Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Literary Fiction

Jane Austen's acclaimed comedy of manners contains a truly memorable cast of characters, including the snobbish Mrs Ferrers, impetuous Marianne, selfish John Dashwood, and his awful, grasping wife. Annette Crosbie captures all the wit and charm of the romance in this BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour reading.

Gulliver is shipwrecked on the Island of Lilliput where the natives are tiny people living in a miniature society. With his unique overview of this realm, Gulliver discovers a world of petty politics and small minds. Coerced into a war between two nations who disagree on the best way to eat boiled eggs, Gulliver finds himself betrayed by friends and battered by enemies - escape is his only option if he wants to survive! Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput are hilarious, disturbing and profound.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Dickens' famous novel, starring Pam Ferris, Adjoa Andoh and Tim McInnerny with Edward Long as Oliver. Born and brought up in the appalling deprivation of the workhouse, the orphaned Oliver escapes and heads for London, only to fall into the hands of the notorious Fagin and his gang of child thieves. But Oliver is an innocent at heart, and the attempts by Fagin and the impudently witty Artful Dodger to teach him the tricks of the pick-pocket's trade.

Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. A novelist, poet, playwright, composer, artist and philosopher, he wrote both the Indian and Bangladeshi national anthems; exchanged ideas with Yeats, Einstein and Gandhi, and was hugely influential in promoting Indian culture to the West. This collection includes some of Tagore's key novels, plays and short stories, as well as his best-known poem and four fascinating biographical programmes.

Catherine McCormack, Joseph Fiennes, and Harriet Walter star in this BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's last and most remarkable novel. Passion and perception run through this fascinating study of loneliness, love, and ultimate triumph over adversity.

Frankenstein is a dark and brooding dramatisation of Mary Shelley's famous novel, and stars Michael Maloney as the scientist who makes a creature in his own name.

Denied a female counterpart, the creature turns on his creator, then murders Frankenstein's brother. In an attempt to destroy his creation, the scientist tracks him to the Arctic.

A BBC Radio 4 'Afternoon Play' starring Bill Nighy as widower Christopher, originally broadcast on 20 April 2011. When his wife died three years ago, Christopher fled London for a simpler existence in Cornwall, where he has settled on bat protection as his mission. Colette and her noisy daughters rent the holiday cottage next door and disturb the peace - both his and that of his beloved bats. The Bat Man stars Bill Nighy, Katherine Parkinson, Jenny Agutter, Sean Baker, Lauren Mote and Georgia Groome.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Henry Fielding's rollicking comic masterpiece. Found one evening in the bed of the rich and benevolent Mr Allworthy, baby Tom grows up in the guardianship of the kindly squire. He develops into a good-hearted fellow who is nonetheless resented by Allworthy's mean-natured heir and nephew, Blifil. Tom's naive inability to resist a pretty face lands him in hot water when the gamekeeper's daughter declares herself pregnant.

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.

John Singer is a lonely deaf-mute who comes to stay as a lodger in Mick's house. No-one knows where he's from. A disparate group of people who live in the town are drawn towards Singer's kind, sympathetic nature: the owner of the café where Singer eats every day, an angry socialist drunkard, a frustrated Black doctor. Each pours their heart out to Singer, their silent confidant. And he in turn changes their disenchanted lives in ways the could never imagine.

Patrick Troughton battles to save mankind in this classic six-part "lost" television adventure, with linking narration by Frazer Hines. The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria to the south coast of present-day Earth. Something nasty is lurking in the gas pipelines of the North Sea, and before long the nearby refinery is under attack. Landing on a foam-covered beach, the travellers are at first mistaken for saboteurs.

All 10 episodes of the BBC Radio 4 comedy about an eccentric 'olderpreneur' and her adventures in business. At the age of 51, Bindi Banerjee unexpectedly finds herself out of a job. But she has her redundancy pay-off and a can-do attitude, and as series 1 opens, Bindi decides to start up her own business. Bindi’s Beauty Box soon gets off to a promising start, but Bindi must get her reluctant children on board if she is going to succeed. When she runs into some bumps in the road, Bindi wonders if she’s taken on more than she can manage.

This tale charts the exploits during the First World War of ‘European Forrest Gump’ Svejk, in his progress through the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army. Good-natured and garrulous, Svejk becomes the Austrian army’s most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of the First World War - although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it.

All 10 shortlisted titles for the BBC International Short Story Award 2012: 'Escape Routes' by Lucy Caldwell, 'The Goose Father' by Krys Lee, 'Sanctuary' by Henrietta Rose-Innes, 'Even Pretty Eyes Commit Crimes' by M.J. Hyland, 'Black Vodka' by Deborah Levy, 'East of the West' by Miroslav Penkov, 'A Lovely and Terrible Thing' by Chris Womersley, 'In the Basement' by Adam T. Ross, 'Before He Left the Family' by Carrie Tiffany, and 'The iHole' by Julian Gough.

The Waves: Terence Davies's dramatisation of Virginia Woolf's story. Episode 1: Louis, Bernard, Neville, Jinny, Susan, and Rhoda recall their childhood and first steps into adulthood. Episode 2: Louis, Bernard, Neville, Jinny, Susan, and Rhoda struggle to come to terms with life after Percival.

A 'Woman's Hour' reading by Janet Suzman of Jane Austen's last completed work. When the personable Captain Wentworth reappears in Anne Elliot's life several years after she had been persuaded to break off their engagement, he at first makes no secret of his angry indignation.

A distinctive modern version of an ancient Indian epic and one of the world's most popular love stories. Part 1: Teenage Sita sees the most beautiful stranger in the street. She'll marry him or die. He is Prince Rama, heir to the throne, but his stepmother wants Rama sent into exile. Part 2: Sita has been abducted by a ruthless warlord. Rama enlists the help of an army of monkeys to get her back. But has she betrayed him with the evil ruler of Lanka? The ancient Indian epic The Ramayana is one of the world's most popular love stories.

BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Jack Rosenthal’s award-winning television play, starring Hugo Raine. At the tender age of thirteen Eliot Green is about to become a man - in the Jewish religion at least. In synagogue, in front of the whole congregation, he will read and sing in Hebrew from the Torah (the Hebrew scrolls) - this after a year of intensive tuition. Later he will enjoy receiving gifts from relatives and friends as he celebrates with them at his Bar Mitzvah party.

Two on a Tower' is Hardy's ninth novel and contains perhaps his most complete treatment of the theme of love across the class and age divide, and also the fullest expression of his fascination with astronomy and science.