Alison and Maud: The Complete Series 1 and 2: The BBC Radio 4 comedy

Sue Limb

Aug 2020 · BBC Digital Audio · Narrated by Denise Coffey, Full Cast, Geoffrey Whitehead, Joss Ackland, and Miriam Margolyes

About this audiobook

Sisters Alison and Maud are joint landladies of the Abbeyfield Guest House, dispensing hospitality to a variety of demanding clients while also looking after their irascible, bedridden father downstairs in the granny flat. Dreamy ornithologist Alison has just moved back from Bloomsbury, while Maud ran a 3000-acre farm in Africa - but neither sibling is really up to the task of managing a B&B, and chaos generally ensues.

In these two series, Alison has the hots for their accountant, Bernard - and is the reluctant object of a courtship display from a fellow bird-fancier; Maud comes up trumps in the middle of the night (but what will the guests make of what's in the saucepan?) and handyman Mr Mullet and the Bishop of Norwich get a little too close for comfort over tea. Meanwhile, the landladies' daddy complains about his new orthopaedic mattress, battles with hallucinogenic fungus and chips and prepares for his 85th birthday party - but what form will the celebrations take?

Sue Limb's sitcom stars Denise Coffey as Alison and Miriam Margolyes as Maud, with Joss Ackland as Father and Geoffrey Whitehead as Bernard.


Written by Sue Limb
Produced by Jonathan James-Moore

Starring Denise Coffey as Alison and Miriam Margolyes as Maud

Cast
Father - Joss Ackland
Mr Mullett/Brian - Chris Emmett
Bernard/Mr Ducket - Geoffrey Whitehead
Marina - Phyllida Nash
Leslie - Nickolas Grace
Mrs Ducket - Judy Flynn
The Bishop of Norwich - Nicholas Le Provost
Jane - Jane Sellars

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 13 December 2002-17 January 2003 (Series 1), 15 March-19 April 2004 (Series 2)

About the author

Sue Limb is a British writer and broadcaster. Her work includes novels – many of them for young adults – and a sitcom for ITV television and BBC Radio 4, Up the Garden Path. For Radio 4, she has written a number of comedy series: The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere, The Sit Crom, Four Joneses and a Jenkins and Alison and Maud; and also Growing Pains (a documentary about ageing), Hilaire Belloc, and Cities (six programmes of literary anthology). Joss Ackland CBE was born in 1928 in London. Trained as an actor, he has appeared in more than 130 films, and countless theatre, alongside such luminaries as Dame Judi Dench, Ingrid Bergman and Lauren Bacall. However, his first priority was always his wife Rosemary, and now their seven children and 33 grandchildren.