Revolting People

Revolting People is a BBC Radio 4 situation comedy set in colonial Baltimore, Maryland, just before the American Revolutionary War. The series is written by the British Andy Hamilton and the American Jay Tarses, with Tarses playing a sour shopkeeper named Samuel Oliphant and Hamilton playing a cheerfully corrupt, one-legged, one-eyed, one-armed, one-nostrilled British soldier, Sergeant Roy McGurk. The first series originally ran in 2000, with series two in 2001, and the third series following in 2004.

Series 1 revolved around the imposition of martial law in Baltimore and the springing up of a torrid, though also chaste, love affair between Oliphant's daughter (a notorious anti-British pamphleteer operating under the pseudonym Spartacus) and an officer of the local British garrison, Captain Brimshaw. Series 2 was less continuous but developed the same theme with the added introduction of Oliphant's long-departed wife reappearing as a lesbian (to McGurk's lecherous satisfaction). Series 3 consisted of stand-alone episodes parodying various classic films with a final episode that turned the series on its head. A fourth series is being broadcast in 2006.

Cast

• Andy Hamilton - Sergeant McGurk
• Jay Tarses - Samuel Oliphant
• Sophie Thompson - Mary Oliphant
• James Fleet - Captain Brimshaw
• Hugh Dennis - Ezekiel
• Felicity Montague - Cora (Series 1)
• Penelope Nice - Cora (Series 2&3)
• Tony Maudsley - Joshua
• Suzie Blake - Mrs. Arbuthnot

Produced by Paul Mayhew Archer

Episode list

Series 1 (2000)

1. January 18 Storm Clouds
2. January 25 More Storm Clouds
3. February 1 Even More Storm Clouds
4. February 8 Tons of Storm Clouds
5. February 15 A Helluva Lot of Even More Storm Clouds
6. February 22 An Incredible Amount of Storm Clouds

Series 2 (2001)

1. April 24 Trying Times
2. May 1 Even More Trying Times
3. May 8 Some More Trying Times
4. May 15 And Yet Even More Trying Times
5. May 22 A Bunch More Trying Times
6. May 29 Still in Trying Times

Series 3 (2004)

1. May 27 Young Love
2. June 3 A Kiss is Just a Kiss
3. June 10 The God-Given Talent
4. June 17 Over the Rainbow
5. June 24 Them Thar Hills
6. July 1 Secrets And Lies

Series 4 (2006)

1. May 2 Samuel's pompous son in law, Ezekiel, is kidnapped by a rebel militia
2. May 9 Samuel goes in search of his cousin

External links

• Radio4's page on Revolting People