Showing titles in Entertainment & Performing Arts

Well hark at you, stumbling upon my autobiography. Bet you wouldn't have put money on that three years ago, eh? Please don't stress yourself out too much, though; it's actually socially acceptable nowadays that you're interested. Firstly I'd like to emphasise that I have written this audiobook myself, so be assured you're getting the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth! (Which was my original choice of title, but babe, we're so over that).

With numerous examples and exercises, Michael Chekhov's To the Actor seamlessly synthesizes his many years of theater and theater instruction into a concise, engaging handbook of techniques essential for every actor. With his tested methods you will learn how to more easily call up emotion, develop a character, strengthen awareness and train your body and imagination to reach its full potential.

As well as writing about his first love, cars, James has a go at political correctness, the endless rules and regulations of daily life, the internal combustion engine and traffic wardens. He discusses gastropubs, Jeremy Clarkson, and other trials of modern life. His highly entertaining observations from behind the wheel will have you laughing out loud, whether you share his opinions or not.

Miles Jupp stars as James Boswell, Dr Johnson's time-travelling biographer, with a host of top actors and comedians as his celebrity interviewees. Before James Boswell penned a biography of his friend, Dr Johnson, they were both nobodies. But his Life of Samuel Johnson made them famous - so now Boswell's out to work his magic on other celebrities. Travelling through the centuries, he gives 12 legendary figures the Boswell treatment, hoping to do for them what he did for Johnson....

An unflinching confrontation of humanity’s dark side, Brian De Palma’s crime drama film Scarface gave rise to a cultural revolution upon its release in 1983. Its impact was unprecedented, making globe-spanning waves as a defining portrait of the gritty Miami street life. From Al Pacino’s masterful characterization of Tony Montana to the iconic “Say hello to my little friend,” Scarface maintains its reputation as an unwavering game changer in cult classic cinema.

Imagine waking up one day to discover that you have forgotten everything about your life. Your only link with the past, your only hope for the future, is your identical twin. Now imagine, years later, discovering that your twin had not told you the whole truth about your childhood, your family, and the forces that had shaped you. Why the secrets? Why the silences? You have no choice but to begin again. This has been Alex's reality: a world where memories are just the stories people tell you, where fact and fiction are impossible to distinguish.

Why do some women still expect men to buy their dinner? Why do some men feel depressed after masturbating? What the hell is going on with porn? Comedian Sara Pascoe explores the complex connections between sex, power and money. This audiobook is a thoughtful and entertaining journey through anatomy and arousal, dating and sex work, animals and technology, and Pascoe makes our most baffling human behaviours less mysterious.

Best known for his horror/sci-fi/fantasy films including Phantasm, The Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-tep, and John Dies at the End, now Don Coscarelli’s taking you on a white-knuckle ride through the rough and tumble world of indie film. This memoir fits an entire film school education into a single audiobook. It’s loaded with behind-the-scenes stories and will prove indispensable for fans of Coscarelli’s movies, aspiring filmmakers, and anyone who loves a story of an underdog who prevails while not betraying what he believes.

Purple Van Man, is '8 out of 10 Cats' star Sean Lock's fantastic new audiobook, recorded in front of a sold out audience at London's Hammersmith Apollo. We all know what white van man thinks about the world we live in but it's time to hear a different voice, the purple van man's voice. Filled with gags, opinions, deft observations and some silly voices, this is Sean Lock doing what he does best, spouting inspired jibber jabber as he crosses the country in his purple van. He will make you laugh like a drunken horse.

Listen up chumps, basically the Vicar asked us to edit the parish newsletter this month, we weren't gonna do it at first cos the vicar said 'I want you to channel your energy into doing something creative', which he knows brings back Kurtan's PTSD cos our old woodwork teacher Mr Perkins used to say it to him all the time, and when Kurtan actually DID channel his energy into something creative he managed to sand down some MDF to make a back scratcher and Darren Lacey pointed at it and laughed and called it an 'abomination to woodwork'....

The stories from his childhood in Somerset are vivid and moving: his grandfather with his tin leg, his mother at the mills, and his uncle, the ferret keeper and the black sheep of the family for ‘carrying on’ with married women. Keith Floyd spent a short spell on a local newspaper, and then, in a hilarious episode, joined the army. After he and the Ministry of Defence decided that they did not suit each other, he took his first cooking job as an assistant vegetable cook in a Bristol hotel.

In this series, Adam’s church gets a makeover, complete with plasma screens and a smoothie bar, Adam researches some poledancers and then succumbs to envy when he hears an old rival on ‘Thought for the Day’. Adam’s new ‘bromance’ with Leon comes to a crashing halt at an embarrassing vicarage dinner party. Adam also has a crisis of faith and then gets drunk at a Vicars and Tarts party.

As a 17-year-old virgin working...for Virgin, Joel Dommett has grand ambitions. Firstly, he is going to swap suburbia for the bright lights of showbiz. Secondly, he is going to find 'the one' - and sets himself the very achievable target of finding her in the first 50 people he's definitely going to sleep with. What follows is a series of disastrous romantic encounters, including carpets mistaken for toilets, futile grand gestures and the catfishing to end all catfishing.

In this documentary portrait of Kenneth Williams, who died in 1988, the much-loved comedy actor's diaries are drawn upon to illustrate his life and career. David Benson, who won acclaim for his one-man show in which he portrayed Kenneth Williams, reads extracts from the diaries, while archive audio clips from such programmes as Round the Horne and Beyond Out Ken illustrate the madcap versatility of Williams the performer.

I've been in this life for 50 years, been trying to work out its riddle for 42, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last 35. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Hugo Speer stars as John Stone in the final two series of this gritty, fast-paced crime drama. Manchester detective DCI Stone and his team are faced with more morally challenging cases in these hard-hitting stories. When a dead body is discovered at an inner city hotel DCI Stone is forced to navigate the murky and transient world of catering.

The door to magic is closed, but it’s not locked. And now Joshua Jay, one of the world’s most accomplished magicians, not only opens that door but brings us inside to reveal the artistry and obsessiveness, esoteric history, and long-whispered-about traditions of a subject shrouded in mystery. In 52 short, compulsively listenable essays, Jay describes how he does it, whether it’s through the making of illusions, the psychology behind them, or the way technology influences the world of magic.

In his fascinating and hilarious BBC Radio 4 stand-up show, comedian and quizzer Paul Sinha shines a light on the important historical moments that you never got taught at school and explains why so much of what you did learn is wrong. There will also, as ever, be puns.

Nicholas Parsons was the host of the Just a Minute for nearly 52 years - from its first broadcast on 22nd December 1967 until his last show on 23rd September 2019, aged 96. He was a comedy 'straight man', West End actor, radio personality, game-show presenter, chat-show host, quiz master supreme and larger-than-life stage superstar. Here we celebrate his life and work with a series of programmes compered by Paul Merton, plus Series 85 of Just a Minute - his final series.

Hiya, you lot, Chubby Brown here. You know, over the years I've had my share of luck, but what makes me feel luckiest is having you lot stick with me all this time. Top names have always said, "Your audience is still the best in the business, Chubbs," and they're right! So this one's for all of you! A collection of the very best and bluest - all my personal favourite gags from over the years. I was doing all this before the PC Brigade stepped in, and it still tickles me how some people can't see the joke.