The Exploding Library

It's a book that's always entranced Mark with its combination of laugh-out-loud absurdist humour and genuinely disturbing terror. But what was the author trying to do? What the is it really about - nuclear science, post-colonial identity, surrealism? And what's going on with all the bicycles?

With contributions from writers Julian Gough and Roisin Kiberd; 'Flannophiles' Maebh Long and Art Riordan, and writer on sci-fi Jack Fennell, Mark saddles up to discover whether, as the author of the Third Policeman once put it, `hell goes round and round`.

Presenter: Mark Watson

Producer / Series Producer: Steven Rajam

Comedian Mark Watson circles the warped world of The Third Policeman.

With contributions from writers Julian Gough and Roisin Kiberd; 'Flannophiles' Maebh Long and Art Riordan, writer on sci-fi Jack Fennell and legendary Irish comedy actress Pauline McLynn (Father Ted, Shameless), Mark saddles up to discover whether, as the author of the Third Policeman once put it, `hell goes round and round`.

In the first episode, comedian MARK WATSON circles the strange, fantastical and hilarious world of The Third Policeman by the Irish author Flann O?Brien (Brian O?Nolan). Written in 1940, and riddled with strange philosophical ideas and fake - or are they? - footnotes, the book was described by one critic as ?a nightmarish piece of Irish rural sci-fi where people turn into bicycles and policemen talk in non-sequiturs about quantum physics?.

With contributions from writers Julian Gough and Roisin Kiberd; Flannophiles Maebh Long and Art Riordan, writer on sci-fi Jack Fennell and legendary Irish comedy actress Pauline McLynn (Father Ted, Shameless), Mark saddles up to discover whether, as the author of the Third Policeman once put it, ?hell goes round and round?.

Ever since she first read the novel, Josie has identified with Jean Rhys and Good Morning, Midnight's protagonist Sacha. Maybe a bit too much.

With contributions from writers Lauren Elkin, Lilian Pizzichini, A L Kennedy and Shivanee Ramlochan, professor of English Patricia Moran and French restaurant manager Kostas, Josie checks in and descends into Good Morning, Midnight.

The readings are by Catrin Stewart and the hotel receptionist is played by Mike Wozniak.

Producer: Benjamin Partridge

Presenter: Josie Long

So reads the warning at the beginning of the novel Mother Night, in an author's introduction written by Kurt Vonnegut himself. Yet in this world of unreliable narrators, editor's `corrections` and weirdly omniscient first-person testimony, nothing is really what it seems.

Purportedly the `confessions of Howard J. Campbell Jr`, an American expat-turned Nazi propagandist-turned Allied spy (allegedly), Vonnegut's warped collection of bizarre characters and slippery narratives invite us to cast aside our black and white notions of morals and guilt and survey the gazillions of greys in between.

Comedian Daliso Chaponda considers the strange world of people playing versions of themselves in public - comedians, spies, politicians and, to an extent, all of us. How do you deal with people perceiving you differently to your 'real' self? And, for that matter, how do you know who you 'really' are?

Presenter: Daliso Chaponda

Comedian Daliso Chaponda unravels the myriad personas of Vonnegut's Mother Night.

`We are what we pretend to be. So we must be careful about what we pretend to be.??

So reads the warning at the beginning of the novel Mother Night, in an author's introduction written by Kurt Vonnegut himself. Yet in this world of unreliable narrators, editor's `corrections?? and weirdly omniscient first-person testimony, nothing is really what it seems.

Purportedly the `confessions of Howard J. Campbell Jr??, an American expat-turned Nazi propagandist-turned Allied spy (allegedly), Vonnegut's warped collection of bizarre characters and slippery narratives invite us to cast aside our black and white notions of morals and guilt and survey the gazillions of greys in between.

Presenter: Natasha Hodgson

Readings: David Elms

Doctor/Hotel Staff/Swimming Pool Attendant/Mr Hilton: Mike Wozniak

Producer: Benjamin Partridge

How does Tonks' surreal, brittle, jet-black social satire The Bloater capture her world - and give us a hint of what might have precipitated her strange disappearance? More than that - can anyone ever really retract the tendrils of their creative life - even if they want to?

Featuring contributions from poet Brian Patten, editor and champion of Tonks's work Neil Astley, writer and Tonks fan Jennifer Hodgson, and New York Times religion correspondent Ruth Graham.

Reader: Beth Eyre

Studio Producer': Tom Crowley

Writer, comedian and crumpled surrealist John-Luke Roberts unravels the labyrinthine satirical world of Infinite Jest - and that of its brilliant, troubled author David Foster Wallace. With contributions from Adam Kelly, Clare Hayes-Brady, David Hering and Marshall Boswell; plus a Zoom panel of Infinite Jest devotees. Music by Philip Glass, Neutral Milk Hotel and The Late Author.

Reader: Hunter Johns

Endnotes: Beth Eyre

Presenter: John Luke Roberts

Producer / Series Producer: Steven Rajam

So asks the six-foot-something winged woman, Fevvers, the acclaimed aerialiste at the heart of Angela Carter's epic, Nights at the Circus. It's a question that has haunted almost every performer who's stepped onto a stage and seen their ‘real' self and ‘stage' selves blur.

Yet a woman with wings with the world at her feet is almost run-of-the-mill in this extravaganza. There's dancing tigers, murderous clowns, shamanic visions in the Siberian wilderness, and the odd pair of stinky tights.

Labels and genres are flung around - gothic, magical realism, fantasy - but the book, like Angela Carter's writing in general, evades categorisation at every turn. Twist the kaleidoscope and another vision emerges, twist again and the human condition is re-revealed.

Kiri Pritchard Maclean runs off with the circus to consider the performer underneath the greasepaint, and find out what happens when the performance comes to an end. (Plus chickens).

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Producer: Leonie Thomas

Comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean melts into the glorious unreality of Nights at the Circus.

`Am I fact or am I fiction???

“Am I fact or am I fiction? ?

So asks the six-foot-something winged woman, Fevvers, the acclaimed aerialiste at the heart of Angela Carter's epic, Nights at the Circus. It's a question that has haunted almost every performer who's stepped onto a stage and seen their ‘real' self and ‘stage' selves blur.

With contributions from:

Dr Marie Mulvey Roberts, UWE

Dr Caleb Ferrari, UWE

Dr Becky Munford, Cardiff University

Emma Rice, Director of Wise Children,

and Susannah Clapp, Carter's literary executor and author of A Card from Angela Carter

Am I fact or am I fiction?' Comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean melts into the glorious unreality of Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus. Who is she when the performance ends?

Producer: Benjamin Partridge

Reader: Mike Shephard

Comedian and poet Rob Auton shuffles through BS Johnson's 1969 novel, The Unfortunates.

Hirsute comedian and crumpled polymath Rob Auton shuffles through BS Johnson's 1969 novel The Unfortunates, a book published in a box with 27 sections to be read in a random order.

Oh, and the story - pure fantasy of course, imagined by Butler three decades ago in the early 1990s - is set initially in 2024.

Now this all seems to Desiree just a little bit too close to reality for comfort. But is there hope - even optimism - beneath the surface of this chillingly bleak vision?

Comedian Desiree Burch unravels Octavia Butler's dystopian novel Parable of the Sower.

Comedian Desiree Burch unravels Octavia Butler's visionary 1993 novel Parable of the Sower, an eerily-prescient dystopian vision of society torn apart by climate change and greed.