Audio To Feed Your Addiction.
Red Dwarf. The brilliant cult T.V series comes to the radio read by Red Dwarf's Rimmer- Chris Barrie. On the mining ship Red Dwarf, professional slob Dave Lister works as a technician with his immediate superior and bunkmate, the officious Arnold Rimmer. To say that Rimmer and Lister don't get on would be like saying that high doses of radiation aren't entirely good for you. Quite a coincidence, then, that a radiation leak picks this moment to wipe out Red Dwarf's crew.
Revolting People. Baltimore, the 1770s - Shopkeeper Samuel Oliphant has a lot on his plate. His country is fighting for its freedom against the British, leaving him with less customers ("dead people tend to shop less"), and he has two redcoats living in his house: One-eyed, one-armed, one-legged, one nostrilled conman Sergeant McGurk, and his ineffectual officer Captain Brimshaw.
Ring Around The Bath. A sitcom about a rather topsy turvy household. Stella Bartholomew (Penny Downie), a middle-aged mother with a job in a garden centre, would like her adult children and their partners to move out of her chaotic suburban home so she and her husband could retire to the country, but her cookery-expert husband, Patrick (Duncan Preston), and the children are much less keen on the idea. Claudie Blakley plays eldest daughter Alison; Bruce Mackinnon, son Rick; Catherine Shepherd, his naïve girlfriend Xanthe; and Daniela Denby-Ashe, youngest daughter Egg, who is studying for A-levels.
Robin and Wendy's Wet Weekends. Robin and Wendy's Wet Weekends is set primarily in the home of Robin and Wendy Mayfield, on a anonymous housing estate in Stevenage, although it moves away from home on a regular basis. The sitcom revolves around the lives of Robin, Wendy and their next door neighbours. Robin is an obsessive, self centred and controlling individual, while his wife Wendy is long suffering as far as her husband is concerned, and deals with him admirably.
Ross Noble Goes Global. Part stand up - part travel show. Ross Noble takes his unique style of stand up comedy to various locations all over the world, while also giving a unique guide to the local area.
Round The Horne featured a parody a week, several catchphrases, and many memorable characters. The show often opened with a deadpan delivery by Horne of "the answers to last week's questions"; questions which listeners had neither heard nor knew about, and which were laced with (what were for BBC Radio at that time) incredible double entendres and sexual innuendo.
Rubbish. Comedy series by Tony Bagley about Martin Christmas - local government officer, cynic and manic depressive.
Rudy's Rare Records. Rudy's Rare Records is a tiny, down-at-heel reggae and ska record shop in Birmingham. It is one of a dying breed, a place with real soul and stacked with piles of vinyl where the slogan is "If we don't have it - them don't mek it." The shop is owned by the charismatic, irrepressible Rudy Sharpe (Larrington Walker), who is reluctantly helped out by his long-suffering, neurotic-divorcee son Adam (Lenny Henry).
Safety Catch. Sitcom by Laurence Howarth about a man who has reluctantly drifted into the arms dealing trade. Simon McGrath, the narrator and anti-hero of the series, works as an arms dealer whose main job is selling arms to Gambia. Simon claims that he would prefer to work elsewhere, but due to a combination of laziness and cowardice he has failed to change to a job which is less problematic in terms of morality. He tries to do the good thing, such as donating blood and recycling, but he knows that he could do better.
Says on the Tin. By Christopher William Hill. When US-based advertising company Parabola Media buys out a smaller UK ad agency, disgraced maverick ad man Eliott Thurber is transferred to the new London office. The only problem for Thurber, acrimoniously separated from his English ex-wife, Hannah, is that he hates the UK and its residents. When he arrives, Thurber discovers he is not heading up the London operations and that the head of the company, Esther Finn, has employed his ex-wife, Hannah, in a bid to get rid of him.
Secret World, The. The Secret World takes one day in the lives of some (mainly British) public people and imagines what they might be up to. Starting in the morning and moving to night, the show has interconnected scenes and several running stories. Departing from 'impression' show tradition, the script doesn't rely on exaggerating received ideas about celebrities. Nor does it generally seek to make points, or undermine them in the usual way. Impressions are secondary to the ideas - some of the characters are not 'impressions' at all.
Semi Circles. Sitcom starring Paula Wilcox and David Wood as an upwardly mobile husband and wife climbing the social ladder in suburbia.
Short Gentleman, A. Comedy by Jon Canter. Hugh Bonneville stars as Robert Purcell QC, a perfect specimen of the British Establishment, who applies faultless legal logic to his disastrous personal life. Jon Canter read Law at Cambridge, where he was President of Footlights, then worked as an advertising copywriter before becoming a radio and TV scriptwriter. His comic novels include Seeds of Greatness, A Short Gentleman and Worth.
Shuttle Diplomacy. Comedy series by Marianne Carey set in the corridors of power at both Westminster and Holyrood.
Shuttleworths, The. Graham Fellows's creation John Shuttleworth, Sheffield's favourite singer-songwriter, takes to the airwaves with his electronic keyboard, wife Mary, and next door neighbour (and sole agent) Ken Worthington in tow. The fifteen minute episodes are based on "Sheffield's number one singer-songwriter" as he gives his thoughts on everyday life, and performs ditties on his keyboard.
Shuttleworths, The. Graham Fellows's creation John Shuttleworth, Sheffield's favourite singer-songwriter, takes to the airwaves with his electronic keyboard, wife Mary, and next door neighbour (and sole agent) Ken Worthington in tow.
Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter, The. By Basil Boothroyd. The convoluted chronicle of the everyday life and times of optimistic crime writer Gerald C Potter searching for inspiration.
Smelling of Roses. Rosie Burns is the central character of Simon Brett's sitcom, juggling her disfuntional family and event management company, not helped by recalcitrant clients and the idiosyncracies of her staff...
Sofa of Time, The. Comedy series following two men's quest for `The Sofa of Time', a piece of furniture with such magical powers that on no account must it be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. It is said that those who sit on the Sofa can be transported to anywhere and to any time. Milford and Parker get sacked from their jobs in a soft furnishings factory in Crouch End and, as they are clearing out their lockers, they fall into the magical world of Gravy. There Milford is regarded as the chosen one who has come at last to save the people from Raamen Bod who plans to find the Sofa of Time and use it for evil purposes. The question is whether Milford and Parker can find the Sofa, save the people of Gravy and, in doing so, find their way back to Crouch End.
Steptoe and Son. A real British classic, charting the love-hate relationship of a widower father and unmarried son who run a decrepit rag-and-bone business in London.
Stockport, So Good They Named It Once. Comedy drama by Jim Poyser and Damian Lanigan following the lives of the Conroys, a family living in Stockport. Writers Damian Lanigan and Jim Poyser used their own experience of growing up around the titular town south of Manchester as the basis for this relatively fresh and original sitcom series. The unusual setting in a distinct real-life location apparently attracted some attention in the local press, and a sense of place was lovingly established via continual "County" and "Robbies' Mild" references, plus liberal use of the northwestern rhyming-slang pejorative "bobbins".
Street and Lane. Street and Lane is a radio comedy series written by Dave Sheasby and Ian McMillan. The main characters, Johnny Street (Nicholas Lane/Shaun Dooley) and Arthur Lane (Fine Time Fontayne) are partners in a small Yorkshire building firm. The series records their rather odd experiences in Yorkshire suburbia, doing a variety of small and large jobs for householders.
Tales of the Mausoleum Club. A series of sophisticated parodies of Victorian literature, written by Ian Brown and James Hendrie, revolving around the members of an arcane club, which only admitted people who had got away with murder.
Talking And Not Talking. Laura Solon won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005 with her sensational debut show. She now returns to Radio 4 with a new series of her bittersweet comedy show packed with characters, monologues and sketches from this extraordinary writer and performer. There will be talking, not talking, some stories, and a lion made out of china. Aided by Rosie Cavaliero, Ben Moor and Ben Willbond, Laura Solon is a remarkable talent with an astonishing eye for detail and ear for voice.
Three Men Went to Mow. Comedy series by Paul Marshall. Horticultural comedy from Scotland with workshy council groundsmen Alec, Danny and Jack. Beware the squirrels!
Tickets Please. Mark Maier's comedy is more an emotional roller coaster, less an intercity train journey. For starters, most of the staff can't square up to the job. They're suffering the torments of unrequited love - for each other... Ticket-inspector Robin's marriage has fallen apart and, in a horribly doomed last-ditch scramble, he's staking all on Nadine, the restaurant-car chef who is scarcely aware Robin exists. Nadine is besotted with rogue-ish buffet-car manager Carl, who is completely in love with himself. Robin, in turn, ignores the forlorn flirtations from dippy trolley-attendant Carol.
To the Manor Born. To the Manor Born is a British sitcom that first aired on BBC1 from 1979 to 1981. It stars Penelope Keith, who had become famous for playing Margo Leadbetter in the suburban sitcom The Good Life, she plays Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, an upper-class woman who, upon the death of her husband, has to move out of her beloved manor house. The manor is then bought by Richard DeVere a nouveau riche millionaire supermarket owner originally from Czechoslovakia. Once Richard Devere takes over the manor house, he can't do anything right in Audrey fforbes-Hamilton's eyes.
Tom Wrigglesworth's Open Letters. Through the medium of four open letters, the comedian Tom Wrigglesworth investigates the myriad examples of corporate lunacy and maddening jobsworths in modern Britain. In this series his subjects range from traffic wardens to estate agents, with Tom recalling his own funny and ridiculous experiences as well as recounting the absurd encounters of others.
Undone. Writer-performer Ben Moor's comic sci-fi series about the bizarre parallel city of Undone.
Vent. Ben has survived a crippling brain lesion, but he won't engage with the world around him, preferring to stay safely in his own fantasy world. A funny and moving drama about not being dead.
Weak at the Top. John Weak puts the man into management. He's Radio 4's new bastard: a high-flying Marketing Director with razor-sharp skiving skills, like how to do strategic planning using only a pair of dice and an Argos catalogue, how to get a big company car and drive it so that cyclists stay on the pavement, and how to do absolutely nothing at work whilst giving all the appearance of adding value and moving the organisation forward in a meaningful way.
Whack-O! These days it'd be hard to make a long-running series based on a schoolmaster who took pleasure in thwacking his charges and swindling everyone. Fortunately, in olden days sense prevailed. Whack-O! featured the wonderful Jimmy Edwards as Professor James Edwards. Prof Edwards is one of the great characters of sitcom, an unapologetic, scheming drunk, who constantly runs rings around his fellow masters and thinks nothing of cheating and manipulating charges and colleagues alike. Teachers v Pupils is standard fare throughout film and TV, but usually it's like St Trinians - we're on the side of the kids. Whack-O! brilliantly realised that adults wanted to see a teacher prevail, particularly when the teacher in question was a charming sociopath.
When the Dog Dies. Sandy Hopper is growing old happily along with his dog, Henry. His grown-up children are both married to people Sandy doesn't approve of and would like him to move out of the family home so they can get their hands on their money earlier. But Sandy is not having this - he's not moving until the dog dies. Sandy also has a lodger and his daughter is convinced that the too-attractive Dolores is after her father and his money. Luckily, Sandy has three grandchildren; sometimes a friendly word or a kindly hand on the shoulder can really help a grandad in the 21st century. Man and dog together face a complicated world.
Wrinkles. This was the first radio series from Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who later went on to write Red Dwarf, and was set in an old people's home. Surrealism and normality was blended with diverse staff and residents, and two series ensued. The cast included Tom Mennard, Anthea Askey, Ballard Berkeley, David Ross and Nick Maloney.
Yes, Minister was an award winning comedy set principally in the private office of a British government cabinet minister in the Department for Administrative Affairs in Whitehall the series follows the senior ministerial career of The Rt Hon Jim Hacker MP.
You'll Have Had Your Tea: The doings of Hamish and Dougal. A spin off from the long running and equally timeless `I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue', the Doings of Hamish and Dougal finds Graeme Garden and Barry Took reprising their popular creations, aided and abetted by Alison Steadman as Mrs. Naughtie and Jeremy Hardy as the Laird. Set in the Scottish Highlands, the series follows the comic misadventures of two elderly Scots gentlemen as they wade through bizarre situations with a barrage of innuendo, double entendre (and plenty of single entendre) and bad old jokes. The situations are reminiscent of the Goon show, the jokes are very much in the Carry On tradition. The blend is perfect, and the result is laugh out loud comedy that is just timeless. When today's `edgy' comedians have faded into rightful obscurity, and the topical humour is no longer funny, this will still get laughs by the bucket load. Recommended to all fans of Clue, Carry on and innuendo laden humour.
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