The Wisdom of Father Brown, Volume 2

From London to Cornwall, then to Italy and France, a short, shabby priest takes on bandits, traitors, and killers. Why is he so successful? The reason is that after years spent in the priesthood, Father Brown knows human nature and is not afraid of its dark side. Thus he understands criminal motivation and how to deal with it. The award-winning Colonial Theatre on the Air has dramatized G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories from The Wisdom of Father Brown with a full cast, music score, and sound effects.

Seven instalments of the classic radio crime drama starring Cecil Parker, plus special documentary feature 'A Case for Dr Morelle'. Dr Morelle uses psychological insight, criminology and dogged persistence to solve cases. Here he must deduce the answers to mysteries including a hotel death, a man tormented by nightmares, and deadly threats made to an elderly spinster.

Bill Vokes has played Santa at the children's Christmas show for years. But with the show just hours away, he vanishes with no explanation. The whole village is baffled. Did something bad happen to loveable Bill, upstanding citizen, churchgoer, life and soul of the party and the holiday season? Jack and Sarah are on the case - and soon discover there are secrets about this Santa that no one could have imagined.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Simon Brett's entertaining crime novel, starring Bill Nighy. Charles Paris has been resting for quite a while, so he's relieved when he is cast as Ghost of Hamlet's Father and First Gravedigger in a touring production of Hamlet. But rehearsals are a little tense - the lead roles of Hamlet and Ophelia are played by a reality TV contestant and TV talent show winner respectively, and their opinions on celebrity and the theatre differ somewhat from those of the more experienced members of the cast.

Donald Sinden stars as eccentric amateur sleuth Gideon Fell in these two full-cast BBC radio dramatisations of stories by John Dickson Carr. One of the pre-eminent detectives of crime fiction's Golden Age, Dr Gideon Fell is stout, jovial and fond of beer and band music. However, he also possesses a razor-sharp mind and extraordinary powers of deduction, which are frequently put to the test as he is called upon to solve seemingly impossible crimes.

In these two dramas, she puts her extraordinary mind to work investigating cases of disguise, dismemberment, mayhem and murder. In Speedy Death, a country house in the 1920s is rocked by a murder which takes place in a room which is first locked, then later unlocked. As fingers point and the suspects begin to turn on each other, another death occurs. Then The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop sees Mrs Bradley investigating as a headless body is found in the butcher's shop.

A job in pantomime seems the perfect way to spend the Christmas season for Charles, but the cast of Cinderella are a motley crew from reality TV and Charles finds himself having to explain the traditions of panto to their baffled American star whose career is on a downward trajectory. When the star is shot dead, and Charles finds the body, he finds himself under suspicion.

A game of ‘murders’ at Sir Hubert Handesley’s country house party becomes far too realistic for anyone’s liking. First a guest arrives with a dangerously lethal dagger and then, when the gong sounds to announce the start of the game, the victim plays dead in a very convincing manner. Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn believes the unusual dagger is a vital clue to the real-life murder, and soon he’s on the trail of a Russian secret society.

From London to Cornwall, then to Italy and France, a short, shabby priest takes on bandits, traitors and killers. Why is he so successful? The reason is that after years spent in the priesthood, Father Brown knows human nature and is not afraid of its dark side. Thus he understands criminal motivation and how to deal with it.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the young, feisty, devastatingly acute Horace Rumpole in this collection of cracking cases, also starring Timothy West as the older Rumpole.

The complete series of off-beat thrillers about psychic detective Thomas Soutar, who uses his skills in police investigations. Set in Glasgow and featuring fantastic full casts, these unique police dramas star Robin Laing as Thomas Soutar. 

Little did Anthony Cade suspect that a simple errand on behalf of a friend would make him the centrepiece of a murderous international conspiracy. Someone would stop at nothing to prevent the monarchy being restored in faraway Herzoslovakia. The combined forces of Scotland Yard and the French Surete can do no better than go in circles - until the final murder at Chimneys, the great country estate that yields up an amazing secret.

A collection of four short stories from P. D. James, published together for the first time. As the acknowledged "Queen of Crime", P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write special short stories for Christmas. Four of the very best of these have been rescued from the archives and are published together. P .D. James' prose illuminates each of these perfectly formed stories, making them ideal listening for the darkest days of the year.

From 1958, The Lady in a Fog is an original radio crime drama starring Robert Beatty as Philip Odell. Such was the popularity of the eponymous radio detective that the series - which ran on the BBC Light Programme between 1947 and 1961 - spawned novels and even a 1951 feature film. Among the supporting cast of this thrilling eight-part serial are Mary Wimbush, James Thomason, John Bennett, Jeffrey Segal, June Tobin, David March, Trevor Martin and members of the BBC Drama Repertory Company.

Actor and reluctant sleuth Charles Paris is facing chaos on the domestic front. He’s lodging with his ex-wife Frances, and now their pregnant daughter has moved in as well. It’s all a bit much.... So he is over the moon when he lands a job on the BBC Radio Rep - but the ink is barely dry on his contract when a murder takes place in Broadcasting House. A young female studio manager is found dead in an editing suite, and Charles steps in to investigate....