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The Brothers: The Complete Series 1-3
The Brothers: The Complete Series 1-3
Jan 27, 2026 10:11 PM

Author:Caroline Stafford,David Stafford,Adam Godley,Raymond Coulthard,Pauline McLynn,Pearce Quigley,Alex Lowe,Full Cast

The Brothers: The Complete Series 1-3

All16 episodes of the BBC radio comedy about the dysfunctional Burbage siblings

Brothers Nigel and Michael share everything - home, work and acute neuroses. Several years ago, they gave up respectable careers to set up a website design company in Nigel's living room. That was their first mistake...

They rapidly discover that no-one can disturb, pester and annoy like a sibling can - except, perhaps, for their eccentric friends Zorro and Oonagh, whose constant interruptions and distractions lead them into some increasingly odd situations. Liquidised orchids, tropical fish, John Travolta's cufflinks and revolving bow ties are soon part of their daily routine as, beset by professional problems and private consternation, the beleagured brothers find their lives becoming increasingly surreal.

The arrival of their feckless father, Peter, sparks further havoc for the duo, and worries about absent wives and all-too-present fiancées only add to the pressure. Can the brothers fix their strained filial relationship, or will they only find happiness by going their separate ways?

Written by Caroline and David Stafford, whose credits include Hazelbeach and the 'Birkett' legal dramas, this engaging comedy drama stars Adam Godley (The Umbrella Academy) as Nigel, Raymond Coulthard (Hotel Babylon) as Michael, Pauline McLynn (Father Ted) as Oonagh and Pearce Quigley and Alex Lowe as Zorro.

Written by Caroline and David Stafford

Produced and directed by Marc Beeby

Cast

Nigel - Adam Godley

Michael - Raymond Coulthard

Oonagh - Pauline McLynn

Zorro - Pearce Quigley/Alex Lowe

Sally/Korean daughter - Alice Hart

Korean dad - Jon Glover

Unsuitable man - Harry Myers

Peter - James Fleet

Helen - Sophie Roberts

Trapper - Sam Dale

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 19 May-9 June 2004 (Series 1), 28 September-2 November 2005 (Series 2), 19 February-26 March 2007 (Series 3)

© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Reviews

Malice is the dark and wicked heart of a fairytale carved into a book. This story is beautiful, vicious magic

—— Tasha Suri, author of Empire of Sand

A beautifully imaginative and feminist retelling of a fairytale so often swept into the dark. Walter's debut was engrossing from page one, with a vivid cast of characters, thrilling romance and a world so vivid it will wrap thorns around your dreams.

—— Roshani Chokshi, author of The Guilded Wolves

A truly original and clever retelling of a classic that had me racing to the end - you'll never look at Sleeping Beauty the same again.

—— S.A. Chakraborty, author of City of Brass

The story grows deliciously darker at every turn . . . Fairy tale lovers of all ages will be thrilled

—— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Heather Walter writes about magic-and with magic. Her retelling of Sleeping Beauty remains true to the beloved classic, yet every page is completely new and unexpected.

—— Richelle Mead, author of the Vampire Academy series

Enchanting - and enchanted . . . a book to savor

—— Louisa Morgan, author of The Secret History of Witches

Bewitching characters. Fascinating story. An up-all-night read. Why are you not reading this book RIGHT NOW?

—— Tamora Pierce

Absolutely dazzling! Full of love, power, and betrayal, Malice is as compelling as a spell, as captivating as an enchantment, and as fascinating and delicious as a fairy-tale curse. I loved it!

—— Sarah Beth Durst, award-winning author of the Queens Of Renthia series

A spellbinding debut ... for all the queer girls and women who've been told to keep their gifts hidden and for those yearning to defy gravity.

—— Oprah Magazine

Viciously satisfying. Malice takes Sleeping Beauty and turns everything on its head, cutting right to the core of this bejewelled world. Heather Walter has given us a villain to adore.

—— Chloe Gong, New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights

Full of evocative detail and memorable characters

—— Zoe West , Woman & Home

Lily is a wonderful creation - diffident and trying to find her place in the world... But it's Tremain's attention to detail that really sets this novel apart

—— Ian Critchley , Literary Review

Terrific

—— Claire Allfree , Sunday Telegraph, *Novel of the Week*

An authentically melodramatic whydunnit set in Victorian London

—— Anthony Cummins , Daily Mail

Tremain has created a feisty, rebellious heroine in the style of Jane Eyre and Maggie Tulliver, in a setting that owes much to Dickens... a very engaging read

—— Vanessa Berridge , Daily Express

A heart-wrenching tale that blends historical detail, moral fable and fairy story with a powerful heroine at its helm

—— Yours, *Christmas Gift Guide 2021*

Fans of Dickens's heart-tugging Little Dorrit should enjoy this powerful exploration of the human urge to seek places of sanctuary in a pitiless, fickle world. Perfect fireside reading - but better keep a hankie ready

—— Rebecca Wallersteiner , Lady

Tremain brilliantly conjures up the atmosphere of Victorian London while the story is cleverly structured to keep the reader guessing to the end

—— Richard Hopton , Country & Town House

The 19th-century world Tremain paints a wonderfully vivid. She arouses great pity in us for Lily, enhanced here by Hattie Morahan's warm and sensitive narration

—— Julian Margaret Gibbs , Tablet

Daring and sensual, Free Love is a compulsive exploration of love, sexual freedom and living out the most meaningful version of our lives.

—— SheerLuxe

An engrossing ploy, elegant nuanced writing...this is a novel to savour

—— Morag MacInnes , Tablet, *Novel of the Week*

As ever, Ms Hadley's prose is limpid and measured yet richly sonorous: her story combines a modern sensibility with the psychological realism of writers such as Henry James... The ending glimmers with possibility--while suggesting that liberation comes at a cost.

—— Economist

With astute psychological awareness of her characters, Hadley presents a visceral and engaging picture of a bygone time. Unexpected twists and unclichéd characters support the luscious language, making this a real pleasure of a read.

—— UK Press Syndication

Free Love artfully delves beneath the veneer of the British middle class to tell an intimate story of generational discord, political change and sexual freedom.

—— Mark Vessery , i

Hadley's resplendent eighth novel... [has] poignantly astute observations on class, destiny and the false promises of the sexual revolution.

—— Hephzibah Anderson , Mail on Sunday

Hadley's eighth novel is as absorbing as any of her other fiction, with complex family secrets, brilliant insights...and lush descriptions of nature.

—— Markie Robson-Scott , Arts Desk

Hadley chooses her words with spellbinding precision.

—— Claire Allfree , Metro

Hadley's complex sentences are purring marvels of engineering... A brilliant writer of interiority...she has a gift...for portraying the state of wanting to be wanted, or simply to be seen... almost every page struck me anew with some elegant phrasing, feline irony or shrewdly sympathetic insight.

—— Anthony Cummins , Observer

Few contemporary novelists write about their characters' inner worlds with a finely filigreed but plain-spoken acuity that Tessa Hadley brings to her work...accessing roving, rich depths... Hadley is a master in her field.

—— Lucy Scholes , Daily Telegraph

"With each new book by Tessa Hadley, I grow more convinced that she's one of the greatest stylists alive. . . . To read Hadley's fiction is to grow self-conscious in the best way: to recognize with astonishment the emotions playing behind our own expressions, to hear articulated our own inchoate anxieties. . . . The whole grief-steeped story should be as fun as a dirge, but instead it feels effervescent-lit not with mockery but with the energy of Hadley's attention, her sensitivity to the abiding comedy of human desire. . . . Extraordinary.

—— The Washington Post

Brilliant.... In the hands of a lesser novelist, the intricate tangle of lives at the center of Late in the Day would feel like just such a self-satisfied riddle or, at best, like sly narrative machinations. Because this is Tessa Hadley, it instead feels earned and real and, even in its smallest nuances, important.... It's to her credit that Hadley manages to be old-fashioned and modernist and brilliantly postmodern all at once.... We've seen this before, and we've never seen this before, and it's spectacular.

—— New York Times Book Review

Utterly engrossing... Free Love is highly gratifying.

—— Ellen Peirson-Hagger , New Statesman

Free Love is a triumph.

—— Sarah Collins , Prospect

Brilliantly done... Hadley writes with devastating psychological insight, her prose spare and scalpel sharp. But she is also judiciously non-judgemental, a generous chronicler of the foibles and fears that mar and make a marriage.

—— Eithne Farry , Daily Express

Free Love is an absolute joy to read from a writer who never puts a word wrong. Fans of Small Pleasures will love it.

—— Sarra Manning , Red

[A] brilliant, sensual, seductively plotted new novel... Hadley has written an extraordinary story about love and transformation.

—— Independent

Free Love is often deeply perceptive and affecting... it lets you imagine what it was like to wrestle with old and new ways of thinking in an age that shaped (and continues to shape) our own.

—— Guy Stevenson , Literary Review

It's the 1960s and socialism, sex and nuclear anxiety have come crashing into the middle-class bubble Tessa Hadley novels usually operate so brilliant within.

—— The Times, *Summer Reads of 2022*

A story about change and its limits, its beautifully judged ending will bring you to tears.

—— Daily Mail, *Summer Reads of 2022*

[An] acutely realised, deeply humane novel... Unmissable.

—— Tablet, *Summer Reads of 2022*

No novel published this year gave me more pleasure than Tessa Hadley's Free Love.

—— New Statesman, *Books of the Year*

Nothing drew me in as conclusively as Free Love by Tessa Hadley, who is surely one of our most astute and deft observers of everyday lives.

—— New Statesman, *Books of the Year*

Hadley's novels continue to get better and better - and this is her finest, most pleasurable yet... it's near enough the perfect present in book form

—— Daily Mail, *Books of the Year*

She is, in all her mastery of the craft, a writer's writer.

—— Marie Claire
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