Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Crime Fiction

From 1974, five full-cast dramatisations of the short stories by GK Chesterton, starring Leslie French as the investigating Roman Catholic priest and Willie Rushton as GK Chesterton. Created in 1910, Father Brown inhabited the pages of several short story collections and novels before appearing in adaptations for film, TV, radio and theatre. His most recent incarnation is in the hit BBC TV series starring Mark Williams in the title role.

Kenneth Cranham and Alex Lanipekun star in these 15 hard-hitting crime dramas. Chalk and cheese coppers Max Matthews and Sean Armitage are from different generations and different worlds, but together they make a remarkable team. In this powerful, unconventional police procedural, we join the detective duo in the interview room as they practise their unique style of interrogation in a bid to extract a confession....

The first six series of the popular radio drama set in a Manchester legal practice, starring David Schofield. Frank Twist and Sarah Gold lead a maverick team of freelance paralegals operating in the mean(ish) streets of Manchester. Their agency operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, dispatching legal representatives to set free burglars, muggers and even some innocent people who find themselves on the wrong side of a cell door.

Christopher Marlowe turns government spy in these four comedy crime dramas. Murder and intrigue are all in a day's work for Kit Marlowe, England's leading playwright and undercover agent in Her Majesty's Secret Service. Amid the squalor and splendour of Elizabethan London, he probes a series of baffling mysteries, aided by his trusty underworld accomplice Bartholomew Ratsbane.

Ann Cleeves is well known for her 'Vera', 'Shetland', and 'Two Rivers' crime series, all of which have been adapted into hit TV shows. She was presented with the CWA Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement in 2017, and was appointed an OBE in the 2022 New Year Honours List for services to reading and libraries. This collection includes full-cast dramatisations of the first two 'Shetland' novels featuring Detective Jimmy Perez, as well as three short stories and a discussion with the bestselling author.

When the body of 17-year-old Jackie Shaw is found in a shallow grave, it sends shockwaves through her small West Yorkshire community. Rumours of murder and systematic sexual abuse are rife, and the town's MP, Samuel Stokes, is adding fuel to the fire with his campaign against a so-called 'Asian grooming gang'. Probation officer Rachel Collier deals with paedophiles on a daily basis: so when she hears that her teenage daughter, Chloe, has become friendly with 24-year-old Tariq, she's concerned where it might lead. But that's not her only worry.

Award-winning 'Queen of Crime' Val McDermid has sold over 17 million books worldwide, and been translated into over 40 languages. Her Wire in the Blood series was adapted for TV, starring Robson Green and Hermione Norris, and ran for six seasons. Included here are full-cast adaptations of several of her acclaimed novels, as well as four tales specially written for BBC Radio.

It is the 1980s, and Stamford Holmes is still living in the shadow of his famous grandfather. Languidly living on Sherlock's fortune, he reluctantly agrees to do some work as a consulting detective - if only to provide 'Doctor' Watson with material for the Sunday papers. Watson, on the other hand, brings all the bumbling enthusiasm he can muster to their new cases, forever aping and quoting both their grandfathers - and wielding a magnifying glass.

Clive Merrison stars as Holmes, with Michael Williams as Watson, in this collection from the unique, fully dramatised BBC Radio 4 canon. These 12 stories range from Holmes' very first case to the epic struggle between Holmes and Moriarty high above the Reichenbach Falls.

Paul Temple swings into the '60s with five complete radio dramas featuring the writer-cum-amateur detective and his wife, Steve, plus bonus archive material. Between 1938 and 1968, Paul and Steve's exploits enthralled generations of radio listeners around the world. Here, presented in chronological order, are 'The Gilbert Case' (1960 remake), 'The Margo Mystery' (1961), 'The Jonathan Mystery' (1963 remake), 'The Geneva Mystery' (1965) and 'The Alex Affair' (1968). This set also includes the bonus radio feature 'Peter Coke and the Paul Temple Affair'.

Detective Inspector Gwen Danbury comes from a family of investigators. Her father was a policeman, and her mother Joan often discussed cases with him - on one occasion helping him to solve a tricky murder. Gwen already has a capable, efficient sidekick in the form of DS Henry Jacobs - but nevertheless, her mum insists on helping Gwen with her inquiries.

Between 1947 and 1957, Ealing Studios produced a series of immensely popular, darkly funny film comedies that made the West London borough famous throughout the world. Almost 50 years later, four of these timeless films were recreated for BBC Radio 4, and are now collected together for the first time.

Veteran scriptwriter Vincent McInerney draws on his lifelong knowledge of Liverpool and his background in the Merchant Marine in these engaging thrillers, in which the gruff, indomitable John Crust and his sidekick Minty probe the circumstances surrounding a missing husband, a stolen sculpture and a hidden treasure.

When their friend Keith Brandon is charged with murdering a policeman, Gemma, Liam and Andy decide to bunk off school and go to the trial. Keith had a knife, a motive and has confessed to the crime, but they're sure he didn't do it - so when he's found guilty, they can't believe it. Determined to prove Keith's innocence, they take their story to the local media, but no-one will take them seriously. Then Gemma comes up with an unorthodox way of appealing for new evidence: setting up their own pirate radio station.

With the House of Commons in recess, it's a chance for all hard-working politicians to take a holiday. So when Conservative MP Vincent Mellors and Labour MP Arnold Sellers discover that they're staying at the same golf hotel in Lytham St Annes, they agree to put affairs of state on the back burner. But they're soon handed a political hot potato in the shape of Sir Bertram Oliphant's parliamentary memoirs. Full of red-hot revelations, the manuscript is diplomatic dynamite - and someone will go to any lengths to get their hands on it.

What sort of mother would allow her child to perform online for paedophiles? And how could the family's social worker let it happen? Told in two parts, This Repulsive Woman and Every Child Matters is a real-time drama that follows the stories of the two women at the centre of a fictional high profile court case and national scandal.

Ex-copper-turned-private-investigator Billy Rucker scours the seamy underbelly of London, hunting for runaways - and murderers. Tough, worldly wise and street-savvy, he can go where the police can't: and once he's on the trail, he won't stop until he finds the truth. David Morrissey stars as Billy Rucker in these two gritty urban noir thrillers.

Counterfeiters, spies, murderers...and Isaac Newton must use his brilliant mind to defeat them all in this pair of full-cast historical crime dramas. In Master of the Mint, a new figure of justice is walking the streets of 17th-century London—Isaac Newton, scientific genius. After thirty years as a Cambridge academic, Newton takes up a new post at the Royal Mint in the Tower of London. In Nemesis, Isaac Newton must contend not only with opponents to his currency plans, but also with a French secret agent who is aiding the theft of England's entire supply of silver.

Based on the real-life memoirs of the 19th Century investigator who inspired Sherlock Holmes, Inspector James McLevy, this atmospheric mystery series features the fictional casebook of Edinburgh's finest thief-taker. Accompanied by his loyal partner, Constable Mulholland, McLevy prowls the murky streets of 1840s Leith bringing criminals to justice—assisted by the madam of Edinburgh's finest bawdy-house, the deliciously immoral Jean Brash.

Inspired by the real-life memoirs of Edinburgh's first detective, James McLevy, here are more fantastic fictional adventures featuring the tenacious Victorian crime-solver. Once again, McLevy and his faithful sidekick Constable Mulholland patrol the dark wynds and back alleys of 1840s Leith tracking down evildoers—aided by a surprising ally: the beautiful and resourceful brothel-keeper Jean Brash.