Big Town, All Stars
A BBC Radio 4 Comedy
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Big Town, All Stars
Buy Now for £7.99
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By:
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Bill Dare
About this listen
A hilarious BBC Radio sitcom of big dreams, small towns, and rock'n'roll!
When Kenny (Stephen Tompkinson) gives up his life in the geography classroom to join a struggling a capella group with a beautician, a dentist and a boxer, he doesn't realise he'll soon be in the best band on the wedding circuit—and fronting the potential future of rock 'n' roll....
Between trying to manage the band's failing love lives and their battling ambitions, Kenny finds that chaos greets them wherever they go. Arguments about who gets to sing the lead? Check. Rowing about recording contracts? Check. Selling out for a TV talent show? Check.
Even if their only gigs are the engagement parties of their exes and a 'cruise ship' that's really a reconditioned destroyer, it doesn't mean they can't all dream of the big time: wealthy widows, international rock star glamour, private jets. It's just a pity that it looks more like old school reunions and the same old small time rows....
A rib-tickling mixture of music and comedy from the writers of Peep Show, Dead Ringers, and The Now Show, and starring Stephen Tompkinson (Wild at Heart, Drop the Dead Donkey, Brassed Off), Nicola Walker (Last Tango in Halifax, Doctor Who: The Audio Adventures, Unforgotten), Adrian Scarborough (Killing Eve, Crashing, Miranda) and Clive Rowe (The Story of Tracy Beaker, Harry Hill). Also featuring Meera Syal, Henrietta Garden, Dan Strauss, Darren Boyd and Matthew Little.
Written and devised by Bill Dare
Written by Giles New, Jessie Armstrong and Sam Baine
Producer Gareth Edwards
Cast:
Stephen Tompkinson
Clive Rowe
Adrian Scarborough
Doon Mackichan
Nicola Walker
Meera Syal
Brian Bovell
Rachel Preece
Debra Stephenson
Dave Lamb
Giles New
Matthew Little
Tony Gardner
Robert Webb
Bill Dare
Darren Boyd
Dan Strauss
Henrietta Garden
Stephen Powell
Raquel Cassidy
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, February-March 2000 and July 2001
©2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution LtdListeners also enjoyed...
The exclamation mark should have been a red flag. This was a chore to listen to. I think I smiled twice in the four episodes I listened to.
It starts with the pilot episode, featuring Doon Mackichan as Lorelei. In the actual series, she’s replaced by Nicola Walker. This episode is then re-recorded with Nicola Walker as episode 3 of the first series.
The series is simply not funny. But what makes it worse is that there are snippets of acapella between scenes, made all the more infuriating because they sing “Heard it on the grapevine” as opposed to “through” the grapevine, which is the actual lyric of the song. I gave up listening in the middle of episode 4 (having skipped episode 3) as it was all just too much.
What a letdown
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