Home
/
Fiction
/
Booked!: The Complete Series 1-6
Booked!: The Complete Series 1-6
Jan 1, 2026 2:51 AM

Author:Ian McMillan,Simon Armitage,Arthur Smith,Ian McMillan,Helen Lederer,Mark Radcliffe,Sophie Hannah,Stuart Maconie,Linda Smith,Mark Steel,Roger McGough

Booked!: The Complete Series 1-6

All 36 episodes of the maverick literary quiz

Poet Ian McMillan is our host in this gleeful game of literary tomfoolery, outrageous parody and biting wit. Joining him for some lighthearted competitive wordplay are a quartet of writers and comedians, all ready and eager to run riot through the halls of great literature.

Their bookish challenges include 'New Beginnings and Endings', which sees them topping and tailing well-known literary works to produce some very tall tales, 'Sound Effects', where they have to guess a book title from a mélange of sounds, and 'Conversation Consequences', where they imagine some unlikely meetings between fictional characters. Mrs Malaprop shares a Jacuzzi with Eliza Doolittle, Inspector Clouseau takes Blanche Dubois to a dance and The Dong with the luminous nose honks hooters with Cyrano de Bergerac...

In addition, the panellists seize the chance to liberate famous authors from their individual genres and turn them loose on something different. Among their freewheeling stylings are Hunter S Thompson writing a public school prospectus, John Betjeman creating the copy for a Ford Probe brochure and Franz Kafka dispensing self-help advice in his Little Book of Calm.

Wreaking havoc with the literary canon are Roger McGough, Miles Kington, Mark Thomas, Dillie Keane, John Hegley, Rory Motion, Mark Radcliffe, Arthur Smith, David Stafford, Helen Lederer, Sophie Hannah, Simon Armitage, Stuart Maconie, Linda Smith and Mark Steel.

Presented by Ian McMillan

Devised by Marc Jobst

Produced by Marc Jobst and Viv Beeby

NB: contains some dated attitudes and language

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 31 October-5 December 1995 (Series 1), 18 February-25 March 1997 (Series 2), 14 October-18 November 1997 (Series 3), 2 July-6 August 1998 (Series 4), 25 November-30 December 1998 (Series 5), 22 June-27 July 1999 (Series 6)

(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Reviews

Where love, pain and protectiveness collide. A powerful story of family, of hope, growth and second chances

—— Anna Mathur, author of Mind Over Mother

Although I only knew Billy Lee Turner for an all-too-brief 214 pages, I will mourn his death for the rest of my life

—— Claude Brown

I kept trying to think of a writer who has done a better job of capturing clear, powerful and authentic language, the landscape, the people... I kept searching for comparisons and I kept coming up with masters of the art, from Aeschylus to Ernest Gaines

—— David Bradley

He writes in...in the idiom of his characters, which is rhythmic, expressive, ultimately poetic, and brings William Faulkner to mind

—— Independent

One of Robertson's skills as a novelist is to make both events real and imagined feel equally convincing.

—— Prospect

Subtly explores the relationship between place and identity

—— The Sunday Times

Feral, unholy... Nightbitch is an incredible feat.

—— Carmen Maria Machado, author of IN THE DREAM HOUSE

Graceful, funny and unnerving as hell.

—— Jenny Offill, author of DEPT. OF SPECULATION and WEATHER

Joyfully demented... I tore through it. This is going to be massive.

—— Lisa McInerney, author of THE RULES OF REVELATION

I could not love a novel more than Rachel Yoder's Nightbitch. It's such a uniquely brilliant book... magical, dark, and funny.

—— Kevin Wilson, author of NOTHING TO SEE HERE

Touches on a kaleidoscope of themes, from female rage to the loss of self that accompanies motherhood, all of it undergirded by feral, ferocious scenes... Unforgettable.

—— Esquire.com, Best Books of 2021

Mad, heartfelt, very funny, and unexpectedly charming.

—— Stephanie Cross , Daily Mail

Sharp and smart.

—— Martha Sprackland , Literary Review

The most original book I've read in ages; blistering, enraged and very funny.

—— Editor's Choice, The Bookseller

An electric work by an ingenious new voice, this is one to devour.

—— Starred review, Publishers Weekly

Beautifully written, richly compelling, The Paper Palace is as dark and uncompromising as it is tender and lyrical. Here is a love triangle that keeps you turning the pages, a vivid evocation of place, and an exploration of the one of the most unsettling of secrets

—— Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson's Beetle

The writing is full of rich detail, evoking the New England landscape . . . this is an absorbing family saga packed with intrigue and complicated characters that transports you to Cape Cod. I can't wait for the adaptation

—— Evening Standard

Mesmerising . . . A promising debut from a talent to watch

—— Good Housekeeping

A deliciously lyrical novel . . . weaving between the dangerous yet excitable now and the years of ungodly traumas passed, this masterful tale of childhood love will wash over you like the refreshing, cold waters of The Paper Palace's nearby lake

—— BUZZ magazine

[Cowley Heller] brings to fiction an understanding of how to layer storylines, as well as an assured feel for dialogue and visual description . . . a skilful portrait

—— The Oldie, Book of the Month

The Paper Palace paints a vivid picture of family secrets and tensions, against the backdrop of a sun-soaked summer

—— Take A Break

Miranda Cowley Heller's debut The Paper Palace . . . finds Elle on the point of leaving her near-perfect family life for the visceral thrill of Jonas, green-eyed soul mate of her youthful vacations. With its atmospheric setting and rich backstory, the denouement is set to be an August talking point and a mini-series is already slated.'

—— Country and Townhouse

A stirring and sensual story

—— Woman's Weekly

This accomplished family saga is gripping and poetic, capturing the complexity of the human heart

—— Daily Mirror

A richly detailed family saga that nods to tales by Johns Cheever and Updike . . . this immersive novel makes for a lushly satisfying read

—— The Times

The novel unfolds like a set of dark short stories, with a different character narrating or guiding each one. But there's a twist: Luckenbooth is not just haunted by the realities of time and history, but also by the strong musk of the gothic imagination ... Thickly worked and carefully assembled, the novel functions as a claustrophobic chiller and as a testament to lives led beyond the margins and in the shadows.

—— Bidisha , The Observer

Luckenbooth ... is littered with lines like this. The sort of lines that demand to be read and reread: splendid in isolation, electric in combination. Fagan writes with drama. She can pick out the fine detail, in neat brush strokes, no doubt, but it is in drawing her arm back and attacking a story with great, sweeping lyricism that she propels Luckenbooth forward, dragging the reader through the 20th century, as experienced by a compelling cast of characters.

—— Buzz Mag

Slips and slides through layers of history, tears in the fabric of time and a series of strange shape shifting characters - it's a wonderful work that is a trip into a spectral interzone but also staged in a warped reality - great writing and a major talent.

—— John Robb , Louder Than War

A novel for readers with sophisticated tastes.

—— Fantasy Hive

Uniquely gripping visions of the hidden social, economic and spiritual forces at play in 20th-century Edinburgh.

—— Morning Star

Dazzlingly ambitious.

—— Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain , The Week

As sexy and horrifying as any fairy story, it is a book concerned, not only with a structure, but with structures: alphabetical, architectural, societal, what they are built upon and how they crumble

—— Bella Caledonia

Prize-winning author Jenni Fagan does not disappoint with her latest novel, Luckenbooth, which is easily her most compelling yet. In her usual poetic style, Fagan tells of a nine-storey Edinburgh tenement just off the Royal Mile that is creaking with secrets. Throughout this haunting novel, characters' secrets and memories live on in the howling gales of the spirit world, desperate to re-enter their lives. The narrative takes us through eight decades - from 1910 to 1999 - working its way up all nine floors of the building in hopscotch fashion, allowing for an intriguing interpretation of 20th-century life in the capital. Prepare to be transported into a Fagan's weird and wonderful imagination. It is a whirlwind read and one that I could not put down until the final page had turned.

—— Scottish Field

As sexy and horrifying as any fairy story, it is a book concerned, not only with a structure, but with structures: alphabetical, architectural, societal, what they are built upon and how they crumble.

—— Bella Caledonia

An Edinburgh tenement building is haunted by tall stories and unnerving strangers, from William Burroughs to the devil's daughter, in this weird and wonderful gothic confection.

—— Guardian

Her "world building" is highly effective, and each character fully inhabits their decade. Fagan's writing is anchored in societal issues, the wrongs done and the ways individuals have challenged those wrongs and asserted their individuality and sexuality in ways that might make them seem misfits, outcasts. Fagan certainly pulls no punches and is determined that these passionate, authentic stories should not be confined to the periphery.

—— Historical Novels Review

A deliciously weird gothic horror

—— The Washington Post

An ambitious and ravishing novel that will haunt me long after

—— The New York Times

Ambitious in scope… The physical atmosphere of the Bass Rock and its surroundings are wonderfully evoked… But it is the relationships between women in this tessellated work that triumph... I wholly recommend this book.

—— William Jolt , Tablet, *Novel of the Week*

Wyld is often praised for her lyrical prose, and The Bass Rock is most certainly a continuation of this form.

—— Julie Vuong , Skinny

[A] dark, beautiful and funny gothic family saga for the #MeToo generation… an atmospheric book that transports you within a few sentences… The tension is always building as the story takes on an otherworldly dimension.

—— Charlotte Cripps , Independent

The Bass Rock is complex, rich, challenging… Like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, The Bass Rock offers a universal history of subjugation and oppressionViolenceruns through the book like veins in marbleVivid and gripping.

—— Irish Times

A gripping look at three women's stories across four centuries.

—— Joanne Finney , Good Housekeeping

Evie Wyld’s passion for horror shines through in the setting of this novel.

—— Chiara Rimella , Monocle

Utterly enthralling… [Wyld’s] eye for human foibles and idiosyncrasy is incredibly sharp, and this novel once again exhibits her bravura way with narrative structure… Dark, disturbing and very sophisticated.

—— William Boyd , Sunday Times

[An] intensely absorbing gothic novel, which weaves together the fate of three women across three centuries. That it can also comfortably accommodate episodes of off-the-wall, Fleabag-esque hilarity confirms the acclaimed Wyld's brilliance.

—— Stephanie Cross , Daily Mail *Best of Summer Books*

Wyld's thought-provoking plots separate this book from many others on the shelves... Wyld's three narratives are artfully crafted to suit the shifting time frames.

—— Scottish Field

Wyld's ingeniously linked narratives weave a haunting tale of fear and defiance.

—— Jane Shilling , Daily Mail

A novel of such subtlety and hope

—— Ross Raisin, author of A NATURAL , Observer, *Summer Reads of 2022*
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved