Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Family Life

Set against the backdrop of America's Great Depression and Dust Bowl, a family of farmers from Oklahoma head west in search of work, only to discover thousands like them are also on the move. Following a violent altercation with some locals, they head back on the road with their dream of a promised land in tatters. And life is set to get much worse for the Joads....

Rediscover the most popular family in Britain! The Huggetts dominated the airwaves in the 1950s. For nearly a decade their family capers entertained listeners with the trials and tribulations of everyday life in post-war Britain. An unashamedly working-class family, the Huggetts epitomise the spirit of a united nation relishing simple pleasures with a cheery, down-to-earth smile.

In series 1 and 2, as his mum and wife, Mary, sit round his bedside and wonder how to wake him up, Ben’s mind is busy elsewhere. In his imagination, he lives with his two-year-old daughter, Blitz (now miraculously grown up), encounters celebrities such as Sue Lawley, Elvis Presley and Tom Paulin, relives memories from his past and gets into a compromising situation with a fellow inmate at a strangely familiar Torquay hotel. Meanwhile, an imaginary sitcom written by him, about coma patients in a hospital, plays in the background.

Award-winning author Anne Tyler is loved worldwide for her fiction exploring the intricacies of marriage and domesticity. These three acclaimed books, each set in Baltimore, describe the small triumphs and tragedies of everyday American family life, as relationships are made and broken, and families come together, drift apart and hurt and heal each other.

The world's longest-running drama, The Archers, has delighted audiences ever since its launch on 1st January 1951. Today, over five million fans across generations and across the world tune in, hooked on the epic saga of everyday life in the rural village of Ambridge. This collection takes a look back at the early years of the iconic show, from the 1950s to the 1970s, and follows the fortunes of some of its pivotal characters, including Jack and Peggy Archer, Walter Gabriel, Sid Perks, and Brian and Jennifer Aldridge.

Life for supply teacher, Phil (Jim Sweeney), is turned upside down when his wife, Sarah (Caroline Quentin), is offered a new job. Phil agrees to give up work and become a stay-at-home dad to daughter Sophie - after all, how hard can it be? Phil quickly realises parenthood isn’t all coffee mornings and cake. He has to grapple with playgroups (when he can find them), new friends (some a little more ‘out there’ than others), a ‘helpful’ mother-in-law (she isn’t) and when Sarah goes to Paris with work, can Phil contain his jealousy?

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.

This audiobook contains eight Take It from Here radio episodes from the 1950s, featuring Ron and Eth Glum. Jimmy Edwards stars as the beer-swilling head of the Glum household, with Dick Bentley as Ron and June Whitfield as Eth.

Dr Thomas Barrett and his wife Jane have a perfectly nice existence in 1950s Manchester, but dreams of a new life won’t let them rest. Leaving the security of their home and successful doctor’s practice, they set out for adventure, heading to Kalangadog Junction, a small Australian town of population fifty-nine that is so remote it’s not even on the map. Setting up Down Under isn’t quite as simple as the duo thought it would be.

Look Back in Anger focuses on the relationship between an educated but disaffected working-class young man, Jimmy Porter, and his equally intelligent but dispassionate wife, Alison, who comes from an upper-middle class military family. Having pushed back against her family so they could be together, Jimmy is now disillusioned by the class divide between them and constantly belittles her. Keeping the peace is their friendly Welsh lodger, Cliff. However, the arrival of Alison's friend Helena pushes the couple to breaking point. Can Alison and Jimmy ever reconcile?

Jack and Karen are an ordinary, happily married couple. They've been together for years and are convinced every problem can be worked through. Until Karen finds an odd text on Jack's phone, and her confrontation leads to a shock revelation: Jack is gay, and he wants a male lover. Seeking stability for themselves and security for their teenage children, they settle on a 'closed loop' arrangement, whereby they stay together and Jack has a boyfriend. So begins a new type of marriage, where small deceptions and unspoken fantasies are replaced with radical honesty.

Paul Scofield and Patricia Routledge star in Noël Coward’s classic comedy of manners. Private Lives was written in 1930 and has been a mainstay of British theatre ever since. This sharply funny play of reversals focuses on Elyot and Amanda, a passionate but feuding couple who divorced five years before. Now, on the first night of their honeymoons with their new partners, they find that they are all staying in the same hotel on the French Riviera. Fireworks are inevitable.

Richard (played by Peter Davison) and Sarah (Samantha Bond) juggle their way through life's minor disruptions, such as well-meaning TV crews turning up unannounced, summons to the headmaster's office to discuss teen Kate and the arrival of Sarah's sister with a horse-box full of expressionist art and three moulting cats. On top of it all, Sarah considers a third child. Perhaps a holiday will do?

Follow the uproarious antics of the Edwardian Fosdyke family as they work their way out of the mining pits of Lancashire to become rulers of a global tripe empire. An empire that the villainous Roger Ditchely will stop at nothing to try and bring down... A classic tale of struggle, power, personalities, and offal. Based on Bill Tidy's hugely popular Daily Mirror cartoon strip, this full-cast production is a laugh-out-loud parody of John Galsworthy's classic, 'The Forsyte Saga'.

London, 1946. Struggling to cope with the idea of raising her daughter in a hostile environment, African Caribbean nurse Hope makes the difficult decision to entrust her precious baby to her best friend, Eunice, to take back home to Antigua. But their plan goes disastrously wrong. In the decades that follow, all of them will witness - and play a part in - the seismic changes rocking the British Isles, as the old establishment crumbles, immigration builds and the country adjusts to the realities of a post-war, post-colonial future.

Pretty Edith Ottley is married to pompous Bruce and has a son, Archie. She seems content with her life in Knightsbridge until she meets the charming and handsome Aylmer Ross. The physical attraction between the two is electric, and they could make the perfect couple. However, there is more to husband Bruce than meets the eye, and when Edith discovers this fact, will that help to change her mind?

Bank clerk Sam Baker spends all day surrounded by other people's money. For four years, he's been hopefully filling out a pools coupon every week and dreaming of a big win - but with no joy. Then one day, Lady Luck finally smiles on him. To his total amazement, he wins half a million pounds - enough to change his life and that of his wife, Annabel. The duo are delighted with their good fortune and head off to London to collect the cheque and celebrate.

Thirteen plays about human connection, from some of BBC Radio's best writers exploring love, family, romances and life's ups and downs. This diverse collection of stories centres around family dynamics, relationships both romantic and platonic, and the diverse ways ordinary people navigate the vicissitudes of everyday life. Ranging from modern fairy tales to coming-of-age dramas, they feature a wide variety of styles, and are scripted by an array of writers from award-winning dramatists to first-time authors.

Dubbed 'the father of the English novel' by Sir Walter Scott, Henry Fielding is well known for his ribald humour and ironic, satirical fiction. Collected here are four of his most famous works, including his comic masterpiece Tom Jones, as well as a fascinating documentary exploring the foundling motif in fiction.

Faith, Hope and Glory charts the lives of three African-Caribbean families, connected forever by the theft of a beautiful pram in Tilbury in 1946. As they live through the eighty years since then, they witness and take part in the emergence of the modern United Kingdom.