Audible Book Review: FREE: Crackanory Too Cracked for TV

I enjoyed this humourous collection of macabre British stories.

FREE: Crackanory Too Cracked for TV - exclusive to Audible
By: Crackanory
Narrated by: Toby Jones, Katherine Parkinson, John Robins, Robert Bathurst, Simon Bird

Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
Radio/TV Program
Release date: 01-25-17
Language: English
Publisher: Audible Studios
Genre: British, Entertainment, Humor
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.0; Narration 4.0.

Publisher's Summary
Imagine if Jackanory was set free from its childish shackles. What twisted, funny tales would it unleash upon the world?
Combining some of the UK's best and brightest comedy writers and performers, this exclusive to audio edition of UKTV's Dave Channel Crackanory is a master class in storytelling and features an all-star cast including Toby Jones, Katherine Parkinson, John Robins, Robert Bathurst and Simon Bird.
Episode List:
'Kill Phil'
'Mummy Business'
'The Character Assassin'
'The IT Man'
'The Egg That Knew Too Much'
©2017 UKTV (P)2017 Audible Ltd

Review:
I really did not know what “Crackanory” meant. I found this in a Goodreads review by Paul E. Morph: “For the uninitiated, Crackanory is a British t.v. show that spoofs Jackanory, an older British t.v. show.” Apparently, the original show featured celebrities reading short stories to children. The Crackanory version presents stories that have a macabre or dark sense and might be considered inappropriate for TV. I found all five stories entertaining and nothing that would alarm me (as an adult anyway) on TV since I have seen – and turned off – worse. The stories are full of dry British humor and irony.

The five stories in this free Audible are:
1. Kill Phil by Ali Crockatt & David Scott
    Phil accidently gets his dry cleaner assassinated which results in a humous twisting threat to Phil and his girlfriend. Robert Bathurst delvers the dry humor with fitting voice nuance.
2. Mummy Business by Barunka O’Shaughnessy
    This a ghostly tale told with great humor by narrator Katherine Parkinson.
3. The Character Assassin by Tanya Qureshi
    A reclusive author suddenly meets her character and then tries to change the ending of her novel. The narration of this ironic piece is provided by John Robins.
4. The Egg That Knew Too Much by Steve Burge
    This is the story of Ted, who loves eggs, One day he cracks open an egg and finds a tiny scroll predicting a horse race winner. Now he gets a new prediction with each egg and is able to follow the leads to fortune. But after a time the predictions begin to accurately forewarn of deaths. When a death is predicted that Ted dreads, he travels far trying to find the egg farm in hopes of breaking the curse. I enjoyed the fun story and the accented narration by Toby Jones
5. The IT Man by Tom Meeten
    Two nerdy type friends, Mike and Rob, grow up together and seem to proceed along the same path until Rob gets married, leaving Mike to needle him. Mike gets more resentful after Rob gets a dream IT job. When they go off to a conference together their paths take a surprising, unexpected twist. This was narrated by Simon Bird.

I don’t know any of the authors and I don’t recognize any of the narrators either. The package was fun, macabre listening perfect for October, or anytime, entertainment. And I believe it is still available for free! (I have a 7 hour Crackanory collection on my Audible TBR shelf for listening in the future.)

Source: September 2017 Free Audible Original. This qualifies for 2019TBR and 2019Audiobook goals.