Revolting People

Revolting People
CD cover of the first series
Other namesTollers
GenreHistorical sitcom
Running time30 minutes
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Language(s)English
Home stationBBC Radio 4
StarringAndy Hamilton
Jay Tarses
James Fleet
Hugh Dennis
Tony Maudsley
Sophie Thompson (Series 1)
Jan Ravens (Series 2-3)
Julia Hills (Series 4)
Felicity Montagu (Series 1)
Penelope Nice (Series 2-3)
Susie Blake
Created byAndy Hamilton
Jay Tarses
Written byAndy Hamilton
Jay Tarses
Produced byPaul Mayhew-Archer
Original release18 January 2000 –
6 June 2006
No. of series4 (up to 2006)
No. of episodes24 (up to 2006)
WebsiteOfficial website

Revolting People is a BBC Radio 4 situation comedy set in colonial Baltimore, Maryland, just before and during the American Revolutionary War. The series is written by the Briton Andy Hamilton and the American Jay Tarses, with Tarses playing a sour shopkeeper named Samuel Oliphant and Hamilton playing a cheerfully corrupt, one-legged, one-eyed, one-armed, one-eared one-nostrilled British soldier, Sergeant Roy McGurk, billeted on him.

Samuel's children are Mary, who is in love with McGurk's prim commanding officer Captain Brimshaw while at the same time operating as a notorious anti-British pamphleteer under the pseudonym Spartacus; Cora, in an unconsummated marriage with the pompous pro-British Loyalist official Ezekiel but nevertheless a mother; and the dimwitted Joshua, whose favourite recreation is wrestling bears.

Series 1 and 2 were released on CD in 2007–8. Repeats on the series now play on BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7).