welcome to unusual
we are a multi award-winning production and creative content company.
we are unusual.
some OF THE RECENT things we've made
The Skewer
Absolute Radio Pirates
Carbon Lifeforms
SERIES 7 TX September 2022
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
Carbon Lifeforms
Absolute Radio Pirates
Carbon Lifeforms
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.
Absolute Radio Pirates
Absolute Radio Pirates
Absolute Radio Pirates
For one day only on Friday 12th August Absolute Radio 60s presents Absolute Radio Pirates! A day celebrating the music and personalities of the pirate radio stations of the 1960s 55 years after they were brought to an end.
To mark the anniversary, Absolute Radio Pirates combines new interviews with archive broadcasts - and loads of great music - to tell the real story of the pirates, their love of music and the move into illegality.
With Tony Blackburn, Johnnie Walker, and archive from (among others) John Peel, Kenny Everett, and Tommy Vance.
Made with the assistance of the
No Platformed
No Platformed
Absolute Radio Pirates
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
Slaving Away
No Platformed
Unsafe Space
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....
Series 1 and 2 continue to top Audible's download chart.
Series 3 released May 26th 2021.
Unsafe Space
No Platformed
Unsafe Space
New show for 2022 BBC Radio 4
Diversity of thought, though provoking debate and comedy in the unsafe space.
Featuring (among others) Simon Evans, Andrew Doyle, Mary Bourke, Alice Marshall, Tony Law, Leo Kearse, Nick Dixon, Freddy Quinne, Jake Yapp, Larry & Paul, April Reign and David Lammy MP.
A series is commissioned for 2023
Rockanory
Giggle in a Gallery
Lost Voices
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
Lost Voices
Giggle in a Gallery
Lost Voices
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!
Giggle in a Gallery
Giggle in a Gallery
Giggle in a Gallery
We created besoke audio guides
(narrated by Hugh Dennis) for the
Turner Contemporary art gallery
in Margate, Kent.
Galleries and museums are constantly looking for ways to engage new audiences, which is where we stepped in a brand new audio guide.
“A lot of people are put off art galleries because they think of art as a very high-brow subject which can only be enjoyed in a very serious and intellectual way. It isn’t, it is there to be enjoyed by everyone, and I hope a slightly irreverent gallery guide might help change that perception.”
Hugh Dennis
(Outnumbered, Mock the Week,
The Now Show)
Half The Money Each
Between The Ears: Noise
Giggle in a Gallery
Two Part Documentary for Absolute Radio
A commercial tie-in with e-One, for the cinema release of 'Stan and Ollie', comedian Jo Brand tells the story of the double act.
Features interviews with Steve Coogan, John C Reilly, director Jon C Baird, Trevor & Simon, Steve Punt, Mel Hudson, Jon Culshaw and comedy writers Jason Hazeley and
Joel Morris.
Advertising Week Europe
Between The Ears: Noise
Between The Ears: Noise
Live event at Bafta, Piccadilly
We worked with Global to write and produce a live event at Bafta in front of 200 industry bigwigs as part of Advertising Week Europe.
Written and directed by Jon Holmes it starred Debra Stephenson, Terry Mynott and Mitch Benn, accompanied by their takes on Madonna, Dame Judi Dench, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, David Attenborough, Henry VIII, Paul McCartney, and ,er, the Caramel Bunny,
Between The Ears: Noise
Between The Ears: Noise
Between The Ears: Noise
For BBC Radio 3, A sonic trip through our on-hold, tick-box, automated world, which turns bureaucracy into art and music. With audio collaged from public transport announcements, customer service phone lines, chat bots and computer error codes, this is an aural journey through the multitude of depersonalised and depersonalising messages that accost us every day. Hearing from members of the public across Britain who vent their tales of admin woe, this programme gives voice to the frustration we all feel.
Finally, with the help of composer Neil Luck, we transform these grey snowdrifts into an original musical composition that sublimates dross into art. Through auditory alchemy, the negativity we are all subject to is transmuted into something of value that lifts us out of the everyday, reclaiming the human from digitised modern life.
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
CHOICE OTHER STUFF
Cold Case Crime Cuts
Welcome To The Neighbourhood
Cold Case Crime Cuts
Cold Case Crime Cuts is a spoof true crime podcast – but where the ‘crimes’ investigated are those that have been committed in songs. (But without ever referencing the fact that they’re songs.)
"A pin-sharp parody of US true crime podcasts,"
Winner: New York Festival 2022
Winner: British Podcast Awards 2022
Winner: Radio Academy Awards 2022
Nominee: 2022 Rose D'or
Best Comedy Podcast
The The One Show Show
Welcome To The Neighbourhood
Cold Case Crime Cuts
Hit podcast that adopts the forensic approach some take to analysing high-end box set television, and applies to the ultimate disposable TV: the BBC’s flagship light magazine programme The One Show.
A deep dive into TVs shallowest show.
Jon Holmes, Marc Haynes and guests including Fi Glover, Jay Rayner, Peter Baynham, and many more
"A joy" popbitch
Welcome To The Neighbourhood
Welcome To The Neighbourhood
Welcome To The Neighbourhood
Comedian Jayde Adams and guests dive into the feisty world of community apps and messageboards, sifting through the angry neighbourhood bins to find disgruntled comedy gold.
for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4
Jeremy Vine: Agony Uncle
Jeremy Vine: Agony Uncle
Welcome To The Neighbourhood
Hugely popular comedy for BBC Radio 2. Jeremy Vine (as played by Lewis MacLeod) plays agony uncle to any number of celebrities who phone him up for advice during his show, while the records are on.
Anne Frank's Trees
Jeremy Vine: Agony Uncle
Anne Frank's Trees
Documentary for Holocaust Day
for BBC Radio 4
Presented by Michael Rosen
Slow Radio Comedy
Jeremy Vine: Agony Uncle
Anne Frank's Trees
Experimental sound-art-meets-comedy as comedians, poets, and presenters swap the stage for the great outdoors, and perform - more slowly - with nature as their audience.
Recorded on location in binaural stereo for BBC Radio 4
Starring:
Simon Evans, Natasha Hodgson, Lemn Sissay and Poppy & Rubina from the Brown Girls Do It Too podcast.
some of the nice people we work with
