read by Paul Merton
BBC Radio 2
6 × 15 minutes
2008
Spike Milligan’s war memoir read by lifelong Milligan fan, Paul Merton.
BBC Radio 4
1 × 45 minutes
2010
Two screen goddesses, one iconic film, a recipe for disaster… A new radio play starring Catherine Tate and Tracy-Ann Oberman.
On 23 July 1961, filming started on “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?” at the Producers Studio, Hollywood. It was a film that industry insiders thought would never be made, as its two female stars had an ongoing feud as famous and as long lasting as both of their glittering screen careers. Bette Davis “the actress” and Joan Crawford “the movie star” both arrived on set determined to prove everyone wrong, including each other…
Tracy-Ann’s first radio play tells the story of the making of this legendary film, of the creation of two iconic stars and of the origins of a deep seated hatred that spanned five decades.
Joan Crawford ….. Tracy-Ann Oberman
Bette Davis …..Catherine Tate
Billy Miller ….. Matt Addis
Hedda Hopper ….. Lorelei King
Images Copyright © Radio Times.
presented by Bill Bailey
BBC Radio 2
4 × 30 minutes
2007
Earth, Wind, For Hire is a light-hearted tribute to tribute bands. Presented by comedian and musician Bill Bailey, the programme traces the history of the tribute band phenomenon, examining some of the more unusual acts that are playing today, how they manage to recreate the sounds and the look of the original artists, and what they add to the music of the bands they’re covering.
BBC Radio 4 – 2020
In 1930, at the height of the Golden Age of crime fiction, a group of detective writers set about forming their own social organisation, which came to be called the Detection Club.
It still exists and, three times a year, the cream of today’s crime writers meet for dinner.
The precise facts of the association’s genesis are, appropriately, shrouded in mystery – but this play chronicles how it might have happened.
One of the leading lights in the setting-up of the Club was the indomitable Dorothy L Sayers (played by Fenella Woolgar). Also involved were Agatha Christie (Janie Dee) and GK Chesterton (Mark Williams), who became its first President.
The high spirits of much of that period’s crime fiction is reflected in the play’s tone, as the members devise an arcane Initiation ritual for new members, and search for a suitable object on which they should make their vows of loyalty to the Club.
BBC Radio 4 – 2019
Part 1
Ruby Wax talks about mental health in her inimitable style, focusing on how we are all frazzled, how we got to be that way and what we can do about it – using comedy, mindfulness and chat with the audience.
There is so much to say about mental health and feeling frazzled and Ruby has the knowledge – a Master’s degree in mindfulness-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. She also has the experience after years of struggles with mental health. And of course she has the comic gifts to say it in an articulate, funny and entertaining way
In this show, she wants to make us laugh at her and at ourselves, make our lives feel more manageable, and share tools for how to cope.
Another chance to hear a show recorded in February 2018.
Part 2
Ruby Wax returns to talk about mental health in her inimitable style, using comedy and insight to make us laugh and also think about what it means to be human.
It follows her well-received show for Radio 4 last year.
“Excellent” – The Guardian.
“Appealing and wise” – The Times
“Articulate and entertaining” – i
There is so much to say about mental health and, with a Master’s degree in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and years of struggles with mental health, Ruby has the knowledge, the experience and the comic gifts to say it in an articulate, funny and entertaining way, engaging the audience both in the room and at home.
She wants to make us laugh at her and at ourselves, share her thoughts about where we are now, how we can make ourselves think and feel a bit better and how we can all be a bit less isolated.
BBC Radio 2
2001
A one-off re-recording of an original Goon Show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the cult radio comedy. Based on Spike Milligan’s original scripts from the 1950s, Goon Again recaptures the timeless humour and enduring silliness of the comedy that inspired a generation. For this unique recording, Andrew Secombe steps into his late father’s role to play Neddy Seagoon, with actors Jon Glover and Jeffrey Holland taking the roles of Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers.
BBC Radio 2
15 Series
1998 – 2006
Hosts Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis trawl the world’s media outlets in search of tales of woe, disaster and misfortune – and then have a good laugh at them. From gigantic corporate cock-ups to the sad failures of the humblest individual, It’s Been a Bad Week is unflinching in its search for stories that reflect the calamitous misfortunes which occur daily around the globe. Drawing on a mixture of sketches, songs, impressions, guest contributions and scripted news items, the show targets the week’s well-known bad news stories, governmental disasters, royal excesses, celebrity misbehaviour as well as a myriad of less well-publicised stories from Britain and abroad.
read by Damian Lewis
BBC Radio 2
8 × 15 minutes
2006
James Bond, 007, licenced to kill – the most famous secret agent in literary history. From his Jamaican estate ‘Goldeneye’, Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, wrote numerous novels featuring the suave, sophisticated, womanising British spy.
This 8-part series, featuring four of the original stories, contains none of the films’ fancy gadgets and death-defying stunts, and presents Bond absolutely as his originator intended.
The stories, each abridged into 2 × 15 minute episodes, are The Living Daylights, From A View To A Kill, The Property Of A Lady and For Your Eyes Only.
BBC Radio 4 – 2020
Alistair McGowan stars as a host of famous people in this new comedy about man who spends his life on the road, daydreaming about the brilliant life that he’s never had.
Harry Pye could have been a great actor, writer, sportsman, politician or rock ’n’ roll star. He could have been – but he isn’t. Instead he is on his third marriage to the menopausal Sue, is half of a pub-gigging musical duo with his best mate Jason, and spends his days as a red-plate driver. He drives up and down the motorways of Britain delivering luxury cars that he knows he’ll never be able to afford to own, while being constantly harangued over his hands-free phone by his millennial boss, Kaley.
It’s true that Harry’s life hasn’t been exactly brilliant but, alone in the car, all the attention and accolades that life have denied him are abundantly supplied by his active imagination. Because, in his daydreams, Harry mingles with and glitters among a staggering array of famous friends – all voiced by Alistair McGowan.
He has created a dazzling celebrity world and placed himself right at its centre. He collects awards for the books he’s never written and films he’s never made and is feted for political wisdom and sporting prowess he doesn’t possess.
BBC Radio 4 – 2019
Part 1
Comedian Danny Heywood wakes in his hotel room to find that he is not alone. Sheryl, a fan on a mission, has let herself into the room and is determined not to leave until she gets what she wants. But what exactly is it that she wants?
The ensuing stand off is a hilarious game of verbal cat and mouse as they both endeavor to maintain control of a very bizarre situation.
This comedy drama observes the obsessive narcissistic culture of so-called celebrity, the desire to be famous and the urge to be near it. Funny, warm-hearted, surprising and all played in real time, My Obsession enjoyed a sold out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014.
Part 2
Paul Merton and Suki Webster star in this warm-hearted comedy exploring the obsessive narcissistic culture of so-called celebrity, the desire to be famous and the urge to be near it.
After a bizarre first meeting when Sheryl, a superfan of stand-up comedian Danny Heywood, broke into his hotel bedroom, the perfectly mismatched pair are reunited. This time the self-obsessed comic pays his number one fan a surprise visit.
But does the lonely comic want a date? No, he needs to be driven to his next gig.
However, Danny also reveals that Sheryl is now his inspiration, his muse. Will a bumpy road trip bring the obsessive lonely couple together or drive them both round the bend? And can this unlikely pair find happiness and a true connection or is the only thing they have in common that they are both obsessed with Danny?
Part 3
Paul Merton and Suki Webster star in this warm-hearted comedy, exploring the obsessive narcissistic culture of so-called celebrity, the desire to be famous and the urge to be near it.
Surprisingly, after Sheryl broke into the hotel room of her favorite stand-up comedian Danny Heywood and castigated him for not replying to her fan mail, the pair met again and agreed to go on a proper date. All is going well until Danny spots TV producer Karen Francis. She is looking for a comedy magician to perform the “saw the woman in half” illusion.
Danny would love to perform the trick but he needs to find an assistant quickly. Much to Sheryl’s surprise, Danny asks if she’d like to become half the woman she used to be?
Then the TV producer throws a spanner into the works that could rip our would-be lovers apart forever.
BBC Radio 4 – 2019
The National Theatre of Brent present a unique dramatised radio re-enactment of the fifty year centenary of the Historic First Walking on the Moon. As it was done by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Phil Collins.
It seems only yesterday when the moon was just a mysterious light in the unknown depths of the night sky that man could only guess at the purpose of and no one knew anything about whatsoever.
Then, all of a sudden in 1969, something remarkable occurred.
The famous Space Race began literally out of the blue and the famously infamous president President Nixon, on the run avoiding investigation for dodgy dealing, ordered the US space race to begin with the famous words, “Let the Space Race begin!” – or words to that effect.
And, as if that weren’t enough, besides this historic and – we believe first ever – reconstruction of a historic astronomic event ever done on radio as it almost certainly probably happened, we will also delve controversially into the often stormy on-board relationships of the space men themselves and also – even more controversially perhaps – glimpse into their often stormy domestic lives too, in particular what it meant and how it felt to be Mrs Armstrong and Mrs Aldrin.
Did they support their space men husbands or were they, in fact, deeply divided and bitter about it having to stay at home basically and do the laundry and dusting?
These fascinating and hitherto un-probed events – and many more – will be revealed in this pioneering, historic, spectacular, authentic, yet unashamedly controversial BBC radio drama.
BBC Radio 4 – 2020
Stephen Tompkinson and Gary Wilmot star as buddies grappling the country’s most common and least sexy male cancer, in Martin Jameson’s comedy drama.
Tony – job going nowhere, marriage collapsed, son barely speaking to him – thinks life couldn’t get any worse. Until the nimble-fingered consultant tells him he has prostate cancer.
Head spinning, Tony collides with Lenny’s car in the urology car park. Lenny has been in hand-to-gland combat with the disease for ten years but still lives life to the cantankerous max. Over five episodes, Lenny drags Tony out of the slough of despondency. Together they kick Tony’s cancer into touch, and his life into vibrant new shape.
47,000 men are diagnosed every year, with UK deaths from prostate cancer now exceeding those from breast cancer. Writer Martin Jameson was diagnosed in 2013 and endured lengthy treatment in 2014, despite which he discovered a well of humour and life-affirming camaraderie with other prostate veterans whose experiences get to the nub of what it is to be a middle-aged man.
Prostrate – because that’s what everyone calls it and that’s how it renders you – is a rebel yell of solidarity to every man (and supportive woman) living with the disease. The enemy is silence – the weapons are friendship and laughter.
BBC Radio 4
1 × 45 minutes
September 2010
The story of Graham Chapman, the Monty Python team and how he overcame his considerable demons to star in the two funniest British films of all time… Told in a Pythonesque style by Roy Smiles, writer of the acclaimed Ying Tong and Good Evening, also for Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
1 × 45 minutes
August 2010
Starring David Troughton and Tracy-Ann Oberman, Quirks by Simon Brett is a black comedy about a couple living – or perhaps imprisoned – in a luxurious villa on the Costa del Sol.
BBC Radio 4 – 2018
Actor, writer, raconteur and impressionist John Sessions mixes showbiz stories, intriguing history, extraordinary impressions and fabulous one-liners all linked to and from him in this entertaining series.
John’s dazzling array of skills – storytelling, erudition, vocal re-creations and comedy – are all brought into play as he starts each episode with a story or fact related to himself, takes us all over the place by linking people, ending up back with himself.
Each show is a quick-witted, Peter Ustinov-style rollercoaster of storytelling: bizarre and brilliant, eccentric and effusive, autobiographical and alliterative, full of incredible impressions and droll digressions along the way.
BBC Radio 4 – 2020
A brand new nativity story. Award-winning dramatist Patrick Barlow’s comedy drama tells the time-honoured nativity story in a fresh, compelling and unique way.
A magic star appears in the sky, a lonely village seamstress meets an anxious angel and a kindly donkey, two shepherds go on a dangerous mission, three bickering wise women bring news to a paranoid, psychotic king and a bolshie girl gives birth to a baby.
All feature as Patrick Barlow retells the Christmas story as we’ve never heard it told before.
Starring Jim Broadbent, Maggie Steed, Sophie Thompson, John Ramm and newcomers Robert Lennon and Nell Barlow.
All the joy and comfort of the Christmas story, with Patrick Barlow’s own special twist – funny, original, touching. This is something special for all the family in these uncertain times. Star Child offers love, hope and light in a world of darkness.
Based on an original play by Patrick Barlow, adapted by Patrick Barlow with Clemmie Reynolds.
BBC Radio 4 – 2020
In 1967, as race riots swept the streets of America and the Supreme Court considered a landmark case about interracial marriage, Hollywood director Sidney Kramer started filming Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner about a pair of young lovers – one black, one white – seeking the blessing of their concerned parents before getting married.
He had assembled a stellar cast of Oscar winners Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Kate Hepburn, with Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton making her film debut.
This was a light-hearted, witty film but about a deadly serious subject. It was also the final act of one of Hollywood’s greatest true love stories as, after a love affair that had lasted 26 years and nine movies establishing them as one of the all-time great Hollywood double acts, it was also to be Tracy and Hepburn’s final film together.
Spencer was dying but determined that his final film with his beloved Kate would be both important and a masterpiece.
Tracy-Ann Oberman’s moving and timely play tells a story about love, a classic movie and the impact it had on a divided America.
Written by Tracy-Ann Oberman, with David Spicer.
BBC Radio 2
3 Series of 6 × 30 minutes
2005 – 2007
What happened in this week throughout history? And what does that tell us about where we are now? Richard Herring uses a blend of stand up, sketches, meticulous research and made up rubbish to give us the answers.
Richard is joined in his quest by Emma Kennedy, Danny Robins, Dan Tetsell, Christian Reilly and his band The Warnings From History.
BBC Radio 4
Occasional Series – 3 × 30 minutes
2009 – 2011
The multi award winning National Theatre of Brent – Artistic Director Desmond Olivier Dingle and the entire acting company (Raymond Box) – return triumphantly to Radio 4 with an occasional series celebrating the living artists deemed by Desmond to be Iconic Icons. The first iconic icon was the legendary singer, songwriter and artist Bob Dylan, and the second, due to be transmitted August 2010, is the groundbreaking British artist Tracey Emin.
BBC Radio 4
6 × 30 minutes
2010
Ronnie Corbett reunites with the writers of his hit sitcom Sorry, Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent, for a new sitcom for Radio 4 about Sandy Hopper, a granddad happily growing old along with his dog Henry and his lodger, Dolores (Liza Tarbuck).
