In this episode, we look at some of the incredible ways we can commemorate our dead and find out how we can conduct our own unique funeral celebrations, to better reflect the lives our loved ones have lived. Narrated by Jo Brand.

What drives us to wear black, have a wooden coffin and to give our loved ones what we consider to be a “dignified” funeral at staggering expense? Before Queen Victoria, we used to bury our own – now it is almost the exclusive domain of the funeral industry and with an average funeral costing £3,500, perhaps it’s time we looked for alternatives?

Purdy and Chase is a 4 part audio sitcom from the pen of the exceptionally funny Dawn Crumpler. Novice private investigating duo and best friends Pen Purdy and Daisy Chase negotiate a heady mix of insurance fraud and mystery shopping, whilst dealing with their own assortment of doubts and fears in small town Wexton. Pen and Daisy are tiptoeing towards their thirties, desperately trying to face their uncertain future and the inevitable fate looming in the background – having to grow up.  A peculiar pair thrown into unusual situations, Purdy & Chase explores their humorous inadequacies and unexpected heroics, as they embark on their new adventure, together.

‘The Honeymooners’. New private investigating duo and best friends Pen Purdy and Daisy Chase are mystery shoppers at The Shingle Hotel, small town Wexton.  As Pen gets acquainted with the mini-bar and a maroon velvet jumpsuit, Daisy finds the guests at the Hotel are all too familiar.

A peculiar pair thrown into unusual situations, Purdy & Chase explores the humorous inadequacies and unexpected heroics, as they embark on their new adventure, together.

‘Eyes Wide Open’. We finally meet Daisy’s boyfriend, Matt as he helplessly gets drawn into the investigative world of Purdy & Chase, while Pen is finally on a date with Izzy (when she’s not in the loo). As the evening progresses, it’s more than friendship that brings them together.

In our final episode ‘Texas, Maybe’ Pen and Daisy are beginning to show signs of competence.  As they embark on a future together, we are left feeling that it could all start to work out for them both in Wexton, maybe. A peculiar pair thrown into unusual situations, Purdy & Chase explores the humorous inadequacies and unexpected heroics.

A perfectly ordinary, past-its-best English seaside town. Except why has everyone there been turned to stone? Two seriously out-of-their-depth police officers uncover the strange tale of what happened when middle-aged and romantically disappointed hairdresser Marjorie Briggs found something in a polythene bag on the beach that didn’t belong there, something ancient and terrible – something with the power to seriously muck up the lives of Marjorie and all those she loves and hates, as surreal comedy shifts towards a very strange sort of Greek tragedy….

Night of the Orchid is a contemporary Gothic drama of desire and death, and of love and vengeance beyond the grave, from acclaimed playwright Marty Ross. Madeleine Loughran has fled her wedding, seeking shelter with her beloved Great Aunt at her house in the snowbound Scottish countryside. In the house’s ruined glasshouse, the blossoming of a single living flower is the first sign of a passion that will strip bare the secret history of a house and its inhabitants.

The Cask of Amontillado is Edgar Allan Poe’s short but enigmatic masterpiece. Set in an unnamed Italian City we hear the story of how Montresor lures Fortunato through the catacombs into the Montreso family vault and there chains him up and bricks him in for eternity. Why he does it we will never know, but he does so with a casual savagery that is truly chilling.

“’Cask’ was recorded on location in ancient vaults. Every footstep and cough, every brick and every echo are captured. You will never forget hearing the final, faraway declamation: ‘In pace requiescat!’”