Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Comedy & Humour

Between 1980 and 1988 on BBC television and radio, the exploits of the Rt Hon Jim Hacker MP (Paul Eddington) - later Prime Minister - kept the British nation enthralled. Helped - and hampered - by his diligent Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne) and his Principle Private Secretary Bernard Woolley (Derek Fowlds), Hacker and his department became synonymous with government bureaucracy and administrative double dealing.

All five series of the award-winning sketch show - plus standalone comedy Daydream Believers 'Fresh and full of invention' The Telegraph Welcome to the inside-out world of Mitchell and Webb, a strange and surreal place populated by misfits, eccentrics, talking animals and a few stray Radio 4...

Welcome to Fawlty Towers, where attentive hotelier Basil Fawlty and his charming wife Sybil will attend to your every need - in your worst nightmare. With hapless waiter Manuel and long-suffering waitress Polly on hand to help, anything could happen during your stay - and probably will. John Cleese’s special introductions to each episode are included in this collection of all 12 TV soundtrack episodes.

Through the ages of Britain, from the 15th century to the 21st, Edmund Blackadder has meddled his way along the bloodlines, aided by his servant and sidekick, Baldrick, and hindered by an assortment of dimwitted aristocrats. Now the complete history of Blackadder is collected together, including the four TV series: The Black Adder, Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third and Blackadder Goes Forth.

From Parents’ Evening to the PTA, and from supply teachers to staff room squabbles, every day brings fresh challenges for headmaster Mr Beeston. Among the problems facing him are a flu epidemic, a shortage of computers, a phantom prune thief and a mysterious graffiti artist - and there’s trouble in store when in comes to sex education, school trips and Sports Day. Meanwhile, idealistic newcomers Mr Brown and Mr Sims learn some lessons about teaching, and their battle-scarred colleagues vie for promotion - or look forward to retirement.

Welcome to Hell—where nobody can ever quite catch the barman's eye. In this collection, which contains all seven series of Old Harry's Game, get ready for some wicked one-liners and scorching satire. Satan is fed up after a millennia in charge of Hell, especially given the prospect of an eternity still running the damned place. Although he does enjoy playing pranks on the world of the living and devising wry torments for the souls in his keeping, he often wistfully recalls his past as an archangel.

Few can forget where they were in September 1993 when they first heard Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation. The show was an immediate smash-hit success, causing pubs to empty on a Saturday night, which was particularly astonishing since the show went out on Thursdays. Since that fateful first series, the show has gone on to win Sony awards, Writers Guild nominations and a Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Included here are all 10 series of Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation.

A rollicking collection of six fully dramatised Jeeves & Wooster novels, starring Michael Hordern and Richard Briers. In The Inimitable Jeeves, Aunt Agatha is forcing Bertie to get engaged to the formidable Honoria Glossop. Can Jeeves save the day? Right Ho, Jeeves sees mayhem breaking out at...

The complete soundtracks of the fifth and sixth series of the much-loved comedy show – plus Christmas specials From 1981 to 2003, Only Fools and Horses followed the lives of lovable south London wheeler-dealer Del Boy and his hapless but loyal younger brother Rodney – winning the nation’s...

John Fuller-Carp, the Machiavellian head of chambers at Forecourt Buildings, is determined to become a QC and will perform almost any moral contortion to achieve his goal. When left-wing Ruth Quirke, rumoured to be a High Court judge's daughter, applies to join his chambers, Fuller-Carp's imagination goes into overdrive and promotion seems inevitable. However, his attempts to project a 'New Labour' image cut no ice with Ruth, and the two are soon at each other's throats.

A stunning collection of Just William stories, narrated by Martin Jarvis. These BBC radio readings of the adventures of William have come to be some of the most loved adaptations.

A dynamic remastering of the original BBC Radio 4 full-cast serial - Fit the First to Fit the Sixth - which spawned a phenomenal hitchhiking legend The original series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, remastered by Dirk Maggs (director of the Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases)...

Miriam Margolyes, Alison Steadman and Nigel Planer star in Sue Limb's comedy parodying the arty and adulterous adventures of the Bloomsbury Group. A stellar cast, including Roger Lloyd-Pack, Morwenna Banks, Jonathan Coy and John Sessions, join in this affectionate send-up of the infamous Bloomsbury literary group, who dominated the English cultural scene in the early 20th century.

Here is the unforgettable 'Fletch', everyone's favourite criminal, making the most of his enforced stay at Her Majesty's Pleasure. Never a man to shrink from a challenge, even from behind bars, Fletch could manage anything from organising a win on the horses to buying a council flat in Mayfair. Amazing his cellmates and infuriating officialdom, Fletch, the Arthur Daley of penal servitude, always comes out on top. Starring Ronnie Barker with Brian Wilde, Richard Beckinsale and Fulton Mackay.

Meet Surbiton’s most famous residents: Tom, Barbara, Margo and Jerry. It is Tom Good's 40th birthday, and he feels thoroughly unfulfilled. If only he can discover what 'It' is, and if he can, will his wife Barbara agree to do 'It' with him? The subsequent and sudden transformation of the Goods’ home into a smallholding causes consternation for Margo and Jerry next door, and they decide it’s their duty to interfere. So begins The Good Life, the much loved classic sitcom starring Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith.

There's more fun on the ocean waves in these 33 hilarious episodes, as the hapless Captain Povey and his reluctant subordinates are caught up in more comic capers. Contained here are the complete Series Eight and Nine of the popular show, which sees Murray courting Heather, Phillips pursuing the new Wren and Pertwee planning some special commemorative gifts for Troutbridge's 25th anniversary. Plus, the crew embark on a top secret mission, participate in a joint forces exercise and prepare to take two VIPs from The Embassy Lark to Tratvia for a trade festival.

Comedy drama set in Hardacre's, the worst advertising agency in London For three decades, Rupert Hardacre was one of the big beasts of advertising: he worked hard, played hard, and lived hard. But he fell harder... Driven out of every reputable agency in town for drinking all their whiskey and...

Meet Dr Anthony Webster and Dr Ruth Anderson, two pathologists attempting to live normal lives in an atmosphere of death, decay and seriously unpleasant smells. Anthony loves his chosen profession, finding every cadaver exciting and surprising: 'they're like Kinder eggs that have died'. Ruth, however, longs for a juicy murder mystery, instead of one routine autopsy after another.

Meet Budleigh Salterton's most famous son, Giles Wemmbley Hogg: bumbling backpacker, fearless investigator of cultural diversity, connoisseur of Eastern philosophies and upper middle-class student ponce. In these five series, armed with his trusty portable DAT and his Charterhouse rugby shirt, Giles bravely ventures forth to far-off foreign lands and records his adventures. His meanderings take him from the Sudan to Las Vegas - but wherever he goes, he always manages to make a thumping great prat of himself.

The hugely popular precursor to ‘Yes Minister’, The Men from the Ministry had the nation in stitches for 13 series between 1962 and 1977. In 1980, a fourteenth series, comprising remakes of episodes from Series 1-4, was made by the BBC Transcription Service and aired abroad. Some of these remakes are the only surviving versions of their stories, as recordings of series 1-4 have been lost to time.