Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Literature & Fiction

North London barber's shop Tony's might not be the trendiest salon in town, but it's definitely the cheapest and the cheeriest. Run by exuberant Italian Tony Fucetti, it's the place to go if you want a bargain cut and blow-dry from apprentice Maisie, or a short back and sides courtesy of Scottish hairdresser Hector (just watch out for his razor).

Aboard the Carthena, on its way from Sydney to Southampton, a passenger walks on the dark deck, unaware his death is only seconds away. It's a death which will set in motion a criminal investigation stretching from England to Australia. 

In this BBC radio full-cast dramatisation of Jane Austen's last fully completed novel, Anne Elliot gets a second chance at love. Anne was persuaded out of an engagement with the not-yet wealthy Captain Wentworth. The Elliot family are now close to financial ruin and are forced to rent out their family home, while Captain Wentworth has returned after making his fortune at sea. How the tables have turned. 

It's been many years since a certain yellow Edwardian roadster was a key member of personnel at UNIT. As the Doctor's personal transport, Bessie was on the spot for many of his Earthbound adventures. Those were the glory days, when Bessie stood side by side with the Doctor, the Brigadier, Captain Yates and a parade of plucky young assistants. Yet Bessie's remarkable life began decades earlier, at the dawn of a new century, and it has continued beyond the UNIT years. Indomitably she lives to tell the tale, and is only too keen to do so.

Helen and Ben are an upwardly mobile couple climbing the social ladder in suburbia. They have just moved into a semi-detached house but discover that their taste for restoring their home to its original character is not shared by the neighbours....

Adapted from Thomas Keneally’s novel The Playmaker, Our Country’s Good tells the true story of the convicts and marines sent to Australia as part of the first penal colony. An eloquent argument for the redemptive power of theatre, Wertenbaker’s classic drama celebrates the beauty of language – in the slang of the criminal classes and the poetry of the play – and at the same time examines how it is used as an instrument of power.

September 1791. Newly promoted Lieutenant General Jacques Lacroix is transferred from Paris to Amiens, tasked to solve crimes and arrest criminals. But in these days of revolution, it’s increasingly tricky for him to identify the criminals amongst all the agitators, rabble-rousers and counter-revolutionaries. And his job is about to get even harder as he finds himself investigating a slew of grisly murders.... 

In these 26 episodes, a shaky treehouse gets hubby Henry in trouble with the law, the couple's plans for a week free of the children go awry and Jen's money-making plans run into red tape - and worse.... It's all change for the Corners as son Robin wins a scholarship to boarding school, there's a new baby on the way and Henry has a job offer - but can they bear to leave London and move to the countryside? 

What with those dirty Sloanes next door, the men's group meeting upstairs and the stay-at-home dads, we can hardly hear the phone ring - and it could well be Mel's agent offering her a role in something tasteful. Luckily Leslie, the show's resident announcer, is on hand to keep things moving and to introduce the variety aspect of the show: perhaps a tap dance, or Armed Forces sweetheart Edie Trinder, or maybe just one of the celebrity voices in Mel's head. 

Sarah Hargreaves doesn't share her husband Matthew's desire to join the Puritan exiles, but when their son Benjamin is arrested on a trumped-up charge, they have little choice but to go. Things go rapidly from bad to worse and they decide to leave everything behind. Hoping to find peace and like-minded souls in a new religious community in America, they spend everything they have left on a ticket to sail on the Mayflower. 

In these 22 episodes, the team ponders how to revamp tea to make it more dangerous and exciting, wonders why so many men went to ‘mow a meadow’, practises the dark arts with a lightly tossed salad and makes latex representations of a spaniel with the help of children's entertainer Jeremy Lion. Plus, Demis Roussos and Napoleon Bonaparte enter a witness protection scheme in Swanage, a 'ladies man' sings about his suspect personal hygiene, and two travellers stumble upon a very unusual pub quiz.... 

Maria and Richard Reynolds are happily married, but broke. With debts piling up and their house falling down, there’s only one thing for it: they have to start taking in lodgers. Their new housemates are two equally cash-strapped students - Ruby, who’s conscientious and dedicated, and Paul, who finds academic pursuits more of a challenge.

Knut Ångström is a brooding, alcoholic, maverick Swedish detective from the mean streets of Oslo. Following the deaths of his beloved wife Christa and cheeky duck Elvin, he is posted to the Njalsland peninsula, where he becomes embroiled in a labyrinthine mystery which bears an eerie similarity to the Askeladden killings - a case from his distant past. 

Often described as ‘the father of realism’, Henrik Ibsen was a pioneer of modernist drama. He influenced playwrights as diverse as George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, and is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare. Included in this collection are adaptations of his tragicomic masterpiece The Wild Duck, his complex and compelling play Rosmersholm, the epic drama Brand and the tragedy John Gabriel Borkman.

Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam play a married couple who met in the Summer of Love and have stayed together ever since. Children of the '60s, they are still free spirits, drawn together by their love for music and one another. We follow their conversations from the café to the kitchen table, taking in everyday chores, dealing with problems with long-held friendships and tackling their frustrations with each other.

The master turns sleuth and spy in this quintet of radio dramas. Actor, playwright, songwriter, director, author and star - as far as we know, Noël Coward never added ‘detective’ or ‘undercover agent’ to his astonishing achievements. But could the intriguing gaps in his memoirs be hiding a thrilling secret life? 

It's January 1969, the winter after the summer of love, and Jill and David's fledgling relationship is about to be put to test by the outbreak of Hong Kong flu. As they huddle under blankets together, full of flu, neither of them is aware of how this moment will impact them in both the near and distant future.

In these 10 entertaining documentaries, he explores why some books, games and binge-watched box sets are, as they say, 'literally unputdownable'; peers into Plotto, an ingenious manual of story devices, to discover whether it really can make writing easy; takes a sideways look at some familiar characters from literature, including James Bond, Dracula, Fu Manchu and Carruthers; delves into the intricacies of the locked-room murder; and revisits his old prep school to find out whether a book of stirring 19th-century verse can work its magic on today’s young people. 

In 'Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth' the TARDIS lands in the 21st century to find a ravaged London at the mercy of familiar foes. In 'Doctor Who: Daleks - Mission to the Unknown' and 'Doctor Who: Daleks - The Mutation of Time' conquest of the universe seems assured for Mavic Chen and his allies, the Daleks. In 'Doctor Who: Death to the Daleks' the Doctor and Sarah are drawn to the planet Exillon, shortly before the Daleks arrive. 

Pretty Edith Ottley is married to pompous Bruce and has a son, Archie. She seems content with her life in Knightsbridge until she meets the charming and handsome Aylmer Ross. The physical attraction between the two is electric, and they could make the perfect couple. However, there is more to husband Bruce than meets the eye, and when Edith discovers this fact, will that help to change her mind?