Showing results by author "BBC" in All Categories

A fantastic collection of 20 songs, nursery rhymes, stories, puzzles and tongue-twisters performed by Sophie Aldred and Richard Mitchley. Join in with actions, words and games!

In a nationwide poll conducted by BBC Television's Bookworm to find the nation's favourite poem, Rudyard Kipling's "If" was voted number one. This compilation brings together over 40 poems from the poll, including the top 10, all stirringly read by John Nettles, Siobhàn Redmond, Greg Wise, and Emma Fielding.

This six-part comedy series was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1988. Hosted by Stephen Fry, accompanied each week by Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Emma Thompson, and a selection of guests including Phyllida Law, Robert Bathurst, Julia Hills, and Alison Steadman, the show takes the form of a roundtable discussion, interspersed with sketches that veer tangentially from the sublime to the ridiculous.

A fun collection of all-time favourite pre-school playgroup songs for everyone to enjoy....

Another bumper collection of classic fun and games from one of BBC Radio 4's best-loved and most enduring comedy panel games. The inimitable Humphrey Lyttelton is in the chair for these 25 hilarious editions (including the very first episode from 1972) plus two volumes of vintage 'Live' recordings (ad libs, retakes, warm-ups and all), a 35th anniversary special edition, and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Desert Island, in which famous fans Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent and Germaine Greer choose their favourite 'Clue' moments.

In 1985, The Observer magazine sent Douglas Adams to Madagascar to look for the exotic and potentially extinct aye-aye lemur. There he met zoologist Mark Carwardine, and together they made a radio pilot about their travels, In Search of the Aye-Aye. This led to a hugely popular radio series, Last Chance to See, later adapted as a best-selling book. Douglas Adams died in 2001, but his friend Stephen Fry took his place for a follow-up 20th anniversary television series, broadcast on BBC Two in 2009.

The Now Show is a much-loved stalwart of radio comedy. Featuring some of the best and brightest contemporary comedians, this award-winning show takes a satirical look at the news through a mix of stand-up, songs and sketches, as well as interview segments in which experts in their field explain the facts behind the headlines. In these three series, hosts Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by special guests.

Enter a surreal universe where David Dickinson goes looking for weapons of mass destruction in 'Weapons Hunt', the Queen sells off the royal jewels on the QVC shopping channel and Delia Smith turns homicidal and starts cooking up the competition. Elsewhere, Anne Robinson votes off The Weakest Disciple, and Simon Schama and David Starkey battle it out - literally - in order to become television's leading historian.

Simon Mayo hosts a comedic battle between three teams to find out which is the funniest generation. Will the Up and Comers, the Current Crop or the Old Guard be crowned as the Golden Age of Comedy?

It’s the 100th series of The News Quiz – let the centennial celebrations commence! To mark the occasion, each of these eight episodes is presented by a different guest host from the world of comedy, who keeps the chair warm in their own inimitable style (and with their cushion of choice). Zoe Lyons, Angela Barnes, Patrick Kielty, Andrew Maxwell, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Andy Zaltzman, Phil Wang and Nish Kumar lead a panel of guests as they dissect the latest political machinations and round up news stories both big and small. 

In this selection of episodes, the entertaining players brave enough to employ their wits and ingenuity against both the clock and their competitors are Paul Merton, Julian Clary, Sheila Hancock, Josh Widdicombe, Gyles Brandreth, Fern Britton, Jenny Eclair, and Kerry Godliman.

The News Quiz once again recruits the sharpest comedians and commentators to tear a strip off the headlines.Lining up to make satirical sense of current affairs are Hugo Rifkind, Andrew Maxwell, Simon Evans, Zoe Lyons, Andy Hamilton, Ayesha Hazarika, Tim Shipman, Lucy Porter, Frankie Boyle, Mark Steel, Jen Brister, Helen Lewis, Katy Brand, and Geoff Norcott.

A selection of weird and wonderful stories from the pages of Doctor Who Annual, featuring the first six Doctors and their companions. Jon Culshaw, Frazer Hines, Dan Starkey, Louise Jameson and Nicola Bryant read a selection of exuberant and colourful tales from the legendary Doctor Who Annual, a Christmas stocking treat from the 1960s to the 1980s.

A further delightful collection of 12 episodes of the ever popular BBC Radio four-panel game chaired by Nicholas Parsons. Loved for the verbal dexterity, wicked wit and competitive edge of its participants, Just a Minute has welcomed scores of guest players to the game since it began in 1967. In this collection the players are at their players at their cleverest and funniest. With episodes taken from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s this collection is a must-have for old and new fans alike!

The complete 99th series from the long-running topical BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show, hosted by Miles Jupp, with special guest hosts. Eight more episodes featuring a panel of comedy guests who trawl through news stories big and small to provide comedy, commentary, irony and irreverence.

Four more extended episodes from the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, specially compiled by producer Jon Naismith. Another collection of episodes from the famous antidote to panel games now in its 18th edition. Jack Dee challenges regular panellists Tim Brooke-Taylor, and Barry Cryer, with a series of silly games against which to pit their wits. In tribute to Jeremy Hardy, a long-running guest panellist on the show who passed away in 2019, he features in every episode.

In this complete collection of episodes from series 83 of Just a Minute, Nicholas Parsons invites guests to try to speak for 60 seconds on a variety of subjects. With panellists including Paul Merton, Tony Hawks, Josie Lawrence, Gyles Brandreth, Angela Barnes, Sheila Hancock, Josh Widdicombe, Julian Clary and Lee Mack, this series shows just why Just a Minute has been entertaining generations of listeners since its first series in 1967. Who can talk for one minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation from the subject? Find out as we play Just a Minute!

For over 40 years The News Quiz has graced the Radio 4 airwaves with an irreverent sideways look at the headlines. Having first appeared in 1977, it boasts a tantalising archive of episodes to remind us of the news from yesteryear, refracted through the satirical gaze of regular panellists including Alan Coren, Andy Hamilton, Mark Steel, Francis Wheen and Jeremy Hardy. Among the many guest panellists featured here are Boris Johnson, Nigella Lawson, Jo Brand, Eddie Mair, John Sergeant, Linda Smith and Roy Hattersley. 

Two joyous archive celebrations of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary presented by Russell Tovey and Graham Norton. November 2013 marked 50 years since Doctor Who first arrived on BBC television, and Radio 2 marked the occasion with two very special programmes. Who Is The Doctor? Russell Tovey takes an epic journey through five decades of Doctor Who history and charts the fortunes of the series, from its origins in the 1960s and growing popularity in the 1970s, through the onset of stormy waters in the 1980s, to its triumphant rebirth and second golden age in the 21st Century. 

The complete 97th series from the long-running topical BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show, hosted by Miles Jupp, with special guest hosts including Jo Brand, Bridget Christie, Susan Calman and Lucy Porter. Eight more episodes featuring a panel of comedy guests who trawl through news stories big and small to provide comedy, commentary, irony and irreverence.