The BBC Radio 4 comedy series

Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation: The Complete Series 1-10

'The master of quietly inflammatory comedy' - The Evening Standard 
 
'Made me drop the kettle in shock, but worth it' - The Daily Telegraph 
 
Few can forget where they were in September 1993 when they first heard Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation. The show was an immediate smash-hit success, causing pubs to empty on a Saturday night, which was particularly astonishing since the show went out on Thursdays. Since that fateful first series, the show has gone on to win Sony awards, Writers Guild nominations and a Nobel Prize for Chemistry with lines like - "Kids should never be fashion slaves, especially in the Far East. My 12-year old daughter asked me for a new pair of trainers. I told her she was old enough to go out and make her own". 
 
Included here are all ten series of Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation, with episodes on topics like "How To Stay Alive As Long As You Possibly Can", "How To Have A Baby", and "How To Confront The Vexed Issue Of British Identity Without Getting In The Most Fearful Bate About The Whole Thing". 
 
This bumper collection also includes Jeremy Hardy's New Year Cavalcade - an unmissable meditation on everything Yule and a healthy dose of comic Bisodol to flush away the memory of driving up the motorway for seven hours in the dark to spend quantity time with your family - and the memorial programme When Jeremy Hardy Spoke to the Nation. Not quite a biography, not quite a documentary, this final programme is narrated by his great friend and colleague Sandi Toksvig, and shines a light on how and why the man once described as 'an incendiary vicar' stayed so funny and so beloved for over 30 years. 
 
Produced and directed by David Tyler. 
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4. 
 
©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
(p)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

'The master of quietly inflammatory comedy' - The Evening Standard 
 
'Made me drop the kettle in shock, but worth it' - The Daily Telegraph 
 
Few can forget where they were in September 1993 when they first heard Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation. The show was an immediate smash-hit success, causing pubs to empty on a Saturday night, which was particularly astonishing since the show went out on Thursdays. Since that fateful first series, the show has gone on to win Sony awards, Writers Guild nominations and a Nobel Prize for Chemistry with lines like - "Kids should never be fashion slaves, especially in the Far East. My 12-year old daughter asked me for a new pair of trainers. I told her she was old enough to go out and make her own". 
 
Included here are all ten series of Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation, with episodes on topics like "How To Stay Alive As Long As You Possibly Can", "How To Have A Baby", and "How To Confront The Vexed Issue Of British Identity Without Getting In The Most Fearful Bate About The Whole Thing". 
 
This bumper collection also includes Jeremy Hardy's New Year Cavalcade - an unmissable meditation on everything Yule and a healthy dose of comic Bisodol to flush away the memory of driving up the motorway for seven hours in the dark to spend quantity time with your family - and the memorial programme When Jeremy Hardy Spoke to the Nation. Not quite a biography, not quite a documentary, this final programme is narrated by his great friend and colleague Sandi Toksvig, and shines a light on how and why the man once described as 'an incendiary vicar' stayed so funny and so beloved for over 30 years. 
 
Produced and directed by David Tyler. 
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4. 
 
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
(p)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The BBC Radio 4 comedy

Jeremy Hardy Feels It

Jeremy Hardy returns with a brand new series that not only seconds that emotion but explains it too.

Jeremy Hardy became a stand-up comedian in January 1984. His BBC Radio 4 work includes Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation, The News Quiz, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue and You’ll Have Had Your Tea. He has also done various bits of television, most notably, Now Something Else with Rory Bremner, Saturday Live, Blackadder Goes Forth, Loose Talk, Jack and Jeremy’s Real Lives with Jack Dee and If I Ruled the World with Graeme Garden and Clive Anderson. He’s been in three films: Mike Figgis’s Hotel with Burt Reynolds, Oliver Irving’s How to Be with Robert Pattinson and Leila Sansour’s documentary, Jeremy Hardy v the Israeli Army, which involved a degree of personal risk. He has written columns for The Guardian and Red Pepper and has written three books: When Did You Last See Your Father, a spoof childcare guide; Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation, based on the radio series; and My Family and Other Strangers, an examination of his lacklustre ancestry, published last year. More importantly, he is still a stand-up comic, performing his one-man show in theatres and arts centres throughout Britain and Ireland. He is also part of the live touring version of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. A kind soul in The Guardian wrote of him, 'In an ideal world, Jeremy Hardy would be extremely famous, but an ideal world would leave him without most of his best material.' He does not usually refer to himself in the third person.

Jeremy Hardy returns with a brand new series that not only seconds that emotion but explains it too. Yes, BBC Radio 4's most passionate polemicist returns to the airwaves with a new format which promises to be both personal and profound, and to present sides of Jeremy you won't have heard before. He may even sing. (He won't sing.) 
 
The News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue regular, proud progenitor of ten series of Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, and winner of numerous awards and almost certainly the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Jeremy is famous for lines like: 
 
"Kids should never be fashion slaves, especially in the Far East. My 12-year old daughter asked me for a new pair of trainers. I told her she was old enough to go out and make her own." 
 
and - 
 
"Islam is no weirder than Christianity. Both are just Judaism with the jokes taken out." 
 
His unique world view once lead him to be likened to "an incendiary vicar". Gillian Reynolds called him, "an idealist, a dissenter, a polemicist and moralist - he's a salutary reminder that jokes can, and should, be about big things." 
 
The show is produced by Jeremy's long-standing accomplice, David Tyler, whose radio credits include Cabin Pressure, John Finnemore’s Double Acts, Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones!, Marcus Brigstocke's The Brig Society, Kevin Eldon Will See You Now, Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off, The Castle, The 99p Challenge, Deep Trouble, My First Planet, Radio Active and Bigipedia. His TV credits include Paul Merton - The Series, Spitting Image, Absolutely, The Paul Calf Video Diary, Coogan's Run and exec producing Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies. 
 
In the four shows, Jeremy is feeling - in turn - happy, sad, fearful and finally, hopeful!

Jeremy Hardy

Kit Hollerbach

Paul B. Davies

Pete Sinclair

Caroline Leddy

A BBC Radio Comedy

All three series of the surreal sitcom set in the madcap world of four happy-go-lucky young folk 
 
 
Jeremy Hardy and friends are an irrepressible gang of jolly japesters who are always up for laughter and merriment. Luckily, they all live near to each other: which means craziness is never far away. So good they named it twice, this zany sitcom was initially known as Unnatural Acts, before returning for its third series as At Home With the Hardys. But though the title may be different, the high jinks are as wacky as ever... 
 
Series 1 of Unnatural Acts sees Jeremy investigating his lineage, and Kit deciding it's time to get in touch with a medium's answerphone. When the pals decide to commune with Mother Nature it's out with the picnic snacks and off to Sizefield nuclear power station - and when Caroline makes a special announcement at Kit and Jeremy's wedding anniversary, it's another success story for computer dating. There's just one tiny problem... In Series 2, a slew of April Fool pranks escalates into a terrorist threat; a safari park throws up some unexpected attractions, including an exploding ostrich and a gorilla with a walkie-talkie; and Paul starts spring-cleaning Ashdown Forest - where he makes a very interesting discovery... 
 
There's a new moniker, a new story, a new job and a new arrival for the crazy crew in Series 3, At Home with the Hardys. Someone, somewhere is having an affair - and Paul's doing the catering. Adverts make the heart grow fonder as our four funsters bring you a cleaner, brighter programme with built-in lemon freshness. Meanwhile, a famous line from a famous film may not amount to a hill of beans, but it could be the end of a beautiful friendship - and as Jeremy and Paul get starry-eyed, Kit and Caroline come down to earth... 
 
Written by and starring Jeremy Hardy, Kit Hollerbach and Paul B. Davies, this riotous radio romp also stars Caroline Leddy. 
 
Production credits 
Produced by David Tyler 
 
 
Cast 
Jeremy - Jeremy Hardy 
Kit - Kit Hollerbach 
Paul - Paul B. Davies 
Caroline - Caroline Leddy 
and introducing Patty-Jo 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates: 
 
Series 1 (Unnatural Acts) 
Written by Jeremy Hardy, Kit Hollerbach and Paul B Davies. With Pete Sinclair, Steve Punt, Alison Renshaw, John Morrish and Dave Cohen 
 
Series 2 (Unnatural Acts) 
Written by Jeremy Hardy, Kit Hollerbach, Paul B Davies, Pete Sinclair and Caroline Leddy 
 
Series 3 (At Home with the Hardys) 
Written by Paul B. Davies, Jeremy Hardy, Kit Hollerbach and Pete Sinclair 
 
© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
 
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