Episode 1

An astonishing tour de force of comic imagination and satire.

Martin Jarvis directs Michael Frayn’s masterly comic series.

Featuring an outstanding cast led by Ian McKellen, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, Alfred Molina, Alex Jennings and Jarvis himself.

Michael Frayn - author of Noises Off - is the most comic philosophical writer of our time.

Each episode reveals his infectious delight in writing between the lines of theatre, fiction, TV and the media, the church, relationships - life in general.

* Joanna Lumley opens the series with "assembly instructions"

* Alex Jennings is a subversive theatre director

* Ian McKellen meets Mozart (George Blagden)

* Alfred Molina has security problems with packaging

* Lisa Dillon and Edward Bennett are Gainsborough's Mr and Mrs Andrews National Gallery portrait

* Stephen Fry conducts a weird press interview with Martin Jarvis

* Ian McKellen and Joanna Lumley are Mr and Mrs God.

Director: Martin Jarvis

A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in June 2018.