The first four series of the award-winning BBC Radio 4 comedy.

Welcome to the world of Ed Reardon, writer and liver of life at the cutting edge—well, above The Cutting Edge, in a one-bedroom flat over a hairdresser's in Berkhamsted that he shares with his his trusty feline companion, Elgar. Divorced, impoverished and embittered, he spends his time penny-pinching, freeloading and ranting at the modern world and the 'moronic 12-year-olds' who run the media.

Once a promising novelist (his first and last book, Who Would Fardels Bear? was turned into a Hollywood movie), he now lives off the royalties of his 1982 episode of Tenko (£17 per annum) and whatever scraps of freelance work he can coax out of his agents, Felix and Ping. Though consistently mocked by his friend and one-time collaborator Jaz Milvane—who's now become irritatingly rich and successful—Ed battles on with his attempts to finally gain the literary fame and fortune he feels he deserves.

In these four series, we follow him as he tries to conquer the Christmas book market; falls in love; finds himself in hospital; attempts to secure his inheritance and comes up with a once-in-a-lifetime idea—only to forget where he put it...

Written by Christopher Douglas and Andrew Nickolds, this splendidly splenetic sitcom stars Christopher Douglas as Ed, with Stephanie Cole as Olive, John Fortune as Felix, Sally Hawkins and Barunka O'Shaughnessy as Ping and Philip Jackson as Jaz.

Cast and credits:

Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas

Produced by Simon Nicholls and Dawn Ellis

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 7 January-11 February 2005 (Series 1), 21 December 2005-25 January 2006 (Series 2), 15 December 2006-19 January 2007 (Series 3), 16 November-21 December 2007 (Series 4)

Cast:

Ed Reardon - Christopher Douglas

Olive - Stephanie Cole

Felix - John Fortune

Cliff - Ronnie Golden/Simon Greenall

Ping - Sally Hawkins/Barunka O'Shaughnessy

Jaz Milvane - Philip Jackson

Pearl - Rita May

Stan/Ray - Geoffrey Whitehead

Jake - George Dalton/James Rawlings

Eli - Alice Lowe

With Sally Grace, Martin Hyder, Geoffrey McGivern, Dan Tetsell, Melanie Hudson, Emma Kennedy, Vicki Pepperdine, Adam Shipway, Matt Holness, Tom Colebrook, Andy Hamilton, Matthew Holmes, Chris Addison, Joanna Scanlan, Nina Wadia, Angela Wynter, Sean Lock, Paul Richard Biggin, David Cann, Eve Dallas, Alan Ford, Laura Solon, David Warner, Miranda Keeling, Morwenna Banks, Rachel Atkins, Tom Price, Nicola Sanderson, Matt Green, Phil Nice, Peter Marinker, Jon Glover, John-Luke Roberts, Kim Wall, Katy Wix.