Showing results by narrator "Gyles Brandreth" in All Categories

This witty and unexpected show brings you toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang and Greek gobbledegook. Find out the meaning of words like giff-gaff, knock-knobbler and buckfitches; the difference between French marbles, French velvet and the French ache; hear the glorious poetry of the English language, as practiced from writers varying from William Shakespeare to Vanilla Ice; and spend time laughing and learning with some of the finest Wordaholics in the business. 

Gyles Brandreth has had a wide, varied and illustrious career as a writer, broadcaster, actor, public speaker and minister of parliament. As the honorary president of The Oscar Wilde Society, the author of the Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries and owner of over 100 books on the eminent figure, it is fair to say that he is also a committed Oscar Wilde enthusiast.

Pantomime Stories – "Babes in the Wood"; "Cinderella"; "Dick Whittington"; "Jack and the Beanstalk"; "Puss in Boots"; "The Sleeping Beauty". Brothers Griimm Fairy Tales – "Rapunzel"; "Rumplestiltskin"; "The Frog Prince"; "The Three Musicians". Hans Andersen Fairy Tales – "The Nightingale"; "The Emperor's New Clothes"; "The Little Match Girl"; "The Tinder Box"; "The Ugly Duckling"; "Thumbelina".

The 24 Minutes of Le Mans are our tribute to the 919 Hybrid. An audiobook, filled with 24 breathtaking stories from the history of Porsche in Le Mans - with contributions from Le Mans legends like Hans-Joachim Stuck, Derek Bell or Hans Herrmann.

For anyone who wants to make fewer (not less) grammar mistakes, a lively, effective, and witty guide to all the ins and outs of the English language, reminiscent of the New York Times best-seller Eats, Shoots & Leaves.   

Nicholas Parsons was the host of the Just a Minute for nearly 52 years - from its first broadcast on 22nd December 1967 until his last show on 23rd September 2019, aged 96. He was a comedy 'straight man', West End actor, radio personality, game-show presenter, chat-show host, quiz master supreme and larger-than-life stage superstar. Here we celebrate his life and work with a series of programmes compered by Paul Merton, plus Series 85 of Just a Minute - his final series.

In this complete collection of episodes from series 82 of Just a Minute, Nicholas Parsons invites guests to try to speak for 60 seconds on a variety of subjects such as George V, favourite breakfast eateries, canals, bad apples and pasta. With panellists including Paul Merton, Sheila Hancock, Jan Ravens, Tony Hawkes, Gyles Brandreth and Zoe Lyons, this series shows just why Just a Minute has been entertaining generations of listeners since its first series in 1967. Who can talk for one minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation from the subject? Find out as we play Just a Minute!

Four of the funniest 2018 episodes from the much-loved BBC Radio 4 panel game chaired by Nicholas Parsons. Among the talented and humorous players in this sparkling quartet are Paul Merton, Gyles Brandreth, Jo Caulfield, Julian Clary, Stephen Fry, Jan Ravens, Rebecca Front, Marcus Brigstocke, Sheila Hancock, Fern Britton and Graham Norton. 

In this sitcom, Harry Hill stars as the governor of Britain’s remotest prison. In Series 1, he has to contend with the prison inspectors, mysteriously malfunctioning CCTV cameras, escaping prisoners and even the prison being attacked by a pair of mating whales. In Series 2, he and the team pitch a new invention to Dragon’s Den, he tries to get his stomach around a food shortage and a self-destruct button is found in the prison.  

Philip - elusive, complex, controversial, challenging, often humorous, sometimes irascible - is the man Elizabeth II once described as her 'constant strength and guide'. Who was he? What was he really like? What is the truth about those 'gaffes' and the rumours of affairs? This is the final portrait of an unexpected and often much-misunderstood figure. It is also the portrait of a remarkable marriage that endured for more than 70 years.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Have You Eaten Grandma? written and read by Gyles Brandreth. It can be much harder than it seems; commas, colons, semicolons and even apostrophes can drive us all mad at times, but it riles no one more than the longest-serving resident of Countdown's Dictionary Corner, grammar guru Gyles Brandreth. In this brilliantly funny tirade and guide, Gyles anatomises the linguistic horrors of our times, tells us where we've been going wrong (and why) and shows us how, in future, we can get it right every time. 

This selection of essays by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) demonstrate the varied power of his genius. Compiled from his lecture tours, newspaper articles, essays and epigrams, these writings show that beneath his trademark wit and love of paradox, Oscar Wilde was an original and remarkably modern writer.

London, 1894. 'I am not a detective, chief constable.' 'No, but you are a poet, a freemason and a man of the world. All useful qualifications for the business in hand.' So says Police Chief Macnaghten to Oscar Wilde in a Chelsea drawing room, in the company of Arthur Conan Doyle. The business they are gathered to discuss is none other than the case of Jack the Ripper, the most notorious murderer in England. And thus the three men set out to solve one of the world's most famous mysteries.

Nick Reynolds is a lefty alternative comedian-turned-holistic therapist. Living on the floor below him is Gyles Brandon, an ex-Tory MP turned media darling. Poles apart, they’d never choose each other as friends, but when Nick accidentally floods Gyles’ apartment, they become reluctant flat-sharers. Joined by Gyles’ goddaughter Sophie Okuyu, the spoilt daughter of a corrupt African politician, the housemates get into various scrapes....

Four specially selected episodes of Radio 4's much-loved panel game includes two special celebratory editions. In the first, which celebrates Just A Minute's 45th anniversary, Paul Merton, Ross Noble, Jenny Eclair and Gyles Brandreth are given subjects from the first series in 1967, such as When I Wear A Top Hat, The English Nanny, Knitting A Cable Stitch Jumper, How To Perform A Cornish Floral Dance - and Derek Nimmo!

The aim of this audiobook is entertainment - and surprise - but there will be a fair bit of erudition and incidental education along the way. We discover the oldest words, the newest, the longest, the shortest, the most frequently used, the costliest (yes, words can come with a price attached), the funniest, the most fatal, the most unusual...from the words Shakespeare gave us to the latest in sexting, the best and the worst, the most amusing and amazing words are here.