Comedy group The Penny Dreadfuls are to perform Le Carré On Spying, a new special as part of their long-running collaboration with Radio 4.

The Penny Dreadfuls Present... episodes aim to take "iconic historical figures or events and ‎turn them into rip-roaring laugh-out-loud adventures."

This will be the group's seventh special for the radio station. Their first - about Guy Fawkes - was in 2009, and subsequent episodes have focused on topics such as Macbeth and The Odyssey by Homer.

The new special, focusing on British author John Le Carré, is described as "a Le Carré thriller about John Le Carré himself, ‎performed with daft characters and stupid jokes."

The group - who describe themselves as "Humphrey Ker (tall), David Reed ‎‎(medium) and Thom Tuck (drunk)" say of their script: "Uncover the truth about John Le ‎Carré's secret past in the murky world of 1960s espionage."

The hour-long episode has been written by David Reed and will feature 'honorary Dreadful' ‎Margaret Cabourn-Smith, plus guest star Miles Jupp.

The episode will be recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre on Friday 19th May. On the tickets page, the group joke about the BBC's entry policy, saying "be transported back to the paranoid height of The Cold ‎War as you negotiate the BBC's stringent security ‎measures on entering the building."

The Penny Dreadfuls Present: Le Carré On Spying will be broadcast on Radio 4 later this year.