Genre Domestic comedy Country United Kingdom Produced by Elizabeth Freestone Number of episodes 18 Home station BBC Radio 4 | Running time 30 minutes Starring Penny Downie Language English Audio format Stereophonic sound | |
Written by Lucy Clare
Ian Davidson Similar Crooked House, The Afternoon Play, Desmond's, My Family | ||
Ring Around the Bath was a domestic situation comedy series broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 2003 and 2006. It was written by Lucy Clare and Ian Davidson and produced by Elizabeth Freestone.
Contents
Situation
Stella Bartholomew (Penny Downie), a middle-aged mother with a job in a garden centre, would like her adult children and their partners to move out of her chaotic suburban home so she and her husband could retire to the country, but her cookery-expert husband, Patrick (Duncan Preston), and the children are much less keen on the idea. Claudie Blakley plays eldest daughter Alison; Bruce Mackinnon, son Rick; Catherine Shepherd, his naïve girlfriend Xanthe; and Daniela Denby-Ashe, youngest daughter Egg, who is studying for A-levels.
Broadcast history
It was broadcast in three series, each of six half-hour episodes, in August/September 2003, November/December 2004 and January/February 2006, and has been repeated on BBC Radio 7 and BBC Radio 4 Extra.
Critical reaction
The Guardian found it "tightly scripted" and "horribly realistic".