Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Genre Fiction

The Pilgrim's Progress is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and is considered by some to be the first novel written in English. First published in 1678, it has been translated into more than 200 languages and had never been out of print. In this production dramatist Brian Sibley delivers a fresh perspective and wonderful re-telling of the adventures of Christian, a pilgrim who embarks on a perilous journey from his hometown, the allegorical City of Destruction, to the Celestial City, or Heaven.

The TARDIS materialises on a remote island, set in a sea of acid, on the planet Marinus. The Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara meet Arbitan, keeper of a vast computer which rules and balances the gentle life of Marinus. Yet peace on the planet is threatened by the sub-human Voord, who wish to take control of the Conscience. Arbitan enlists the travellers to find the five crucial Keys of Marinus in various locations across the planet. Thus begins a series of terrifying adventures for the Doctor and his friends, who must find the Keys if they wish to ever to see the TARDIS again.

Ex-army officer Bradley Shoreham is a war game expert. As a soldier, he created a host of mock conflict exercises simulating various disasters - and now, as a civilian, he does it for a living. His scenarios may be fictional, but they're authentic: and that's exactly what the governments and corporations who employ him pay big money for. But as the participants are about to find out, his games can have real, deadly consequences.... 

Thornton Wilder is one of America's most important literary figures. He won the Pulitzer Prize three times - for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth - and is the only person to be awarded the Pulitzer for both fiction and drama. Included here are four of his key works, set in different times and places, but sharing the same fundamental motifs - the universality of human experience and our search for life's meaning.

Dan Starkey reads an exclusive new audio adventure for the 12th Doctor, as played on TV by Peter Capaldi. The Doctor arrives on the uninhabited planetoid Quish, famous for having the biggest natural amphitheatre in the galaxy. The Blitzats Jazz Quartet are playing, but shortly afterwards the planetoid implodes. Everywhere they play they leave a trail of destruction behind - someone dies; a city is wiped out; an entire planet vanishes.... But why - and how? The Doctor realises that the answer lies close to home.

When her 13-year-old twins head off to boarding school, Felicity Willow decides it's time to reconnect with her husband, Paul. The years of childcare have taken their toll on the marriage and Felicity dives headfirst into trying to re-ignite that spark of love. Paul, somewhat bewildered by his wife's endeavours, gamely plays along with her efforts. Hilarity ensues as Felicity devotes all her energies into the new project but as it turns out, recapturing romantic bliss isn't as easy as it sounds, and poor Felicity feels thwarted at every turn.

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1950, Life with the Lyons was the first UK 'situation comedy'. More than 11 million listeners tuned in to the hilarious fictional misadventures of real-life Hollywood stars Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyons and their two children, Barbara and Richard, as well as Scottish housekeeper Aggie and next-door neighbours Florrie and Mr Wimple. Such was its popularity that the series ran for 11 years, spawning a TV spin-off, a West End play and two feature films.

In the early hours of 5 June 1944, Captain Rob Collins, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, who is languishing in hospital, receives a call that will take him on a journey through England that will change his life. Mike Walker's play is an epic journey across England poised on the edge of a historical moment. It is set on June 5th, the day before the invasion. It is a portrait of England waiting for the invasion that will change the course of history, but an invasion only a very few know that is about happen. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliet Stevenson and Claudia Harrison.

18 biographical dramas based on the lives and loves of celebrated writers. 

A trilogy of contemporary plays inspired by tales from The Arabian Nights: Arabian Afternoons includes The Casper Logue Affair by Sebastian Baczkiewicz, The Porter and the Three Ladies by Rachel Joyce and A Dish of Pomegranates by Peter Jukes.

Deep in London's East End, Garry and Barry run a pub, and they're not very good at it. Things usually go from bad to worse when their mate, Dodgy Phil, comes up with increasingly hair-brained ideas to reinvent the local - often with explosive results. Could they make this the world's first environmentally friendly bar? Build the world's biggest pub named after the Titanic (but is it undrinkable)? What about booking Chas and Dave for the Queen's visit? Plus, there's the difficulty of running a pub next door to a zoo.

This illuminating serial charts the transformation of the young Victoria from spirited teenager to shy young bride to celebrated ruler of Britain and ‘Mother of Europe’. But while her roles changed, her essential nature remained the same: vibrant, passionate, principled and fiercely independent. Through extracts from Victoria’s own diaries and letters, and dramatised episodes featuring the characters closest to her, we are given thrilling insight into the thoughts and feelings of the woman behind the crown - and the secrets of her mind and heart. 

The White Hotel, one of seven 'unmade movies' available on audio, centres around circus performer Lisa, who visits famous Berlin psychoanalyst Dr Probst to discover the cause of her mysterious breast and pelvic pains. Reading her sexually charged journal, Probst concludes that the answer lies in her past. But then Lisa reveals her unsettling premonitions - 'I see what is going to happen. And what is going to happen cannot be endured.' Is her trauma really the result of childhood memories or a dark vision of the future?

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.

Six men have reached a certain age, their 40-something years, and each has a very different – and sometimes surprising – story to tell, from the brother who receives an unexpected letter to a compulsive philanderer, and a news photographer sent on an unusual assignment. All are funny, touching, and as beautifully observed as would be expected from the author of the phenomenal best sellers Eats, Shoots & Leaves and Talk to the Hand.

The Shootist is John Bernard Books, the last surviving top gunfighter in a vanishing American West. He rides into El Paso in the year 1901, to be told by a doctor that he has a terminal illness. As word spreads that the famous assassin has reached the end, an assortment of vultures gather to feast upon his corpse. Most men would end their days quietly, but Books outwits them all by selecting the where, the when and the manner of his death. 

It's January 1969, the winter after the summer of love, and Jill and David's fledgling relationship is about to be put to test by the outbreak of Hong Kong flu. As they huddle under blankets together, full of flu, neither of them is aware of how this moment will impact them in both the near and distant future.

On the planet of Lobos, the Doctor halts a violent war between the native Loba and human colonists. The TARDIS crew departs - only for Ryan to discover he’s left his phone behind. Again. Upon returning, the Doctor finds that the TARDIS has slipped hundreds of years into the future - and something has gone badly wrong. The Loba are now slaves, serving human zealots who worship a figure known as The Good Doctor. It’s time for the Doctor to face up to the consequences of her last visit. With Lobos on the brink of catastrophe, will she be able to make things right?

Acclaimed author JG Farrell came to fame with his Empire Trilogy, exploring the collapse of British colonialism and its repercussions in three different countries. The first book in the series, Troubles, won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Lost Man Booker Prize, while the second, The Siege of Krishnapur, was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction. Included here are three BBC Radio adaptations of the trilogy, plus an edition of Witness History exploring Farrell's tragic accidental death.

The TARDIS is under attack. Alien plants have taken root in its corridors, strange flowering tendrils that threaten to rip the Doctor's ship apart. New companions Brandon and Alex venture into the heart of the TARDIS to discover the source of the infestation. Instead they find a secret door and a forgotten world. The Doctor has unfinished business with the Arborites, living trees with long memories.