Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Classics

Locked up in jail, Miguel de Cervantes is attempting to start a novel when he is visited by a priest, who tells him about an old man driven insane by chivalric romances and a vision of glory. Inspired, Cervantes takes up his pen and begins to write. His story begins in La Mancha, where an elderly country gentleman decides to emulate his knightly heroes, Sir Lancelot and El Cid, and embark on a quest to prove his valour. Renaming himself Don Quixote, he puts on his rusty armour and rides out with his loyal squire Sancho Panza.

English author and screenwriter James Hilton is best remembered for his hugely successful novels Lost Horizon – which gave the world the term ‘Shangri-La’ – and Goodbye, Mr Chips. The books made him a household name, and were both adapted as Oscar-winning films. Now, those two classic stories have been brought together on audio, dramatised with full casts including Derek Jacobi, Carol Marsh and John Church.

With its shocking portrayal of incest, intrigue and murder, this powerful Jacobean revenge drama scandalised audiences when it was first performed in the 1620s and it is still controversial today. When siblings Giovanni and Annabella embark on a passionate affair, Annabella falls pregnant with her brother's child. Knowing she must marry to protect her honour, she chooses one of the many suitors clamouring for her hand - but when her secret is revealed, the lovers are caught up in a bloody chain of events that culminate in a poisoning, a blinding, a stabbing and a brutal massacre.

Best known today for his comic masterpiece, Vanity Fair, W. M. Thackeray was regarded in his time as the only rival to his contemporary, Charles Dickens. This collection includes a selection of his finest satirical fiction, as well as two fascinating programmes exploring his life and writings.

Full-cast dramatisations of six masterpieces from the founding fathers of dystopian fiction Dark and disturbing, provocative and prescient, dystopian literature has long captured our imagination with its nightmarish visions of forbidding future worlds. Included here are six classic novels of...

A collection of BBC Radio 3's iconic Shakespeare productions: three Roman plays with all-star casts including Gerard Murphy, Nicholas Farrell, Susannah York, Samuel West, Frances Barber and David Harewood. The plays included in this collection are: Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra.

Set against the backdrop of America's Great Depression and Dust Bowl, a family of farmers from Oklahoma head west in search of work, only to discover thousands like them are also on the move. Following a violent altercation with some locals, they head back on the road with their dream of a promised land in tatters. And life is set to get much worse for the Joads....

Five seminal science fiction classics are brought vividly to life in these gripping BBC Radio dramatisations, with casts including Robert Glenister, William Gaunt, Carleton Hobbs and Joanne Froggatt. Titles include Frankenstein (1994), The Time Machine (2009), The Lost World (1975), R.U.R. (1989) and Solaris (2007). Accompanying this collection is a bonus PDF file featuring extensive sleeve notes by Andrew Pixley.

Timothy West takes on the role of Rumpole in this collection of cracking court cases. The stories included are: Rumpole and the Primrose Path, Rumpole and the Scales of Justice, Rumpole and the Vanishing Juror, Rumpole Redeemed.

Simon Russell Beale stars in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of John le Carré's first novel, which introduced his most famous character, George Smiley. This dramatisation, set in London in the late 1950s, finds Smiley engaged in the humdrum job of security vetting. But when a Foreign Office civil servant commits suicide after an apparently unproblematic interview, Smiley is baffled. Refusing to believe that Fennan shot himself, Smiley decides to investigate.

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. 

The complete collected series 1-5 of the gloriously daft Victorian romp Bleak Expectations. Gasp at the evil Mr Gently Benevolent, played by Mr Anthony Head! Weep at the trials of our young hero, Pip Bin, played by Master Tom Allen! Be moved to joy and sorrow by the remarkable narration of Mr Richard Johnson! Swoon at the fragile beauty of Pip's poor mama, played by Miss Celia Imrie! Wonder at the thespian prowess of Mr Geoffrey Whitehead as six different siblings!

Daring, transgressive and controversial, D.H. Lawrence scandalized the literary world with his frank descriptions of sex and desire. He was censored by his own publisher for being too explicit, and several of his most famous works were banned under the Obscene Publications Act. But for Lawrence, a self-described 'priest of love', passion was the stuff of life - and these two dynamic reimaginings celebrate him at his most bold, pushing the boundaries of sexuality and the fulfilment of furious need. 

Beautiful Emma meets and marries Doctor Charles Bovary. He's happy for the first time in his life - but Emma is distraught that her marriage lacks the passion and romance of her fantasies. Dazzled by the splendour of a marquis’ ball, she longs for excitement and soon becomes infatuated with a young solicitor, Léon Dupuis. But when Dupuis moves away, her memories of him lead her to despair - and into the arms of wealthy landowner Rodolphe Boulanger. As she moves from one illicit liaison to another, Emma’s complicated life begins to unravel. 

Samantha Spiro, David Troughton, and Amanda Root are among the cast of this new BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Jane Austen’s famous novel. Mrs Bennet is determined to see her five daughters married off and secure a future for them all. When the wealthy Mr Bingley arrives in the neighbourhood, Mrs Bennet wastes no time in making his acquaintance. His friend Mr Darcy, however, discourages Mr Bingley from marrying Jane Bennet, and also appears to snub her sister Elizabeth.

Described by H P Lovecraft as 'the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere', Algernon Blackwood (CBE) was the acclaimed and prolific author of numerous ghost stories and horror tales. Throughout his lifetime, he wrote 14 novels, several children's books, a number of plays, and over 200 short stories. This anthology opens with a selection of stories featuring his most influential character, occult detective Dr John Silence.

H. E. Bates is probably best known for his comic novel The Darling Buds of May, which introduced the lovable Larkins to the world and sparked three hugely popular TV adaptations. In his 68 years, Bates wrote over 20 further novels, more than 300 short stories, children’s books, poems, plays and non-fiction. This collection brings together three full-cast BBC Radio dramatisations and fourteen excellent readings, rounding off with extracts from H. E. Bates autobiographies.

Clive Merrison stars as Holmes, with Michael Williams as Watson, in these four adventures from the unique, fully dramatised BBC canon of Conan Doyle stories: A Study In Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear.

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.

In these eight intriguing tales, Holmes and Watson solve cases that range from the suspicious to the downright strange. They encounter mysteries as diverse as vanishing staff, secret plans and eccentric lodgers as Holmes is struck down by a rare tropical disease and, later, lured away from retirement to help his country on the eve of war.