About this season
Our Urban Myths are stories that have been passed down over time and have now become part of urban folklore. But are they true? We take a slightly tongue in cheek, mischievous – and deliberately ambiguous – look at what might have happened...
Episodes (4)
1. Les Dawson's Parisienne Adventure
Aired 7 October 2020 • 23 min
Inspired by his heroes, the writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, a young Les Dawson leaving his home in Manchester to live in Paris in order to pursue his dream of becoming a serious novelist. Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out as he planned, and he ended up becoming a pianist in a brothel.
2. When Joan Kissed Barbra
5.0Aired 14 October 2020 • 23 min
As Joan Rivers told it, before she and Barbra Streisand were famous, they were in an off-Broadway play together. Failing as a club comic and returning to more artistic pursuits, Rivers demanded she be cast in the production without even reading the script. The result: the role she was given called for a love scene between herself and Streisand.
3. Hendrix & Handel
Aired 21 October 2020 • 23 min
Housemates separated by time, Jimi Hendrix and George Frideric Handel grapple with the stresses of the music business in this funny and intimate portrait of two eccentric musical geniuses and the events leading up to a transformative moment when Jimi saw Handel's ghost.
4. Orson Welles in Norwich
Aired 28 October 2020 • 23 min
A story of how the great star briefly went missing in Norwich in 1972 whilst working on F for Fake, a faux documentary now regarded as his last masterpiece.