And Now on Radio 4 offers an enthusiast's guide to the shows that have made Radio 4 what it is, and also explores some of the wonderful corners of the network's history that are long forgotten by all but a few. Who, for instance, now recalls Ronnie Barker's starring role on Radio 4 in a sophisticated cabaret-cum-sketch-show called Lines from My Grandfather's Forehead? What about Spike Milligan's intimate, soul-bearing account of his upbringing in colonial India, Plain...

It’s now ninety years since the BBC made its first broadcast and the British love affair with radio began.This book is a journey through that fascinating history and a celebration of the many wonderful voices that were part of it: Marion Cran, who pioneered the first gardening programme in the 1920s; The Goons and Kenneth Horne, comedy greats of the 1950s; John Peel, Alan Freeman, Kenny Everett and other heroes of the pirate stations; all the way up to Eddie Mair, Fi Glover and Dan...

14 November 2012 marks the ninetieth anniversary of the BBC's first ever broadcast and the beginning of the British love affair with radio. This fascinating book takes as its starting point those early, tentative programmes broadcast from Marconi House on the Strand, and follows the story of those magical radio voices through the years of economic depression, war and austerity, to the swinging Sixties and up to the digital era.Above all, it celebrates the great, the forgotten and t...

The Sunday Times BestsellerAll Michael Parkinson really wanted to do was play cricket for Yorkshire and England. However, he soon realised that to be paid to watch films, football and cricket would be the best way to spend life, and he became a journalist.Television beckoned and for three decades Parkinson interviewed the movers and shakers of the late twentieth century, making his television programme the must-see event of the week. In singing wit...

This is Bob Monkhouse's classic autobiography. One of Britain's most enduring and famous comedians tells us in his own inimitable style the fascinating and often hilarious story of his life. From disclosures of very painful personal tragedies to extraordinary and outrageously funny anecdotes about the stars he knew, his confessions are blisteringly honest, touching - and often shocking. Crying With Laughter combines heartache with hilarity, sexy showbiz revelations with genuinely ...

Terry Wogan was one of Britain's best-loved radio and television celebrities witty, charming and relaxed and undoubtedly captured the nation's heart. Here, Terry tells his life story from his beginnings as a young Limerick boy to his incredible success as an enduring celebrity with shows such as Wogan and The Eurovision Song Contest.Is It Me? is written in Terry's own inimitable style, with self-deprecating humour and a wry take on everyday life. The stor...

SPECTATOR BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015Britain's empire has gone. Our manufacturing base is a shadow of its former self; the Royal Navy has been reduced to a skeleton. In military, diplomatic and economic terms, we no longer matter as we once did. And yet there is still one area in which we can legitimately claim superpower status: our popular culture.It is extraordinary to think that one British writer, J. K. Rowling, has sold more than 400 million books...

A collection of hilarious stories and eye-popping anecdotes from the nation's best-loved comedianBarry Cryer is one of the most respected and admired writers and performers of his time. In a career spanning forty years, Barry has worked alongside the greatest producers and performers in show business: Tommy Cooper, Humphrey Lyttelton, Morecambe and Wise, Willie Rushton, Peter Cook, Kenny Everett, Rory Bremner to name but a few - this book is a veritable Who's Who o...

The magnificent, hilarious autobiography of the man who created the immortal Reginald Perrin.As a small boy David Nobbs survived the Second World War unscathed, until his bedroom ceiling fell on him when the last bomb to be dropped on Britain by the Germans landed near his home. It was the nearest he came to the war, but National Service would later make him one of Britain's most reluctant soldiers. It was an unforgettable and often unpleasant experience.As a struggling wri...

There are those who say - and Peter Cook himself was among them - that most of his humour was autobiographical. Others - and Peter Cook himself was among them -contend that this simply isn't the case. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in the middle.Peter Cook made President Kennedy wait in line to see him and visited Elizabeth Taylor in her dressing room. He befriended tramps and fundraised for CND. He was capable of extraordinary kindnesses and occasional cruelties. He helped d...

Classic stills from the life of one of Britain's most venerated entertainers.This is the extraordinary life story of comic legend Denis Norden, told in momentary snapshots by the master British comedian himself. Containing reminiscences of a career stretching back to the golden age of the radio, through the heyday of cinema and the early pioneering days of television comedy, Back Then showcases Denis Norden's creative genius at its very best.Told with Denis' hallmark flashe...

Television and sport is the ultimate marriage of convenience. The two circled each other warily for a while - sport anxious the sofa-bound might spurn the live product, TV reluctant in a limited channel world to hand over too much screen time to flannelled fools and muddied oafs.But they got together, and stayed together, for the sake of the money, and now you cannot imagine one without the other. They are indivisible, like an old couple sitting in a teashop finishing each other's ...