Showing titles in Entertainment & Performing Arts

Violin Class is a podcast for the non-professional violinist and violin enthusiast. Join me to learn what you should know about the instrument, technique tips, practicing, the repertoire, and history of the violin, from the perspective of a professional violinist and violin teacher. Hosted by Julia Reddy, www.violinclass.co; contact: violinclasspod@gmail.com

They say you can’t teach stand-up comedy, but you can certainly give a lot of good advice. In the Recorded Books Original 28 Stand-Ups, the best stand-up comedians in the business share tips of the trade and full-fledged stories to impart the lessons they learned treading the boards, hitting the road, and of course, on occasion, bombing.

Jenna Fischer's Hollywood journey began at the age of 22 when she moved to Los Angeles from her hometown of St. Louis. She was determined, confident, and ready to work hard. So, what could go wrong? Uh, basically everything. The path to being a professional actor was so much more vast and competitive than she’d imagined. It would be eight long years before she landed her iconic role on The Office, nearly a decade of frustration, rejection, and doubt. If only she’d had a handbook for the aspiring actor. Or, better yet, someone to show her the way. Jenna wants to be that person for you.

Why Shakespeare? What explains our continued fascination with his poems and plays? In Living with Shakespeare, Susannah Carson invites 40 actors, directors, scholars, and writers to reflect on why his work is still such a vital part of our culture.

Nine BBC Radio full-cast dramatisations of the crime novels of Qiu Xiaolong, set in Shanghai. Starring Jamie Zubairi as Chief Inspector Chen Cao, an astute young policeman with twin passions for food and poetry. Through thrilling crime drama, these nine mysteries paint a portrait of modern life in communist China, depicting traditional Shanghai life amidst the old alleyways and how it is rapidly changing with modernisation.

With a new introduction, acclaimed director and screenwriter Paul Schrader revisits and updates his contemplation of slow cinema over the past fifty years. Unlike the style of psychological realism, which dominates film, the transcendental style expresses a spiritual state by means of austere camerawork, acting devoid of self-consciousness, and editing that avoids editorial comment.

This witty and unexpected show brings you toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang and Greek gobbledegook. Find out the meaning of words like giff-gaff, knock-knobbler and buckfitches; the difference between French marbles, French velvet and the French ache; hear the glorious poetry of the English language, as practiced from writers varying from William Shakespeare to Vanilla Ice; and spend time laughing and learning with some of the finest Wordaholics in the business.

Born in Canada to Anglo-Indian parents, Russell has become a comedy sensation. Calling upon his Asian background, he uses references etnicity, class and cultural stereotypes in his act. He is enormously successful in many countries and even sold out the O2 in London, which is no mean feat. This recording was made at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Two new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of Roald Dahl's gripping autobiographical stories. These two compelling adaptations, based on Roald Dahl’s real-life tales of his of his boyhood and youthful overseas adventures, celebrate his remarkable life and commemorate his genius. Boy Dahl’s...

Dolly Bantry, mistress of Gossington Hall, is enjoying a pleasant doze when suddenly her dreams take a strange turn. The housemaid Mary is telling her that there is a body in the library... When she wakes up, she finds that it is true. But who is the strange young blonde dressed in an evening...

Here is the story of Jerry Weintraub: the self-made, Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised impresario, Hollywood producer, legendary deal maker, and friend of politicians and stars. No matter where nature has placed him--the club rooms of Brooklyn, the Mafia dives of New York's Lower East Side, the wilds...

Hercule Poirot and his good friend Captain Hastings are enjoying a well-deserved break on the Cornish Riviera. Wandering along the terrace of the Hotel Majestic on the first morning of their stay, Poirot literally falls at the feet of a pretty, dark-haired girl and, much to Hastings' delight...

In this delightful tale, an Eastern Prince arrives in England with some family jewels which he's having reset as a gift for his fianceé. However, the Prince also has a mistress. She asks to wear one particularly enchanting piece that features a huge ruby, and then promptly disappears with...

Sir John Woodstock (James Fleet) is the Lord of the Castle and basically in charge of keeping order in the ramshackle medieval village. Although he hates all that torturing and usually lets the peasants off with a bit of community service. He lives in his huge but slightly falling down castle (but then it was built by the French, so what can one expect) with his daughter Anne (Martha Howe-Douglas) and very teenage son Henry (Steven Kynman). Anne’s best friend Charlotte (Ingrid Oliver) nearly always joins Anne on her constant quest to find fit men in the village.

Today's most acclaimed film directors reveal intimate behind-the-scenes details of their most influential work and their unique approaches to their art. In the companion to the Silver Plaque-winning Starz/Encore documentary series, this book offers interviews with 13 top filmmakers. Contains each director's filmography, complete listings of major awards, and cast credits for all films discussed.

The radio premiere of Erica Jong's uninhibited feminist classic about female sexuality. Isadora Wing has been married to psycho-analyst Bennett for five years. But she has become restless and yearns for men, for solitude, and for the perfect, guiltless, ‘zipless f**k’. Having overcome her...

A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Alexandre Dumas’s swashbuckling epic, starring Jamie Glover, Robert Glenister and Timothy Spall. ‘All for one and one for all’ ... 17th Century France. Dashing young swordsman D’Artagnan heads for Paris, dreaming of serving the King as a member of his...

In this mixture of cultural and social history that is both scholarly and vastly entertaining, Eyman dispels the myths and gives us the missing chapter in the history of Hollywood, the ribbon of dreams by which America conquered the world.

Mr Samuel Pickwick, retired businessman and confirmed bachelor, is determined that, after a quiet life of enterprise, the time has come to go out into the world. Founder of the Pickwick Club, he and his fellow Pickwickians elect to form a Corresponding Society and report back about their...

'You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed? It's the only solution.' Even when on holiday in Jerusalem - the so-called City of Peace - Hercule Poirot can't seem to escape the strains of death and murder. His first evening at the King Solomon Hotel finds the above phrase floating into...