The Complete BBC Radio Series

The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

The collected radio adaptations of Alexander McCall Smith's hugely popular novels, dramatised by the author himself 
 
'Must-listen... simply wonderful' The Telegraph 
 
When Precious Ramotswe receives an inheritance from her father, she decides to set up Botswana's very first private detective agency - 'for the problems of ladies, and others'. Aided by the loyal, resourceful Grace Makutsi, and multiple cups of red bush tea, she sets out to investigate cases including missing husbands, wayward wives, unscrupulous con artists and unexpected deaths. 
 
She may not be an old-school investigator like her idol, Clovis Andersen, but her warm heart, empathetic nature and common-sense approach enable her to solve the most curious of mysteries - and win the heart of gentle motor mechanic Mr JLB Matekoni... 
 
Included here are all 35 stories from the acclaimed BBC radio series, written and adapted by Alexander McCall Smith from his own internationally bestselling books. These charming dramatisations are brought to life with vibrant, evocative African music and a first-rate cast, including Claire Benedict and Janice Acquah as Mma Ramotswe, Nadine Marshall as Mma Makutsi and Joseph Marcell and Ben Onwukwe as Mr JLB Matekoni. 
 
Written and dramatised by Alexander McCall Smith 
Produced and directed by Gaynor MacFarlane, Kirsty Williams and Eilidh McCreadie 
 
Cast 
Mma Ramotswe - Claire Benedict/Janice Acquah 
Mma Makutsi - Nadine Marshall 
Mr JLB Matekoni - Joseph Marcell/Ben Onwukwe 
Mr Polopetsi - Paterson Joseph/Steve Toussaint 
Mma Potokwani - Janice Acquah/Adjoa Andoh/Sarah Niles 
Phuti Radiphuti - Nyasha Hatendi/Jude Akuwidike 
Violet Sephotho - Anna Bengo/Sarah Niles 
Charlie - Jude Akuwudike/Tyronne Lewis/Maynard Eziashi 
Fanwell - Beru Tessema/Kedar Williams-Stirling 
With Gbemisola Ikumelo, Bhasker Patel, Ben Thomas, Peter Gevisser, Heather Imani, Tehmina Sacranie, Nancy Crane, Noma Dumezweni, Chuk Iwuji, Alibe Parsons, Emmanuel Ighodaro, Willie Jonah, William Gaminara, Aicha Kossoko, Don Warrington, Danny Sapani, Ndidi Ama, Ayesha Antoine, Sam Dale, Naomi Taylor, Mo Sesay, Babou Ceesay, Obi Abili, Eleanor Crooks, Kulvinder Ghir, Sudha Bhuchar, Amaka Okafor, Kai Francis-Lewis, Jason Barnett, Clare Perkins, Barbara Barnes, Saffron Coomber, Lorna Gayle, Debbie Korlay 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 10 September 2004-23 September 2019 
 
Episode list: 
The Daddy 
The Bone 
The Maid 
Tears of the Giraffe 
The Chief Justice of Beauty 
The Confession 
The Kalahari Typing School for Men 
The Admirer 
How to Handle Men through the Application of Psychology 
House of Hope 
The Return of Note 
The Ceremony 
There Is No Such Thing as Free Food 
The Best Profession for a Blackmailer 
A Very Rude Woman 
Talking Shoes 
The Miracle at Speedy Motors 
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built 
The Seller of Beds 
An Exceptionally Wicked Lady 
Canoeing for Ladies 
A Late Van Just Glimpsed 
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding 
A Man from a Far Place 
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection 
The Modern Husband Course 
The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon 
The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe 
The Dish of Yesterday 
This Is Not A Rubbish Boy 
The Woman Who Walked In Sunshine 
The Fat Cattle Club 
Precious and Grace 
House of Unexpected Sisters 
The Colours of All the Cattle 
 
© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH grew up in Zimbabwe and now lives and works in Scotland. He is the author of many books for children and adults with settings all over the world, and is best known for his series The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Alexander has received numerous awards for his writing. In 2004 he became the winner of two Author of the Year awards, and in 2007 he received a CBE for services to literature. He was also honoured by the President of Botswana for his services through literature to the country in 2011. Every year Alexander visits Botswana, as well as travelling to other countries, visiting bookshops and literary festivals and meeting with readers across the globe.

30 Festive Dramas and Stories

A BBC Christmas Collection

A sparkling seasonal anthology of BBC dramas and readings 
 
Christmas is the perfect time to curl up with a good story, and this cracking collection brings you 30 wonderfully diverse tales inspired by this most special of seasons. From Santa Claus, gift-giving and family gatherings, to an unexpected encounter in a snowstorm and an alternative take on the Nativity, they're sure to get you in the festive mood. 
 
Here are modern readings of classics such as Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Tree', Anton Chekhov's 'At Christmas Time', Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Fir Tree', O Henry's 'The Gift of the Magi', Elizabeth Gaskell's 'Christmas Storms and Sunshine' and Leo Tolstoy's 'Papa Panov's Special Christmas'. Alongside them is some superb short fiction by contemporary authors, including Stella Duffy ('South'), Paul McVeigh ('Daddy Christmas'), Laura Barnett ('Survivors'), and nine delightful stories by Alexander McCall Smith. Among the stellar narrators are Don Gilet, Nina Sosanya, Hannah Gordon, Stephanie Cole and Meera Syal. 
 
Interspersed with these are a range of spellbinding plays, including Rachel Joyce's poignant Christmas by the Lake; festive action comedy Lena Marsh, Live and Schticking! by Jeremy Front; a very unusual and very dangerous Santa in The Morpeth Carol by Timothy X Atack; and Robert Hudson and Marie Phillips' epistolary animal tale, Some Hay in a Manger, introduced by Stephen Fry. All feature star casts including Niamh Cusack, Robert Lindsay, Sam Troughton, Clare Corbett, Tamsin Greig and Joel Fry. 
 
Heartwarming and heartfelt, comic and bittersweet, moving and magical, these fantastic, evocative stories are a real Christmas treat. 
 
Note: Chapter metadata updated in January 2023. 
 
Contents 
Christmas by the Lake by Rachel Joyce 
Christmas Short Stories by Alexander McCall Smith: 
· 'Motordrome' 
· 'The Revenge, or Otherwise, of Herbie Bontemps' 
· 'How to Escape in Gaelic' 
· 'The Colourful Life of Cousin Grace' 
· 'Good President Wenceslas' 
The Christmas Present by Ben Crompton 
Christmas Compass: Series 1: 
· 'North' by Malachy Tallack 
· 'South' by Stella Duffy 
· 'East' by Ruth Thomas 
· 'West' by Mike McCormack 
A Time to Dance by Lucy Gannon 
Christmas Compass: Series 2 by Alexander McCall Smith 
· 'Winter Journey' 
· 'In the DRC' 
· 'Primatologist' 
· 'On The Island' 
Midnight at Christmas by Elliott Kerrigan 
'The Fir Tree' by Hans Christian Andersen 
'At Christmas Time'by Anton Chekhov 
'Papa Panov's Special Christmas' by Leo Tolstoy 
Some Hay in a Manger by Robert Hudson and Marie Phillips 
'Daddy Christmas' by Paul McVeigh 
'Christmas Storms and Sunshine'by Elizabeth Gaskell 
The Morpeth Carol by Timothy X Atack 
'Survivors' by Laura Barnett 
Lena Marsh, Live and Shticking!by Jeremy Front 
'A Christmas Tree' by Charles Dickens 
'The Gift of the Magi' by O Henry 
Get Santa by Peter Gibbs 
'Home' by Christine Dwyer Hickey 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The Perfect Hamburger

A series of children's modern classic novels by renowned 20th century children's writers. All the titles in this series have the A Puffin Book logo, contemporary-style covers, and child-friendly endnotes.

A funny and poignant children's story from one of the world's most prolific and popular authors Alexander McCall Smith. 
 
It's all about hamburgers! 
 
Joe has just created the yummiest, juiciest, most delicious hamburger ever - and his friend Mr Borthwick wants to sell it in his hamburger shop to try and win back customers from the new fast-food place across the road. But there's a problem - Joe has completely forgotten the recipe... 
 
A pinch of this, a touch of that and a spoonful of something else...the race is on for Joe to remember!

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH grew up in Zimbabwe and now lives and works in Scotland. He is the author of many books for children and adults with settings all over the world, and is best known for his series The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Alexander has received numerous awards for his writing. In 2004 he became the winner of two Author of the Year awards, and in 2007 he received a CBE for services to literature. He was also honoured by the President of Botswana for his services through literature to the country in 2011. Every year Alexander visits Botswana, as well as travelling to other countries, visiting bookshops and literary festivals and meeting with readers across the globe.

'That,' said Mr Borthwick, 'was the best hamburger I've ever tasted!' 
 
Joe has just created the yummiest, juiciest, most delicious hamburger ever - and his friend Mr Borthwick wants to sell it in his hamburger shop to try and win back customers from the new fast-food restaurant across the road. But there's a problem - Joe has completely forgotten the recipe... 
 
A pinch of this, a touch of that and a spoonful of something else...the race is on for Joe to remember!

The Misunderstanding Of Glencoe

A full-cast BBC Radio Scotland comedy dramatisation written by Alexander McCall Smith.

Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world's most prolific and most popular authors. His career has been a varied one: for many years he was a professor of Medical Law and worked in universities in the United Kingdom and abroad. Then, after the publication of his highly successful No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty million copies, he devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers through the world. These include the Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in The Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the Von Igelfeld series, and the Corduroy Mansions series, novels which started life as a delightful (but challenging to write) cross-media serial, written on the website of the Telegraph Media Group. This series won two major cross-media awards - Association of Online Publishers Digital Publishing Award 2009 for a Cross Media Project and the New Media Age award. In addition to these series, Alexander writes stand-alone books, including The Forever Girl; Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party and Emma - a reworking of the classic Jane Austen novel. He is also the author of a book on Edinburgh, A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh, as well as several collections of short stories, academic works, and over thirty books for children. He has received numerous awards for his writing, including the British Book Awards Author of the Year Award in 2004 and a CBE for service to literature in 2007. He holds honorary doctorates from nine universities in Europe and North America. In March of 2011 he received an award from the President of Botswana for his services through literature to that country. Alexander McCall Smith lives in Edinburgh. He is married to a doctor and has two daughters.

A full-cast BBC Radio Scotland comedy dramatisation written by Alexander McCall Smith.  An Edinburgh couple on holiday in the Highlands discover that centuries-old tensions are still very near the surface. Starring John Buick, Kenny Blyth, Monica Gibb and Paul Young.

Alexander McCall-Smith

Crawford Logan

Carol Ann Crawford

Belle Jones

Anita Vettesse

James Mackenzie

Samuel Keefe

Full Cast

Full-cast BBC Radio adaptations of the much-loved novels

The complete BBC radio adaptations of Alexander McCall's bestselling series 
 
Inspired by Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, 44 Scotland Street started life as a serial in The Scotsman. It was a huge hit, and was soon novelised, adapted on stage and dramatised for BBC Radio 4. Collected here are all five radio series, in which we follow the interconnected lives of the residents of adjoining flats in a tenement in Edinburgh's Georgian New Town. 
 
There's Pat, a young tenant who arrives at 44 Scotland Street to flat-share with handsome surveyor Bruce (a man with more of an eye for the ladies than for a sound property); Matthew, setting up the Something Special Gallery with little knowledge of art; and child prodigy Bertie Pollock, who wants the life of an ordinary little boy, but instead has psychotherapy, yoga and Italian conversation lessons. And at the local café, owner Big Lou is looking for love - but seems doomed to romantic disappointment... 
 
Their chance day-to-day criss-crossings, quirky foibles and comic adventures are all observed by Number 44's longest-term resident, anthropologist Domenica MacDonald, her painter friend Angus Lordie - and Angus' dog, Cyril, the only canine in Scotland with a gold tooth. 
 
Full of charm, humour and empathy, these delightful dramas star Carol Ann Crawford and Crawford Logan, with a superb cast including James Mackenzie, Samuel Keefe, Belle Jones and Anita Vettesse. 
 
Also included is an edition of Radio 4's Bookclub, in which Alexander McCall Smith talks about his novel 44 Scotland Street with James Naughtie and readers. 
 
Written and dramatised by Alexander McCall Smith 
Produced and directed by David Ian Neville 
Music by Tom Cunningham 
 
Cast 
Domenica/Mrs MacGillvray - Carol Ann Crawford 
Raeburn Todd/Dr Fairbairn/Angus Lordie/Glasgow Man/Dr Fairbairn - Crawford Logan 
Bruce - James Mackenzie/James Rottger 
Ian Rankin - James Mackenzie 
Irene - Rosalind Syndney/Emma Currie 
Bertie - Euan Lee/Simon Kerr 
Matthew - Samuel Keefe 
Pat - Belle Jones 
Stuart - Tom Freeman/David Jackson Young 
Big Lou/Antonia/Miss Harmony/Glasgow Woman/Stewardess/Fiona/Claire/Barmaid - Anita Vettesse 
Markus/Lawyer - Matthew Zajac 
Social Worker - Molly Innes 
Olive - Sophie Lawrence 
Alec/Gerry - Simon Donaldson 
Lard O'Connor - Iain Agnew 
The New Pretender - David Jackson Young 
Secretary/Mr Lawrence - Richard Conlon 
Torquil MacLean/Hotel Clerk - James Bryce 
Edinburgh Man - David Jackson Young 
Andy - Daniel Aitken 
Katie - Helen Mackay 
Miss Campbell - Nicola Roy 
Neill - Gavin Jon Wright 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4: 30 April-4 May 2012 (Series 1), 9-13 February 2015 (The Blue Spode Tea Cup), 30 May-3 June 2016 (Edinburgh for Pretenders), 20-24 February 2017 (Series 4), 20-24 August 2018 (Series 5) 
 
© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Alexander McCall-Smith

Books by Alexander McCall-Smith

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