as 8pm

Older children will be gripped by this exciting and extremely funny version of Terry Pratchett's bestselling novel. Considering that it's the length of your average feature film it shows the calibre of Chris Wallis's electric direction in that time flies by as fast as... well, a scared cat, some terrified rats and a couple of human children in a dark pit, with their minds being controlled to varying degrees by an evil spider-type creature. One of my favourite radio actors, John Rowe, turns in a sublime performance towards the end as Death (although I fear he has become radio drama's answer to Bengt Ekerot in The Seventh Seal). And, after this performance, Sean Prendergast will go down in memory as the wireless equivalent of Sean Connery. A great story and actors who sound like they're enjoying themselves make for an utterly non-kitsch, genuinely entertaining family listen.