The complete first series of the BBC Radio 4 stand-up comedy show, performed and co-written by Mark Steel.

Follow comedian Mark Steel (The Mark Steel Lectures, The News Quiz) as he visits six lesser-known bits of Britain, finds the funniest moments in their history - and then performs a stand-up show for the local audience.

In his first show, Mark finds himself in a livestock auction hall in Skipton, Yorkshire, celebrating canals, castles and cows, while in Boston, Lincolnshire, Mark talks about sprouts, chavs, Puritans and the Boston Stump. Lewes, East Sussex, provides Mark with material about fires, pub fights and stroppiness, and in Walsall, Mark celebrates the accent, the concrete hippo, and how the town has absolutely nothing to do with Birmingham.

Appearing in church halls, working men's clubs, Scout huts and function rooms, Mark also visits Merthyr Tydfil and the Isle of Portland in Dorset. Britain is made up of thousands of small but significant places which altered the course of history: the Civil War; the French Revolution; the founding of America; the invention of delicious cakes. And with Mark Steel's unofficial histories of Britain, you'll find unpredictable stories that are often surreal, but always entertaining, human and funny.

First released: Monday 1st March 2010