Showing results by narrator "Eleanor Bron" in All Categories

 It’s 1964, and 22-year-old Trisha moves into a West Hampstead bedsitter to escape her controlling suburban parents and her boring fiancé, Keith. She’s determined to make it as a swinging, get-ahead girl-about-town, but finds herself struggling with homesickness, loneliness and the challenges of cooking a decent meal on a single gas ring. Then she rescues a grotty wardrobe from her landlady’s attic, and it yields a surprising treasure – a copy of Cooking in a Bedsitter, which becomes her bible.

Marie Antoinette's dramatic life-story continues to arouse mixed emotions. To many people, she is still 'la reine mechante', whose extravagance and frivolity helped to bring down the French monarchy; her indifference to popular suffering epitomised by the (apocryphal) words: 'let them eat cake'. Others are equally passionate in her defence: to them, she is a victim of misogyny.

The BBC radio adaptations of Judith Kerr's internationally acclaimed trilogy - plus bonus documentary. Based on her own childhood experiences, Judith Kerr's When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a timeless classic loved by children and adults alike. This story of a Jewish family that escapes Germany just as the Nazis come to power is seen through the eyes of their young daughter, Anna, and traces their perilous journey. Also includes adaptations of Bombs on Aunt Dainty and A Small Person Far Away.

A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Virgil's sweeping epic, starring Ralph Fiennes as Aeneas and Derek Jacobi as the Narrator. One of the classics of all time, The Aeneid was Virgil's last and greatest work. In it, he recounts in vivid imagery the legendary origin of the Roman Empire. The story...

The acclaimed BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Anthony Trollope's gently satirical tales of provincial life One of the most respected, successful chroniclers of nineteenth-century life, Anthony Trollope is still widely read and much-loved today. The Barchester Chronicles - witty moral comedies with...

Archie Logan, a country doctor, and his wife Liza lead an orthodox-seeming life, and everything is well until Archie's father, a widower for over 30 years, falls in love. His choice, a woman of powerful charm, has a profound effect on all the Logans, adults and children alike. The house and family turn from being a refuge to being a cage. Archie and Liza risk losing everything they have built.

Beatrice considers herself to be delicate and sensitive, idle and confused. Forced into early retirement, she has an unashamed and romantic desire to be rescued by the ideal man. But Beatrice's only family is her orderly sister, Miriam.

gentle romance begins innocently enough in the stalls of a London theatre where Catherine is enjoying her ninth and Christopher his thirty-sixth visit to the same play. He is a magnificent young man with flame-coloured hair. She is the sweetest little thing in a hat. There is just one complication: Christopher is 25, while Catherine is just a little bit older. Flattered by the passionate attentions of youth, Catherine, with marriage and motherhood behind her, is at first circumspect, but finally succumbs to her lover's charms.

Joseph and Harriet Blackstone emigrate from Norfolk to New Zealand in search of new beginnings and prosperity. But the harsh land near Christchurch where they settle threatens to destroy them almost before they begin. When Joseph finds gold in the creek he is seized by a rapturous obsession with the voluptuous riches awaiting him deep in the earth.

BBC radio productions of the first four bestselling V.I. Warshawski novels from Sara Paretsky - plus a short story featuring the hardboiled PI, read by Buffy Davis One of the most popular female sleuths in modern crime fiction, Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski is a strong, smart, independent...

A witty and profound audiobook portrait of the most talked-about English royal. She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando tongue-tied. She iced out Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Andy Warhol photographed her. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine. Gore Vidal revered her. Francis...

An acclaimed novelist, short story writer and critic, Leslie Poles Hartley is best known for his 1953 novel The Go-Between, which won the W. H. Heinemann Award and was adapted as a BAFTA-winning film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates. Included here is a radio dramatisation of that classic tale, alongside adaptations of three further novels and five short stories.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams is one of the three most important American dramatists of the 20th century, alongside Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill. Acclaimed for their lyrical language, dark themes and vivid portrayal of the American South, his works have spawned several Oscar-winning films and been translated and performed worldwide. Collected here are some of the best, beginning with the play that launched Williams' career: The Glass Menagerie. 

Seven BBC full-cast romantic comedies about love, longing and life-changing moments Written by a host of top radio writers and starring some of Britain's finest actors, these sparkling, beautifully crafted comedy dramas are centred around people with unconscious yearnings. From the serial...

When brilliant but penniless pianist Alexei is hired to tutor the 10-year-old daughter of Russian oligarch Mikhail, he is drawn into a world of chance, obsession and violence. Hopelessly infatuated with Mikhail's beautiful stepdaughter, Polina, he vows to do anything to win her love: and so begins his involvement in a dangerous, high-stakes game.

Jane Moneypenny is the perfect example of chic sophistication and unflappable poise. She handles her cohort of unruly 00 agents with good-humoured grace. Yet, behind her polished perfection, she exudes a certain aura of mystery. Indeed there is more to Miss Moneypenny than meets the eye.

It's the mid-1960s and James Bond's beloved Miss Moneypenny combines forces with him to smoke out a mole that she is convinced is buried deep in the heart of MI6.

Jane Moneypenny may project a cool, calm and collected image but her secret diaries reveal a rather different story. In the grip of an uncertain love affair and haunted by a dark family secret, the last thing she needs is a crisis at work. But the Secret Intelligence Service is in chaos and her beloved James Bond is in danger. Moneypenny soon finds herself embroiled in a highly-charged adventure infused with the glamour of the Cold War espionage game.

Moving between Nice and London, The Bay of Angels makes the point that not everyone needs conventional relationships to be happy. It relates the story of Zoe, whose life changes when her widowed mother marries a wealthy older man and moves to Nice.

Pierre and Agnès marry for love against the wishes of his parents and the family patriarch, the tyrannical industrialist Julien Hardelot, provoking a family feud which cascades down the generations. This is Balzac or The Forsyte Saga on a smaller, more intimate scale, the bourgeoisie observed close-up with Némirovsky's characteristically sly humour and clear-eyed compassion.