''The Big Business Lark'' is a

radio comedy Radio comedy, or comedy, comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve variety show, sitcom elements, sketch comedy, sketches, and various types of comedy found in other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic element ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

of partly

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

form broadcast in 1969. It stars

Jimmy Edwards James Keith O'Neill Edwards, DFC (23 March 19207 July 1988) was an English comedy writer and actor on radio and television, best known as Pa Glum in ''Take It from Here'' and as headmaster "Professor" James Edwards in ''Whack-O!''. Early lif ...

and

Frank Thornton Frank Thornton Ball (15 January 192116 March 2013), professionally known as Frank Thornton, was an English actor. He was known for playing Captain Peacock in ''Are You Being Served?'' and its sequel ''Grace & Favour'' (''Are You Being Served? ...

and was written by Lawrie Wyman as a spin-off from ''

The Navy Lark ''The Navy Lark'' is a radio sitcom about life aboard a British Royal Navy frigate named HMS ''Troutbridge'' (a play on HMS ''Troubridge'', a Royal Navy destroyer) based in HMNB Portsmouth. In series 1 and 2, the ship and crew were stationed ...

'', although no characters crossed over between the two shows. In a sense, the spin-off element was in ''The X Lark'' name format. The show is set in the

boardroom A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

of fictional company British United Plastics, and concerns with the business machinations of the chairman, Sir Charles Boniface (Edwards), and his son and deputy chairman, Frank Boniface (Thornton). Plots included landing an order to provide the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

with plastic tents, a trip to America to make a good deal from another board member's mistake and an attempt to find a plastic novelty made by the firm for breakfast cereal boxes. The main production ingredient of the company is a patented indestructible plastic named Polystumer. It can be molded for statues (Ep 11), used for novelty items (Ep 10), used as armour for tanks in which capacity it can repel mortar bombs (Ep 12) or used for plastic clothing (Ep 2) carpets, bathroom fixtures and fittings (Ep 1). The comedy was more broad farce than subtle satire with Edwards playing a bluff, hard-drinking, chauvinist old rogue character and Thornton his more proper sidekick, analogous to the same role he played against

Derek Francis Derek Francis (7 November 1923 – 27 March 1984) was an English comedy and character actor. Biography Francis was a regular in the Carry On film players, appearing in six of the films in the 1960s and 1970s. He appeared in ''The Tomb of Lige ...

in the other ''Navy Lark'' spin-off, ''

The Embassy Lark ''The Embassy Lark'' is a radio comedy series broadcast from 1966 to 1968 as a spin-off from ''The Navy Lark''. It was written by Lawrie Wyman and starred Frank Thornton and Derek Francis. It was produced by Sir Alistair Scott-Johnston. Th ...

''. Thirteen episodes were made and off-air recordings of all episodes are in circulation.

Episodes

All episodes were written by Lawrie Wyman and produced by Alistair Scott Johnston. These episodes were broadcast on Sundays at 2:00pm on

Radio 1 Radio 1 or Radio One most commonly refers to: *BBC Radio 1, a music radio station from the BBC ** BBC Radio 1Xtra, a digital radio station broadcasting black music *CBC Radio One, a talk radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporatio ...

and Radio 2 None of these episodes originally had titles. The titles below are taken from the closing announcements of the episode.

References

BBC Radio comedy programmes 1969 radio programme debuts 1969 radio programme endings {{BBC-radio-stub