Showing results by author "Tom Lloyd" in All Categories

The complete series 1 and 2 of the smart and surreal sketch comedy from Tom Basden, Stefan Golaszewski, Tim Key and Lloyd Woolf. In this complete collection of BBC Radio 4 series of Cowards, a batch of hapless and hopeful nearly-men battle with the challenge of everyday life, doing their very best to meet the demands of the modern world. Bikes start talking, genies appear that force you to guess what your three wishes are, bridges across the channel are built out of Lego, Parky loses it and a young man tries to audition for Barbara Windsor’s part in EastEnders.

Isak is a white-eye, feared and despised in equal measure. Trapped in a life of poverty, hated and abused by his father, Isak dreams of escape, but when his chance comes, it isn't to a place in the army as he'd expected. Instead, the Gods have marked him out as heir-elect to the brooding Lord Bahl, the Lord of the Fahlan. Lord Bahl is also a white-eye, a genetic rarity that produces men stronger, more savage and more charismatic than their normal counterparts. Their magnetic charm and brute strength both inspires and oppresses others.

Lynx is a mercenary with a sense of honour - a dying breed in the Riven Kingdom. Failed by the nation he served and weary of the skirmishes that plague the continent's principalities, he walks the land in search of purpose. He wants for little, so bodyguard work keeps his belly full and his mage-gun loaded. It might never bring a man fame or wealth, but he's not forced to rely on others or kill without cause. Little could compel Lynx to join a mercenary company, but he won't turn his back on a kidnapped girl.

Lynx and the rest of the Cards are heading south. There's money in their pockets, beer in their hands and a simple job ahead - sun, sea and not getting shot at much. Throw in the prospect of a bar fight and it's almost a holiday. But the volatile Mage Islands are a powder-keg, one just waiting for a spark. A bloody-handed exile perhaps, or the agent of a foreign power preparing for war. Maybe even a bunch of trigger-happy drunks who've upset the balance of magic across the Riven Kingdom. Or all three together, that'd definitely work....

There's a new card in the Mercenary Deck - one Lynx isn't sure if he's happy to see or not. The assassin Toil now wears the Princess of Blood on her jacket, and even Lynx would admit she's a woman cloaked in chaos and bloodshed. Their new mission is to escort a dignitary to the pious and ancient city of Jarrazir - beneath which lies a fabled labyrinth. Having barely survived their last underground adventure the mercenaries aren't keen for another, but Toil has other plans. Under threat of siege and horrors rising from the labyrinth, even the Mercenary Deck may have to accept that Jarrazir's prohibition laws aren't their biggest problem.

It’s the find of a lifetime - an ancient alien spaceship, hanging in a forgotten corner of space. For Song, this could change everything. She’s got as many problems with her finances as she does in her marriage - but maybe, at last, her passion for wreck-diving will pay off. One piece of unknown tech could set her whole crew up for life. The ship conforms to nothing in their records, and dwarfs the largest human vessels. Battle-scarred, and old before humanity ever reached the stars, it’s a mausoleum of an unknown, long-dead species. And it’s just winked at her.

Emerging Stories exists to honour and platform the stories of ordinary people doing significant things for the Kingdom of God, in hidden places.