Listen free for 30 days
-
Shadowlands
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 1 hr and 43 mins
- Performance
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Drama & Plays
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £6.59
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Real Thing
- By: Tom Stoppard
- Narrated by: Andrea Bowen, Matt Gaydos, Carolyn Seymour, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 41 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry may be the wittiest playwright of his generation, but he’s hopelessly naïve when it comes to understanding love and infidelity. Writing about betrayal is one thing, living with it is another. After Henry leaves his wife for another woman, he’s confronted with being the cuckold himself. Both dazzlingly clever and emotionally naked, Henry’s search for the “the real thing” in art and love demonstrates beautifully why both are worth the effort in the end.
-
-
It's the real Real Thing
- By Mr. P. D. Selman on 28-08-15
-
The Magician's Nephew
- The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 1
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe but designed by C.S. Lewis to be read first, this enchanting prequel, with its story of time travel, sorcery, and magic rings, is essential reading for anyone who wants to learn the backstory to the biggest movie release of the year. Hurled back in time to the birth of a new world, two young friends get caught in the epic struggle between Aslan and his nemesis the White Witch.
-
-
I think it's great!
- By Meredith on 26-10-05
-
A Brief History of Time
- From Big Bang to Black Holes
- By: Stephen Hawking
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Was there a beginning of time? Could time run backwards? Is the universe infinite, or does it have boundaries? These are just some of the questions considered in an internationally acclaimed masterpiece by one of the world's greatest thinkers. It begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos, from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time, from the big bang to black holes, via spiral galaxies and strong theory.
-
-
Interesting and intelligible
- By Anthony on 21-03-17
-
Copenhagen
- By: Michael Frayn
- Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Benedict Cumberbatch, Greta Scacchi
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benedict Cumberbatch, Greta Scacchi and Simon Russell Beale star in Michael Frayn's award-winning play about the controversial 1941 meeting between physicists Bohr and Heisenberg. Copenhagen, Autumn 1941. The two presiding geniuses of quantum physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg meet for the first time since the breakout of war.
-
-
What did they talk about?
- By DT on 14-02-17
-
Dr Wortle's School
- By: Anthony Trollope
- Narrated by: Timothy West
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr Wortle's School introduces the unassuming Mr. Peacocke and his polite, newly-wed bride, as they join the teaching staff of an elite and exclusive Christian boys' school. Dr. Wortle, a devoted English scholar and the headmaster of the seminary academy, welcomes his two new teachers, confident that they will uphold the high standards of education at the school.
-
-
Dr Wortle's School
- By Arlene on 15-03-10
-
The History Boys (Dramatised)
- By: Alan Bennett
- Narrated by: Richard Griffiths, Clive Merrison, Frances de la Tour
- Length: 2 hrs and 29 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Griffiths, Clive Merrison, and Frances de la Tour star as part of the National Theatre cast. At a boys' grammar school in Sheffield, eight boys are being coached for the Oxbridge entrance exams. It is the mid-eighties, and the main concern of the unruly bunch of bright sixth-formers is getting out, starting university and starting life.
-
-
History boys, Alan Bennett at his very best.
- By Simon on 28-10-17
-
The Real Thing
- By: Tom Stoppard
- Narrated by: Andrea Bowen, Matt Gaydos, Carolyn Seymour, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 41 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry may be the wittiest playwright of his generation, but he’s hopelessly naïve when it comes to understanding love and infidelity. Writing about betrayal is one thing, living with it is another. After Henry leaves his wife for another woman, he’s confronted with being the cuckold himself. Both dazzlingly clever and emotionally naked, Henry’s search for the “the real thing” in art and love demonstrates beautifully why both are worth the effort in the end.
-
-
It's the real Real Thing
- By Mr. P. D. Selman on 28-08-15
-
The Magician's Nephew
- The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 1
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe but designed by C.S. Lewis to be read first, this enchanting prequel, with its story of time travel, sorcery, and magic rings, is essential reading for anyone who wants to learn the backstory to the biggest movie release of the year. Hurled back in time to the birth of a new world, two young friends get caught in the epic struggle between Aslan and his nemesis the White Witch.
-
-
I think it's great!
- By Meredith on 26-10-05
-
A Brief History of Time
- From Big Bang to Black Holes
- By: Stephen Hawking
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Was there a beginning of time? Could time run backwards? Is the universe infinite, or does it have boundaries? These are just some of the questions considered in an internationally acclaimed masterpiece by one of the world's greatest thinkers. It begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos, from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time, from the big bang to black holes, via spiral galaxies and strong theory.
-
-
Interesting and intelligible
- By Anthony on 21-03-17
-
Copenhagen
- By: Michael Frayn
- Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Benedict Cumberbatch, Greta Scacchi
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benedict Cumberbatch, Greta Scacchi and Simon Russell Beale star in Michael Frayn's award-winning play about the controversial 1941 meeting between physicists Bohr and Heisenberg. Copenhagen, Autumn 1941. The two presiding geniuses of quantum physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg meet for the first time since the breakout of war.
-
-
What did they talk about?
- By DT on 14-02-17
-
Dr Wortle's School
- By: Anthony Trollope
- Narrated by: Timothy West
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr Wortle's School introduces the unassuming Mr. Peacocke and his polite, newly-wed bride, as they join the teaching staff of an elite and exclusive Christian boys' school. Dr. Wortle, a devoted English scholar and the headmaster of the seminary academy, welcomes his two new teachers, confident that they will uphold the high standards of education at the school.
-
-
Dr Wortle's School
- By Arlene on 15-03-10
-
The History Boys (Dramatised)
- By: Alan Bennett
- Narrated by: Richard Griffiths, Clive Merrison, Frances de la Tour
- Length: 2 hrs and 29 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Griffiths, Clive Merrison, and Frances de la Tour star as part of the National Theatre cast. At a boys' grammar school in Sheffield, eight boys are being coached for the Oxbridge entrance exams. It is the mid-eighties, and the main concern of the unruly bunch of bright sixth-formers is getting out, starting university and starting life.
-
-
History boys, Alan Bennett at his very best.
- By Simon on 28-10-17
Summary
Starring (in alphabetical order):
Arthur Hanket as Alan Gregg, Doctor, Registrar
Harriet Harris as Joy Gresham
Nicholas Hormann as Harry Harrington
Martin Jarvis as C.S. Lewis
Christopher Neame as Christopher Riley, Priest
Kenneth Schmidt as Douglas
W. Morgan Sheppard as Major Warnie Lewis
More from the same
What listeners say about Shadowlands
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Natsume
- 15-08-16
Wonderful
A witty and moving performance. Excellent cast who support the plays unsentimental but yet powerful displays of love and loss. A play, though, more about how in the face of the inevitable to remain undaunted and unwavering even though the forthcoming pain will be suffocating.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elaine Hourd
- 02-05-19
beautifully performed and very moving
Having always loved the film starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger I just had to listen to this. I was not disappointed - it was beautifully performed. All the players were good and the story is just so moving and sad but so true to a life with grief over the loss of a loved one. No one was 'overdoing' the emotions which was indicative of the times.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Tony Rawlinson
- 10-01-19
Brilliant adaptation
Superb, faithful adaptation, as is everything with the incomparable Martin Jarvis, King of the Airwaves!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Joy
- 01-04-12
Simply wonderful in every way.
If you could sum up Shadowlands (Dramatized) in three words, what would they be?
A beautiful, tragic, stirring, powerful story performed flawlessly. The cast truly brought this incredible story to life in a way I never imagined. So glad I found this!
What does Full Cast bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
The delivery is perfect--so much life. So much joy in the midst of a heartbreaking time.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Sure!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Luiz H.S.de Vasconcellos
- 16-12-21
Intelligent and funny, serious, witty.
A recording for radio broadcast, it reminded me of an era where you would excel - even with very modest means - to achieve your intent and present a very high quality spectacle. How pleasurable it was to hear Carl Lewis’ struggle, an universal and timeless theme.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- birdwatchers rule
- 15-08-21
Witty, fast moving, poignant, and splendidly acted!
This live recording of William Nicholson’s play is far more moving— and funny!—than either of the movie versions I have on DVD. I have read many biographies of CS Lewis, and this play, although it creates a couple of composite characters, is truer to the picture I have learned to make of C S Lewis and Joy. Martin Jarvis and Harriet Harris truly are splendid.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- D. Martin
- 21-07-12
I don't get it
It being why this play gets such great reviews. It's not bad, but among the LATheatreworks productions, it's far from my favorite.
CS Lewis, after being the author of Narnia, is best known for his Christian apologetics. Specifically, he's known as "the apostle to the skpetics" because his work reached out directly to modern skeptical audiences. Real religious scholars though, it's my understanding, tend to dismiss Lewis' religious writings as unoriginal and dull.
As a skeptic who's read a few of Lewis' shorter pieces on Christianity and generally found them, well, unoriginal and dull, but who has skeptic friends who have found Lewis' works absolutely captivating, I was hoping this play might finally explain to me what it is others see in the guy. Well, not so much.
I tend to think the appeal of Lewis is that he delivers the same old banal answers in a high-falutin English accent (and, in print, tone), which makes people feel safe and smart endorsing ideas they'd be embarrassed accepting if they came out of the mouth of a Southern born-again preacher. This play did not shake that conviction. At it's core, it's a pretty standard romance between Lewis and an American woman, Joy, who begins corresponding with him about his religious writing, and then visits England to meet him. There's a forbidden-love angle coming out of the fact that she's divorced, and so his religious beliefs at first preclude him from courting her despite their deep attraction; and a doomed-love angle coming out of her eventual battle with cancer.
The appeal, I think, is that here's this deeply religious man, who must overcome his religious convictions to be with the woman he loves and connected with first over religion. We're supposed to be moved by a deep personal struggle to overcome, even if it's actually just overcoming self-imposed limitations which, by virtue of their being overcome, are thereby rendered somewhat meaningless since they were self-imposed in the first place. The play considers the connection between religion and romantic love, but frankly doesn't consider it very deeply. The whole why-does-god-allow-suffering-in-the-world question is something of a leitmotif, but unless you're swayed by Lewis' argument that we would not be worthy of god's love if not for our struggles with grief, it doesn't really lead anywhere.
But hey, clearly some people are deeply touched by this play, as by Lewis' writings. You might be one of them. But I feel like someone needs to be the apostle to the bored, and why not me: if the story of CS Lewis leaves you unmoved, you're not alone. And anyway, don't despair: there's always the Narnia books to entertain you.
2 people found this helpful