Publication date: 2003-11-03
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.63
Review "Only Fools and Horses": No. 2 (Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:The 80s yielded few more memorable comic characters than Derek "Del Boy" Trotter, the obstinately proud salesman of goods of dodgy quality and even dodgier legality. Humiliating his dopey brother, whining grandfather and leech-like uncle, he insisted that "this time next year we'll be millionaires". What made Only Fools and Horses so appealing was the very real affection that writer John Sullivan felt for all these characters and, with stories that were often as moving as they were hilarious, the show was both a celebration and critique of Thatcherite Britain. Much of the first five series is on video, but for those who feel embarrassed travelling with a TV and video recorder on their lap, their scripts now exist in this more portable volume. Without visuals and vocals, they may not make many converts, but highlights abound, such as Rodney's date with a policewoman and a slasher movie send-up, and the book ends with the moving episode where Del Boy turns down a job in Australia. Mildly let down by a rather meagre two-page Trotter to English dictionary, this is nevertheless a treat. "Pas de calais" as Del would say. -Stephen Portlock.
Publication date: 2004-03-01
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.49
Review "Dead Ringers" Series 10: Hit BBC Radio 4 Comedy Series (BBC Radio Collection) / Dead Ringers:
Creator: Jane Ravens
Publication date: 2001-11-19
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.44
Review Dead Ringers: The Specials / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Publication date: 2007-07-01
RRP: £9.99
Price: £6.59
Review An Audience with Billy Connolly (Mi-vox pre-loaded audio player) (Mi-Vox Pre-loaded Audio Player) / audiobooksonline.co.uk:
Publication date: 2005-07-25
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £9.99
Price: £6.00
Review Lee Evans: Wired and Wonderful Live at Wembley / Sound Entertainment Limited:
Creator: Jen Green
Publication date: 2005-07-25
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.53
Review Jeff Green: Debauched Cherub / Sound Entertainment Limited:
Publication date: 2003-05-05
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £12.99
Price: £1.99
Review "Dead Ringers" Series 8: Hit BBC Radio 4 Comedy Series (BBC Radio Collection) [AUDIOBOOK] / Dead Ringers:
Creator: Jane Ravens
Publication date: 2001-11-05
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £12.99
Price: £1.98
Review "Dead Ringers" Series 2 Part 2: Hit BBC Radio 4 Comedy Series (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Publication date: 2004-03-01
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £5.00
Price: £3.25
Review 4 at the Store: BBC Radio 4 Full-cast Dramatisation (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2004-05-27
Dewey code: 814.54
RRP: £14.99
Price: £7.99
Review Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim / Time Warner AudioBooks:Most of us would be lucky to be able to express ourselves in writing half as well as David Sedaris does in Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. But on top of his skills with the written word, the author also has substantial gifts as a performer, and he proves this on the audio version of the book. In his essay The Change in Me, Sedaris remembers that his mother was good at imitating people, and it's clear that he takes after her. Whether he's doing impressions of high-voiced brother Paul, or recalling times when he and his sisters tried to win good karma by speaking and acting like well-behaved, fairytale children, Sedaris's nuanced performance hits the right note in both the opening, comedic stories, and the more poignant essays that tend to come later in the reading. Sedaris's career is closely linked with two things: audio (he was discovered by NPR's Ira Glass), and the personal lives of himself and his family. In Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, he describes fights with his boyfriend, and of his sister-in-law's difficult pregnancy. When sister Lisa complains about the stories involving the family, he writes about that, too. Sedaris's latest provides more evidence that he is a great humorist, memoirist and raconteur, and readers are lucky to have the opportunity to know him so well. Perhaps they are luckier still not to know him personally. -Leah Weathersby, Amazon. [+]com.
Authors
- Jennifer Worick
- David Borgenicht
- Joshua Piven
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2002-07-25
Dewey code: 646.77
RRP: £14.99
Price: £7.62
Review The Worst-case Scenario Survival Handbook: Dating and Sex (Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbooks (Audio)) / Listen & Live Audio:
Publication date: 2003-02-27
Price: £13.00
Review Chance Witness: An Outsider's Life in Politics / Penguin Audiobooks:In Chance Witness: An Outsider's Life in Politics, Matthew Parris gives us a brilliantly diverting autobiography combined with a comprehensive and merciless picture of the politicians he has dealt with, both in his own time as an MP and subsequently as writer for some of our most august newspapers. He is not only the most astute of political commentators, he is one of the most completely entertaining. Matthew Parris made little impression in his career as a Tory candidate (for which, as a sardonically witty and iconoclastic gay man, he was perhaps not best suited), but in his subsequent career as one of the shrewdest observers of the political scene, he has few equals. The book's jacket gives some idea of the unbuttoned tone here: while John Mortimer "thank(s) God for Matthew Parris", Alan Clark is quoted as describing him as an "absolute sh**". And it's Parris' fearlessness (combined with that scalpel-honed wit) that makes this hefty volume the kind of book that (despite its length) will be consumed avidly. Parris was close to the centre of power (Margaret Thatcher no less) but always remained an outsider. Of course, his spell in Mrs Thatcher's office is by far the most entertaining part of the book, his dealings with the Iron Lady being no less than catastrophic. But while delivering devastating pen-portraits of that lady, he is equally exuberant in his pictures of such luminaries as Peter Mandelson (whom he famously "outed"), Tony Blair and Michael Portillo. This is eccentric, highly personal writing, but the combination of mordant humour and fierce intelligence is absolutely irresistible. After reading it, the reader may wonder how Parris lasted for five minutes as part of Margaret Thatcher's humourless government. [+]-Barry Forshaw.
Publication date: 2003-07-07
Dewey code: 791
RRP: £12.99
Price: £12.99
Review The Mel and Sue Thing (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2006-10-02
RRP: £13.99
Price: £9.09
Review Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: 5.1 Surround Tertiary Phase (BBC Audio) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Publication date: 2003-09-01
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.00
Review "Round the Horne" 15 [AUDIOBOOK] / Round the Horne:
Publication date: 2005-02-07
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £15.99
Price: £8.40
Review "Round the Horne": The Complete and Utter History (BBC Radio Collection) / Round the Horne:
RRP: £7.99
Price: £8.56
Review Live:
Publication date: 2002-03-04
Dewey code: 791
RRP: £79.99
Price: £51.99
Review Hancock's Half Hour: Collectors Edition (Series Four: October 1956 - February 1957) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:When Ray Galton and Alan Simpson created Hancock's Half Hour-their first big hit before Steptoe and Son-they needed a supporting cast, and their choices were inspired. Sid James became the quintessential shifty crook, Bill Kerr played Tony Hancock's best friend while Moira Lister became his girlfriend, and as Kenneth Williams intoned a variety of authority-voices-police, magistrates, etc. -another comic star was born. Out of the 16 original programmes from the period under review, the BBC managed to lose six-culpable carelessness-but among the extant 10 there are outright gems, some of which will be unfamiliar even to fans, and many of which would today be banned as hopelessly un-PC. Viz Hancock's cheery greeting: "Morning Charlie. Working? Oh, of course you don't need to, with 28 children!" Or his observation-of some sluggish British workmen building a house-that he's glad they've been provided with shovels complete with arm-rests. Asked for his own address, he replies "I've just moved. They pulled down my house to build a slum". Relayed cold, such comments may not even raise a smile: Hancock's magic was all in the telling, and in the momentum he built up, as in his Monte Carlo rally programme, in which signposts were turned round and bridges blown up. One of the nicest sketches evolves out of him being left to do the housework like Cinderella, while everyone else troops off to the ball. [+]When he died, a victim of depression, in Australia in 1968, Britain lost something irreplaceable: this five-CD set, with its accompanying booklet, makes a splendid memento. The next batch of releases is eagerly awaited. -Betty Tadman.
Publication date: 2002-11-11
Dewey code: 813
Price: £14.99
Review The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Complete & Unabridged (Word for Word) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Publication date: 1995-06-12
Price: £12.98
Review Live at the Park: Hinge & Bracket Stirred Not Shaken / Argo:
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"Only Fools and Horses": No. 2 (Radio Collection), "Dead Ringers" Series 10: Hit BBC Radio 4 Comedy Series (BBC Radio Collection), Dead Ringers: The Specials, An Audience with Billy Connolly (Mi-vox pre-loaded audio player) (Mi-Vox Pre-loaded Audio Player), Lee Evans: Wired and Wonderful Live at Wembley, Jeff Green: Debauched Cherub, "Dead Ringers" Series 8: Hit BBC Radio 4 Comedy Series (BBC Radio Collection) [AUDIOBOOK], "Dead Ringers" Series 2 Part 2: Hit BBC Radio 4 Comedy Series (BBC Radio Collection), 4 at the Store: BBC Radio 4 Full-cast Dramatisation (BBC Radio Collection), Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, The Worst-case Scenario Survival Handbook: Dating and Sex (Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbooks (Audio)), Chance Witness: An Outsider's Life in Politics, The Mel and Sue Thing (BBC Radio Collection), Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: 5.1 Surround Tertiary Phase (BBC Audio), "Round the Horne" 15 [AUDIOBOOK], "Round the Horne": The Complete and Utter History (BBC Radio Collection), Live, Hancock's Half Hour: Collectors Edition (Series Four: October 1956 - February 1957), The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Complete & Unabridged (Word for Word), Live at the Park: Hinge & Bracket Stirred Not Shaken |
