Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel: The Complete Series 1-3

A Recreation of the Marx Brothers’ Lost Shows

By: Nat Perrin, Arthur Sheekman, Mark Brisenden

Narrated by: Frank Lazarus, full cast, Michael Roberts

A BBC radio recreation of the Marx Brothers’ lost shows, starring Michael Roberts and Frank Lazarus

First broadcast on America’s NBC network between 1932-33, Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel charted the exploits of shady lawyer Waldorf T Flywheel (played by Groucho Marx) and his dopey assistant, Emmanuel Ravelli (played by Chico Marx). The original recordings were lost, but the scripts were rediscovered and edited by Michael Barson. These were published as Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel: The Marx Brothers Lost Radio Show and licensed for a dramatic adaptation by the BBC.

Between 1990 – 92, BBC Radio 4 recorded the adaptation in front of a live studio audience. Its fast-paced and quickfire gags proved to be a hit, winning a Gold Medal at the New York International Festival in 1992.

In this collection are the three complete radio series, produced by the award-winning Dirk Maggs (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and published together for the very first time. In these eighteen episodes, the duo look after a Rembrandt, try to bamboozle a millionaire, stay in a haunted mansion and join the carnival – along with many other hilarious misadventures.

Michael Roberts takes on Groucho’s role as Flywheel, while Frank Lazarus deputises for Chico as Ravelli. Among the regular cast are Lorelei King, Graham Hoadly and Vincent Marzello, with guest stars including Spike Milligan and Dick Vosburgh.

Produced by Dirk Maggs

A BBC Studios production

©2019 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2019 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Critic reviews

"A treasure horde of delightfully crazy humour." (Dirk Maggs)

"For me this BBC version is a flattering improvement!" (Nat Perrin, co-creator of the original 1932 Marx Brothers Radio series.)

If you love the Marx Brothers you will love this collection.

This is one of the best collections I have ever bought. The cast is perfect & it made me feel like I was listening to the real brothers. If you love the Marx brothers than this collection is a must have.

Amazing recreation great listen

The cast is wonderful and recreates the feeling of the Marx brothers. I have read the flywheel scripts several times and to be able to listen to them was a true treat.
If you love the Marx brothers - I highly recommend this.

A joy to listen to

Delighted this even exists, let alone on audible. Chico and Groucho practically rise from the dead with these performances. Wish I could have seen it live. The music is great, voice talent is top notch. The live audience adds to the experience.

Stuffed full of Marx Brothers in jokes, references and easter eggs. Can't recommend highly enough.

Great balance

With the limited number of Marx brothers movies out there, I have watched them over and over. I relish the old familiar jokes and witticisms. While this radio drama recycles a lot of the bits from the movies, they are stitched together beautifully so you are hearing the familiar comedy, but not just an audio version of the movies. Highly recommended!

Best money I ever spent!

Absolutely delightful! A fantastic feast for any Marx fan or comedy fan. I can’t recommend it highly enough! So happy it’s available!!

It was good.

First, let me just say, Audible/Amazon needs to switch the third star to a "Good" rating from "Pretty good". I mean, you have "Okay" to "Pretty Good" to "Great"?? Hey, I know most reviews come in either one or five star ratings, but there are still a few of us who still live in the land of Nuance. :^)

Anyway (phew!)... so yeah, it was good.

I mean that I listened to the whole 8-1/2 hours, wasn't bored, had some chuckles (and eyerolls) and have no regrets for buying it. I thought Frank Lazarus was 5 stars perfect as Chico, while Mike Roberts was 2.5 stars ("pretty good") as Groucho. His was a decent impression but his over the top performance just grew annoying by the end. The shows were pretty fun and, like I said, good for the occasional chuckle, though quite a few of the jokes came from their early movie scripts. A luke warm recommendation.

Not As Good As It Should Be

thankfully, I had the opportunity to read the radio scripts for this program when they were published. I encourage you if you like this program, or want to like it, find those scripts and read them.

Though the cast on this does their best comedy actors doing Groucho and Chico I do admirable work, the writing leaves something to be desired. They take the original scripts and flush them out to be longer shows. With that flashing comes everything from music and comedy from Marx brothers movies too tired old ideas that were run into the ground years ago.

Unfortunately the cast is not made up of only the two Marx brothers, and I found some of the recurring cast members voices to be quite irritating particularly the lady as she plays either the secretary or the Margaret Dumont character.

At some point, around the fourth or fifth episode I had to surrender and say “no more!“