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Audiobooks Narrated by Jonathan Cecil
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TV’s first ecclesiastical comedy, All Gas and Gaiters was enjoyed by over 10 million viewers on BBC One between 1966 and 1971. Written by husband-and-wife-team Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, it was so popular that a selection of scripts were revised and re-recorded for radio with the same star cast as the television series.
Robertson Hare starred as the Archdeacon of the fictional St Ogg’s Cathedral. An elderly gentleman fond of a tipple and with an eye for the ladies, he shares the cloisters with his clerical companions, the easy-going Bishop (William Mervyn) and the naïve, accident-prone Chaplain (Derek Nimmo and Jonathan Cecil). All they want is a quiet life – but this wish is constantly thwarted by the overbearing Dean (John Barron), and all too often, chaos and confusion abound as they are caught up in a series of hilarious misadventures.
This collection comprises all 33 episodes of the classic comedy. Among the guest stars are David Jason, Richard Caldicot, Doris Hare, Hugh Paddick, Deryck Guyler and Julia McKenzie.
Written by Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps
Produced by David Hatch and John Dyas
Cast
Archdeacon……………………Robert Hare
Bishop……………………William Mervyn
Bishop’s Chaplain (The Reverend Mervyn Noote)……………………Derek Nimmo/Jonathan Cecil
Dean……………………John Barron
Please note: the sound quality of this title may vary due to the age of the recordings
My Man Jeeves, first published in 1919, introduced the world to affable, indolent Bertie Wooster and his precise, capable valet, Jeeves. Some of the finest examples of humorous writing found in English literature are woven around the relationship between these two men of very different classes and temperaments. Where Bertie is impetuous and feeble, Jeeves is coolheaded and poised. This collection, the first book of Jeeves and Wooster stories, includes 'Absent Treatment,' 'Helping Freddie,' 'Rallying Round Old George,' 'Doing Clarence a Bit of Good,' 'Fixing It for Freddie,' and 'Bertie Changes His Mind.'
Barbara Jefford is the hilariously outrageous Lucia in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the novel by E.F. Benson. Lucia is the uncrowned queen of 1920s provincial society, the Everest of social climbers and the most delicious of snobs. In the pastoral serenity of the village of Riseholme, Lucia and her unforgettable cronies face up to an Indian guru, spiritualism and a cultural usurper. E.F. Benson's wickedly witty satires on the rivalries of English middle-class life have elevated Lucia's extravagant exploits to cult comedy status.
When Monty Bodkin returns home to England after a year in America, his absence has strengthened his resolve to claim the hand in marriage of his intended, the hockey-playing Gertrude Butterwick. However, his association with an overweight Hollywood movie mogul, his redoubtable wife, and even more formidable stepdaughter sets the scene for complications. Add to this potpourri the piquant seasonings of a third-rate private detective, a devious pair of confidence tricksters, and a string of pearls, and the course of true love certainly won't run smoothly for Monty.
If Lord Ickenham had not succumbed to the temptation to dislodge the hat of Beefy Bastable, the irascible QC, with a well-aimed Brazil nut, the latter's famous legal mind might never have been stimulated to literature. But the incident provoked Beefy to write his exposé of the younger generation, a novel so shocking that it caused endless repercussions for its hapless author, and sparked off a whole series of outrageous misunderstandings that it would take the inventive talents of Lord Ickenham himself to resolve. "Wodehouse's novels are the very definition of British humor-bubblingly witty and dryly loony."-Entertainment Weekly
Trapped in rural Steeple Bumpleigh, a man less stalwart than Bertie Wooster would probably give way at the knees, for among those present were Florence Craye, to whom Bertie had once been engaged; her new fiancé "Stilton" Cheesewright, who sees Bertie as a snake in the grass; and that biggest blot on the landscape, Edwin the Boy Scout, who is busy doing acts of kindness out of sheer malevolence. All Bertie's forebodings are fully justified, for in his efforts to oil the wheels of commerce, promote the course of true love, and avoid the consequences of a vendetta, he becomes the prey of all and sundry. In fact, only Jeeves can save him.
Bertie Wooster was indignant-and with reason. The neighbors had dared to make a fuss about the assiduous practicing of his beloved banjolele. But a further blow was to come. 'If,' said Jeeves, 'it is really your intention to continue playing that instrument, I have no option but to leave.' Haughtily rejecting this ultimatum, Bertie sought refuge in a cottage owned by his buddy, Lord Chuffington. But the peace and quiet were rudely shattered by the arrival of Pauline Stoker-to whom he was once unnervingly engaged-and her formidable father, who saw in Bertie a pestilential suitor barmy to the core.
A chance meeting on a train brought together Lord Ickenham and Bill Oakshott-although being told that the love of his life, Hermione, was engaged to none other than Pongo, Lord Ickenham's nephew, did make Bill feel like he'd been struck behind the ear.
These wonderfully funny short stories feature a cast of outrageous characters, all plotting to save themselves from wedlock, poverty, or ignominy-with various degrees of success. This recording includes the following stories: "All's Well with Bingo," "Bingo and the Peke Crisis," "The Editor Regrets," "Sonny Boy," "Anselm Gets His Chance," "Romance at Droitgate Spa," "A Bit of Luck for Mabel," "Buttercup Day," and "Ukridge and the Old Stepper." "Jonathan Cecil, equally adept at the silly and the pompous, matches Alexander Spencer and Martin Jarvis as a great Wodehouse interpreter."-Library Journal
Uncle Fred, or to give him his full title of Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, is considered by some as a splendid gentleman-a sportsman to his fingertips. Mr. Twistleton, nephew to the Earl, and otherwise known as Pongo to his friends, has a differing view. He simply describes his uncle as being loopy to the tonsils. But when the eccentric and well-loved Uncle Fred plays Cupid to Lord Emsworth, his old friend at Blandings Castle, little did he know that he would be known as Impostor A and the Lord's beloved pig, the Empress, as Impostor B...
Things on board the RMS Atlantic are terribly, terribly complicated...Monty Bodkin loves Gertrude, who thinks he likes Lotus Blossom, a starlet who definitely adores Ambrose, who thinks that she has a thing for his brother, Reggie, who is struck by Mabel Spence, sister-in-law of Ikey Llewellyn movie mogul, Ambrose's prospective employer and reluctant smuggler, but hasn't the means to marry her. With well-meaning but unhelpful ship's steward Albert Peasemarch and a toy mouse with a screw-top head thrown in for good measure, it will, indeed, take the luck of the Bodkins to sort it all out.
The hideous Walsingford Hall is home to an odd assortment of coves...The vile premises belong to Sir Buckstone, who is in a little financial difficulty. So for a little monetary help he puts a roof over the heads of people like (among others) Tubby Vanringham, the adoring slave of cold-hearted Miss Whittaker. His brother Joe has fallen head over heels for Sir Buck's daughter Jane. She, however, only has eyes for Adrian Peake, who has already formed a liaison with the terrifying-but superbly wealthy-Princess Dwornitzchek. Is there no end to the confusion?
