It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
Old Harry’s Game

Old Harry’s Game

The Complete Series of the Award-Winning BBC Radio 4 Comedy

Summary

All seven series of Andy Hamilton's fiendishly funny award-winning comedy set in Hell.

'Satirical, philosophical - and devilishly funny' Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph

Welcome to Hell - where nobody can ever quite catch the barman's eye. In this collection, which contains all seven series of Old Harry's Game, get ready for some wicked one-liners and scorching satire.

Satan is fed up after a millennia in charge of Hell, especially given the prospect of an eternity still running the damned place. Although he does enjoy playing pranks on the world of the living and devising wry torments for the souls in his keeping, he often wistfully recalls his past as an archangel...

Over the course of the series, we meet various famous figures now languishing in Hell, including a foul-mouthed Jane Austen, a mindless Helen of Troy and a less-than-heroic Samson. Satan takes Hell resident Thomas on a tour of his life, his assistant Scumspawn has trouble with a pushy computer, and love drives The Professor to extreme action. Satan and The Professor find a huge, empty space in Hell (when they enter Scumspawn's brain), a Health and Safety officer notes that the lighting is inadequate, and Satan punishes a feng shui expert. And then Edith arrives...

Seven series of the Sony Award-winning comedy (plus the Christmas and Olympic specials) starring Andy Hamilton as Satan and a regular cast of acclaimed actors including Annette Crosbie as Edith, Timothy West as God, James Grout as The Professor, Jimmy Mulville as Thomas and Robert Duncan as Scumspawn.

Production credits
Written by Andy Hamilton
Produced by Paul Mayhew-Archer

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 23 November - 28 December 1995 (Series 1), 7 April - 12 May 1998 (Series 2), 24 March - 28 April 1999 (Series 3), 29 March - 3 May 2001 (Series 4), 31 December 2002 - 1 January 2003 (2002 Christmas Special), 20 September - 11 October 2005 (Series 5), 27 September - 1 November 2007 (Series 6), 19 February - 26 March 2009 (Series 7), 23 December - 30 December 2010 (2010 Christmas Special), 12 July - 19 July 2012 (Olympic Special).

©2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

About the author

Andy Hamilton

Andy Hamilton is a comedy scriptwriter and performer. He regularly appears on QI and Have I Got News for You. His writing credits include Outnumbered, Drop the Dead Donkey, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Trevor's World of Sport, What We Did on Our Holiday and many others. He plays Satan in the Radio 4 comedy Old Harry’s Game, which he also writes.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more