BBC Comedy - Mark Tavener - prepped for disk burn

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Okay, this one requires a little explanation.

Mark Tavener was a British comedy novelist whose 1989 murder mystery/comedy IN THE RED was so well received, that the BBC turned it into a radio series. In turn, this led to the continuation of the characters in the radio series IN THE BALANCE, IN THE CHAIR, and IN THE END. Two particularly funny side characters (played by Stephen Fry and John Bird) were spun of into their own successful BBC radio comedy series; ABSOLUTE POWER. With me so far?

Now then – My dad (who refuses to get a damned mp3 player) is constantly going on coast to coast car trips, and asks me to burn him CDs of audiobooks, TTC lectures, and comedy. Since two half-hour episodes wastes a lot of disk space, I typically join these into massive files, split them into 79 minute chunks, and burn them to CD for him. Occasionally, if I think anyone else on Earth might enjoy an offering, I’ll turn it into a torrent so other people can burn them to disk for themselves, or just listen on THEIR mp3 players. This is such an offering.

Aside from chopping it up and burning it as described above, what I have done here is to put all seasons of all five radio shows in story order, so it listens like one big 22 hour audio book. If you want the files unadulterated and properly presented, I suggest you download them from TBP user Slimoo, which is where *I* got them.

Rambam1776

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Red_%28novel%29

In the Red is a 1989 novel by Mark Tavener, a black comedy revolving around murder, finance, and intrigue in the halls of the BBC. Despite this, it is the BBC that successfully adapted it for both radio and television.

The title comes from the expression \"in the red\".

In 1995, it was adapted for radio by Tavener and Peter Baynham, and aired on BBC Radio 4 with Michael Williams and Barry Foster in lead roles. The radio version was successful, and was followed by three sequels: In the Balance, In the Chair, and In the End.

In 1998, it was adapted for television by Malcolm Bradbury, and aired on BBC Two. The series included a very impressive cast of famous UK television performers including Rik Mayall, Warren Clarke, Richard Griffiths, Alun Armstrong, Stephen Fry, John Sessions and John Bird.

In 2000, a pair of characters, BBC executives played in both the radio and television versions by Stephen Fry and John Bird, were spun off into their own Radio 4 series, Absolute Power, written by Taverner. A television version followed, written by other writers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_Power_%28comedy%29

The series was devised and written by Mark Tavener, and logically follows the series In the Red, In the Balance, In the Chair, and In the End which he wrote with Peter Baynham. In some of these, Prentiss and McCabe (again played by Fry and Bird) are elevated members of the BBC, before getting kicked out. The idea is that after this they created Prentiss McCabe, which is the subject of Absolute Power. The tone and style of Absolute Power is so different from the In the... series that it can be regarded as a totally different programme. It was produced by Dawn Ellis.

Prentiss is a man without morals, whose only objectives are money and power. He is portrayed as being the brains, while McCabe, though an excellent speech-writer, lacks his motivation and insight. McCabe\'s ambitions include retiring and drinking claret, and he spends his life in a state of cynicism, lack of energy and boredom. McCabe (who describes himself as \"a first class mind\") does sometimes have good ideas, but they usually become Prentiss\'s ideas by the time they are presented to the client, and he lacks the energy to make more than mild objections. McCabe is also more likely to baulk at a scheme for moral reasons than Prentiss.

Stephen Fry said of Charles Prentiss, \"He\'s a brute of a man, out to win, with no morals; he\'s completely shameless. There\'s not much to say that\'s nice about him, except that there is some pleasure in watching a natural born killer at work and knowing whatever happens he will win\".

Prentiss and McCabe often find themselves working on behalf of two rival clients, one of whom is often the shadier side of the Labour Government, often called their \"Downing Street Retainer\". This is usually something of an inconvenience as Prentiss is met by Archie Hilditch (Tony Gardner, Alex Lowe), a faceless member of the Government, in a deserted location (such as Frank Dobson\'s campaign headquarters), and told he needs to ruin the popularity of the organisation that he has spent half the programme building up. For example, in one episode they\'re employed by the government to increase the popularity of the European Union, while also being employed by the Eurosceptic newspaper The Sun to increase sales. It is probably a good thing in the end, as the firm relies on these payments since neither Prentiss nor McCabe seems to want to do any real work.

The third member of the company is Sandy (Siobhan Hayes), who is there as the office trainee, getting work experience for her NVQ level 2. She usually does all the work that the partners in the firm cannot be bothered to do, such as filling out thousands of public opinion polls in different handwritings, though she will only agree to do something if it can be twisted into one of the \'nine levels of competence\' of her NVQ. Another member of the office is the useless Clive (Tom George) or as Martin calls him, \'young, er, thing\', who often turns publicity stunts into bloodbaths. He first appears in series three, after Sandy leaves the company to become a nurse (although due to her fiddling with the accounts, she still gets paid).

Another regular character is Maurice, the waiter at McCabe\'s club. Each time he serves McCabe\'s claret, he corrects the English pronunciation of Maurice (Morris) to the French (Maur-ees), and each time Prentiss puts him down with a verse like \"One man by circumstance is in splendour set; whilst another irons pants in a laundrette. Go and iron my pants, Morris\".

In series 1, one of the running jokes is the company trying to avoid working on \"The Sir Harold Dixon Account.\" Although he is never heard, it is known that he is a Conservative politician. As the series goes on, Sandy becomes more frustrated, and in the last episode she changes jobs and starts working for Sir Harold. However, after allegations of sleaze, Sir Harold is made bankrupt and Sandy returns to Prentiss McCabe.

In series 2, another character was created, Gayle Shand, played by Tamsin Greig. Gayle was a former employee of Prentiss McCabe and Charles\'s former girlfriend, with whom she had a heavily sexual relationship (they often made love whilst listening to classical music). However, the relationship fell apart after Gayle told Charles that she was already married to an insect specialist from Philadelphia. She now runs a rival firm to Prentiss McCabe, which is a much larger company, and is often trying to win Archie\'s contract, or is the agent of a rival client to Prentiss McCabe\'s current one. For example, whilst Charles and Martin work for the PM via Archie, Gayle is the spin doctor for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Prentiss McCabe always come up with a plan to keep Archie on their side, despite Gayle\'s attempts to stop them, even trying to make Charles a partner in her firm.

Also introduced was her assistant, Janice, who suspected that Gayle\'s personal rivalry with Charles did not lead to the best decisions.

In the last episode of series 2, Gayle was leaving for America, and made one last bet with Charles. She bet her company against Charles\'s testicles that he could not make the Home Secretary say, \"Prison doesn\'t work\". Despite Charles\'s best attempts, Gayle won because she bribed the Home Secretary, as she was having an affair with someone in the Home Office. Luckily, she called off the bet providing Charles could make love to her to the tune of the 1812 overture. Charles managed to get his own back, however, by planting some Class A Drugs in her suitcase as she left for America. Charles may nevertheless still have some feelings for her, and sometimes reminisces about their relationship.

A one-off special episode was broadcast on the 3 November 2006, with Tony Gardner playing Archie. In the special, Martin goes to jail for seven years for fraud (having been implicated in the Cash for Peerages scandal). Archie, who has left New Labour, then blackmails Charles into giving him a job in order to prevent any more embarrassing information getting out about the company.

However, Charles soon learns that in fact Archie has framed both Martin and himself, with the assistance of Martin\'s girlfriend, and they are planning to take over Prentiss McCabe. After Charles finds proof, Archie goes to jail and Martin gets released, but as he has been moved to an open prison, he does not feel like leaving too soon.

The radio series is sometimes repeated on BBC 7 as part of their, \"Comedy Club\". These repeats are some of the most listened shows on BBC Radio, attracting over 70,000 listeners a week.

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