麻豆约拍

Births, Deaths and Marriages - returning for a second series - is the sitcom set in a Local Authority Register Office where the staff deal with the three greatest events in anybody's life.

Written by David Schneider (The Day Today, I'm Alan Partridge), he stars as chief registrar Malcolm Fox who is a stickler for rules and would be willing to interrupt any wedding service if the width of the bride infringes health and safety. He's single but why does he need to be married? He's married thousands of women.

Alongside him are rival and divorcee Lorna who has been parachuted in from Car Parks to drag the office (and Malcolm) into the 21st century. To her, marriage isn't just about love and romance, it's got to be about making a profit in our new age of austerity.

There's also the ever spiky Mary, geeky Luke who's worried he'll end up like Malcolm one day, and ditzy Anita who may get her words and names mixed up occasionally but, as the only parent in the office, is a mother to them all.

In the fourth episode, Malcolm's unhappy that a change in the law, allowing marriages to take place out of office hours, means he has to do a late night Halloween themed wedding. Lorna is delighted as it means more business for the office and she's also agreed to do a birth registration at a charity power walk for her new flat mate. Mary is teasing Luke who is being superstitious about Halloween, while Anita tries hard to be more decisive.

Producer: Simon Jacobs
A Unique production for 麻豆约拍 Radio 4.