Showing results by narrator "Stephen Mangan" in All Categories

Stephen Mangan and Claire Skinner star in all four series of the popular BBC Radio 4 comedy drama. Bill works as an economist in a right-wing institute giving succour to bankers and businessmen. Bella teaches yoga, waters the plants in Canary Wharf and holds Proust seminars for retirees. Years ago they shared a flat before Bill got married and moved to America. Now he's back and feeling a little off-kilter, so he decides to rekindle his friendship with Bella.

It’s the most important day of the year for King Fabian as he is hosting all the neighbouring rulers. Everything simply must go perfectly. King Fabian wakes up, stretches, and farts. His wife’s fury is so huge that he panics and blames the butler, who is carted off to the dungeons. Leaving behind a big problem: Fabian isn’t really the brains behind the crown: it is the butler...how will dithery Fabian manage to pull off this high-pressure event alone? His small and smelly fart looks like it will kick off a crisis.

Arlo the lion is exhausted. He just can't drop off, no matter what he tries. It's either too hot, or too cold; too loud or too quiet. But then he meets Owl. She can sleep through the day, which isn't easy when most other animals are awake! Will Arlo ever get any rest? Perhaps his new friend has some special tricks she can teach him.

There's a whole world of Dahl still to discover in a newly collected audiobook of his deliciously dark tales for adults. In war, are we at our heroic best or our cowardly worst? Featuring the autobiographical stories from Roald Dahl's time as a fighter pilot in the Second World War as well as seven other tales of conflict and strife, Dahl reveals the human side of our most inhumane activity.

The two younger Billy Goats Gruff want to be as big and fat as their older brother. They long to munch the tasty grass in the meadow—but first they must cross the stream and face the fierce troll under the bridge. A magical retelling of the classic fairy tale, read by Stephen Mangan.

Aladdin is a tailor's son who dreams of making his fortune and marrying the Sultan's daughter, but is tricked into becoming apprentice to a cunning magician. He needs Aladdin to do a very special job - climb down into a deep, dark cave and fetch an oil lamp.... A magical retelling of the classic tale, read by Stephen Mangan.

Mother Duck's brood of little ducklings are all adorable - except for one. The ugly duckling is large, grey, and awkward - but he has a surprise in store.... A magical retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale, read by Stephen Mangan.

Magical retellings of four classic fairy tales. In "Rapunzel" read by Tamsin Greig, beautiful Rapunzel has been imprisoned by an evil enchantress. Every day, she sits at the window of her high tower, and sings as she lets down her long hair. Then one day, a prince comes riding by.... In "The Tinder Box" read by Stephen Mangan, a wizened old woman promises a soldier riches beyond his wildest dreams. All she wants in return is a small tinderbox - but is there more to the tinderbox than meets the eye?

Rosalind, daughter of the deposed Duke Senior, is exiled from the court by her wicked uncle. Disguising herself as a young man and accompanied by her cousin Celia, she takes refuge in the Forest of Arden. In the forest Rosalind meets Orlando with whom she is in love, but her male disguise complicates matters, especially when Rosalind finds she has unwittingly attracted the shepherdess Phebe. But out of the confusion comes reconciliation and forgiveness, and all ends happily.

When Geppetto makes a wooden puppet of a little boy, he is astonished when the puppet comes to life! But Pinocchio dreams of being a real boy.... A magical retelling of the classic tale, read by Stephen Mangan.

Sebastian and Anna are best friends who do everything together. So when Sebastian falls into the hands of the evil Snow Queen, Anna is determined to rescue him. A magical retelling of the classic fairy tale, read by Stephen Mangan.

This sublime collection dips into the wit and wisdom of the man behind The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, uncovering his unique comic musings on everything from his school-trousers to malt whisky and from the letter Y through to his own nose, via atheism, hangovers and fried eggs. These hilarious collected writings reveal the warmth, enthusiasm and ferocious intelligence behind this most English of comic writers; a man who was virtually an unofficial member of the Monty Python team.

The last thing Jack expected when he bungee-jumped at the fairground was to go plummeting right through the ground into the weird, wonderful Rooms.... There he must face a series of puzzles and traps alongside a mysterious girl called Cally, in order for them to find their way home. Throw in a murderous polar bear, hundreds of tiny yet ferocious lions, some mind-blowing riddles, and get ready for a hilarious, helter-skelter adventure like no other!

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of About a Boy by Nick Hornby, read by Stephen Mangan. Nick Hornby's second best-selling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is 36, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women - through single-parent groups. Marcus is 12 and a little bit nerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana.

In The Champion of the World, Roald Dahl tells a funny, bittersweet story about low cunning in the country. Danny and his father William are a pair of poachers who discover a foolproof way to bag pheasants using sleeping pills and raisins, however things do not go exactly to plan.....

Told through three distinctive voices, Small Hours is an evocative, moving and illuminating story of a family in crisis and the ghosts of the past who still haunt them, of life-changing conversations in the early hours of the morning, and of a great love between two people whose time left together is running short.

A woodcutter and his wife are desperate for a child - even one as small as his father's thumb. So Merlin and the Faerie Queen grant their wish, and Tom Thumb is born! A magical retelling of the classic tale, read by Stephen Mangan.

In Letters of Note: Art, Shaun Usher celebrates extraordinary correspondence about art, from missives on the agony of being overlooked, the ecstasy of producing work that excites, to surprising sources of inspiration and rousing manifestos. A star-studded cast of readers brings the letters to life, with contributions from Sanjeev Bhaskar, Louise Brealey, Simon Callow, Crystal Clarke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Fry, Neil Gaiman, Toby Jones, Ferdinand Kingsley, Jude Law, Helen McCrory, Stephen Mangan, Clarke Peters, Juliet Stevenson, Mark Strong and Meera Syal.

Bill works as an economist in a right-wing institute giving succour to bankers and businessmen. Bella teaches yoga, waters the plants in Canary Wharf and holds Proust seminars for retirees. Years ago they shared a flat before Bill got married and moved to America. Now he's back and feeling a little off-kilter, so he decides to rekindle his friendship with Bella. Once a month they get together for lunch, where they talk about everything from politics to Proust, parenting and the perils of online dating. The only thing they've never discussed is how much they love each other.

In this moving collection, Shaun Usher gathers together some of the most powerful letters about love ever written. Whether inspired by love’s first blush or the recriminations at its ending, the regrets of unrequited feelings and the joys of passions known, Letters of Note: Love is essential listening for anyone with a heart.