Comedy troupe Peepolykus stars in its own BBC Radio 4 sketch show, creating eight riotous reboots of literary classics.

Peepolykus (pronounced ‘people-like-us’) has toured its irreverent brand of comic theatre in more than 100 towns across four continents. Now the group has taken to the airwaves, hijacking the great works of fiction to hilarious effect. Assuming the roles of minor characters in major works, they derail the plots through their own hapless buffoonery, and from Madame Bovary to Macbeth, familiar stories take an unexpected turn.

Two painter/decorators do irreparable damage to the portrait of a certain Mr Gray. An early plastic surgeon has her work cut out when she meets a Frenchman with the most wonderfully large nose. A pair of sailors, hiding out on a deserted island, is discovered by a long-forgotten castaway and his Spanish manservant. And a Whitby magician, preparing to compete with Harry Houdini, notices strange bite marks on the neck of a woman he has just met.

Anarchic, ridiculous and uproariously funny, A Trespasser’s Guide to the Classics is written and performed by John Nicholson, Richard Katz and Javier Marzan.