Showing titles in World War I

Series 1-5 of the groundbreaking BBC Radio 4 drama charting life on the home front during World War One. First heard on radio between 4 August 2014 and 9 November 2018, each episode of Home Front is set exactly 100 years before the broadcast date, and each follows one character’s day. Together they create a mosaic of experience from a wide cross section of society, mixing historical fact with enthralling fiction to explore how ordinary people coped with daily life in wartime Britain.

Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents – and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history.

It's 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that Ellwood is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt's German mother asks him to enlist as an officer in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, Gaunt signs up immediately.

We follow the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army as they experience life - and death - on the front line. Meanwhile, Dr Celestine de Tullio battles to save soldiers suffering from gas gangrene and trench fever - and experiences the fighting firsthand when she enlists in the Serbian Army and commands a dangerous offensive. They are all cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years.

One of Hemingway's most acclaimed novels, "A Farewell to Arms," narrated by Mike Vendetti. Set during World War I, this poignant love story draws upon Hemingway's own experiences as an ambulance driver. Within the backdrop of war's brutality, the narrative balances moments of humor with the profound horrors of battle. Hemingway, a master of literary expression, skillfully captures the complex emotions of love, fear, and the occasional levity that can emerge even in the darkest of circumstances, offering listeners a deeply immersive experience.

1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies and Nellie's empire faces threats from without and within.

New York, 1915. RMS Lusitania, one of the world’s most luxurious ocean liners, departs for war-torn Europe. Among those on board is Patrick Gallagher, a civil servant in Her Majesty’s government tasked with escorting a British diplomat back to England. When a fellow passenger is believed to have shot himself in his cabin, Gallagher is asked by the captain to investigate the scene but one crucial detail doesn’t fit. The man’s body was discovered in a locked cabin with the key inside and no gun to be found. Was it really suicide? Or murder?

Lanning “Lanny” Budd spends his first 13 years in Europe, living at the center of his mother’s glamourous circle of friends on the French Riviera. In 1913, he enters a prestigious Swiss boarding school and befriends Rick, an English boy, and Kurt, a German. The three schoolmates are privileged, happy, and precocious - but their world is about to come to an abrupt and violent end. When the gathering storm clouds of war finally burst, raining chaos and death over the continent, Lanny must put the innocence of youth behind him.

It is 1914, and Maria, a shy teenager, is appointed to Buckingham Palace as a seamstress for the royal family. There, she is lucky enough to meet the prince of Wales and is soon captivated by his glamour and intensity. But theirs is a doomed love affair, and before long Maria’s life takes a tragic turn. Torn between passion and integrity, she makes a choice that has devastating consequences.... Can a beautiful quilt, discovered many years later, reveal the truth behind what happened to Maria?

Martha is seventeen and alone in the world. Of Irish decent, her flashing green eyes see into your soul. Foretelling the future is a gift passed down by her late grandmother and is how she earns her living on Blackpool Promenade. Though she spends hours in a little tent, waiting and hoping for a customer. Trisha is Martha's neighbour and quickly becomes her dearest friend, but she is pregnant and married to a brutal man. And when tragedy strikes, she finds herself alone, her future uncertain.

First heard on radio between 4 August 2014 and 9 November 2018, each episode of Home Front is set exactly 100 years before the broadcast date, and each follows one character’s day. Together they create a mosaic of experience from a wide cross section of society, mixing historical fact with enthralling fiction to explore how ordinary people coped with daily life in wartime Britain. We resume the story in Folkestone, where hospital staff face pressure to return wounded men to duty as conscription is introduced.

Nuneaton, 1911. When Holly Farthing's overbearing grandfather tries to force her to marry a dowdy widower twice her age she finally says no. When he refuses to support her any longer, Holly flees to London, bringing her best friend and maid, Ivy, with her. In the big smoke, Holly searches for the father she's never met and begins nurse training in the local hospital, where she meets the dashing Doctor Parkin. Kind and compassionate, he is everything that Holly has ever dreamt of. When Doctor Parkin proposes, Holly finally feels like she'll have the family she so longs for.

It is just before the outbreak of World War I, and Britain must enlist the aid of Russia. Czar Nicholas' nephew is to visit London for secret naval talks with Lord Walden, who has lived in Russia and has a Russian wife, Lydia. But there are other people who are interested in the arrival of Prince Alexei: the Waldens' only daughter, Charlotte - wilful, idealistic, and with an awakening social conscience; Basil Thompson, head of the Special Branch; and, above all, Feliks Kschessinky, the ruthless Russian anarchist.

London 1917. As the Americans enter the war, there is renewed energy in the war effort. With husbands and sons fighting for freedom, the women of Harpers are left to tackle the day-to-day affairs at home and work. With Ben Harper away, Sally fears she is being followed by a mysterious woman. Who is she, and what does she want? Maggie Gibbs collapses seriously ill in the frontline hospitals and is brought back to England close to death. Can she be saved, and what does the future hold for her and her broken heart?

As war looms in Europe, 18-year-old Jane Shaw runs the household as an unpaid servant on a meagre budget. When tragedy strikes and she loses her beloved younger brother in suspicious circumstances, Jane takes a position in service looking after Ned, a troubled young boy. Here she meets dashing David Heron, Ned's Uncle and they form an immediate attachment until she is dismissed after being accused of stealing a piece of jewellery. Returning home, Jane and her sister, Melia, are soon orphaned and left at the mercy of their Aunt Alice.

In 1915 three women start work at a toffee factory in the market town of Chester-le-Street, Durham. Anne works for the enigmatic owner Mr Jack. She is highly efficient and whips Mr Jack's disorganised office - and Mr Jack himself - into shape. However, behind her business-like façade, Anne hides a heart-breaking secret. Elsie is feisty, fun and enjoys a good time. However, her gadabout ways get her into trouble when she falls for the wrong man in the sugar-boiling room. And there's dependable Hetty, who's set to marry her boyfriend when he returns from the war.

A British nurse in WWI Egypt races to deliver explosive intelligence that could change the course of the war in this novel of suspense, adventure, and love.

As the Great War continues to take its toll, headstrong 21-year-old Emily Bryce is determined to contribute to the war effort. She is convinced by a cheeky and handsome Australian pilot that she can do more, and it is not long before she falls in love with him and accepts his proposal of marriage. When he is sent back to the front, Emily volunteers as a “land girl,” tending to the neglected grounds of a large Devonshire estate. It’s here that Emily discovers the long-forgotten journals of a medicine woman who devoted her life to her herbal garden.

The Emperor's Tomb is a magically evocative, haunting elegy to the vanished world of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and to the passing of time and the loss of youth and friends. Prophetic and regretful, intuitive and exact, Roth's acclaimed novel is the tale of one man's struggle to come to terms with the uncongenial society of post-First World War Vienna and the first intimations of Nazi barbarities.

Kitty and Tom Conlon arrive in Liverpool in July 1916 to claim the house Tom’s great-uncle has bequeathed him in his will. The move to England couldn’t have come at a better time. Dublin is in turmoil following the Easter Uprising and Kitty’s brother is now in prison. The house in Weaver Street is all they hoped for, and after a shaky start with her new neighbours, Kitty believes the world is her oyster. Until that is, Tom is conscripted into the navy. With Tom away, it’s up to Kitty and the women of Weaver Street to get each other through the war.