If You're So Clever, Why Aren't You Rich?

A BBC Radio 4 Comedy

By: Paul Shearer, Richard Turner

Narrated by: full cast, Richard E. Grant, Peter Capaldi, Tony Slattery, Amanda Root, Douglas Hodge, Hugh Bonneville, Alex Lowe, Alexander Armstrong

Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Richard E. Grant, Peter Capaldi and Amanda Root are among the stars of this BBC radio sitcom about three promising graduates still underachieving in their 30s.

Flatmates Judith, Giles and David once had it all: youth, optimism, ambition and degrees from one of the country's best universities. In their 20s, they were full of potential, but 10 years later, they're simply might-have-beens. Stuck in Streatham and strapped for cash, they're forced to mooch off their more successful mates just to get by....

Wannabe actress Judith is searching for her big break, but all she finds are unsuitable men (and one equally unsuitable woman...). Could a baby be the answer to her unfulfilled yearnings - or maybe marriage to ex-lover Giles? Nerdy David is also hopelessly in love with Judith but knows he doesn't have a chance. Will he ever meet a potential girlfriend who isn't in his cycling club? And for dissolute ex-public-schoolboy Giles, recently returned from 'finding himself' in Kathmandu, anything's preferable to going back to Norfolk and becoming a solicitor....

As they battle with life, love, themselves and each other, can the not-so-young hopefuls finally find their focus and get to grips with adulthood?

First broadcast in 1995, this fresh, funny series still feels real and relevant today and features a stellar cast including Richard E Grant, Douglas Hodge and Tony Slattery as Giles, Peter Capaldi and Paul Bigley as David and Amanda Root as Judith.

Production credits:

Written by Paul Shearer and Richard Turner. Produced by Paul Schlesinger and Claire Jones. Music by Pete Baikie.

Cast

Giles - Richard E Grant/Douglas Hodge/Tony Slattery

Judith - Amanda Root

David - Peter Capaldi/Paul Bigley

Mr Horrocks - Geoffrey Whitehead

Mrs Horrocks - Tina Gray/Jillie Meers

With Christopher Rozycki, Amerjit Deu, Kay Stoneham, Alexander Armstrong, Richard Turner, Eva Stuart, Peter Yapp, Simon Greenall, Annabel Mullion, Alex Lowe, Phil Nice, Siriol Jenkins, Paul Shearer, Abigail Cruttenden, Jane Slavin, Alice Arnold, Christian Rodska, Dominic Letts, Felicity Montagu, Gavin Muir, Colleen Prendergast, Stephen Critchlow, Abigail McKern, Nick Holder, Colin McFarlane, Hugh Bonneville, Margaret Robertson, Philip Glenister, Jonathan Kydd, Jane Whittenshaw, Sam Dastor, Peter Wingfield, Caroline Strong, Caroline Langrishe, Jacqueline Beatty, Pip Torrens, Patience Tomlinson, David Timpson, Kerry Shale, Debra Stephenson, Fiona Allen, Janet Ellis, Nina Wadia, Sue Elliot Nichols, Barbara Murray.

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 10th January-14th February 1995 (Series 1), 6th June-11th July 1996 (Series 2), 28th May-18th June 1998 (Series 3).

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