Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Sagas

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....

An 18-part serialisation of John Masters' chronicles of the Savage family, spanning the years 1825-1946 and set against the backdrop of British rule in India. Based on the hugely popular novels of John Masters, this landmark BBC Radio adaptation charts the history of the British in India through the perspective of one family over several generations. Ranging over more than 120 years, these thrilling tales of love, murder and espionage take us from the expansion of the East India Company to the last days of the Raj and the approach of Independence.

First broadcast in 1990, this monumental adaptation of John Galsworthy's Nobel Prize-winning novel series was a radio event. It was the most expensive drama serial ever produced, featured one of the biggest, most star-studded casts and dominated the Radio 4 schedules for more than five months, attracting more than a million listeners each week. Comprising all nine books in Galsworthy's Forsyte Chronicles, it spans 50 years - from 1886 to 1936 - and tells the irresistible story of an upper-class dynasty torn apart by a terrible feud.

Penelope Wilton narrates BBC Radio 4’s epic dramatisation of the treasured family saga Elizabeth Jane Howard’s five book chronicle of the upper-middle class. Cazalet family begins in 1938, as siblings Hugh, Edward, Rupert and Rachel join together for another family holiday at Home Place, their house in the Sussex countryside. During the course of The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change, the progress of their lives, and those of their children, will be charted.

Self-made tech mogul Ravi Majumdar fought his way up from nothing to make a billion-dollar fortune. Now he risks losing everything in his single-minded quest to defeat his enemy, Jai Singh: the man he once considered his best friend. Concerned for their inheritance, his children fight for control of the company. But there are others bidding for the succession: Seraphina, Ravi's 'spiritual advisor', and Amit, their Indian cousin, whose humility belies his ambition.

In 1920s Leicester, Lewis Eliot must escape the drudgery of a council clerk's office and his provincial lower class background to begin his decades-long rise to power. As the years pass, and Lewis progresses to successful London lawyer, to Cambridge don, to wartime service in Whitehall, to senior civil servant and finally retirement, he faces in his own life and the lives of those around him collapsing marriages, terrible illness, the politics of academia, Nazism, nuclear weapons, the price of power and the ever-present realities of war. 

Peter Flannery's adaptation of his own iconic BAFTA award winning TV series—with a brand-new final episode by award-winning writer Adam Usden. First broadcast in 1996, Our Friends in the North was one of the most highly acclaimed TV shows of the 1990s. It launched the careers of Daniel Craig, Christopher Eccleston, Gina McKee and Mark Strong, won numerous awards including three BAFTAs, and is widely regarded as a modern classic.

Written by an anonymous storyteller in the 13th Century, and describing events between 960 and 1020, Njáls saga is one of the great works of medieval literature. The longest and most celebrated of the Icelandic sagas, it deals with family honour, vengeance and a vicious blood feud spanning almost 50 years. Based on the classic translation by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, this gripping dramatisation centres around two friends.

1991. Britain and the US are waging war in Iraq, the Soviet Union is breaking up - and Brian Oldman is banged up in Parkhurst, his 30-year sentence restarted. Set on proving his innocence, he studies law from his cell in a bid to win justice at last. But will he ever be released from prison? Joseph Olinska, meanwhile, seems unstoppable. Now ennobled and on the board of Lehman Brothers, he plans to extend his business interests into Russia - with a little help from Boris Yeltsin and his cronies. 

1971. As Ted Heath's government presides over the collapse of Rolls Royce, and Britain goes over to decimalisation, Brian Oldman is locked up in Brixton Prison. Joseph Oldman pulls every corrupt string in a desperate attempt to get him released; yet no sooner is Brian out than he finds himself back inside. Joseph, however, is on the up: expanding his business through dodgy deals with a Colombian drug cartel and making friends in high places, including Lord Goodman and Margaret Thatcher. Entering the murky world of politics, he becomes an MP and reverts to his old surname, Olinska.

1730. Driven by a wild romantic impulse, Francis Herries uproots his family from Doncaster to the lakeland valley of Borrowdale. Accompanied by his housekeeper/mistress, Alice, they settle in his tumbledown ancestral home, Herries, in the shadow of the Cumberland fells. Proud, stubborn and temperamental, Francis cuts himself off from his brother, spurns his long-suffering wife and becomes embroiled in drink and debauchery. When he sells Alice at Keswick Fair, his reputation is ruined, and the locals dub him 'Rogue' Herries.

In these two series, set on selected dates in January 1895 and December 1896, we follow the day-to-day shenanigans of Bridgford station master Joe Braddock and his staff, along with a motley crew of passengers and passers-by. Each episode is a self-contained drama, as well as telling the ongoing story of the crises and challenges tackled by the team, and their rivalries, enmities, friendships and burgeoning romances.

The legendary demise of Phil Archer's first wife is recalled in these archive editions of the much-loved BBC radio serial, plus a unique behind-the-scenes drama about Grace's death. The Archers is the longest-running radio drama in the world, and in 1955 the death of Grace Archer became one of the most notorious - and controversial - events in the history of the show.

An atmospheric BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation based on C. J. Sansom's best-selling Tudor crime novel featuring hunchback lawyer detective Matthew Shardlake. Autumn, 1541. King Henry VIII has set out on a spectacular Royal Progress to York, aiming to strike fear and awe into his rebellious northern subjects. Shardlake and his assistant, Barak, arrive in the city a day ahead of the 3,000-strong procession.

It's 1933 and we are back at Crown House where the Minster family are gathering to enjoy the Easter holiday. However, Crown House isn't the idyll it first appears, and a brutal murder disrupts the genial gathering. There's a secret that's been buried for years and the Honourable Mrs Jenny Gaunt is determined to uncover the truth but is she prepared to lose everything she holds dear in the process? 

Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon is best-known for A Scots Quair, a trilogy of novels comprising Sunset Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite that are considered to be among the most important works of the 20th century Scottish Renaissance. Featured here are the BBC Radio dramatisations of the first two novels, as well as a special documentary feature exploring the landscape and legacy of Sunset Song.

A lovely full-cast, family-based saga by Catherine Czerkawska. It follows Alison, as she discovers a yacht which belonged to a family of boat makers whose lives were tinged by turbulent love, sorrow and death. She finds the lady the boat was named after and discovers the history of the boat she has fallen in love with, and the family behind its excellent craftmanship.

Florence, 1415. Banker Cosimo Medici is looked down upon as a jumped up money-changer. Then he marries the noble Contessina de Bardi and becomes the richest man in Europe. But his wealth and power threaten the Florentine elite, who are determined to bring him down. However, the House of Medici cannot be crushed that easily. Sixty years and many violent deaths later, the family are the unquestioned, ruthless rulers of Florence.

Gush is the stunning saga of the bitter rivals Foxwell Cravate and Max Pomeroy whose destinies are tragically intertwined. Set in Durban at the Transworld Oil Conference and packed with the flair, fun and parody of the best TV mini-series of the 90s, this is comedy that will have you laughing out loud.