Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Dramatisations

In this BBC full-cast production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena run to the woods and stumble into a life separate from time itself. Fairy magic wreaks havoc and midsummer madness takes over as lovers tread the delicate line between fantasy and reality...

Don’t panic! The Hitchhiker’s saga continues with a full-cast dramatisation of Life, the Universe and Everything, the third book in Douglas Adams’s famous ‘trilogy in five parts’ ‘The pitch here at Lord’s is blackened, lightly smoking down towards square leg – and two men have...

In this BBC full-cast production, a trio of witches predicts Macbeth's early demise. In a tale of fate, fulfilment and ego, Macbeth and his wife desire the Scottish kingship. Macbeth's temptation and descent into evil, his wife's ruthlessness and subsequent madness and the overarching presence...

Joss Ackland, Roger Allam and Leslie Phillips star in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel. When poverty drives Jean Valjean to steal a loaf of bread from a baker’s window, it is an action that will haunt him for the rest of his life. A citizen of...

David Tennant stars as Malvolio in Shakespeare's comedy of disguise, madness and love. One of Shakespeare's happiest plays, Twelfth Night is both a comedy of misrule and a trenchant attack on puritanism. Disguise and deceit leads to misadventure, madness and mistaken love. Orsino loves Olivia...

Carla Lemarchant was a child of five when her mother was accused and convicted of poisoning her father, the famous painter Amyas Crale. After Caroline Crale dies in prison, Carla is sent to live with her uncle and aunt in Canada. Only on her twenty-first birthday does Carla learn of her family...

A deliciously black satirical comedy about the dinner party from hell. The fastidious host, Paige, decides to throw a dinner party in honour of her husband, Lars, who is celebrating the success of his pop psychology book, Beyond Belief. She carefully plans a surprise menu that will mark the occasion and anxiously checks with the waiter she has employed to make sure that everything is perfectly prepared. Her lucky guests include a postfeminist vegetarian artist, a distinguished microbiologist, a TV journalist and an uninvited guest who ends up staying for dinner.

An alternative history of the US space programme, dramatised by Dirk Maggs. What if John F. Kennedy survived the assassination attempt and developed the space programme? President Nixon, with the help of former president JFK, has just green-lit NASA’s first manned expedition to Mars. Aboard the expedition is Natalie York, a geologist who risks everything she loves for the chance to go to space; Phil Stone, former X-15 test pilot; and Ralph Gershon, a Vietnam War hero intent on being the first African American to reach another planet.

Here is a collection of Shakespeare's most inspiring speeches from the BBC Sound Archives. Hear timeless soliloquies from Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Henry V, King Lear, Macbeth, Richard III, and The Merchant of Venice, memorably delivered by some of the leading actors of the 20th century.

Dramatisation by Robin Brooks of James Boswell's biography of Samuel Johnson, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Johnson's birth. Episode 1: Young Boswell comes to London to seek out his hero. He wants to write a biography of the great man 'in scenes', with Johnson's conversation cast as...

In this BBC full-cast production of Antony and Cleopatra, the soldier and noble prince Mark Antony's enthralment with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra is proving controversial. Will the tumultuous relationship ultimately end in tragedy? Antony and Cleopatra is an intense love story, exploring the...

Murder mystery by Arnold Bennett, adapted in two parts by Chris Harrald. Episode 1. American tycoon Theodore Racksole buys Europe's most exclusive hotel on a whim, but is warned by the seller that he will live to regret it. Soon, a mysterious death occurs and Theodore and his daughter Nella...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast production of one of the earliest plays by Alan Bennett. The 1970s are a time of change, but Labour MP George Oliver feels stuck in one place: distrusting the ‘mawkish mentality’ of the young and fearing the encroaching life of the middle-aged, with little to look forward to but the imminent end of a not-very-interesting road.

In this BBC full-cast production of Romeo And Juliet, the two star-crossed lovers fight for each other until their dying breath. Can their two feuding families reconcile? With the intimacy of radio, the full beauty and meaning of some of the most lyrical lines ever written can be truly heard...

Pam Ayres' stage show has been a sell-out success throughout the world. With her natural warmth and wit she builds up a rapport with the audience that guarantees an evening of fun and laughter. Pam's reflections on daily life bring a chuckle of recognition from people of all ages. Whether she's...

In this BBC full-cast production of The Tempest, a magical storm washes some sailors up on a peculiar island, changing the course of their lives forever... Raging storms and rich beautiful music combine to magical effect in this production of Shakespeare's allegorical last play, where mystical...

For thirty years the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC Radio's most popular series. They inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and...

From 1938 to 1969 crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC radio's most popular serials. They inhabited a sophisticated, well-dressed world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic...

The youngest child of debtor William Dorrit, Amy is born in Marshalsea prison. She and her father are befriended by Arthur Clennam, whose mother employs 'little Dorrit' as a seamstress. The fortunes of the Dorrits undergo an extreme change when Williams inherits a fortune, and the family move to...

A comic and heart-warming play about teenager Michael Croxley. Michael's stammer has contributed to his fear of public speaking. But then the girl he adores, Lynne Hargreaves, reads a composition of his in double English, and discovers he's a whizz with words and his spelling is stupendous. When she asks him to be part of the school spelling-bee team, how can he refuse? He accepts gallantly.