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Ed Reardon's Week: Series 9-12
Ed Reardon's Week: Series 9-12
Jan 13, 2026 1:38 AM

Author:Christopher Douglas and Andrew Nickolds,Christopher Douglas,Stephanie Cole,Barunka O'Shaughnessy,Philip Jackson,Alison Steadman,Geoffrey Whitehead,Full Cast,Brigit Forsyth

Ed Reardon's Week: Series 9-12

Series 9-12 of the hit comedy featuring curmudgeonly author Ed Reardon

Author, pipe-smoker, fare-dodger and master of the complaining letter and abusive email, Ed Reardon returns for another four series. Despite many thwarted attempts at literary succes, he's still living a precarious existence with his trusty companion Elgar, reliant on any small morsels of work Ping can offer him to keep body, mind and cat together. He also continues to have regular run-ins with his nemesis, Jaz Milvane - who somehow manages to make money out of mad schemes, while Ed makes nothing - and his love life remains more than a little erratic.

Among his endeavours in these 24 episodes, Ed attends his first ever interview for a real job; finds himself facing homelessness as Stan throws him out on the street; enters the groves of academe as he becomes a student at 'Uni'; and gains a new agent, Maggie, who gets him a regular writing gig on Your Motorhome magazine. Can she help him to turn his fortunes around?

Also included is a special festive edition, which sees Ed spending the holiday season without Elgar. All he has for Christmas is a computer and a commission...

Christopher Douglas stars as Ed, alongside Stephanie Cole, Philip Jackson, Geoffrey Whitehead, Alison Steadman, Brigit Forsyth and Barunka O'Shaughnessy, in this acclaimed comedy by Christopher Douglas and Andrew Nickolds.

'Pure joy'The Telegraph

Cast and credits

Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas

Produced by Dawn Ellis

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 11 November-16 December 2013 (Series 9), 13 May-17 June 2015 (Series 10), 1 January 2016 (Ed Reardon at Christmas), 4 October-8 November 2016 (Series 11), 24 October-28 November 2017 (Series 12)

Cast

Ed Reardon - Christopher Douglas

Olive - Stephanie Cole

Cliff - Geoffrey McGivern

Ping - Barunka O'Shaughnessy

Jaz Milvane - Philip Jackson

Pearl - Alison Steadman/Brigit Forsyth

Stan - Geoffrey Whitehead

Ray - Simon Greenall

Jake - Sam Pamphilon

Eli - Lisa Coleman

Fiona - Jenny Agutter

Suzan - Raquel Cassidy

Maggie - Monica Dolan

With Melanie Hudson, Nicola Sanderson, Jonathan Bailey, Carys Eleri, Claudie Blakley, Jonathan Coy, Corrie Corfield, Felicity Montagu, Carolyn Pickles, Dan Mersh, Vicki Pepperdine, Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie, Phaldut Sharma, Joanna Brookes, Pam Ferris, Jack Farthing, Jeremy Paxman, John Humphrys, Divian Ladwa, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Maya Sondhi, Ruth Madeley, Don Gilet, Karl Theobald, Tyger Drew-Honey, Petroc Trelawney,

© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Reviews

True to form, Camilla Bruce has spun a slippery yet beguiling spell with this cleverly crafted and intoxicating tale of female rivalry and folklore. A startling and original plot is woven around a cast of gleefully unpleasant characters - I was gripped from the very first page.

—— LUCIE McKNIGHT HARDY, author of Water Shall Refuse Them

Haunting and harrowing . . . I couldn't look away.

—— ALIX E. HARROW, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Simmering with unease and spookiness, this creepy read will give you goosebumps. ****

—— HEAT magazine

A slippery yet beguiling spell ... this is a cleverly crafted and intoxicating tale of female rivalry and folklore.

—— PICK ME UP! 'Book of the Week'

Uniting the 'found footage' of Janice Hallett's books with Norwegian tales of 'difficult women' and folk horror.

—— STYLIST

Haunting and deadly.

—— TAKE A BREAK

This book is one to savour, for the energy, for the wit, for the tenderness of characterisation that make Atkinson enduringly popular.

—— GUARDIAN

As vividly filthy, populous, dangerous as anything described by Dickens, but writing is closer to Thackeray's... Atkinson is a novelist of unrivalled immediacy, authority, and skill.

—— FINANCIAL TIMES

Kate Atkinson is simply one of the best writers working today, anywhere in the world...she's a global treasure... [Shrines] is set during Jazz Age London, in all its fizzy madness and desperation for the new, the better, the hustle. Atkinson has a magician's ability to switch a reader's mood within a few paragraphs, and as dark as her stories can get, within them always shines a beacon of humanity.

—— GILLIAN FLYNN

Atkinson is a thoughtful writer with an astute understanding of 20th-century social history. This is the perfect novel for uncertain times, when comfort of a particularly English and nostalgic stripe is required.

—— THE TIMES

A rich cast of characters, an elegantly intricate plot - this is classic Atkinson.

—— OBSERVER

Atkinson has a tremendous gift for bringing the past to life but wearing her research lightly. With charismatic characters, witty dialogue and a compelling plot, she captures the reckless atmosphere of a city still coming to terms with the horrors of the First World War. It's an absorbing read and a novel to savour.

—— Charlotte Heathcote , DAILY EXPRESS

Atkinson at her inimitable best.

—— VOGUE

Dickensian, yes, but infused with a playful knowingness that's pure Atkinson.

—— Hephzibah Anderson , MAIL ON SUNDAY

A deliciously immersive novel full of deftly drawn characters.

—— RED

This part-literary, part-thriller novel showcases a host of glittering characters...Full of dry wit and charm...if you loved Peaky Blinders, you'll love this.

—— WOMAN & HOME

Exuberant, immersive storytelling featuring intrigue and betrayal is matched with wit and tenderness

—— MAIL ON SUNDAY

With charistmatic characters, witty dialogue, and a compelling plot, she captures the reckless atmosphere of a city still coming to terms with the horrors of the First World War. It's an absorbing read and a novel to savour.

—— DAILY EXPRESS, 'Fiction Highlights of 2022'

Full of grit and atmosphere.

—— PRIMA

Atkinson captures both the glamour and the seediness of this heady period with consummate skill in a book teeming with memorable characters. Gorgeously vivid, often strange and always very funny, it should cement her reputation as one of our finest novelists.

—— Jake Kerridge , SUNDAY EXPRESS

If Dickens had lived to write about The Jazz Age, he would have produced a novel much like Kate Atkinson's "Shrines of Gaiety"... masterful.

—— WASHINGTON POST

There is the perfect balance throughout of sweetness and heartbreak. And, as always, there is the unmistakable zest of Ms. Atkinson's dry wit.

—— Anna Mundow , WALL STREET JOURNAL

Combines the colour of a historical drama with the pace of a thriller and the detail of a police procedural... masterful.

—— i NEWS

The novel grabs the reader from the outset. It paints a picture of the capital's glittering nightlife and its seedier underside so vivid, that it is almost possible to smell the stale cigarette smoke and taste the alcohol... the story of Nellie and her family, and the characters they associate with, builds to a satisfying ending as the strands of their lives are deftly woven together.

—— INDEPENDENT

Magnificent. A rich and vivid portrayal of sly, brilliant characters in the nightlife of 20s London. I fell in love with them all, even the villains ... I loved every minute.

—— Laura Shepherd-Robinson

Froths with all-night parties, corrupt policemen, sickly cocktails, swanky cars, gossip columnists, gambling dens and beautiful clothes... Ms Atkinson once again proves herself to be a consummate entertainer.

—— ECONOMIST (US)

Go out and buy this book today.

—— THE TABLET

Book of the Month

—— SAGA MAGAZINE

Atkinson's latest fictional treat is packed with intrigue... one can never underestimate the pleasurable power of [her] ability to stud her narrative with humor

—— BOSTON GLOBE

An absorbing tale

—— SUNDAY EXPRESS

The latest novel from an author who never lets you down

—— READER'S DIGEST

This terrific novel is alternately hilarious and sad

—— Upfront

It may change your life

—— The Observer

Pearson is a very witty and moving writer. Her prose is spare and skilful...waspish truisms and spot-on social observations

—— Daily Express

Intelligent, witty and of-the-moment, it mixes sassy, brittle perceptions with barefaced sentimentality

—— The Herald, Glasgow

Brilliantly captures and defines the mood of the moment...sparkling wit and razor sharp insights

—— XW Magazine

Sharply observed and frequently funny

—— Evening Standard

The success of the story - and a success it is - comes not from the ingenious scientific speculations, nor the shrewd literary connections (on the "emotional telepathy" of a work of art, or Daniel Keyes's Flowers for Algernon), but the human story between father and son, as Theo finds out 'how my brain learns to resemble what it loves

—— The Critic

Richard Powers's Booker Prize-shortlisted novel is both brutal and heartwarming, intimate and profound. A masterfully curated story of love, grief and loneliness, quietly building to an inevitable and devastating close

—— Press Association

He composes some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read. I'm in awe of his talent

—— Oprah Winfrey

In Bewilderment, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist has crafted a story of great beauty and power

—— Business Post
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