A BBC Radio 4 comedy

Arthur Smith's Balham Bash: The Complete Series 1-3

Arthur Smith presents music, comedy and entertainment from his South London home - plus a special show from the Edinburgh Festival 
 
Welcome to Arthur Smith's 26-bedroom mock-Tudor manor house, in the heart of international Balham. Behind his front door are a plethora of prodigiously talented performers, all ready and eager to entertain. There's jamming in the kitchen, laughter in the lounge and poetry on the landing - and a whole lot more fun and frolics going on upstairs... 
 
Among Arthur's very special house guests are comedians Pippa Evans (as Loretta Maine), Milton Jones, Stephen K Amos, Micky Flanagan, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Andrew Lawrence, Tom Wrigglesworth, Jenny Eclair, Sean Lock and Kevin Eldon. Plus, there's vibrant verse from Benjamin Zephaniah, John Hegley, Elvis McGonagall, John Smallshaw and Kate Fox, and sensational songs and music from Glenn Tilbrook, Alabama 3, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Scouting for Girls, Paloma Faith, Gomez, Nine Below Zero, Katie Melua, Alex Wilson and his salsa combo and Squeeze. 
 
And in Arthur Smith's Edinburgh Bash, Arthur takes the audience on a tour of top-flight music and comedy from the festival's Fringe, including Emo Phillips, Russell Kane and Clanadonia. 
 
Cast and credits 
Presented by Arthur Smith 
Produced by Sam Michell and Alison Vernon-Smith 
 
Series 1 featuring: Pippa Evans (as Loretta Maine), Paul Sinha, Milton Jones, Glenn Tilbrook, Benjamin Zephaniah, Matt Holness (as Merriman Weir), Stephen K Amos, Nat Luurtsema, Seann Walsh, Micky Flanagan, Alabama 3, Stewart Lee, Reginald D Hunter, Sophie Ellis-Bextor 
 
Series 2 featuring: John Hegley, Barbara Nice, Andrew Lawrence, Scouting For Girls, Paloma Faith, Miles Jupp, Tom Wrigglesworth, Elvis McGonagall, Doc Brown, Gomez, Henry Paker, Richard Herring, Nine Below Zero, Phill Jupitus (as Porky the Poet), Josh Widdecombe, Marlon Davis 
 
Edinburgh Bash featuring: Kate Fox, Emo Phillips, Russell Kane, Clanadonia, Simon Donald 
 
Series 3 featuring: Katie Melua, Roisin Conaty, Alun Cochrane, Nick Helm, Jenny Eclair, Simon Evans, John Smallshaw, Alex Wilson and his salsa combo, Sean Lock, Annette Fagon, Squeeze, Luke Wright, Billy Jenkins, Kevin Eldon, Imran Yusef, Kate Fox 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 7-28 July 2009 (Series 1), 15 April-6 May 2010 (Series 2), 26 August 2010 (Arthur Smith's Edinburgh Bash), 4-25 April 2011 (Series 3) 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Arthur Smith

Germaine Greer

Tony Benn

Shappi Korsandi

Simon Callow

Nick Hancock

Imogen Stubbs

Robert Fisk

Barbara Castle

Various

Arthur Smith takes a trip down memory lane with celebrities including Miriam Margolyes, Tony Benn and Jack Vettriano 
 
'Charming' The Times 
 
Comedian and broadcaster Arthur Smith plays tour guide to fifteen well-known personalities, as they visit places that are meaningful to them and remember pivotal moments in their lives. Through genial chat, humorous banter and gentle probing, he discovers just what made these locations so special and significant - and opens the floodgates to some amazing personal stories. 
 
Revisiting their home towns, Jack Vettriano and Barbara Castle reminisce about their youth, while other guests travel further afield. Returning to Romania, Annie Nightingale recalls her 1990 visit, shortly after the revolution, and the tour she organised to bring Western music to the youth of Bucharest. Eric Newby goes back to Fontanello, where he was a prisoner of war from 1943 - and where he first met the beautiful blonde who was to become his wife. Meanwhile, Miriam Margolyes embarks on a quest to trace the history of her Jewish family in Belarus. 
 
Among Arthur's other travelling companions are Hammer Horror actress Ingrid Pitt, who returns to Buenos Aires, where she lived in the 1970s with her racing-driver husband; Germaine Greer, who takes a nostalgic trip to southern Italy, where she spent the summer of 1967; and Imogen Stubbs, who retraces her steps to her alma mater, Oxford University's Exeter College - and to a rustic, romantic shack out in the woods... 
 
Eclectic, entertaining, intriguing and surprising, this captivating collection will give you new insight into the extraordinary lives and experiences of some truly fascinating people. 
 
Production credits 
Presented by Arthur Smith 
Produced by Sharon Banoff, Dilly Barlow, Sara-Jane Hall, Rebecca Moore and Vibeka Venema 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates: 
 
Barbara Castle 4 January 1998 
Nick Hancock 11 January 1998 
Simon Callow 18 January 1998 
Eric Newby 12 February 1998 
Miriam Margolyes 4 April 1999 
Imogen Stubbs 11 April 1999 
Robert Fisk 18 April 1999 
Jack Vettriano 1 July 2006 
Germaine Greer 8 July 2006 
Tony Benn 29 July 2006 
Ingrid Pitt 5 August 2006 
Brendan Foster 12 August 2006 
Shaparak Khorsandi 19 August 2006 
Julian Lloyd Webber 26 August 2006 
Annie Nightingale 9 September 2006 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

Arthur Smith

Books by Arthur Smith

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter