The House cover art

The House

A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Political Drama

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

The House

By: Christopher Lee
Narrated by: Julian Glover, Timothy West, Peter Kelly, Sarah Badel, Isla Blair, Christopher Benjamin, David Ryall, Trevor Peacock, Sheila Reid, full cast
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £14.51

Buy Now for £14.51

All six series of Christopher Lee's enthralling parliamentary drama - plus Christmas Special

Suave, unflappable and ambitious, veteran politician Charles Bannister knows his way around the corridors of power. As Chief Whip, he's adept at keeping MPs in line and squashing potential scandals - aided by his brother-in-law, MI6 agent Henry Colvil, who whispers useful titbits of information in his ear. His position seems invincible - but nothing is forever, and when the tides of politics turn, Charles finds himself under threat...

In these six series, we follow his fortunes and those of his close friend, Home Secretary Dougal Baxter. Together, the duo rise, fall and rise again, as they fight off plots, counter-plots and conspiracies while struggling to secure their political futures. Promoted to Party Chairman, Charles finds himself beset by domestic dramas, dogged by rumours of an affair with glamorous Opposition MP Juliet Cameron, and under increasing pressure at Westminster. Will he stick it out and run for the top job - or decide to spend more time with his family? Meanwhile, Dougal makes no secret of his desire to become PM - but will his potentially explosive relationship with his mistress, Kay, put an end to his dreams of advancement?

Written by award-winning author and historian Christopher Lee, this captivating tale of ministerial manoeuvring and machinations was adapted as a bestselling novel and spawned the spin-off mystery series Colvil & Soames. Julian Glover stars as Charles Bannister, with Timothy West as Dougal Baxter and Christopher Benjamin as Henry Colvil.

Production credits
Written by Christopher Lee
Produced by Pete Atkin and Neil Cargill

Cast
Charles Bannister - Julian Glover
Dougal Baxter - Timothy West/Peter Kelly
Mary Bannister - Sarah Badel/Isla Blair
Henry Colvil - Christopher Benjamin
Denis Wigton - David Ryall/Trevor Peacock
Juliet Cameron - Siobhan Redmond
Rose - Sheila Reid
Arthur - James Garbutt
Polly Bannister - Ruth Gemmell
Gerald Mossman - David Neville
Merffyn Edwards - Ray Smith/Douglas Blackwell
Kay Bennett - Jane Booker
Nick - Julian Dutton
Eamon - Shaun Prendergast
Alex - Caroline Bliss
Sharp - Norman Bird

With Brian Redhead, Laurie Macmillan, Stuart Organ, Graham Blockey, Rupert Baker, Joan Matheson, Ken Cumberlidge, Danny Schiller, John Fortune, Iain Cuthbertson, Dennis Ramsden, Charles Simpson, Christopher Scott, Michael Kilgarriff, Ian Targett, David Goudge, John Bull, David King, Brian Miller, David McAlister, Terence Edmonds, Brett Usher, John Grieve, Richard Caldicot, Bill Wallis, Stephen Greif

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 19 August-7 October 1989 (Series 1), 25 December 1989 (Christmas Special), 17 September-5 November 1991 (Series 2), 16 March-20 April 1992 (Series 3), 28 October-2 December 1992 (Series 4), 17 June-22 July 1993 (Series 5), 9 June-14 July 1994 (Series 6)

© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

©2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd Genre Fiction Political Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most relevant
It’s amazing that something nearly 30 years old hasn’t changed in the slightest. Very enjoyable

It slowly grips you with the intrigue

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Over 19 hours of fun and games with English politics inside Whitehall. Could have listened for another 19 hours. Julian Glover definitely made it for me. A great full cast of fine actors who bring this slanging match beautifully together. A wonderful production. On the negative side; cannot stand the moaning groaning daughter who definitely has issues because each and every time someone says a lovely positive remark such as ‘did you enjoy yourself or hope you have a wonderful time’, she gets angry and always retorts ‘ugh! did you think I would have an awful time or you did didn’t you or why did you think he would give me a bad time ! Oh laborious child like and totally infuriating and unnecessary. Then there is the politician father who treats his wife like she is a walking cooker and dishwasher and cuts her out each and Every Time his wife speaks an intelligent conversation by saying ‘sorry darling must rush or sorry darling can’t make the booked dinner in half an hour as I am in an important meeting. Yet when she gets high-book deals and film offers for her intelligent work, she is being silly! oh so stereo-typical. But otherwise I really like this.

TOP NOTCH

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The acting was good enough but several characters were hard to distinguish from each other until midway through as their voices were very similar - only because of the plot. The volume varied considerably throughout, and lots of scenes involved the actors eating and speaking at the same time to indicate they were in a restaurant - which is both gross and doesn’t help voice clarity. The handful of plot lines were very drawn out - basically male politicians have affairs with colleagues, and think their wives don’t mind.

Ok

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I listened to seven episodes but mainly I had no clue to what was going on. The (mainly male) characters all sounded the same, distinguishable only by accent. Posh Home Counties for the Tories, regional accents for Labour.
Gave up.

Impossible to follow

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really wanted to like this - but having tried and failed to get into it half a dozen times i just don't. It's just dull, inexcusably so. It suffers in comparison both with Yes Minister (albeit it doesn't set up to be a comedy) but especially with Michael Dobbs' brilliant House of Cards trilogy, which was written around the same time and also features a chief whip as its main protagonist.

Fine actor though he is, Julian Glover's Charles Bannister is poorly written and poorly played. We are supposed to believe he is a tough and resourceful chief whip (as Ian Richardson's masterful Francis Urquhart certainly is) but he just comes across as wet and rather useless. The wonderful and much missed Timothy West's character is probably the most interesting, but even he isn't up to much. And Christopher Benjamin's supposed scheming and covert M16 brother-in-law is just awful, his constant use of the phrase "dear heart" annoys after the 2nd use, and there are many many many many more...

I have to agree with other reviewer's criticising the Chief Whip's daughter's character - a miserable self-obsessed whining student, and further i found the actress playing the chief whip's secretary (?) really annoying - her awful pretend coughing again grated after the 2nd time it was used..

In fact i would say the best word to describe this show is annoying. No likable or even interesting characters, and storylines that are just DULL.

Avoid.

Desperately disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews