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

Tasty, piquant and distinctly different, The Curried Goat Show is a comedic happening brought to you by the warped minds of writer/performers Dan Gaster (The Thick of It) Will Ing (Insert Name Here) and Ben Silburn (Week Ending).

Newly rebranded Deer Park Academy is struggling to turn itself around after being placed in special measures. Hoping to inspire the students (and tick the 'creative learning' box for the next Ofsted inspection), the headmaster decides to put on a production of Romeo and Juliet. But inspiration can be dangerous, and when has-been ex-TV star Geoff Cathcart is brought in to direct, he opens a Pandora's box of problems.

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present a mix of stand-up, sketches, and songs, along with Jon Holmes, Laura Shavin, Mitch Benn, and Marcus Brigstock, in an hour-long download-only special. This compilation features the highlights from the last five years.

Here are all six episodes from this one-off 1987 radio comedy series, written by John Antrobus and starring Spike Milligan, Chris Langham, John Antrobus, and a jazz quartet. Episodes include "The Incredible Case of the Vanishing Flying Scotsman", "Jonah and the Whale", "From Rags to More Rags", "That 'Cake' Elusive Pimpernel", and "The Incurables".

After winning the ARIA gold award former teacher and mother of three Laura Smyth returns with a hotly-anticipated stand-up series, Your Mum, where Laura and her guests share hilarious anecdotes, advice and sayings from the mouths of mothers and examine why maternal relationships can occasionally drive us up the wall.

Since winning the Perrier Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, Dominic Holland has gone on to become one of the UK’s best loved comedians. He’s worked with Armando Iannucci, Rob Brydon and supported Eddie Izzard on tour. He is also the father of Tom Holland (best known for starring in the blockbuster Spider-man movies) and made the brilliant 2017 Dominic Holland Eclipsed Edinburgh Fringe show out of the experience of being a superhero’s dad.

Were you terrified of the Daleks? Has the familiar Doctor Who theme tune ever sent a shiver down your spine? Did Saturday teatimes once mean gathering round the television to see where the TARDIS had landed each week? If so, Doctor Who at the BBC is for you. In this special release, Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney take a journey through the archives and uncover the history of Doctor Who on BBC radio and television.

Five interlinked short plays for Woman's Hour around the theme of separation, based on experiences submitted to the programme by listeners. In 'Empty Nest', Sheila is inconsolable when her daughter leaves home for a gap year. Can an eccentric elderly neighbour help her to feel needed again? In 'Fatima the Catima', Karen tries to keep normal family life going and her anxieties at bay while her husband is fighting in Afghanistan.

Roguish Londoner Milkie leaves a glittering society gala to do a favour for glamorous actress Beth Williams. But no good deed goes unpunished, as Milkie soon discovers when an unexpected trip to the Welsh mountains sees him embroiled in a murderous conspiracy.

Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred appear in one of three full-cast BBC radio dramas based around the real-life worlds of Doctor Who. "Regenerations" by Daragh Carville: A group of friends reunite for an annual Doctor Who convention. Set against a backdrop of the Belfast troubles, the play deals with themes of sexuality and love, and features appearances by Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred.

Five dramas by Katie Hims exploring the symbolism and significance of the wedding dress. In 'True Love', Maggie's dress is so beautiful she can't bear to take it off. In 'The Rescue', Lauren resorts to drastic measures to stop her sister getting married. In 'The Scarecrow', Carla suddenly finds herself the object of attention for all the village men. In 'Janey's Big Day', Janey is unprepared for quite how involved her mother is in her wedding plans.

Alun Cochrane has a 25 year mortgage which he can only pay off by being funny. In this series he takes us on a room by room, stand up tour of his house. He has a fridge that beeps at him when he doesn't move quickly enough and a fire alarm he can't reach. His relationship with his house is a complicated one. A hoarder of funny and original observations on everyday life, Alun invites us to help him de-clutter his mind and tidy his ideas into one of those bags that you hoover all the air out of and keep under your bed. 

Perhaps best-known for his outrageously brilliant one-liners on Mock the Week, comedian Glenn Moore delivers a tale of comic mishaps in this BBC radio comedy series. Looking back through his almanac at a big event in history, Glenn finds out what he was doing at the time and looks into other strange connections to the day in question. Sit back and listen as Glenn interweaves extraordinary scenes from his life with a big event in history.

This selection contains eight of Alistair Cooke's Christmas and New Year Letters from America, broadcast in December and January over the five decades of his career and covering a range of festive topics from the light-hearted to the sombre. Starting with his December 2001 letter - broadcast in the wake of 9/11 - he remembers introducing Leonard Bernstein to Handel's 'Messiah', muses on the creation of A Christmas Carol and shares his memories of two friends who died in 1977, Groucho Marx and Bing Crosby.

Oozing with satire and sass, these fun-size yet deliciously satisfying musical comedies do for your ears what chocolate does for your taste buds. Based on the lives and careers of well-known public figures, each one takes a politician or VIP who has hit the headlines, and gives them a West End make-over. Their fabricated stories are told in an original, never-heard-before, musical that will have your toes tapping to the rhythm and shoulders shaking to the laughs.

Hosted by veteran humorist Barry Took, presenter of Points of View and former chair of The News Quiz, this entertaining guessing game sees a panel of intellectually acute guests attempting to determine a mystery object in 20 tries. Their only clue is the category it falls into: animal, vegetable, mineral, abstract, or a combination of all four. For most rounds, the studio audience know the answer and cheer on the contestants with promising guesses—but sometimes, both they and the listeners are kept in the dark, giving them an opportunity to play along too.

Ouida – the pseudonym of English novelist Maria Louise Ramé – wrote over 40 novels as well as children’s books, short stories and essays. One of the most popular authors of her day, she achieved fame and fortune with her ‘sensation novels’ which scandalised and intrigued Victorian readers, but her extravagant lifestyle resulted in her dying in poverty in 1908. This collection brings together her pioneering novel Moths with two engrossing biographical portraits of Ouida herself.

Stand-up comic, musician and conductor Rainer Hersch has performed in comedy clubs worldwide, made numerous appearances at the Edinburgh Festival and put on several comedy-concert series at London’s Southbank Centre. This audio anthology brings together two of his BBC Radio series, All Classical Music Explained and Rainer Hersch’s 20th Century Retrospective, plus the standalone programme Gershwin’s Horns and some stand-up comedy from Rainer at London’s Comedy Store.

Against his better judgement, Andrew Patterson accepts a job as a lecturer in English literature at a remote Northern redbrick university. His departmental colleagues are an eccentric bunch: doddery Head of English Professor Misty, who looks like he went to school with Little Dorrit; Amy Spade, who's suffering from an identity crisis and given to sending anonymous letters, and man-eating Melissa Murgatroyd, the honeypot of the Senior Common Room. Fortunately, Patterson has old friend and fellow lecturer Victor to show him the ropes - but even so, his first day does not go well.

Beryl Reid, OBE, (1919-1996) was one of Britain's much-loved comedy actresses. She won a BAFTA for Best Actress and received a lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards. In this collection, we hear - in her own words - about other funny women, as well as some of her well-known roles in The Belles of St Trinian's and Smiley's People, and the reaction to her role in The Killing of Sister George.