Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Historical Fiction

The legendary demise of Phil Archer's first wife is recalled in these archive editions of the much-loved BBC radio serial, plus a unique behind-the-scenes drama about Grace's death. The Archers is the longest-running radio drama in the world, and in 1955 the death of Grace Archer became one of the most notorious - and controversial - events in the history of the show.

From his tiny room at Hampton Court, the royal chronicler records the comings and goings of the King of England, his six Queens—and his six mothers-in-law. Introducing us to these redoubtable ladies, he relates the surprising part they played in the destiny of Henry VIII and his unfortunate wives. We meet Catherine of Aragon's duenna, Dona Elvira; Lady Boleyn, whose gentleman admirer threatens danger for her daughter Anne; and Lady Margaret, whose attempt to overturn hundreds of years of tradition leads to a dramatic confrontation.

A collection of BBC dramatisations and readings of William Boyd's award-winning novels and short stories. One of Britain's foremost contemporary writers, William Boyd is renowned worldwide for his bestselling novels, which have been translated into over 30 languages. He has won numerous awards, including the Somerset Maugham Award (for A Good Man in Africa), the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for An Ice-Cream War) and the Costa Book Award (for Restless).

Widely regarded as the most engaging historical novels ever written, the 21 books in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series have garnered millions of fans since the publication of the first volume over 50 years ago. Included here are BBC radio adaptations of the first seven thrilling stories.

Shardlake returns in this atmospheric BBC Radio 4 full-cast adaptation of the fourth novel in C. J. Sansom's bestselling Tudor crime series.Spring, 1543. London's streets are filled with preachers; strange signs and portents are seen everywhere; and young men, maddened by differing interpretations of the Bible, are drawn into dangerous fundamentalism.

Mike Walker's epic chronicle of the Habsburg dynasty, one of the most influential and distinguished royal houses of Europe which was to rule most of Europe, as well as much of the New World, for 600 years. Hawk Rising: Brugg, 1230. Duke Rudolf of Habsburg is determined to become Holy Roman Emperor and to found a dynasty. But then a stranger arrives at the Castle of the Hawk as tutor to his son. 

A two-part radio dramatisation of Vasily Grossman's dark, honest account of the Battle of Stalingrad; a prequel to Life and Fate - plus Stalingrad: Destiny of a Novel. With this astonishing prequel published in its first ever English translation by Richard and Elizabeth Chandler, we are transported back to the very beginning of Vasily Grossman’s panoramic tale, as the ‘harsh whirlwind’ of war approaches the city of Stalingrad.

Pierce Egan's renowned 19th-century comic novel adapted by Dan Tetsell is a rollicking real tour of the sprawling post-Regency metropolis in the years before the Victorians turned up and made everything boring.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the young, feisty, devastatingly acute Horace Rumpole in this collection of cracking cases, also starring Timothy West as the older Rumpole. Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders: It is the '50s, and two war heroes have been shot dead. Defending the suspect is deemed hopeless, so the case is handed to a novice. But the novice's superiors didn't count on the tenacity and wit of the young and hungry Horace Rumpole.

Stephen Fry, Daniel Rigby and Tamsin Greig star in all three series of the poignant BBC Radio 4 comedy drama. Warhorses of Letters is the world's finest and best-loved equine, military, epistolary romance, comprising the newly discovered love letters between two horses united by passion but cruelly divided by conflict.

The complete series 1 and 2 of the BBC Radio comedy set in an 18th-century Cornish village. In the first series, Tamsyn Trelawny's band of 18th-century Cornish smugglers try to outwit customs officers, a hairy folk band helps Tamsyn and the Cornish smugglers to escape the law and Tamsyn tries to keep her love-life out of the scandal rags. Also, when a new rival appears in town, Tamsyn tries to quit then, finally, Tamsyn joins customs men to stop Courageous Kate from marrying her dad. 

1920s Stirling, and Chief Pathologist Dr Wallace is the town's acknowledged expert on all matters forensic. But he's not the only detective in the family - his daughter Barbara, a medical student, also has quite a talent for investigating. In these six one-off dramas, the two amateur sleuths join forces to tackle a string of tricky cases, each involving a suspicious death.

In these two series, set on selected dates in January 1895 and December 1896, we follow the day-to-day shenanigans of Bridgford station master Joe Braddock and his staff, along with a motley crew of passengers and passers-by. Each episode is a self-contained drama, as well as telling the ongoing story of the crises and challenges tackled by the team, and their rivalries, enmities, friendships and burgeoning romances.

Eleven compelling BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramas telling the stories of the Russian tsars. Broadcast to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, this extraordinary drama cycle by Mike Walker comprises 11 ambitious plays spanning over 400 years, exploring the lives of Russia’s key rulers from Ivan the Terrible to Vladimir Putin. 

Paterson Joseph, John Hurt, Lesley Manville and Harriet Walter are among the cast of BBC Radio 4's epic full-cast dramatisation. Adapted for radio by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Leo Tolstoy's epic story follows the fortunes of three Russian aristocratic families during the Napoleonic War. First broadcast on New Year's Day 2015, the drama also features Alun Armstrong, Natasha Little, David Calder, Phoebe Fox, Sam Reid and Joanna David. Duration: 10 hours approx.

In this radical reinterpretation of six brilliant Arnold Bennett novels, it’s the 19th-century Midlands and over 10-and-a-half sweeping hours individuals rise and fall, they age, flourish, and try to keep up as the world around them changes into something unrecognisable, transformed by new technology. Fortunes are made and lost, hearts broken, empires built and deals made. These tales of aspiration and passion, damage and danger are told with Bennett's forensic, (journalist’s) eye for human psychology and a surprising degree of witty comedy.

In Jim the Great, Jimmy Edwards stars as the titular medieval chieftain who has more on his plate than whatever the huntsman's brought in. From using the Venerable Bede to research the King's (perhaps questionable) ancestry and attempting to build himself an empire as cheaply as possible, to settling a debt with a Viking by way of a duel and accidentally losing his Kingdom before becoming a grumpy galley slave rowing to Rome, King Jim's adventures are history as you've never heard it before.

Autumn, 1646. The English Civil War is raging and there’s trouble ahead for Sir John and Lady Anne Firebasket. There’s a Roundhead platoon camping out in the barn, a perplexed priest hiding behind the panelling and, unbeknown to the Firebaskets, their scullery maid Mercy is actually a disguised aristocrat (and Royalist spy) named Melissa Fortescue-Bottomley.

1951. With the Festival of Britain in full swing, the country is looking forward to a brighter, more prosperous future. But young Brian Oldman cannot forget the past. Traumatised by a murder he witnessed when he was just six, he holds a terrible secret, but there is a more devastating secret he has yet to discover. Falling under the spell of his mother, Cath, he is drawn into London's criminal underworld, where territory battles are raging between the old guard and the new.

1991. Britain and the US are waging war in Iraq, the Soviet Union is breaking up - and Brian Oldman is banged up in Parkhurst, his 30-year sentence restarted. Set on proving his innocence, he studies law from his cell in a bid to win justice at last. But will he ever be released from prison? Joseph Olinska, meanwhile, seems unstoppable. Now ennobled and on the board of Lehman Brothers, he plans to extend his business interests into Russia - with a little help from Boris Yeltsin and his cronies.