macho form of Jane’s current lover, media hero Chad Mann.

This sparkling comedy show written by Jeremy Front (writer of the Charles Paris mysteries for Radio 4) stars Jeremy and Rebecca Front as Jack and Millie Lemman - an older couple who are fully engaged with contemporary life whilst being at war with the absurdities of the modern world...

Newly graduated from university, Alex Fisher returns home depressed and suffering from existential angst. But when his father encourages him to make himself useful by killing the snails in the garden Alex has an epiphany. Instead of murdering them, he will save them – and soon, he has a whole escargatoire of snails, all named after celebrities, crawling over the carpet, climbing the walls and hanging off the lampshades.

In space, something can hear you scream. And that something is coming. On her first adventure in outer space, Ruby learns that the universe is bigger, more colourful, and crazier than she could ever have imagined. She also learns that even the Doctor can feel afraid – and that certain nightmares are all too real…

Over 14 episodes, we eavesdrop behind the scenes and in front of the camera, as the hapless team endeavour to capture the zeitgeist and stay ahead of the cultural curve. From exposing heavy metal band Tanks n’ Daisies as closet anoraks, to interviewing sizzling Animalistic Impulse star Karen Stone and schmoozing Hollywood royalty at the Cannes Film Festival, they’ll do anything to boost the show’s ratings – and their own profiles. But whether they’re tangling with a country-and-western legend, delving into lottery corruption or facing an alien incursion, things rarely go according to plan...