Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Literature & Fiction

The Man in Black is waiting to make your acquaintance. Maybe you’ll meet him on a bus, in the supermarket or at an airport luggage carousel. Perhaps he’ll peer into your baby’s pram or approach you in the corridor of a care home. Wherever you encounter him, he's eager to pass on his stories. Stories of darkness and death, myth and madness. Stories to unsettle and horrify.

Psychotherapist Martha is reasonably compassionate, but deep down she's losing patience. It seems all her clients want to be something they are not, and it's driving them (and her) out of their minds. Across a series of 15-minute comedy vignettes, How Does that Make You Feel? offers a fly-on-the-wall view of Martha’s sessions, each one shedding more light on the lives of her entertaining clients. Starring Frances Tomelty, Roger Allam, Marcella Riordan, Tim McInnerny, Cathy Belton and Rebecca Saire. Produced and directed by Eoin O’Callaghan.

Gentle-mannered, former sweet factory security guard and versatile singer/organist, John Shuttleworth records his fascinatingly mundane life on a tape recorder. With contributions from his foolish next-door neighbour (and sole agent) Ken Worthington, his tight-lipped wife, dinner lady Mary, not to mention her blousy friend, man-eater Joan Chitty. In the hands of John, no idea is too small, no plot too trivial, and no subject unsuitable for a song played on his trusty portable Yamaha keyboard.

Jessica Raine stars in all four BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of John Galsworthy's Forsyte novels. An irresistible family saga of love, money and betrayal, The Forsytes: The Complete Series encompasses four acclaimed BBC Radio 4 productions of Galsworthy's perennially popular epic, spanning 50 years from 1886 to 1936.

The Navy Lark gang are back for more seafaring shenanigans, as they leave the island behind for high jinks on the high seas - and get drummed out of the service, only to switch to some brand new roles. Collected here are the complete Series 3, 4 and 5, plus two Specials. Additionally, Troutbridge's crew disembark and drop anchor at at television studio in all nine existing episodes of spin-off series The TV Lark.

After a lifetime spent in public relations, one-woman dynamo Agatha Raisin struggles to adapt to life in a quiet country village - but she soon finds that there is murder and mayhem aplenty to keep her busy. Among the cases she has to deal with are a poisoned quiche; a vet who has been ‘put to sleep’; a hanged horticulturist; a murdered rambler and a curate who meets his Maker somewhat sooner than expected.

Welcome to Flamford, the town sanity forgot. Edgy, sharp-tongued City burn-out Andy Chambers has been advised, for the sake of his health, to take a break from his stressful London lifestyle and get some rest. So he goes to stay with his estranged uncle, Jeff Whitaker, at his seaside home in Flamford - but, as he soon discovers, living with his relative is far from relaxing.

Set in an exciting world of criminal masterminds, espionage and adventure, the adventures of special agent Dick Barton and his friends Jock and Snowey were essential listening for an entire generation. Originally running on the BBC Light Programme between 1946 and 1951, few of the BBC's original recordings still survive. However, in 1949 a number of early Barton tales were rerecorded for transmission overseas starring Douglas Kelly.

Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer star as old flames Jean Pargetter and Lionel Hardcastle. Their love story was all set for a happy ending in the 1950s when Jean was a student nurse and Lionel, a young army officer. But he was posted abroad and they lost touch. Thirty-eight years later, Lionel...

Lazy HR officer Sam (Nicholas le Provost) and his equally useless workmate Peter (Jonathan Pryce) realise they are in trouble: Peter for lateness and abusive phone calls to clients, and Sam for his over-relaxed attitude to errant staff members like Peter. Soon their worst fears are realised when they learn that one of the abusive phone calls made by Peter has been intercepted.

Four classic episodes from the original TV series: Arrival, Songs of Praise, Easter Special and The Christmas Lunch Incident. Welcome to Dibley, a perfect village full of some perfectly peculiar people - including Alice Tinker and her underactive brain, Owen Newitt and his overactive bowels, and...

London,1953. Josephine Daunt and Susan Dervish both worked for the Ministry of Defence during the Second World War, doing top-secret, highly dangerous espionage work. But in peacetime, they find themselves without a job and feeling useless. Determined to put their talents to good use, they decide to set up a detective agency, with the help of former private eye Bill Mackie. From their Covent Garden office, they handle a steady flow of business.

Based entirely on audience suggestions, this hysterically funny historical drama tells the thrilling extended story of an aristocratic family at war with itself. From ancient Rome to 1920s Hollywood, we follow the Mastersons’ turbulent history across the centuries as their fortunes wax and wane and their fates hang on objects as diverse and unlikely as a tumble dryer, a rabbit’s foot and a pair of Siamese twins.

Whether a long-standing fan or a first time listener, this collection of stories is the ultimate Just William audio experience. With over four hours of laugh-out-loud stories, including two stories performed to a live audience, Just William's Greatest Hits! is the perfect entertainment for the...

Between 1947 and 1957, Ealing Studios produced a series of immensely popular, darkly funny film comedies that made the West London borough famous throughout the world. Almost 50 years later, four of these timeless films were recreated for BBC Radio 4, and are now collected together for the first time.

Twenty-six episodes from the third BBC Radio series starring Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn, plus the pilot episode of It Sticks Out Half a Mile. In 1973 the BBC adapted its hit wartime TV series for radio, featuring the original television cast and characters. Three series were broadcast between 1974 and 1976, with episodes adapted by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles.

Parsley Sidings ran for two highly successful series from 1971-1973 and was the only radio sitcom (other than Dad’s Army) to star the much-loved Arthur Lowe. As Horace Hepplewhite, station master of a sleepy railway station, he spends his time dealing with small crises and supervising his errant staff - including his son, ticket clerk Bert; blonde bombshell Gloria the station announcer; crafty Cockney porter Percy; and ancient signalman Bradshaw - not to mention his nemesis, Phineas Perkins, who manages the station one stop down the line.

Author, pipe-smoker, fare-dodger and master of the complaining letter and abusive email, Ed Reardon returns for another four series. Despite many thwarted attempts at literary succes, he's still living a precarious existence with his trusty companion Elgar, reliant on any small morsels of work Ping can offer him to keep body, mind and cat together. He also continues to have regular run-ins with his nemesis, Jaz Milvane—who somehow manages to make money out of mad schemes, while Ed makes nothing—and his love life remains more than a little erratic.

After years of looking after her elderly parents, Anna finds herself able, for the first time, to live her own life. She's enjoying simply being herself, with no responsibilities and no obligations. But her two younger sisters, Victoria and Charlotte, are concerned about her. Surely poor, unfulfilled Anna can't be happy without a partner or a family around? Determined to make an effort, they decide to draw her into their lives - and Anna's peaceful, commitment-free lifestyle soon disappears.

Join the Eleventh Doctor on journeys in time and space in the stories 'The Runaway Train' by Oli Smith, 'The Ring of Steel' by Stephen Cole, 'The Jade Pyramid' by Martin Day, 'The Hounds of Artemis' by James Goss, 'The Gemini Contagion' by Jason Arnopp, 'Eye of the Jungle' by Darren Jones, 'Blackout' by Oli Smith, 'The Art of Death' by James Goss, 'Darkstar Academy' by Mark Morris, 'Day of the Cockroach' by Steve Lyons and many more.