Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Romance

The acknowledged ‘queen of Regency romance’, best-selling author Georgette Heyer, also penned a dozen delightful mystery novels. Included here are dramatisations of four of her finest stories from both genres, full of her characteristic wit, charm and period detail.

This rom-com with a difference follows the challenges and aspirations of Darleen Fyles and her partner, Jamie, a young couple with learning disabilities. Over the course of 50 episodes, they struggle with the problems and frustrations of everyday life, overcome prejudice and bullying, and forge a stable relationship.

This timeless collection brings together three of the finest works in the literary canon, read in full by some of the very best audiobook narrators. With over 38 hours of unmissable storytelling, tracked by chapter so you can easily find your place, this is the ideal way to enjoy these classic masterpieces.

Comedian Al Murray plays his great-great-great-grandfather William Makepeace Thackeray as the unreliable narrator in this radical makeover of his ancestor’s celebrated satire on class, sex, money, hypocrisy and snobbery in 19th-century England. As the curtain rises on our ‘story without a hero’, moneyless Becky Sharp leaves school with her upper-class best friend Amelia Sedley. Clever, cunning and ambitious, Becky is determined to make her way in Regency society - and she’ll trample on anyone who gets in her way. 

Set in the Cornish cultural mecca of St Ives, Artists centres around a close-knit community of artists whose talent is matched only by their dysfunctionality. When they're not bitching about each other's work, they're bickering with one another—but as genius goes hand-in-hand with an artistic temperament, they never take their squabbles too seriously.

Before Jane Austen, there was Fanny Burney. In the 1780s, she was England’s most celebrated female author, having achieved extraordinary success with two hit novels. She went on to become a royal servant, marry an exile from the French Revolution and undergo a gruelling mastectomy without the aid of anaesthetic – all events chronicled in her diaries, which were published posthumously to great acclaim. Contained here are dramatisations of her first and most famous novel, and her remarkable journals and letters.

Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens), was one of the foremost writers and humourists to come out of the United States. Hailed by William Faulkner as 'the father of American literature', he is renowned worldwide for his classic novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This wide-ranging collection comprises dramatisations and readings of a host of his much-loved stories, from well-known works to less familiar gems.

Best known for her posthumously published novel Suite française, Irène Némirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903. Her family fled the Russian Revolution for Paris, where she found fame as a novelist. But when the Nazis occupied France, she was arrested as a Jew and sent to Auschwitz, where she died aged just 39. This collection includes four of her best works, dramatised for radio with a full cast.

This new comedy show, written by Jeremy Front (writer of the Charles Paris mysteries for Radio 4) and starring Jeremy Front and Rebecca Front as Jack & Millie Lemman - an older couple who are fully engaged with contemporary life whilst being at war with the absurdities of the modern world.... The show also features Millie’s frenemy Shirley, played by Tracy-Ann Oberman; Jack’s all-too-easygoing friend Harry (Nigel Lindsay); their high-pressure son Melvin (Harry Peacock); and their high-maintenance (and Catholic) (and French) daughter-in-law Delphine (Jenny Bede).

Look Back in Anger focuses on the relationship between an educated but disaffected working-class young man, Jimmy Porter, and his equally intelligent but dispassionate wife, Alison, who comes from an upper-middle class military family. Having pushed back against her family so they could be together, Jimmy is now disillusioned by the class divide between them and constantly belittles her. Keeping the peace is their friendly Welsh lodger, Cliff. However, the arrival of Alison's friend Helena pushes the couple to breaking point. Can Alison and Jimmy ever reconcile?

Lord Mount Severn's country seat, East Lynne, is magnificent – but its owner is penniless and when the noble lord dies suddenly, his daughter is left destitute. To avoid misery and humiliation, Lady Isabel accepts a proposal of marriage from Mr Carlyle, the new owner of the estate. However, she soon finds herself battling with two strong emotions: her jealousy of her husband’s friend Barbara Hare, and her attraction to the handsome Captain Levison.

A baby girl named Stephen Gordon is born to well-to-do parents. She grows from a young tomboy into a thoughtful woman who feels 'different'. Stephen is understood by her father but alienated from her mother. Bucking against the conventions of society she turns down an offer of marriage and forms a passionate attachment to an American woman. Gradually, Stephen realises she will never fall in love with a man – but will she be an outcast? In pursuit of love and experience, Stephen takes herself to bohemian Paris, a far cry from the strict confines of British society.

When a beautiful piece of music stirs mega-tycoon Maximilian West, he remembers the women who have loved him and shaped his life. So begins a dazzling tale, taking us from the streets of London to the suites of New York, from the rise of Nazi Germany to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Strong, powerful, enigmatic, aloof, and adoring - many women made Maximilian the man with everything, but there is only one woman who can make him feel truly alive.

An acclaimed novelist, short story writer and critic, Leslie Poles Hartley is best known for his 1953 novel The Go-Between, which won the W. H. Heinemann Award and was adapted as a BAFTA-winning film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates. Included here is a radio dramatisation of that classic tale, alongside adaptations of three further novels and five short stories.

Author Anna Shelby is desperately trying to finish her latest bodice-ripper, a torrid tale of passion and jealousy set against a dazzling period background. But she's finding it hard to concentrate on her plotlines as, after years of having a purely fictional love life, she's finally met a real, live man. Unfortunately, her fantasies about Brian are constantly interrupted by her characters, chirpy Cockney muse Minnie and chisel-jawed hero Lord Robert. Concerned about the lack of authorial presence, they insist on leaping off the page to narrate their own story...

When artist Jess is rescued by a mysterious stranger after collapsing at a protest rally, neither of them know that their lives are about to be transformed forever. The pair swiftly fall in love, but when Dan disappears, Jess realises how little she knows about the man who saved her. Jess is an aspiring artist with synaesthesia - she sees colours and patterns when she hears certain sounds, and uses her unique ability to connect the unconnected. Searching for answers, she is seduced by a glamorous and shadowy underworld of criminal gangs and a brutal leader with murderous intent.

Beautiful and intelligent young Anna suffers in her loveless marriage, dreaming of the romantic life she should be living, and the love that others around her should be sharing honestly with one another. When she meets the dashing Vronsky he seems to offer everything she has been craving, but the cost she will pay is higher than she could have imagined. Meanwhile Konstantin Levin, a gentle landowner who shares Anna's belief in sincerity, attempts to channel his beliefs into his land, his family, and his love for beautiful aristocrat Kitty.

Thirteen plays about human connection, from some of BBC Radio's best writers exploring love, family, romances and life's ups and downs. This diverse collection of stories centres around family dynamics, relationships both romantic and platonic, and the diverse ways ordinary people navigate the vicissitudes of everyday life. Ranging from modern fairy tales to coming-of-age dramas, they feature a wide variety of styles, and are scripted by an array of writers from award-winning dramatists to first-time authors.

Caroline, Fiona and Ruth are lifelong friends, who've grown up together, laughed and cried together, and stood by each other through thick and thin. They may not always see eye to eye, and they might drive each other crazy, but they can't do without each other. But life's got a lot more complicated since they were 22, when the only things they carried around were handbags. Now, in midlife, they've got more baggage than the average airport carousel.

When Kenny (Stephen Tompkinson) gives up his life in the geography classroom to join a struggling a capella group with a beautician, a dentist and a boxer, he doesn't realise he'll soon be in the best band on the wedding circuit—and fronting the potential future of rock 'n' roll. Between trying to manage the band's failing love lives and their battling ambitions, Kenny finds that chaos greets them wherever they go. Arguments about who gets to sing the lead? Check. Rowing about recording contracts? Check. Selling out for a TV talent show? Check.