View source for At Home with the Snails

{{Short description|British radio comedy series}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2014}}
{{Infobox radio show
| show_name          = At Home with the Snails
| image              = 
| imagesize          = 
| caption            = 
| other_names        = 
| format             = [[Black comedy]]
| runtime            = 30 minutes
| country            =  United Kingdom
| language           = English
| home_station       = [[BBC Radio 4]] 
| syndicates         = 
| television         = 
| starring           = [[Geoffrey Palmer (actor)|Geoffrey Palmer]]<br />[[Angela Thorne]]<br />[[Gerard Foster]]<br />[[Miranda Hart]]<br />[[Debra Stephenson]]
| creator            = 
| writer             = [[Gerard Foster]]
| director           = 
| producer           = [[Jane Berthoud]]
| executive_producer = 
| narrated           = 
| record_location    = 
| first_aired        = 26 June 2001
| last_aired         = 8 August 2002
| num_series         = 2
| num_episodes       = 8
| audio_format       = [[Stereophonic sound]]
| opentheme          = ''[[Waltzinblack]]'' from ''[[The Gospel According to the Meninblack]]'' by [[The Stranglers]]
| endtheme           = 
| website            = 
| podcast            = 
}}

'''''At Home with the Snails''''' is a surrealist [[BBC Radio 4]] comedy, written by [[Gerard Foster]], about a dysfunctional British family.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jun/29/tvandradio.radio | title=Radio review | website=The Guardian | date=29 June 2001 }}</ref> The cast includes [[Geoffrey Palmer (actor)|Geoffrey Palmer]] as '''George Fisher''', [[Angela Thorne]] as '''Beverly Fisher''', [[Gerard Foster]] as '''Alex''', [[Miranda Hart]] as '''Rose''', and [[Debra Stephenson]] as '''Hosanna'''. It was produced by [[Jane Berthoud]].

''At Home with the Snails'' is often repeated on [[BBC Radio 4 Extra]].

The story features Alex's obsession with snails, killing them, collecting them, [[paraphilia|having sexual desires]] for them and by season two, even attempting to turn into one. In the second season his mother and father (George and Beverly) decide to fake their own deaths and spy on their son in order to write a book about his descent into madness.

George is a pompous academic who puts his obscure, pretentious and pointless pontificating above all else including his family. He encourages Alex's snail obsession to get material for his books. Beverly, his [[sexual frustration|sexually frustrated]] wife makes "nice things", such as a {{convert|20|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall}} "family mug tree". In one episode she develops racial [[dysphoria]], and starts painting her face with boot polish, believing that she is a black person trapped in a white body. Their daughter Rose has her heart in the wrong place – jammed under her armpit. She runs a confectionery shop selling "chocolate excretions" and "jelly war babies".

==Episode list==
{| class="wikitable"
!Series!!Episode!!First broadcast
|-
|rowspan="4"|1||1||26 June 2001
|-
|2||3 July 2001
|-
|3||10 July 2001
|-
|4||17 July 2001
|-
|rowspan="4"|2||1||18 July 2002
|-
|2||25 July 2002
|-
|3||1 August 2002
|-
|4||8 August 2002
|}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{British Comedy Guide|radio|at_home_with_the_snails}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:At Home with the Snails}}
[[Category:BBC Radio comedy programmes]]
[[Category:Radio programs about families]]
[[Category:2001 radio programme debuts]]
[[Category:2002 radio programme endings]]


{{BBC-radio-stub}}