The Big Business Lark

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The Big Business Lark was a radio comedy sitcom of partly satirical form broadcast in 1969. It starred Jimmy Edwards and Frank Thornton and was written by Laurie Wyman as a spin-off from The Navy Lark, although no characters cross over between the two shows. In a sense, the spin-off element was in the The Foo Lark name format.

The show was set in the boardroom of fictional company Allied British Plastics and was concerned with the business machinations of the chairman (Edwards) and his son and deputy chairman (Thornton). Plots included landing an order to provide the Red Army with plastic tents, a trip to America to make a good deal from another board member's mistake and an attempt to find a plastic novelty made by the firnm for breakfast cereal boxes (popular in the 1960s).

The comedy was more broad farce than subtle satire with Edwards playing a bluff, hard-drinking, chauvinist old rogue character and Thornton his more proper sidekick, analogous to the same role he played against Derek Francis in the other Navy Lark spin-off, The Embassy Lark.

Thirteen episodes were made and off-air recordings of all episodes are in circulation. Occasional repeats turn up on BBC 7.