Comedy fans can catch the nominees for The Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2025 in this showcase for BBC Radio 4.

Guaranteed to be packed with laughs, this special will be hosted by last year’s Best Comedy Show winner, Amy Gledhill.

The prestigious awards is celebrating its 45th year and is recognising a Best Newcomer and a Best Show. In this gala, hosted by 2024 Best Show winner Amy Gledhill, we'll hear from all the nominees to give listeners around the UK the chance to hear the cream of this year’s Edinburgh crop. The gala was recorded at the Gilded Balloon, one of the Edinburgh Fringe’s iconic comedy venues.

Nominated for Best Show are:

Nominated for Best Newcomer are:

Host: Amy Gledhill

Recorded at The Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh.

This first episode takes a cheeky look at the costs of end of life care and you might be surprised to find out just how pricey it is to pop your clogs!

When it seems like everything is getting more expensive; comedian, former banker and serial funeral-organiser Stuart Mitchell breaks down the true Cost of Dying. Using his own experience Stuart aims to find out if can we even afford to kick the bucket? You’ll learn so much about the hidden costs of dying, you may well decide not to bother doing it!

To find more episodes from this series, search "Stand-Up Specials" on BBC Sounds.

Written and Performed by Stuart Mitchell

Oliver Callan hosts a panel show in which comedians from both sides of the Irish border and Britain imagine what a united Ireland would look like if it ever happened.

This week, Oliver Callan is joined by Neil Delamere, Alison Spittle, John Meagher and Ashley Storrie to debate a new national flag, who the head of state might be and the official, national breakfast.

To listen to Part 2: Belfast, search Oliver Callan Bins The Border on BBC Sounds.

Producer: Marc McElroy

Jeremy Moleskine is the biggest writer in bawdy greetings cards. So when his car veers off the road, his number one fan is on hand to nurse him back to health. But when R&R turns into B&B (belittling and bludgeoning), Jeremy’s agent must track him down with the help of incarcerated lunatic, Clinton Scards.

Brace yourself for a psychological thriller as Crybabies bring the big screen to your normal sized radio.

To hear more episodes from this series search "Crybabies Present" on BBC Sounds.

Written and performed by Michael Clarke, James Gault & Ed Jones.

Featuring Chiara Goldsmith

Production Co-ordinator - Laura Shaw

Sound Design by David Thomas and Victoria Freund

Producer - Benjamin Sutton

Executive Producer - Joe Nunnery

A Boffola Pictures production for BBC Radio 4

Today Lindsey is dragged to a rock climbing centre by her athletic friend Jenny which results in a life changing discovery about her over-zealous anatomy. She helps her mum rescue a missing rat and, with the help of Elton John, hosts an intimate funeral.

Welcome to the life of the most beautiful princess in all of Birmingham and its surrounding areas. This week Lindsey Santoro has started a diary. But she’s not 13 years old daydreaming about her latest crush and sleepover plans. She’s a 37-year-old no-nonsense Brummy whose days are more likely to involve thrush cream and a bargy with a bus driver. You are cordially invited to step into her world and learn lessons from her lively life.

Producer: Sasha Bobak

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4.

Industry heartthrob and nation's sweetheart Kat is on her way to an exciting product launch in a long car, with long suffering sidekick Alex Macqueen.

On the way, she shares the secrets of her success, and how series one of Screen Time made her the most famous woman to ever grace the UK. Now that she's the biggest influencer ever, Kat teaches you how you can stop being a big normo and maximise your online brand. Hear her improve her appearance with a novel technique at the gym, convene a writers room to work out how to appear most relatable, and purify her brand by cutting off an old friend who's just got the worst news a person can receive. He's been cancelled.

And she barely thinks about Abbie at all!

To listen to more from this series, search "Kat Sadler's Screen Time" on BBC Sounds.

Cast

Kat Sadler - Kat

Written by Kat Sadler and Cameron Loxdale

Production Coordinator - Caroline Barlow

Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.

"Americans have a long history of taking British things and ballsing them up. They took football and added helmets and cheerleaders; they took ice lollies and called them popsicles; and they took James Corden and then sent him back here."

Among Ashley’s more unusual hyperfixations is a life-long love of professional wrestling. This special interest was first developed on Saturday afternoons at his grandparents’ house watching Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks and Kendo Nagasaki. It continued through the 1980s when Britain was invaded by Hulk Hogan and his colleagues from the then WWF (before they lost a court case to the World Wildlife Fund), and Ashley was fortunate enough to be in attendance at the legendary Summerslam show at Wembley Stadium in 1992, which so many British wrestlers have cited as the day that cemented their love of the grunt and grapple business. This undeniably extraordinary spectacle is sometimes called ‘sports entertainment’ - for many people it is neither!

When Ashley Blaker was diagnosed with autism and ADHD, one of the most significant aspects of his diagnosis is his propensity for hyperfixation in special interests, which he now realises has entirely shaped his past and which he uses to mine comedy for this new series.

It’s no exaggeration to say Ashley’s life has been driven by obsessions. He has variously been a schoolboy with a love of Star Wars and Doctor Who, a wannabe comedian who performed on the London comedy circuit at 16, a trivia nerd who appeared on University Challenge, a history PhD candidate at Cambridge, a BBC producer of hit comedy shows including Little Britain, a fanatical football fan who saw Liverpool play across England and Europe, a strictly Orthodox Jew who went to synagogue three times a day for over ten years, a father of six, and latterly, a heavily tattooed renegade in hiding from his former community.

In this series, Ashley takes a comedic look at each of his obsessions in turn, merging personal memoir with a delve into subjects which have yet to be covered in stand-up comedy shows. The result is a series which, while based on the broader topic of neurodiversity, covers it with the lightest of touches and is focused more on Ashley’s individual hyperfixations, lifting the lid on many of the different worlds he’s inhabited.

To hear more episodes from this series, search "Ashley Blaker's Hyperfixations" on BBC Sounds.

Written and performed by Ashley Blaker

Script Editor: Steve Hall

Are you excited to watch England and Wales this summer?

Comedian and football obsessed Maisie Adam can’t wait for the Euros and wants to capture the magic you only get before a big international tournament. This is her ultimate guide to the Euros and guarantees to get you in the mood for the highs, the lows and the drama of the Women’s Euros 2025.

Maisie has encouraged the audience to come in their favourite footie strips, scarves and hats, the sillier the better – just no flares up any arses please. She’s joined by comedians Rhys James and Harriet Kemsley to chat about the glorious summer of footie we have ahead of us. They re-live some of their best/worst Euros moments, play games and give their predictions for the summer – is football coming home again? Plus Maisie gets some very special advice from former Lioness and Euros winner, the one and only Jill Scott MBE.

If you can't get enough of the tournament, search ‘Women’s Euros’ on BBC Sounds for more coverage and reaction. Plus you can listen live to the games, including every England and Wales match, on 5 Live and BBC Sounds.

Host: Maisie Adam

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4.

Janine tells us what happened when she was swapped at birth, why her brother has a bunker in Arizona and how her mum rules the roost with her ‘feminine guile’. Russell gives his hot take on childbirth, makes a case against toddler food and thanks his mum for putting up with his extraordinary amount of energy.

In this series, Laura Smyth sits down with some incredible guests to find out about their mums and explore the many faces of ‘motherhood’. Join her for a nostalgic, shameless, cathartic ride that asks what (if anything) our folks have taught us. To hear more episodes search "Your Mum" on BBC Sounds.

Producer: Sasha Bobak

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4.

Join Henry Normal as he uses his unique blend of comedy and poetry to investigate what it truly means to be human.

How are we different from other animals? Is there such a thing as a soul? Is it green or brown bin day today?

These are just some of the unanswered questions Henry will be leaving unanswered in this new show, recorded live at the Hay-on-Wye Festival. This is the latest episode in his acclaimed, occasional series where the celebrated writer tackles subjects so vast only radio can possibly contain them.

Written and performed by Henry Normal

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4

To listen to more episodes from this series search "Henry Normal" on BBC Sounds.

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He’s published twelve collections of poetry, including his most recent An Alphabet of Storms, and co-wrote the memoir A Normal Family with Angela Pell – the everyday adventure of life with their autistic son.

Praise for previous episodes in this series:

"Shove up National Treasures. We need to make room for Henry Normal" – Simon O'Hagan, Radio Times

-"It's a rare and lovely thing: half an hour of radio that stops you short, gently demands your attention and then wipes your tears away while you have to have a little sit down"

-"It's a real treat to hear a seasoned professional like Henry taking command of this evening comedy spot to deliver a show that's idiosyncratic and effortlessly funny"

-"Not heard anything that jumps from hilarious to moving in such an intelligent, subtle way as Henry Normal's show"