
Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel: The Complete Series 1-3
A Recreation of the Marx Brothers’ Lost Shows
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Narrated by:
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Frank Lazarus
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full cast
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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 LtdListeners also enjoyed...




















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.)
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If you love the Marx Brothers you will love this collection.
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If you love the Marx brothers - I highly recommend this.
Amazing recreation great listen
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Stuffed full of Marx Brothers in jokes, references and easter eggs. Can't recommend highly enough.
A joy to listen to
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Great balance
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Best money I ever spent!
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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!“
Not As Good As It Should Be
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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.
It was good.
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