welcome to unusual

In 1975, almost a million people descended on Fantasy Park  - the largest rock concert in the world. It brought the biggest names in rock—Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, and more. Spanning 48 hours and broadcast coast to coast, the legendary festival even sparked rumors of a Beatles reunion. Now, 50 years later, Bob Harris revisits the ultimate musical trip with rare archives, bootlegs, and backstage interviews.

Off Script With Lucie Jones is a brand new chatty podcast recording, Lucie sits down with the great and good from the world of Musical Theatre to chat about their lives on and off stage.

Fresh from his real-life appearance on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Stephen Mangan washes up on the island. When he discovers he's not alone, living among the palms and rocky outcrops and thousands of coffee machines lying in the sand is every former guest of the show - and it's all gone a bit Lord Of The Flies.  Stephen soon finds himself in the kind of trouble where the Bible, the Complete Works of Shakespeare, and his luxury item will be no help whatsoever. sto the complete boxset on BBC Sounds.

Fresh from his real-life appearance on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Stephen Mangan washes up on the island. When he discovers he's not alone, living among the palms and rocky outcrops and thousands of coffee machines lying in the sand is every former guest of the show - and it's all gone a bit Lord Of The Flies.  Stephen soon finds himself in the kind of trouble where the Bible, the Complete Works of Shakespeare, and his luxury item will be no help whatsoever. Listen to the complete boxset on BBC Sounds.

A new podcast which combines comedy with quirky history, hosted by Dara Ó Briain and Isy Suttie, who are tasked to unravel an extraordinary real-life tale each week with the help of a celebrity guest.

The show that unearths true stories so bizarre it makes you go, "What? Seriously??" when you hear them, but you resolve to tell them in the pub the first chance you get. The twist is that Dara and Isy have absolutely no idea how these strange-but-true tales will unfold and we'll all be trying to figure it out together - or Dara and Isy will just go off on funny flights of fancy that are tangentially related to the story.

Producer: Laura Grimshaw 

Outrageously funny and, well, just outrageous, The Naked Week is BBC Radio 4's answer to impartiality. With Andrew Hunter Murray at the helm, no one is safe from this satirically witty roasting of the week’s headlines. It’s sharp, fearless (much to the dismay of our lawyers) and will leave you laughing out loud while wondering how on earth we got here. 

Producer: Jon Holmes

The Skewer is a bold, fresh take on topical satire, blending humour and poignancy by remixing real words from politicians, celebrities, and world leaders into a weekly current affair ‘concept album’. 

Proudly diverse, the show has given over 150 writers their first credit, featuring voices from all walks of life—NHS workers, drivers, vicars, and pole-dancers. Open to anyone, The Skewer brings these unique perspectives together. 

Producer: Jon Holmes

 Fresh from a BAFTA nomination, the multi-award winning The Skewer burrows its way into the 2024 General Election, rounding it all up like a satirical sheepdog barking at a specially commissioned double-length episode, and cutting through all the noise.

Producer: Jon Holmes

In 2023, Jon Holmes was diagnosed with cancer – which came as a bit of a surprise because, quite frankly, he was far too busy for all of that nonsense. After a very odd, intense, unexpected, ridiculous year, Jon realised that men don’t tend to talk openly about the preposterous indignity of dealing with cancer. So he decided he would, with other men who are going through it, or who’ve been through it.

Here – inevitably – comes his new chatty podcast.

Across the series, Jon will be joined by the comedians Stephen Fry, Mark Steel, Richard Herring, Matt Forde and Eric Idle, actors Colin McFarlane and Ben Richards, rock star and The Alarm frontman Mike Peters, and journalists Jeremy Langmead, Nick Owen and Jeremy Bowen. Jon and his guests will demystify all things cancer in raw, honest, difficult, often absurd and – yes – funny detail, from fingers up the bum to blood tests via biopsies, surgery, catheters, stomas, feeding tubes, penis pumps (no, really) and incontinence pads.

Producer: Laura Grimshaw

Artificially Stupid comedy. We forced Artificial Intelligence to digest massive amounts of human media and then write its own versions. Everything from The One Show, Game of Thrones, Friends, Songs of Praise and more via movies, fables, adverts, Shakespeare, poetry and, er, gardening tips (and much much more) are all forever ruined by technology.  We take the scripts, push them word-for-word into the mouths of actors, and the result is absurdly, joyously - and then absurdly again - hilarious.  This is the comedy that conclusively proves that AI is an absolute idiot.

Based on the book by Keaton Patti.

Producer / Director Jon Holmes

As the 2024 General Election comes to an end and politicians and their aides turn their minds to who should serve in the Cabinet and where they'll sit in Downing Street, civil servants all over Whitehall are busy preparing for a new government. Ex-Deputy Cabinet Secretary Helen MacNamara and former Downing Street aide Cleo Watson speak to former officials and SpAds about access talks, policy implementation and the tiny details (fonts, sandwiches, mints) that make all the difference.

For BBC Radio 4

Producer: Eliane Glaser

From the makers of the Moral Maze and The Skewer, this is the story of our time viewed through a cracked retrospectoscope. Featuring a host of recognisable voices, it examines society’s ethical and moral conundrums via bogus talking heads, fake archive footage, and made-up news broadcasts, as we chart everything that went wrong. 

Some of the tape is damaged, but what remains is played out because the budget won’t stretch to repairing it. Put together in haste by a BBC producer decades from now and narrated by Michael Buerk, Pillar of Salt looks back over the shoulder of the intervening years and shines a light on why and how everything crumbled into dust.

A BBC Audio North Production in association with unusual.

Producers: Jon Holmes / Dan Tierney

BAFTA NOMINATED TV DEBUT 

FOR AWARD-WINNING SATIRE

After three years on air and after winning Gold for Best Comedy at the Radio Academy Aria Awards three years running, Jon Holmes’s satirical Radio 4 comedy The Skewer twists its way onto the screen for the first time., and finds itself nominated for a Bafta in the process. 

 The Skewer: Three Twisted Years is an experimental short film that revisits some of the key political and news moments from the last three years with a unique visual interpretation of the show’s critically acclaimed sharp, nightmarish style.

Shortlisted in the 2024 British Comedy Guide Awards for Best TV Sketch Show 

Produced and Directed by Jon Holmes

SERIES 10 TX October 2023 

For BBC Radio 4 we make the multi -award winning satire The Skewer, featuring new and diverse talent. A "satirical river of sound", The Skewer is designed for headphone listening, attaching you to a late night drip of current events  as they melt into your brain, evoking that feeling of drifting off but  with the occasional uncomfortable sleep-twitch, as though you've accidentally stepped off a kerb.
"A freeform assault on the senses..deeply haunting.. an eerily beautiful  discombobulating mosaic"comedy.co.uk
You are welcome to contribute.  Contributor Guide is here

A eco-comedy hybrid magazine show as comedian Jon Long teams up with scientist Dr Tara Shine that emits entertainment and education as they aim to (carbon) capture all things climate.

Carbon Lifeforms returns in 2023

Three members of staff, one dysfunctional railway station, zero passengers. Brand new comedy that drives a train through sitcom-land via a platform crowded with big name cameos, absurd goings-on, and very silly jokes.

Sitcom written by Gareth Ceredig. Starring Geoff McGivern, Tim Downie, and Alexandra Mardell. 

with Olivia Williams, Tracy Ann Oberman, Hugh Dennis, Rufus Jones

Sitcom for Audible Originals 

Meet Miranda, happy-go-lucky single girl who just happens to be a dominatrix with a dungeon in her flat. Sure she's got to whip clients for money, but she's also got the hoovering to do. Stars Miranda Kane, Hugh Dennis, Richard Herring, Jon Holmes, Kevin Eldon., Anthony Head and more....

Slaving Away continues to top Audible's download chart.  

New series for 2023 BBC Radio 4

Diversity of thought, though provoking debate and comedy in the unsafe space. 

Following a successful broadcast pilot, Unsafe Space returns for a full series in 2023.

Featuring (among many others) Simon Evans, Andrew Doyle, Billy Bragg, Owen Jones, Rosie Holt, Eeshan Ackbar, Graham Linehan, Zuby, Jake Yapp, Larry & Paul, April Reign and David Lammy MP. 

Shaun Keaveny narrates apocryphal rock n'roll tales of debauchery in Absolute Radio's first ever scripted comedy. 

Also stars Jake Yapp, Alasdair Beckett King, Naomi McDonald, Alex Sievewright

Original music: Jake Yapp, Nick Bosworth 

2002 New York Festival Award Winner for 'Best Writing' and 'Best Comedy'

2022 Radio Academy Award Nominee for Best Comedy

Made with the assistance of the 

Audio Content Fund

We recently worked with the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK on a project called 'Lost Voices', creating a soundscape from the voices of celebrities, musicians, and Hollywood stars that have died from pancreatic cancer. People diagnosed with the disease usually die within 3 months, and we wanted to help 'break through the silence' by raising awareness - and money! 

For BBC Radio 3, A sonic trip through our on-hold, tick-box, automated world, which turns bureaucracy into art and music.  

Producers: Eliane Glaser and Jon Holmes Composer: Neil Luck Performers: Patricia Auchterlonie (soprano), Tom Jackson (saxophone), Rebecca Burden (cello) Sound Design: Tony Churnside and Jon Holmes. Readings: Hazel Holder