WELCOME
to the world of
Irene Spencer & Vera Small
the redoubtable
Ladies of Letters!
From the small beginnings of two friends playing a game,
the Ladies have grown into books and radio series and television series!
NOW AVAILABLE : DVD of LADIES OF LETTERS TV SERIES 2
Maureen Lipman and Anne Reid return for a second series of this marvellous TV adaptation of the hit radio comedy.
Corresponding in their inimitable love-hate fashion, the Ladies reveal their lives to be run ragged by ingrate offspring, their equanimity threatened by said offspring’s lovers, and the compensating pleasure of grandchildren’s company. Irene sinks in wine and swims in poetry, while Vera gets an intriguing insight into the goings on behind closed caravan doors.
Praise by the press for Ladies of Letters Series 2:
The Radio Times says that this is, “Irresistibly, creatively funny”.
The Saturday Express Magazine (which also ran a lovely interview with Maureen and Annie, penned by James Rampton) heralded the arrival of this “critically acclaimed comedy-drama” and awarded it four stars.
The Sun celebrated a “classy sitcom…..Delightful”
The Sunday Express made Ladies ‘PROGRAMME of the WEEK’ and said,
“What makes this comedy of middle-aged manners so good is its perfect ear for the point-scoring that old friends just can’t resist. Maureen Lipman and Anne Reid are simply superb as the can’t-live-with-or-without-each-other twosome”
The Observer is also bowled over by this “superbly scripted comedy”… which it also hails as being … “pricelessly funny”.
NOW AVAILABLE: CD of LADIES OF LETTERS GO CRACKERS
It's Christmas and the Ladies of Letters are busy stuffing home made turkey sausages, adding hot pepper to their mulled wine and giving each other totally unsuitable Christmas presents. Vera has just returned from a festive trip to the Holy Land, where she has purchased Mary Mother of Jesus Jam and realised that the only universal religion is shopping. Once home, she discovers that a ruthless Bank has bought the Bothy for redevelopment. Irene, meanwhile, is inundated with friends and family visiting for the festive season and is decimated by what she uncovers.
Guardian review by Elisabeth Mahoney
(Ladies of Letters Go Crackers) is a bittersweet listen. There’s still the hilarious barbed email banter between Irene (Prunella Scales) and Vera (Anne Reid) – two old friends who barely tolerate one another – and the leitmotifs of disappointing families, drinking too much, and loftily delivered malapropisms. But there have been darker notes creeping in. Vera is finding it so hard to remember things that her daughter Karen has come up with an acronym: CRAFT (Can’t Remember a Flipping Thing). “She doesn’t say ‘flipping’, but you get the idea,” Vera tells Irene. Then Karen discovered a lump in her breast over Christmas, throwing the household into disarray. Karen’s vet husband St John, Vera explains, can’t bear to touch his wife despite being “notorious as an udder man”, but he does at least help Karen sleep with “a dose of horse tranquilliser”. When Karen goes to hospital, we hear, she ends up “tussling with an obese child over a copy of Grazia” in the waiting room. The writing is full of beautifully true details like this, iced with splendid flourishes. I liked Vera’s son, Howie, having a sheep called Lady Baa-Baa, and Vera giving Irene “a week-end for two at Brighton’s gayest spa” for Christmas. For all the bleaker subplots, this remains deliciously funny.
ALSO AVAILABLE:
DVD OF LADIES OF LETTERS TV SERIES 1
THE FIRST BOOK - REPUBLISHED
Now updated to incorporate new material generated by the ITV series...
The CD or download of the 10th radio series:
Ladies of Letters Crunch Credit is available now in all good bookshops, and online as both a CD and as a download.
And while you're browsing, stock up on all the past Ladies of Letters CDs including the brand new reissue of the first and second CDs in the series!
