All four episodes of Tom Allen's brilliant BBC Radio 4 show - plus two series of The Correspondent.

Award-winning comedian Tom Allen is one of Britain's best and brightest stand-ups. He's appeared on Mock The Week, The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice and Live At The Apollo, toured several sell-out solo shows, starred in his own TV pilot and even written an autobiography.

He's always seemed pleasant and polite on the surface: but the truth is, he's a monster - or so he says. In Tom Allen Is Actually Not Very Nice, he stages a stand-up intervention to find out what turned him from sweet to naughty and how he can get back on the straight and narrow. With help from his friend Gabby Best, and the studio audience, Tom works out how best to navigate some tricky social situations - like sacking your personal trainer, dealing with other people's children, sitting through an entire play and being set up on a date. Can he learn how to keep a lid on his fury in the face of life's small injustices?

Also included in this collection are series one and two of The Correspondent - eight bittersweet comic monologues charting Tom's professional and domestic misadventures. From handling the frustrations of his horrible job to coping with his family at Aunt Leslie's funeral, Tom's life is just one long round of miserable mundanity. But there are welcome distractions with the discovery of a new mystery friend in the workplace, and the possibility of finding love online.

First published: Thursday 6th May 2021