Little Blighty on the Down BBC - Mark Burton, John O’Farrell, Mike Coleman

Category: Full Cast, Political, Radio Productions
Language: English
Keywords: BBC Full Cast Political Satire Radio 4

Written by Mark Burton, John O’Farrell, Mike Coleman
Read by Full Cast, Alistair McGowan, Michael Troughton, Jo Kendall, Andrew Sachs, Nick Hancock
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Dramatization

Little Blighty on the Down: Series 1-5
A BBC Radio 4 Political Comedy Satire
By: Mark Burton, John O’Farrell, Mike Coleman
Narrated by: full cast, Alistair McGowan, Michael Troughton, Jo Kendall, Andrew Sachs, Nick Hancock
Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
Radio/TV Program
Release date: 14-10-2021
Language: English
Publisher: BBC Audio

All five series of the political satirical soap opera set in the strangely familiar village of Little Blighty - plus Christmas Specials

Little Blighty is an idyllic part of the world, with a church, a market, a small school and a pub, The Cock and Bull. Village life is pretty uneventful, though the humdrum happenings include social turmoil, economic upheaval and vicious political squabbles - all presided over by the redoubtable head of the Parish Council and secretary of the Rotarians, Mrs Roberts.

This formidable lady has been running things for nine years: despite the best efforts of the leader of the opposition, Working Men’s Club Chairman Mr Blandish. He’s desperate for his members to present a united front against Mrs Roberts, but unfortunately they’re too busy fighting amongst themselves.

The doctor’s surgery is overcrowded, the river’s polluted, the school is fiddling the exam results and the local market’s under threat from cheap imports, but nothing seems to dent Mrs Roberts’ popularity - until she introduces a conveyance charge across the village bridge. Could the ‘Toll Tax’ finally be her downfall?

Also included are three festive Specials, The Blighty Chronicles, It’s a Wonderful Blight and Dead of Blight, in which the village’s rich history is staged; a guardian angel visits Little Blighty; and we attend Lord and Lady Spenney’s Christmas party, where we hear some bloodcurdling supernatural tales….

Scripted by Spitting Image writers John O’Farrell, Mark Burton and Mike Coleman, and first broadcast in 1988, this ‘everyday story of a country folk’ is a pitch-perfect parody of the British political landscape in the late ’80s and early ’90s - and remains surprisingly topical today. It is performed by a star cast including Jo Kendall, Andrew Sachs, Nick Hancock, Michael Troughton and Alistair McGowan.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 2nd-16th September 1988 (Series 1), 21st July-18th August 1989 (Series 2), 29th December 1989 (The Blighty Chronicles), 6th July-3rd August 1990 (Series 3), 5th July-2nd August 1991 (Series 4), 26th December 1991 (It’s a Wonderful Blight), 10th July-7th August 1992 (Series 5), 31st December 1992 (Dead of Blight)

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