The irreplaceable humour and drama of Flann O’Brien in these delightful dramatisations from the BBC

At Swim – Two – Birds
At Swim-Two-Birds works entirely with borrowed characters from other fiction and legend, on the grounds that there are already far too many existing fictional characters. The book is recognised as one of the most significant modernist novels before 1945. It has also been read as a pioneer of postmodernism.

Set in Dublin in the 1930s, the main action takes place in the ' kingdom of the mind ' of the main character. Myles. a student at Trinity and an aspirant novelist.

The principal character is himself a novelist and his characters a rebellious bunch, who frequently take over the novel and indulge their own fancy. One of them begins to write yet another novel. A novel, within a novel, within a novel ...

The Brother

"Do you know what it is, the brother's an extraordinary genius."

To mark the centenary of his birth, a series of readings selected from O'Brien's 'Brother' articles, introduces us to one of his most peculiar and eccentric literary creations. An 'extraordinary genius' indeed, the brother is apparently an authority on almost every subject imaginable and has his finger in more pies than he has fingers! Living in digs with his long-suffering landlady and her lodgers, the brother believes that he really does know best about everything from medicine to water purity, politics and policing, and, as we discover, there is no arguing with the brother!

Meet the inimitable 'brother' as Myles regales us with that most unusual of individual's latest exploits.

The Cruiskeen Lawn
Dramatisations based on the hilarious writing of the Irish novelist and wit Flann O'Brien, otherwise known as Myles na Gopaleen. This writing appeared in The Irish Times from October 1940 to April 1966, featuring humorous, satirical, and abstract takes on Irish life, politics, and language.