Showing titles in Entertainment & Performing Arts

Get to know a national icon in Eddie Izzard's hilarious and dazzling autobiography 'Comic genius . . . Entertainment incarnate' Telegraph ______ Star of stage and screen. Tireless supporter of charity. Marathon runner. Political campaigner. Fashion icon. Human. There is no one quite like Eddie...

Two new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of Roald Dahl's gripping autobiographical stories. These two compelling adaptations, based on Roald Dahl’s real-life tales of his of his boyhood and youthful overseas adventures, celebrate his remarkable life and commemorate his genius. Boy Dahl’s...

Multi-award-winning Hannah Gadsby broke comedy with their show Nanette. Now they take us through the defining moments in their life and their powerful decision to tell the truth—no matter the cost. Harrowing and hilarious, Ten Steps to Nanette traces Gadsby’s growth as a queer person, to their ever-evolving relationship with comedy, and their struggle with late-in-life diagnoses of autism and ADHD, finally arriving at the backbone of Nanette: the renouncement of self-deprecation, the rejection of misogyny, and the moral significance of truth-telling.

Stand-up fans rejoice—this cracking collection contains a whole seven series of top-drawer comedy, recorded live at London and Manchester's legendary Comedy Store and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Enjoy more than 11 hours of laughs from some of the biggest and best stand-ups on the circuit, hosted by three fantastically funny compères: Simon Bligh, Ross Noble and Adam Hills.

Winner of the 2017 Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album Comedy legend Carol Burnett tells the hilarious behind-the-scenes story of her iconic weekly variety series, The Carol Burnett Show. Who but Carol Burnett herself has the timing, talent, and wit to pull back the curtain on the Emmy-Award...

Opening in 1875, the Crime Museum at Scotland Yard is the oldest museum in the world purely for recording crime. The name “Black Museum” was coined in 1877 by a reporter from “The Observer”, a London newspaper, although the museum is still referred to as the Crime Museum. It is this museum that inspired The Black Museum radio series, produced in London by Harry Alan Towers.The Black MuseumFrom Jay Hickerson’s “The Ultimate History of Network Radio Programming and Guide to All Circulating Shows”, the earliest US broadcast date was January 1, 1952. Thirty-nine shows, from the full ...

The twelfth and thirteenth series of the long-running nautical comedy, plus bonus documentary Radio Lives: Jon Pertwee Everybody down! Prepare for more navigational blunders and maritime misadventures as radio's favourite frigate puts to sea once more. Collected here are the complete Series...

The star of TV’s ‘Not Going Out’ hosts more mayhem in a collision of comedy, music and carefully rehearsed chaos. Taking part in the manic mix of sketches and stand-up are special musical guests: former Spice Girl Melanie C, ABC’s Martin Fry, Erasure’s Andy Bell, Jamelia, Alison...

A Waterstones Best Book of 2024 There are many miles from the business school and basketball court at the University of Southern California to 50 million viewers for the final episode of a TV show called Magnum P.I. Tom Selleck has lived every one of those miles in his own iconoclastic and...

Highlights from Richard Burton's finest BBC radio performances from the 1940s to the 1980s. Richard Burton was one of the most famous British actors of the twentieth century, renowned for his magical, mellifluous voice. Before Hollywood tempted him away, he worked frequently for the BBC and many of his most electrifying performances were recorded there.

In 1940s London, Hercule Poirot is cornered by the club bore and learns of a mysterious death - one which sets him off on one of his most intriguing cases. When Gordon Cloade is killed in a London air raid his vast fortune passes to his young wife Rosaleen. Cloade's relatives are desperate to...

Proving that yesterday's news is every bit as entertaining as today's, these 14 archive episodes of the long-running BBC Radio 4 panel show are chaired by Barry Took, Simon Hoggart and Sandi Toksvig. Spanning the years from 1979 to 2011, this latest selection of sharp and funny editions take in...

The original uncut Radio Broadcast. On the evening of October 30th, 1938, Earth went to war with Mars. Martians invaded New Jersey! Here, the famous panic broadcast that shook the world, starring Orson Welles.

In Toast on Toast - part memoir, part "how to act" manual - Steven Toast draws on his vast and varied experiences, providing the reader with an invaluable insight into his journey from school plays to RADA and from "It's a Right Royal Knockout" to the Colony Club. Along the way he reveals the secrets of his success. He discloses how to brush up on and expand your technical and vocal skills, how to nail a professional voiceover, and how to deal with difficult work experience staff in a recording studio....

Four full-cast dramatisations starring Maurice Denham as Inspector Maigret and Michael Gough as his creator Georges Simenon. 'Maigret and the Minister', 'Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets', 'Maigret and Monsieur Charles', and 'Maigret and the Madman of Bergerac'. Georges Simenon and his...

For anyone who writes comedy, makes comedy, loves comedy, as we delve into the minds of over 500 comedians across the world, asking them in depth about how they do it, and how they cope with the challenges of a creative life. Previous guests include James Acaster, Bill Burr, Russell Howard, Bo Burnham, Sarah Millican, Sindhu Vee and Patton Oswalt.“Absolutely riveting”—The Guardian“For anyone with an interest in the craft of stand-up comedy, this is a dream come true.” — Festival Journal“Not just another w***** talking about comedy.” — Greg ProopsSee acast.com/privacy for ...

Immensely popular and hugely influential, The Goon Show changed the face of British comedy. This 14th and final collection returns to the programme's fourth series and includes the episodes 'The History of Communications', 'The Kippered Herring Gang', 'The Tooth-Paste Expedition', 'The Case of the Vanishing Room', 'The Greatest Mountain in the World', 'Collapse of the British Railways Sandwich System', 'The Case of Agent X2 (aka The Silent Bugler)', 'The Story of Brain [sic] (aka Western Story)', 'The Saga of the Internal Mountain' and 'Bank of England Robbery'.

Maeve Binchy is one of Britain’s most popular storytellers, and these four tales demonstrate the warmth and compassion that have made her many novels bestsellers. In 'Homecoming', read by Sean Campion, the Brennans run Quentin’s restaurant in Dublin for the owner, who lives abroad. But...

Described variously as a 'polymath', a 'renaissance man' and 'one of the most colourful characters in the music business', Mike Batt has led an extraordinarily vibrant and challenging life that has been full of both glorious victories and bitter failures. For better or for worse, he is a man who has always lived life on his own terms. Idiosyncratic but mainstream, complicated but compassionate, steadfastly maverick in spirit but avowedly commercial in outlook. He is a man of great contradictions, but even greater talent.

Poirot has always hated visiting the dentist, but this time his check-up is painless and soon over. As he leaves Mr Morley's surgery, he observes a woman wearing patent leather shoes with large buckles. She catches one of the buckles on the taxi door and wrenches it off, and as Poirot hands it...