Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Arts & Entertainment

Award-winning comedian Alan Davies stars in his own BBC Radio sitcom. Meet Alan. He's a struggling actor trying to cope with life in the 90s - the friends, the work, the romance... Meet the friends: Murray is a local journalist, who's given a crash course in tabloid sensationalism when the entire staff comes down with Peruvian flu. Kate is a primary school art teacher, who tussles daily with the obnoxious seven-year-old Tamara and tries to save time by getting the children to write their own reports.

Rediscovered and restored by radio enthusiasts, The Radio Circle, it was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on the 10th May 1955, just two days before Tony Hancock’s 31st birthday. Tony Hancock had taken an unscheduled trip to Italy, leaving Hancock Half Hour’s producer to ask Harry Secombe to step in to star for the first three episodes of the second series. The fourth episode saw Tony return, and begrudgingly make ‘A Visit To Swansea’, to thank Harry Secombe for stepping in.

Five family pantomimes featuring musical numbers, silly jokes and fun for all the family! Enjoy fantastic live performances of these classics tales: Puss in Boots, Aladdin, Mother Goose, Dick Whittington and Sleeping Beauty. The pantos are recorded in front of a live audience, with full musical numbers and an orchestral score. Rousing songs, silly jokes and Widow Twankey all make an appearance! With casts including Terry Wogan, Maureen Lipman, Anita Harris, June Whitfield, Kenneth Connor and Frank Thornton.

Presented by Michael Parkinson, this highly entertaining collection of interviews is taken from Spike Milligan's numerous appearances on Parkinson between 1972 and 1982. The subjects Spike covers include his early years, his poetry and books, The Goons, and his relationship with the BBC.

What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else' is a four-part mini-series of short comedic monologues on BBC Radio 4. Written and performed by stand-up comedian Andrew Lawrence, it takes a light-hearted look at various aspects of conventional living and the pressure we feel to conform to social norms and ideals.

With its shocking portrayal of incest, intrigue and murder, this powerful Jacobean revenge drama scandalised audiences when it was first performed in the 1620s and it is still controversial today. When siblings Giovanni and Annabella embark on a passionate affair, Annabella falls pregnant with her brother's child. Knowing she must marry to protect her honour, she chooses one of the many suitors clamouring for her hand - but when her secret is revealed, the lovers are caught up in a bloody chain of events that culminate in a poisoning, a blinding, a stabbing and a brutal massacre.

The UK and Africa have had a long and complicated past. These two series look at the history of this relationship, with Daliso as our relationship guidance counsellor, helping us navigate the rocky historical waters between the two places. A Malawian comedian who grew up all over the world, Daliso straddles cultural divides. He will help us all better understand how to sort out our differences. Or not.... 

This hilarious, fast-paced parody sketch show sends up classic BBC radio shows, travels through time and brings you Shakespeare as you've never heard it before. Tune in to Desert Island Discs with a twist, appreciate an orange-inal version of Hamlet and discover Tolstoy with a peel good factor. A spoof show like no other, The Long Hot Satsuma is a laugh out loud comedy packed with quick-witted lines and the trademark dry humour of veteran comedians Alison Steadman, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden.

Lucy Porter explores family life via songs, sketches and stand-up. Lucy Porter is well known for her cheery, feelgood comedy. She has toured both nationally and internationally with her one-woman shows, and her many TV and radio appearances include Live at the Apollo, QI, The Now Show and The News Quiz. In this trilogy of stand-up specials, she examines domestic life from the dramatic to the dreary, aided by comedian and impressionist Luke Kempner.

The Now Show: Series 39: Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by guests including John Finnemore, Mitch Benn and Laura Shavin to present a comedic breakdown of the news.

The travellers arrive in the dangerous domain of the Toymaker, where their failure to win at a series of games could result in them becoming his playthings for eternity. Apparently innocuous nursery characters reveal deadly intent, and for companions Steven and Dodo the stakes are raised with every game of blind man's buff and musical chairs. The Doctor, meanwhile, is rendered invisible and given the challenge of completing the fiendishly difficult Trilogic game.

In the spaces between inner-city Bristol and the netherworld walks Deacon, a mysterious, centuries-old drifter who arrives when least expected to save lost souls. In these three dramas, he comes to the aid of a boxer-turned-petty-criminal, a teenager in danger and a refugee in hiding. Don Warrington stars as the enigmatic Deacon in this gritty contemporary fantasy trilogy.

When Ram Mohammad Thomas, an orphaned, uneducated street kid from Mumbai, wins a billion rupees on a live TV quiz show, he finds himself beaten up and thrown in jail by the programme's producers. During his interrogation he explains, through a series of flashbacks, how he knew the answers to all the show's questions. What he describes about his life is jaw-dropping: "You learn a lot about the world by living in it." he says.

Regarded by many as the greatest actor of the 20th century, Laurence Olivier enjoyed a stellar career in film, theatre and television, winning multiple awards along the way from the 1920s to the 1980s. In this absorbing collection of archive interviews he discusses his schooldays and early acting career, his drama training, his spells as actor-manager running the Old Vic and the National Theatre (which he helped create), his wartime service and his friendship and collaboration with fellow actors, including John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. 

A deliciously black satirical comedy about the dinner party from hell. The fastidious host, Paige, decides to throw a dinner party in honour of her husband, Lars, who is celebrating the success of his pop psychology book, Beyond Belief. She carefully plans a surprise menu that will mark the occasion and anxiously checks with the waiter she has employed to make sure that everything is perfectly prepared. Her lucky guests include a postfeminist vegetarian artist, a distinguished microbiologist, a TV journalist and an uninvited guest who ends up staying for dinner.

Six men have reached a certain age, their 40-something years, and each has a very different – and sometimes surprising – story to tell, from the brother who receives an unexpected letter to a compulsive philanderer, and a news photographer sent on an unusual assignment. All are funny, touching, and as beautifully observed as would be expected from the author of the phenomenal best sellers Eats, Shoots & Leaves and Talk to the Hand.

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.

Three stories that explore the most evocative experience of summer - outdoor swimming. 'To Brixton Beach': A mysterious swimmer spends all day in the pool at Brockwell Lido. Written by Stella Duffy. Read by Adjoa Andoh. 'Lido Lover': An Englishwoman finds a kind of fulfilment on the Venetian Lido. Written by Michele Roberts. Read by Joanna Tope. 'The Horizon Pool': An unexpected swimming companion in the UK's northernmost outdoor pool - the Trinkie in Wick - may hold the key to recovery for a teenage boy. Written by Linda Cracknell. Read by Finn den Hertog.

J.R.R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait is a compilation of radio and TV archive material from the '60s and '70s featuring interviews with J.R.R. Tolkien, his relatives, and his colleagues in which he talks about The Lord of the Rings, his other Hobbiton books, life as an academic, correspondence received from fans, and his views on the 20th century. This audiobook is presented by Brian Sibley.

What are cash-strapped 40-somethings like Harry (played by Kris Marshall) supposed to do when they see their cash-rich, equity-released parents spending all their inheritance? It doesn’t help that Harry’s rich brother seems to upstage him at every turn as he tries to make ends meet and support his family. As their father's 65th birthday approaches, and the money starts disappearing, Harry decides to see if he can ‘help’ them to change course.