A BBC Radio 4 tragic-comedy drama depicting the principal events of Shirley Porter's time as leader of Westminster city council in the 1980s. Originally broadcast as the 'Friday Play' on 27 November 2009, and starring Tracy-Ann Oberman as Shirley Porter. Also featured amongst the cast are Maggie Steed, Joseph Cohen-Cole, Piers Wehner, Stephen Hogan...

Set in the gold and quartz-mining community, this queer and amusing little vignette explains why Dick Baker's cat, who always had such a propensity for finding the premium gold-panning plots, takes strongly against quartz mining and never is to be swayed otherwise. A sweet, funny and well-written short, that showcases Twain's wit and skill brillian...

From 1952 to 1960 the Goons ruled the airwaves, the most celebrated and influential clowns in the history of radio. It's the time of goodwill and custard so join the festive fun with Scrooge and Nellie Scratchit in 'A Christmas Carol' and follow the lost chords of 'The Mighty Wurlitzer' hot foot across the Sahara. Also includes: 'Ye Bandit Of Sherw...

What else could a giraffe with an extending neck, a pelican with an expanding Beak, and an athletic little monkey be but `The Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company?' When this trio are invited to clean all 677 windows belonging to the Duke of Hampshire, it is no wonder that they have adventures.

Alice is so bored of listening to her sister read that she gazes around the garden and sights a curious white rabbit, who seems to be wearing a coat and a pocket watch. Following the rabbit, she reaches the rabbit hole and tumbles down it-and the very strange adventure starts. One of the most famous and a pioneering example of 'Literary Nonsense',...

Penny's from Heaven is the first of three comic tales from BBC Radio 4's The Greengrocer's Apostrophe, inspired by those hand-written signs offering "Apple's and Banana's" which can be found in every town in Britain. Originally broadcast in the Afternoon Reading slot on 28 September 2010. James Anthony Pearson reads a quirky story about the apostro...

The warbling sound of Kenneth Williams is unforgettable. Here he is, innocently rummaging through his gander bag plucking off such meaningful ditties as The Ballad of the Woggler's Mooly, The Taddle Gropers Dance and D'ye Ken Jim Pubes? So girdle your grummits, rollock your fussits, tether your nadgers and prepare to plight your cordwangle as Rumbl...

Following on from the radio series On the Town with The League of Gentlemen, this release is a compilation of moments from the second BBC television series starring Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.

The third, explosive mission in the number one bestselling Alex Rider series. In the third book in the number one bestselling Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, teenage spy Alex faces his most dangerous challenge yet. Teaming up with the CIA, Alex must go to a remote Caribbean island called Skeleton Key, where the insane general Sarov is hatchi...

Norfolk is experiencing a July heat wave when a construction crew unearths a macabre discovery - a buried World War II plane with the pilot still inside. Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway quickly realizes that the skeleton couldn't possibly be the pilot, and DNA tests identify the man as Fred Blackstock, a local aristocrat who had been reported...

As the snow begins to fall, a journalist arrives in the remote city of Kars on the Turkish border. Kars is a troubled place - there's a suicide epidemic among its young women, Islamists are poised to win the local elections, and the head of the intelligence service is viciously effective. When the growing blizzard cuts off the outside world, the st...

In the wake of a devastating double homicide by one of their own, the army takes matters into their own hands to hunt down the man responsible. In a tense race to stop a civilian terrorist attack, it's down to an elite team to take on the shadowy forces that lie in wait. When a British Special Forces soldier goes rogue, carrying out an attack at a...

Once in a blue moon, a book comes along that changes the world. The Origin of Species. War and Peace. 1984. The World According to Danny Dyer. And now, Cunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena, by Philomena Cunk. Philomena Cunk is one of the greatest thinkers of the 21st century, and in Cunk on Everything she turns her attention to our bigges...

How does it feel to orbit the earth ten times faster than a speeding bullet? What's it like to eat, sleep and go to the toilet in space? And where to next - the Moon, Mars or beyond? Ask an Astronaut is Tim's personal guide to life in space, based on his historic Principia mission, and the thousands of questions he has been asked since his return t...

Falling pregnant as a teenager in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to the convent in Co. Tipperary to be looked after as a fallen woman. She cared for her baby for three years until the Church took him and sold him, like countless others, to America for adoption. She spent the next fifty years secretly searching for him, unaware that he was searching f...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Grief Works, written and read by Julia Samuel. Death is the last taboo in our society, and grief is still profoundly misunderstood. So many of us feel awkward and uncertain around death, and shy away from talking honestly with family and friends. Grief Works is a compassionate guide...

The Lannisters are in power on the Iron Throne.The war in the Seven Kingdoms has burned itself out, but in its bitter aftermath new conflicts spark to life. The Martells of Dorne and the Starks of Winterfell seek vengeance for their dead. Euron Crow's Eye, as black a pirate as ever raised a sail, returns from the smoking ruins of Valyria to claim t...

In this BBC Radio 4 series, Richard Herring attempts to reclaim objects that we've grown to fear and hate because of what they symbolise. Via stand-up comedy, vox pops and interviews, he tackles a selection of things that have been given a bad name. In this episode, he's trying to rescue the English National Flag from its associations with far-righ...

In Top of the Class, John Wilson meets leading figures in their fields and takes them back to the places and people they left behind. In this episode, he takes author Andrea Levy back to the building where her creative success took root - the old City Literature building in London's Covent Garden. When she started doing an adult education class in...

Following a successful run on Radio 7, Miriam Elia's fantastical Sony Radio Academy Award nominated comedy sketch series transfers to Radio 4 for a second series, with new characters and a few familiar faces. Originally broadcast from 29 September 2010 - 20 October 2010, this download offers another chance to step inside the deranged mind of comedi...

In WWI, possibly the most horrific modern war, two soldier poets described inner impressions telling us much about war and the people who fight them.