Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Literary History & Criticism

From 1938 to 1969 crime novelist and detective Paul Temple and his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve solved case after case in one of BBC radio's most popular serials. They inhabit a sophisticated, well-dressed world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women are chic and the men wear...

The Birling family are spending a happy evening celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling to Gerald Croft - a marriage that will result in the merging of two successful local businesses. Yet just when everything seems to be going so well, they receive a surprise visit from an Inspector Goole...

Author, broadcaster and 'rock star classicist' Natalie Haynes is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. In these four series, she explores some of the most prominent historical and mythological figures from the classical world, telling their stories through a mix of stand-up comedy and conversation.

The first nine volumes of 'Doctor Who at the BBC' form this unique collection of behind-the-scenes interviews, set reports, lively discussions, comedy skits and drama. Presented by Elisabeth Sladen, Anthony Head, Louise Jameson, Russell Tovey and Nicholas Courtney, the collection also includes three full-cast radio plays—Regenerations, Blue Sands and Golden Veils, and Dalek I Love You—plus the Radio 2 documentaries Project Who? and Who Is The Doctor?

In 1998, a brand-new culture show was launched on Radio 4, featuring Melvyn Bragg and a panel of leading academics discussing the ideas, individuals and events that have shaped our world. In Our Time rapidly became one of radio's most well-loved programmes, regularly attracting over 2 million listeners eager to learn more about the topic of the week—which could be asteroids, Zoroastrianism or anything in between. This specially curated collection charts the evolution of the novel as a literary form throughout the past four centuries.

'For myself/ I knew as soon as I could read and write/ That I must be a poet. Even today,/ When all the way from Cambridge comes a wind/ To blow the lamps out every time they're lit/ I know that I must light mine up again.' From his earliest boyhood memories of Highgate and Archibald, his old...

From Little Nell to Miss Havisham, Dickens’ Women tells the story of Charles Dickens’ life through his beloved characters. Co-written and performed by Miriam Margolyes, best known for her role as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, this one-women show is a celebration of her...

In these 10 entertaining documentaries, he explores why some books, games and binge-watched box sets are, as they say, 'literally unputdownable'; peers into Plotto, an ingenious manual of story devices, to discover whether it really can make writing easy; takes a sideways look at some familiar characters from literature, including James Bond, Dracula, Fu Manchu and Carruthers; delves into the intricacies of the locked-room murder; and revisits his old prep school to find out whether a book of stirring 19th-century verse can work its magic on today’s young people.

What was life like for Shakespeare's first audiences? In a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, how did Elizabethan play-goers make sense of their changing world? What did the plays mean to the public when they were first performed? In this fascinating series, Neil...

1994 saw one of Peter Cook's most acclaimed performances since his 1960s' heyday. Chris Morris' surreal and inventive questions brought out the very best of eccentric aristocrat Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling - a character whom Cook had carried with him through 'Beyond the Fringe' and 'Not Only...

Do you know someone who is incensed by compulsory tipping? Who is infuriated if kept on hold for more than a minute? Who is positively apoplectic if someone answers their phone during dinner? If so, you've probably encountered the phenomenon of the grumpy old man. Following their first massively...

Christmas is the season of good cheer and harmony among men, but things are not working out quite that way in the Bunker household. As a motley collection of friends and relatives fill the house with their own wishes, dreams and attitudes, the stage is set for seasonal disharmony and romantic...

To everything there is a season. A time to be born, a time to die, and a time to get a few things off your chest.The sequel to Grumpy Old Men: The Official Handbook covers a year in the sad and sordid life of a Grumpy Old Man, sorting into dates and seasons the many and manifold bloody...

Omar Sharif leads an all-Egyptian cast in this three-part drama, recorded entirely in Egypt's capital. Adapted from the novels of Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz, this gripping family saga chronicles the life of a downwardly-mobile middle class family as Egypt emerges from colonialism...

Dylan Thomas is one of the 20th century's most celebrated poets. His rich rhetoric created poems of magical imagery, and nowhere is language more rich and fantastic than in his best-known work, 'Under Milk Wood'. He was also a popular radio entertainer and the BBC Archives contain a wealth of...

Playwright, actor, singer, songwriter, poet, and scriptwriter, Sir Noël Coward used his "talent to amuse" to spectacular effect for almost 60 years. Sir Laurence Olivier, Lord Mountbatten, and Joyce Carey are just some of the voices heard paying tribute to the elegant star in this audio...

Five new plays from the gospel of Luke, by award-winning writer Nick Warburton. This work presents the Gospel story as you've never heard it before. Everyone knows the story of Jesus' life, as told in the Gospels – and, perhaps because it is so familiar, we have forgotten what an extraordinary...

Sir Jonathan Bate examines eight iconic poems inspired by great historical events - and explores the Romantics, John Clare and William Wordsworth. In this BBC Radio 4 series, eminent Biographer and Broadcaster Sir Jonathan Bate looks at major historical events through the poems they inspired, exploring how history influences poetry and how poetry shapes the way we regard history.

A selection of poems from Wordsworth and Coleridge's 1798 collaboration, which marked the beginning of the English Romantic poetry movement. In Episode One, we hear Coleridge's 'Lewti' and Wordsworth's 'The Thorn', while in Episode Two the verses showcased are Coleridge's 'The Nightingale' and...

J.R.R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait is a compilation of radio and TV archive material from the '60s and '70s featuring interviews with J.R.R. Tolkien, his relatives, and his colleagues in which he talks about The Lord of the Rings, his other Hobbiton books, life as an academic, correspondence received from fans, and his views on the 20th century. This audiobook is presented by Brian Sibley.