44 Scotland Street: Series 4 and 5

The complete fourth and fifth series of Alexander McCall Smith’s radio dramas based on his much-loved novels about the residents of an Edinburgh tenement building Set in Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town, these two BBC radio series follow the quirky adventures and ‘goings-on’ of the various inhabitants of 44 Scotland Street, where life and love are full of surprises. Little Bertie Pollock is at the centre of it all, and in Series 4, Edinburgh’s most hot-housed seven-year-old receives a rare respite from his weekly Italian, yoga and psychotherapy sessions when his ambitious mother, Irene, goes travelling. There’s also constitutional trouble brewing at the Association of Scottish Nudists, and café owner Big Lou’s romantic life is in danger of hitting a discordant note. In Series 5, Bertie is up for the role of Macbeth in the school play. Meanwhile his father, Stuart, meets a young poet who may just turn his head. Also suffering the pangs of love is young surveyor Bruce, who is smitten by an adventurous Australian girl – but is she all she seems? All this, and more, is observed by portrait painter Angus Lordie and his dog, Cyril, the only canine in Scotland with a gold tooth. Crawford Logan, Carol Ann Crawford, Anita Vettesse and Emma Currie are among the stars of these delightful dramas, adapted by Alexander McCall Smith from his own hugely popular books.