Warehouse 13, Season 1
(Syfy, 2009)
This quirky science fantasy takes several episodes to find its feet, establish a premise and strike the right balance between serious action and humorous character interaction. With the dynamic in place (mid-season), Warehouse 13 quickly starts to make good on its promise.
A Pelican at Blandings
by P. G. Wodehouse (Barrie & Jenkins, 1969)
Though less satirically relevant nowadays, Wodehouse’s novels of the (farcically characterised) idle rich retain their charm, not least of all by way of a prose style that in tone both adopts and parodies the lifestyle, romping with indifference, self-indulgence and Machiavellian remove.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams (Macmillan Digital Audio, 2007)
[first published by Pan, 1979] {Read by Stephen Fry}
In embellishing the riotous and extemporised cerebral peregrinations of the Hitchhiker’s radio series, Douglas Adams crafted one of the funniest (and most-quoted-from) novels of any genre. Stephen Fry’s range of narrative inflections subsequently affords the audiobook status as a distinct dramatic production.