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Killing It
Killing It
Nov 14, 2025 6:57 PM

Author:Laurence Howarth,Darren Boyd,Full Cast,Joanna Page

Killing It

Broadcast initially as SafetyCatch, all twelve episodes of the BBC Radio 4 comedy of modern morality set in the world of arms dealing

Simon McGrath is a nice chap – he donates blood, he recycles, he cares about the world. He just happens to work as an arms dealer – or a 'defence and security equipment system solutions broker' as he prefers to call it. It wasn’t planned, and what he really wants is to pursue is his career in electronic music, but until that takes off he’ll stay where he is. After all, he has to pay his mortgage like everyone else...

In these three series, Simon goes to extreme lengths to prove to everyone just how guilt-ridden he feels about doing the job he does, from considering becoming a whistleblower to deciding to quit when he has to sell uniforms to child soldiers. As he tries to salve his conscience, he decides to do his job really badly (only to find out that he secretly loves it), attempts to gain redundancy (but gets a promotion instead) and wonders whether he should seek forgiveness (but surely he has absolutely nothing to be forgiven for – does he?)

Meanwhile, his personal life is proving equally problematic, as he and his needy girlfriend Anna contemplate having a baby, survive a visit from her parents and try to find reasons why they still love each other...

Written by Laurence Howarth and John Finnemore, this controversial black comedy stars Darren Boyd (Killing Eve) as Simon and Joanna Page (Gavin & Stacey) as Anna.

Written by Laurence Howarth and John Finnemore (Series 1, Episode 3)

Produced by Dawn Ellis

First broadcast BBC Radio 4: 26 September-17 October 2007, (Series 1), 1-22 April 2009 (Series 2), 5-26 November 2010 (Series 3)

Cast

Simon McGrath……………………Darren Boyd

Anna Grieg……………………Joanna Page

Boris Kemal……………………Lewis MacLeod

Judith McGrath……………………Sarah Smart

Angela McGrath……………………Brigit Forsyth

Mr Njai……………………Ben Onwukwe

Sophie……………………Catherine Shepherd

Ol……………………Nicholas Boulton

Mr Kendall……………………John Dougall

Madeleine Turnbull……………………Rachel Atkins

Peter/Guide……………………Gus Brown

Paramedic/Roger/Dave……………………Philip Fox

Marcus/Richard……………………Dan Mersh

Julius……………………Nyasha Hatendi

Charles……………………John Schwab

Glenys/Sarah……………………Di Botcher

Hugh/Vicar……………………Mike Hayward

With Beth Chalmers

Reviews

Lovely . . . Made me long for a long hot summer by the sea with friends and family. I loved that new beginnings turn up when you least expect them.

—— Jo Thomas, author of The Oyster Catcher

Warm summer reading

—— Choice Magazine

Jose Saramago's brilliant evocation...is magical realism of a sort that stirs real wonder

—— James Park , Time Out

Saramago's lovely and original questing story, in a lineage of others such as Don Quixote and Kipling's Kim, is a journey of the spirit told as a journey of the feet

—— Richard Eder , Los Angeles Times

Tremendous wit is always apparent in his imaginative conceits, comic digression and verbal and narrative games

—— Ian Critchley , Sunday Times

An engaging fantasy...this book can't be pinned down however, either as magic realism, Swiftian satire, or dystopian science fiction: in fact its concerns are largely philosophical... Pontiero's excellent translation preserves the strange, looping rhythms of Jose Saramago's prose, as well as his likeably self-referential humour and, most important of all, the sense of a deep and luminous intelligence which informs the whole enterprise

—— Jonathan Coe , Mail on Sunday

Wry and trenchant . . . highly entertaining.

—— The New York Times Book Review

His funniest book since Breakfast of Champions . . . There are nuggets of Vonnegutian wisdom throughout.

—— Newsweek

Timequake is a novel by, and starring, Kurt Vonnegut . . . What Vonnegut does, which no one can do better, is give a big postmodern shrug . . . You've got to love him.

—— The Washington Post Book World

Humorous, sardonic . . . Timequake makes for irresistible reading that's loaded with more important truths than it lets on . . . Moralizing has never been funnier.

—— Chicago Sun-Times

Vonnegut is at his best.

—— Atlanta Journal & Constitution

MAGICAL, MESMERISING AND INVENTIVE

—— Karen McManus, bestselling author of One of Us is Lying

THE HAZEL WOOD KEPT ME UP ALL NIGHT . . . as I fell completely into the dark and beautiful world within its pages. Terrifying, magical, and surprisingly funny, it's one of the very best books I've read in years

—— Jennifer Niven, bestselling author of All the Bright Places

A WINDING, CREEPY, INSIDIOUSLY DELICIOUS NOVEL. UTTERLY SPECTACULAR - I read it in one sitting

—— Melinda Salisbury, bestselling author of The Sin Eater’s Daughter

THIS BOOK WILL BE YOUR NEXT OBSESSION. Welcome to the Hazel Wood, where bad luck is a living thing, princesses are doomed, and every page contains a wondrously terrible adventure - it's not safe inside these pages, but once you enter, you may never want to leave.

—— Stephanie Garber, Bestselling Author of Caraval

Katz's debut is one that will have readers gripped from the very first words until the last - and a book that will stay with you for a long while afterwards.

—— Her.ie

[A] smart debut, both compelling and disturbing, delivered with the kind of confidence that makes me keen to see what Katz will come up with next.

—— A Life in Books Blog

[G]ripping debut … Here’s a page-turner you’ll devour before the week is out

—— Stylist Daily Newsletter

A razor sharp psychological deconstruction of the motivations, regrets and secrets behind a picture-perfect façade.

—— The Week

White-knuckle ride

—— RTE Guide

I really wanted to just press the book into anyone’s hands and say ‘please read this’! [...] An important read

—— Bookish Chat

Readers hungry for an in-depth study of a man searching for control, power and ownership will find satisfaction in A Good Man. But caveat emptor - this story inevitably hurtles at the end towards a chilling finale

—— Crime Review

This stellar debut from Ani Katz had us gripped from the beginning.

—— That’s Life!
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