Searching for: "Alison Steadman"
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Three series of funny natural history tales from Lynne Truss, featuring a star cast of narrators Recorded in front of a live audience, these wry, funny tales introduce us to the varied creatures who make their homes on the shoreline, in garden ponds and in our attics. In 18 comic monologues, they reveal the truth about what life is really like in their respective habitats - and it's much more eventful than you might think... Tidal Tales from the Rock Pool features salty stories from a roving, joke-loving Periwinkle (Bill Wallis); a house-proud Hermit Crab (Geoffrey Palmer); a figure-conscious Sea Anemone (Alison Steadman); a tough talkin' Goby Fish (Sean Power); a poetic, love-struck...read more
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Philip Jackson, Tom Palmer and Alison Steadman star in this BBC Radio sitcom set in the fictional Yorkshire seaside town of Flamford 'Enjoyably bonkers' Irish Mail on Sunday Welcome to Flamford, the town sanity forgot... Edgy, sharp-tongued City burn-out Andy Chambers has been advised, for the sake of his health, to take a break from his stressful London lifestyle and get some rest. So he goes to stay with his estranged uncle, Jeff Whitaker, at his seaside home in Flamford - but, as he soon discovers, living with his relative is far from relaxing. Good-natured and relentlessly cheerful, Jeff is determined to bring the recalcitrant Andy out of himself, so he leads him on an...read more
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Alison Steadman, Morwenna Banks and Nigel Planer star in this tale of two sisters - and a mysterious stranger. Not long after their mother's death, sisters Maureen and Lesley are packing up their family home. It's a painful duty, with Maureen trying to control the worst of Lesley's projectile lamenting. Then a strange man knocks at the door and introduces himself as David Johnson, a friend of Maureen's neighbour. He'd like to view the house if they are thinking of selling - which Maureen definitely is. But Lesley has other ideas and, behind Maureen's back, offers David their mother's old bedroom as a pied-a-terre. Gradually, he forces his way into the sisters' lives, turning up at...read more
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Winner of the Writers Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy and the Comedy.co.uk awards for Best Radio Sketch Show! Celia Imrie, Alison Steadman, John Bird and Rebecca Front are among the cast of these BBC Radio 4 comedy dramas from the writer and producers of Cabin Pressure. These six self-contained duologues, each one brimming with humour and charm, come from the pen of John Finnemore, author and star of the award-winning John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme. A Flock of Tigers 1934. Edmund and Dolorosa are sharing a train carriage – and embarking on an unexpected adventure. Starring Charles Edwards and Celia Imrie. Wysinnwyg In the Sales Support Department of Willard & Son,...read more
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'... one of the funniest, slyest, most naughtily inventive and brilliantly performed shows on the air' - Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph 'A gloriously silly show' - The Lady Miriam Margolyes, Alison Steadman and Nigel Planer star in Sue Limb's wickedly funny comedy parodying the arty and adulterous adventures of the Bloomsbury Group, who dominated the English cultural scene in the early 20th Century. The series follows the fortunes of Vera Sackcloth-Vest - writer, gardener and cross-dresser - and her urge to escape from the tranquillity of the rather cramped little castle in Kent which she shares with her doting but ambiguous husband, Harry, who is 'something in the Foreign...read more
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'Daisy Edgar-Jones and Alison Steadman team up as a fun, quirky grandmother and granddaughter pair in this lively narration...The two narrators, each portraying her respective character's point of view, are a perfect match.' --AudioFile Magazine This program is read by British actors Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones, star of Hulu's Normal People. A grandmother and granddaughter swap lives in The Switch, a charming, romantic novel by Beth O’Leary, who has been hailed as “the new Jojo Moyes” (Cosmopolitan UK)... When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen's...read more
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Bird lovers including Will Young, Samuel West, Dermot O'Leary, Greta Scacchi and Sue Perkins introduce us to their favourite birds - plus, Alison Steadman presents The Twelve Tweets of Christmas Since 2013, Tweet of the Day has been a daily delight for early risers, with its 90 seconds of beautiful birdsong and fascinating ornithological stories. But what of the people who tune in to this avian chorus? In this collection, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of an array of wildlife enthusiasts, all eager to recount their encounters with birds - among them 'Birdgirl' Mya-Rose Craig, writers Joe Harkness, Amy Liptrot, Melissa Harrison and Mark Cocker, Springwatch host Lindsey...read more
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Series 9-12 of the hit comedy featuring curmudgeonly author Ed Reardon Author, pipe-smoker, fare-dodger and master of the complaining letter and abusive email, Ed Reardon returns for another four series. Despite many thwarted attempts at literary succes, he's still living a precarious existence with his trusty companion Elgar, reliant on any small morsels of work Ping can offer him to keep body, mind and cat together. He also continues to have regular run-ins with his nemesis, Jaz Milvane - who somehow manages to make money out of mad schemes, while Ed makes nothing - and his love life remains more than a little erratic. Among his endeavours in these 24 episodes, Ed attends his first...read more
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A trilogy of classic plays by Pierre Augustin Caron De Beaumarchais, including The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro and The Guilty Mother Forerunner to the renowned operas, The Figaro Plays by Pierre Augustin Caron De Beaumarchais are a celebration of how intelligence and wit can bring any servant level with their aristocratic masters. Considered scandalous in their time, the plays went on to be adapted by Rossini (The Barber of Seville) and Mozart (The Marriage of Figaro) to become some of the most popular and acclaimed operas of all time. These original plays show us the stories behind these popular operas. In The Barber of Seville, Count Almaviva falls in love with a young...read more
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Move over Grumpy Old Men - it's time for the Grumpy Old Women to have their say in this hilarious guide, read by the narrator of the BBC TV series Alison Steadman. OK, enough is enough. Grumpy Old Men have had their turn at complaining and now the Grumpy Old Women are taking over. It's about time the world knew what struggles and trials they have to go through. Not only do they multi-task in double figures every day, they have to learn to cope with their changing bodies (it's just not possible to wear kitten heels and sexy clothes without looking like a tart) and all those domestic goddesses don't help. And on top of all that, a lot them have their very own Grumpy Old Man to deal with....read more
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Clever, funny and poignant, Alan Bennett’s masterful plays are rightly regarded as modern classics. Kafka’s Dick is Bennett’s brilliantly clever comedy drama that examines the relationship between life and art, and asks what was Kafka’s embarrassing little problem... Alison Steadman, Richard Griffiths and Nigel Anthony star in this BBC Radio 4 adaptation, described by the Daily Telegraph’s Gillian Reynolds as ‘Pure joy’. Forty Years On stars Alan Bennett in the production of his own acclaimed satirical comedy about a headmaster of Albion House who is retiring and takes part in the end-of-year entertainment for the last time. It also stars Robert Bathurst and Eleanor Bron. An...read more
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Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden star as Hamish and Dougal, with Alison Steadman as Mrs Naughtie, and Jeremy Hardy as the local Laird. Gambling Fever sees Hamish becoming addicted to gambling after winning a Sporran Cosy in the Glen MacLottery, while in There’s Something About Mrs Naughtie, the lady comes into an inheritance and attracts the advances of Hamish, Dougal and the Laird. In The Subsidence Adventure, Hamish and Dougal advertise as ‘builders to the gentry’, while in Inverurie Jones and the Thimble of Doom, a treasure hunter plunders the local museum. Look Who’s Stalking finds Hamish and Dougal employed as ghillies to the Laird’s stalking party, and Porridge Votes sees the...read more
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Enthralling radio dramatisations of eight of Charles Dickens' much-loved novels. Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned authors of all time, and this second digital volume of the dramatised canon of his work includes eight of his classic novels. This collection includes the epic masterpiece David Copperfield, described by Dickens as his ‘favourite child’; suspenseful mystery Bleak House; Dickens’ most openly political novel, Hard Times and Little Dorrit, a sweeping tale of imprisonment, poverty and riches. Also included are A Tale of Two Cities, set during the French Revolution; coming-of-age novel Great Expectations; sweeping satire of wealth and corruption Our Mutual...read more
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Riveting radio dramatisations of Charles Dickens' fifteen full-length novels. Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned authors of all time, and this digital volume of the dramatised canon of his work includes fifteen of his most popular novels. This collection includes the episodic adventure Nicholas Nickleby, comic tale The Pickwick Papers, poignant melodrama The Old Curiosity Shop, the much-loved Oliver Twist. Plus, the gripping historical novel Barnaby Rudge, picaresque comedy Martin Chuzzlewit and bittersweet tale of family relationships Dombey and Son. Also included is the epic masterpiece David Copperfield, described by Dickens as his ‘favourite child’; suspenseful...read more
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40 of Aesop's tales, specially adapted for young children. Read by Richard Briers, Jane Horrocks, Jonathan Pryce, Alison Steadman, Richard E. Grant, Lindsay Duncan and Brenda Blethyn. Stories include: The Hare & the Tortoise/The Frogs & the Ox/The Fox & the Crow/The Monkey as King/The Bundle of Sticks/The Gnat & the Lion/The North Wind & the Sun/The Fox & the Grapes/The Dog, the Cockerel & the Fox/The Miller, His Son & the Donkey/The Wolf & the Heron/The Donkey in the Lion's Skin/The Ant & the Grasshopper/The Vain Jackdaw/The Frogs who Wanted a King/The Cat & the Mice/The Lion & the Mouse/The Caged Bird & the Bat/The Fox & the Goat/The Lion & the Elephant/The Crow & the Pitcher/The Fox &...read more
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Few can forget where they were thirteen years ago 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 with lines like - Kids should never be fashion slaves, especially in the Far East. My 12-year old daughter asked me for a new pair of trainers. I told her she was old enough to go out and make her own.This is the Complete Seventh Series, and contains 4 episodes, with the titles:'How To Feel''How...read more
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Robert Lindsay stars in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the classic novel by Charles Dickens. From the echo of the first line ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ to the final ‘It is a far far better thing that I do than I have ever done’, Dickens’ classic novel of the French revolution tells a story of the redemptive powers of love in the face of cruelty, violence and neglect. Set in London and Paris, it shows the plight of the French people under the brutal oppression of the aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, and the corresponding savage brutality of the revolutionaries towards the former aristocrats in the years immediately...read more
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The complete BBC Radio 4 collection by the BAFTA nominated and NTA award winning Miranda Hart. Miranda is an unconventional woman. She’s six feet tall, self-conscious and posh. And is frequently mistaken for a man. She’s also invested her inheritance in a joke shop that she runs with her friend Stevie while trying to deal with her outrageously embarrassing mother. Though surrounded by chocolate willies, Miranda is determined to suss out what it takes to be a girly girl and to not look a complete idiot every time she meets the gorgeous Gary. Starring Miranda Hart, Sarah Hadland, Patricia Hodge and Tom Ellis. This collection also includes the previously unavailable pilot...read more
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Ten comic dramatisations based on the stories and plays of WS Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert is best known for his operatic collaborations with Sir Arthur Sullivan, which captivated 19th-century audiences and continue to delight today. But he also created numerous solo works, among them these ten pieces, dramatised for radio by Stephen Wyatt and featuring Jonathan Coy as WS Gilbert. The Finger of Fate - Confirmed bachelor Foggerty yearns for peace - but Fate has other plans, in the form of large, lively Dolly Fortescue. Starring Stephen Moore, Alison Steadman, Martin Hyder, Ian Masters. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 25 December 2002 An Elixir of Love - The inspiration for...read more
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A collection of BBC dramatisations and readings of William Boyd's award-winning novels and short stories One of Britain's foremost contemporary writers, William Boyd is renowned worldwide for his bestselling novels, which have been translated into over 30 languages. He has won numerous awards, including the Somerset Maugham Award (for A Good Man in Africa), the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for An Ice-Cream War) and the Costa Book Award (for Restless). Collected here are the BBC radio productions of all three acclaimed books. Starring Alan Rickman Alison Steadman and Bill Patterson, A Good Man in Africa tells the satirical story of a buffoonish diplomat's struggles in a fictional West...read more
