Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Mystery

The Martin Beck books are widely acknowledged as some of the most influential detective novels ever written. Written by Swedish husband and wife team Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö between 1965 and 1975, the 10-book series set a gold standard for all subsequent Scandinavian crime fiction. Long before Kurt Wallander or Harry Hole, Beck was the original flawed policeman, working with a motley collection of colleagues to uncover the cruelty and injustice lurking beneath the surface of Sweden's liberal society.

Inspector Purbright is a thoroughly English policeman: affable, polite, dogged and decent. Created by award-winning crime writer Colin Watson, he appeared in 12 Flaxborough mysteries, four of which were adapted for BBC TV under the title Murder Most English. These five radio dramatisations star Peter Jeffrey, John Pullen and John Rowe as Purbright.

Detective Inspector Gwen Danbury comes from a family of investigators. Her father was a policeman, and her mother Joan often discussed cases with him - on one occasion helping him to solve a tricky murder. Gwen already has a capable, efficient sidekick in the form of DS Henry Jacobs - but nevertheless, her mum insists on helping Gwen with her inquiries.

A three-month run of a new farce is not to be sniffed at by a jobbing actor. Especially when there's the distinct possibility of a West End run. Which is why Charles Paris is standing on stage. However, by the time the troupe reaches Bath a darker mood has set in and Charles' old friend Mark has a drink problem that amounts to a death wish. But it's not the drink that kills Mark - it's somebody in the cast who has a secret that Mark must not be allowed to reveal....

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.

Wealthy businessman Rex Fortescue is found dead with rye grain in his pocket. His death is followed in quick succession by a woman dying while eating bread and honey, and a maid in her garden. Inspector Neele, in charge of investigating the spate of murders, consults with Miss Marple, who has...

Three BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations starring John Shrapnel as Morse and Robert Glenister as Lewis, plus a bonus reading by Colin Dexter of one of his short stories. In Last Seen Wearing, Inspector Morse is reluctant to take over an old missing person case from a dead colleague. But two years, three months and two days after teenager Valerie Taylor's disappearance, somebody decides to supply some surprising new evidence....

Life is good for Charles Paris. He's moved back in with his estranged wife, and has landed a plum stage role as Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. But it can't last. First his attempts to woo Frances fall flat, then the play's director is taken ill with gastric trouble. His replacement, Romanian wunderkind Alex Radelescu, is determined to take the play in a radical new direction—with or without Charles.

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.

Anthony Head, famed for his TV roles in Buffy and Little Britain, reads these stories inspired by one of the most successful BBC radio serials of the Twentieth Century.

In this delightful tale, an Eastern Prince arrives in England with some family jewels which he's having reset as a gift for his fianceé. However, the Prince also has a mistress. She asks to wear one particularly enchanting piece that features a huge ruby, and then promptly disappears with it...

Elspeth McGillicuddy is down from Scotland for a holiday and boards the 4:50 train from Paddington station to visit her friend, Miss Marple. During the journey, another train pulls alongside, and through the window Mrs McGillicuddy witnesses a tall, dark man strangling a blonde woman. She...

A collection of intriguing thrillers by Philip Levene Philip Levene was a prolific radio dramatist who also penned 19 episodes of ITV’s The Avengers, which won him a Writers’ Guild Award. While many of his works have unfortunately been lost, this collection of surviving recordings showcases...

Six entertaining thrillers featuring slovenly sleuth Chief Inspector Dover, Scotland Yard's most unwanted man Cantankerous and dishevelled, Chief Inspector Dover is no-one's idea of a model detective - but he does have an uncanny knack for solving crimes. In these radio dramas, set in the 1960s...

From 1938 to 1968 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 series. Now the glamorous duo return to the airwaves to break a mysterious drug-running gang. Post-war London is buzzing with...

A onetime Crusader turned Benedictine monk, Brother Cadfael is a most unusual detective. Living a quiet life as a monastery herbalist, he spends his days ministering to his brothers using the medical skills he acquired in the Holy Lands—but his worldly knowledge and wide experience of human nature are frequently called upon when there is a murder to solve....

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast adaptation of Simon Brett's comic murder mystery, starring Bill Nighy as the irrepressible Charles Paris. Charles Paris (unsuccessful actor, bad husband, dipsomaniac) is currently appearing as a fork lift operator in a corporate video. It's not prime-time television or a major film, but it seems like easy money - until the fork lift is used to commit a murder. When Charles himself comes under suspicion, he decides to find out for himself who the murderer is.

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.

Brighton, 1957: a sunny seaside resort with a sinister underbelly. This den of villainy is policed by the touchingly innocent Inspector Steine, who naively believes he wiped out all the hoodlums in the Middle Street Massacre six years earlier. Can long-suffering Sergeant Brunswick and keen Constable Twitten persuade him that a criminal mastermind is at large - and that the station's charlady, Mrs Groynes, might bear investigation?

A triple bill of archive BBC radio dramas, believed lost for over half a century and only recently rediscovered. "Butter in a Lordly Dish", written specially for radio in 1948, features Richard Williams as Sir Luke Enderby KC, whose infidelities lead him into trouble when he goes to meet his latest flame. Williams also stars as Hercule Poirot in "Murder in the Mews", a 1955 adaptation of a short story. A young woman is found dead in her flat the day after Guy Fawkes night.