A BBC Radio 4 comedy

Clayton Grange: Series 1&2

Anthony Head stars in the BBC Radio sitcom about a team of brilliantly stupid scientists who are as bad at life as they are at science 
 
 
Hidden in the midst of a remote Surrey village (at the top of the hill, opposite Budgens) is top-secret scientific research institute Clayton Grange. There, a team of bumbling boffins, led by the keen but hopeless Professor Linden Saunders, try to fulfil their government brief to solve the global fuel crisis, cheer people up and make war just a bit more gentle. Sadly, they're as rubbish at science as they are at life - but they're not going to let mere incompetence stop them from pushing the boundaries of human knowledge. 
 
In these two series, they try to make the nation happier (with the help of a relentlessly cheerful robot named Bunty); endeavour to bring a man back from the dead; launch their revolutionary spray-on clothes and take advantage of 'bring your child to work day' to do some controversial genetic manipulation. But there's trouble in store when a local MP comes to visit; an embarrassing virus escapes from the lab; and the team tries to impress a visiting Nobel Prize judge with their self-replicating killer robo-ants... 
 
Scripted by Neil Warhurst with additional material by Paul Barnhill, this sparkling comedy stars Anthony Head as Saunders, with a full cast including Neil Warhurst, Paul Barnhill, Stephanie Racine, Don Gilet and Miriam Margolyes. 
 
Production credits 
Written by Neil Warhurst with extra material by Paul Barnhill 
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow and Sally Avens 
 
Cast 
Professor Saunders - Anthony Head 
Geoff Prowse - Neil Warhurst 
Roger Bucks - Paul Barnhill 
Alice Jameson - Stephanie Racine 
Helen/Bunty/Lionel/Verenovsky/Quiz master - Don Gilet 
Alan Dobson - Paul Stonehouse 
Silas - Joe Sims 
Gwynnie - Heather Craney 
Giles Bentley - David Cann 
Danny - Wilf Scolding 
Kurt/Announcer - Clive Hayward 
Aunt Felicity - Miriam Margolyes 
Simon Prowse - Albie Warhurst 
Izzy - Cassie Layton 
Anders Bjornstad - Simon Kunz 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 25 September-16 October 2012 (Series 1), 10 June-1 July 2014 (Series 2) 
 
'Brilliantly funny' The Observer 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Paul Barnhill

Neil Warhurst

James Fleet

Rosie Cavaliero

Nicholas Boulton

Emily Joyce

Full Cast

A BBC Radio Sci-Fi Comedy

James Fleet stars as Captain ‘Flashdance’ Gordon Taylor in this science fiction sitcom set in the 22nd century 
 
It’s the year 2104, and a fleet of research cruisers has been launched into space on a mission to seek out new life. Every moment on board has been captured, preserved and transmitted back to Earth – and in these unique recordings from The Really Invincible III, Macclesfield Division, we get to eavesdrop on all the goings-on of the plucky but inept crew... 
 
From a problematic meeting with an alien princess to a horde of space tourists on a holiday from hell, life on the cruiser is never less than eventful. Indecisive Captain Taylor is faced with disaster when another of the fleet’s spaceships, The Indestructible III, suddenly explodes; relentlessly nice Communications Officer Karen embarks on a forbidden romance with ship’s engineer Stuart; and medical scientist Clive 55 causes chaos when he is arrested for murdering his 136 clones, and experiments with dark matter to catastrophic effect. 
 
Having survived a trip into a black hole, the team run into trouble with some murderous plant life; get into a spot of bother with a marauding, undead space pirate; contract a mystery plague that causes them to age at an alarming rate; and find reality reflected back at them in the mirror at the end of the universe... 
 
Created by Clayton Grange writers Paul Barnhill and Neil Warhurst, who also play Stuart and Clive 55, this zany space comedy features an ensemble cast including James Fleet, Emily Joyce and Rosie Cavaliero. 
 
 
Written by Paul Barnhill and Neil Warhurst 
Directed by Sally Avens 
 
Cast 
Captain Gordon Taylor – James Fleet 
Melissa Patterson – Emily Joyce 
Karen Trex – Rosie Cavaliero 
Stuart Jackson – Paul Barnhill 
Clive 55 – Neil Warhurst 
Princess Urrgh/Captain Ponter/The King of the Dwapeye – Stephen Hogan 
Urrgh Emperor/Ion – Jason Chan 
Narrator – Nicholas Boulton 
Trevor – Rob Hastie 
The Pendula Verbularis – Anna Bengo 
Captain Jones – Simon Treves 
Therapy Computer – Joannah Tincey 
Spam – Ben Crowe 
Doreen – Rachel Atkins 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 7, 27 June-1 July 2005 (Series 1), 25–29 February 2008 (Series 2) 
 
© 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

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