The Clitheroe Kid

The Clitheroe Kid was a long-running BBC radio comedy show featuring diminutive comedian Jimmy Clitheroe in the role of a cheeky schoolboy who lived with his family at 33 Lilac Avenue. Jimmy's best friend was Ossie, alias Oswald Higginbottom, a character who was only heard of secondhand and didn't actually appear. The pilot series and 16 subsequent series equate to 289 episodes originally broadcast between July 1, 1957 and August 13, 1972. Apart from Clitheroe, the show's stars included Peter Sinclair playing Clitheroe's Scottish grandad, Patricia Burke as his mother (in the earliest shows the part was played by Renee Houston), and Diana Day as his long-suffering sister Susan (in the earliest shows the sister was played by Judith Chalmers). Danny Ross played Alfie Hall, Susan's daft, tongue-tied boyfriend who was often drawn into Jimmy's reckless schemes, never learning to steer clear of him. And Tony Melody played Mr Higginbottom, a six foot four inch taxi driver who constantly threatened to give Jimmy a good hiding for what he had done to Ossie. Horatio Higginbottom (the first name was very rarely used) was also grandad's drinking partner. Jimmy Clitheroe was 35 when he started playing the part in 1956, but he could pass as an 11-year-old boy because he had never grown physically beyond that age, though in later years his face gave his real age away. The series was made with a studio audience and there were frequent gales of laughter at Jimmy's schoolboy humour, as well as at Alfie Hall's mangling of the English language as he tries to explain something and makes it worse. Internet Archive

Download The Clitheroe Kid

Listen

Déjà Vu Audiobook by Ian Michael Hocking

Ian Michael Hocking (born Truro, UK, November 6, 1976) is a British author who writes in the genres science fiction and techno-thriller. His debut novel, Déjà Vu, was published by The UKA Press in January 2005. The author released Déjà Vu as a free audiocast under a creative commons license between November 2005 and June 2006. Hocking's fiction often features explorations of identity and free will. He has a PhD in experimental psycholinguistics (on the influence of working memory on syntactic processing) from the University of Exeter and teaches psychological research methods at the UK's Open University.


Author's introduction


Here is the link to all the MP3s for the free audio book version of Déjà Vu.
ianhocking.com

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic 1864 science fiction novel by Jules Verne. The story involves a professor who leads his nephew and hired guide down a volcano in Iceland to the "Center of the Earth". This audio theater production is from BBC 1963. The story begins on Sunday 24 May 1863, in the Lidenbrock house in Hamburg, with Professor Lidenbrock rushing home to peruse his latest purchase, an original runic manuscript of an Icelandic saga written by Snorri Sturluson. While looking through the book, Lidenbrock and Axel find a coded note written in runic script. While looking through the book, Lidenbrock and Axel find.

Listen/Download JTCE

.

Journey Into Space

Journey Into Space was a BBC Radio science fiction program, written by BBC producer Charles Chilton. Three series were produced, which have been translated into 17 languages and broadcast worldwide. In the UK it was the last radio program to attract a bigger evening audience than television. Internet Archive.

Download Journey Into Space

Listen

Hancock's Half Hour

Hancock's Half Hour was a ground-breaking and influential BBC radio comedy series of the 1950s, starring Tony Hancock, with Sid James, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. From 1956 it also became a television comedy series. The show was written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and produced by Dennis Main Wilson, although, after Main-Wilson departed for his television career, this role was later taken by Tom Ronald. The distinctive tuba-based theme tune was composed by Wally Stott. Most radio episodes were recorded between one day and three weeks in advance, except in the case of Series 6 which was mostly recorded over a three-week period in June, 1959 to avoid clashing with the pre-recording of Series 5 of the television show. All of the regular cast members played "themselves", except Kenneth Williams (who played a series of unnamed characters referred to in the scripts -- but not on air -- as "Snide"); Alan Simpson (who played an unnamed man who would listen patiently to Hancock's long-winded stories); and Hattie Jacques (who played Hancock's secretary Griselda Pugh). Internet Archive

Download Hancock's Half Hour

Listen HHH_56-11-11_s04e05_The_New_Secretary

The Men from the Ministry

The Men from the Ministry was a British radio comedy series broadcast by the BBC between 1962 and 1977, and starring Wilfrid Hyde-White, Richard Murdoch and, from 1966, when he replaced Wilfrid Hyde-White, Deryck Guyler. Written by Edward Taylor with occasional contributions from John Graham and Ronald Baddiley, it ran for 14 series, totaling 147 half-hour episodes. A further 14 episodes were made by the BBC Transcription Service in 1980 but were never broadcast in the UK. Versions of the series were also made by YLE in Finland and Springbok Radio in South Africa. Internet Archive

Download Shows

Dad's Army

Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard in the Second World War, written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series starred several veterans of British film, television and stage, including Arthur Lowe (1915–82), John Le Mesurier (1912–83), Arnold Ridley (also a veteran playwright; 1896–1984), John Laurie (1897–1980) and Clive Dunn (b.1920). Relative youngsters in the regular cast were Ian Lavender (b.1946) and James Beck (1929–1973), the latter dying suddenly part way through the program's long run despite being one of the youngest cast members. Many TV episodes were remade for BBC Radio 4 with the original cast, although other actors played Walker after James Beck's death. These radio versions were adapted by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles and also starred John Snagge as a newsreader who would set the scene for each episode. Different actors were used for some of the minor parts; Mollie Sugden played the role of Mrs Fox and Pearl Hackney played the role of Mrs. Pike for example. Internet Archive

Download Dad's Army

Listen

Fear on Four

.

FEAR ON 4 is the British Broadcasting Corporation's continuation of a tradition of horror shows dating back to 1943. Back then, the BBC offered APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR, the title given to ten series of programs running from 1943 to 1955. The Man in Black returned to radio again in 1988, this time played by Edward de Souza. FEAR ON 4, airing on BBC Radio Four, continued in the tradition of its predecessors. Four series were produced from 1988 through 1993 with a fifth series in 1997.




Fear On 4
.

John Steinbeck - The Grapes Of Wrath (BBC)

The Grapes of Wrath is a classic novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel and the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is frequently read in American high school and college literature classes. A celebrated Hollywood film version was made in 1940, starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford, however, the endings differ greatly. Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath at his home, 16250 Greenwood Lane, in what is now Monte Sereno, California. Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on a poor family of sharecroppers, the Joads, driven from their home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in the agriculture industry. In a nearly hopeless situation, they set out for California along with thousands of other "Okies" in search of land, jobs, and dignity. The novel is meant to emphasize the need for cooperative, as opposed to individualistic, solutions to social problems brought about by the mechanization of agriculture and the Dust Bowl drought. (From Boxcars711 Podcast)

Right click and save as to download:

Pt 1 - Exodus

Pt 2 - The Journey West

Pt 3 - The Promised Land

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters and has appeared in 39 novels and 50 short stories. Poirot has been portrayed on screen, for films and TV, by various actors including Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, Ian Holm, Tony Randall, Alfred Molina and, most recently, and famously, David Suchet.Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, DBE (15 September 1890 — 12 January 1976), also known as Dame Agatha Christie, was an English crime fiction writer. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but is chiefly remembered for her 66 detective novels.

Download Hercule Poirot

Listen  Murder Wears a Mask