Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Biographies & Memoirs

Passion, power, sex and suspicious deaths – the Tudor story is one of drama and dysfunction, and it has kept us enthralled for over 400 years. In these six dramatised documentaries, we take a behind-the-scenes look at Tudor England and get to know the key characters we have grown to love and hate, such as Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Compiled from contemporary sources by Alison Plowman and featuring first-hand accounts and letters, these thrilling, historically accurate retellings bring this tumultuous era to vivid life.

If you Google 'Lemn Sissay', all the results will be about him - he's the only person in the world with that name. But that's not the only thing that makes him unique. In this fascinating series, he mixe

In a bid to impress his not-quite-girlfriend Jennifer, Mark persuades her to accompany him on a journey to discover the true source of the river that flows past her London flat. Setting himself up with a classic Victorian camping skiff, he's ready for adventure and romance - but his plans are scuppered at the last minute by his manic mongrel mutt, Boogie. Boogie has bad breath, terrible wind and a tendency to moult all over your toast - and on top of all that, he can't swim. But Mark can't leave him behind.

Vanessa Redgrave is an Oscar-winning actress, well known for her theatre appearances and roles in such films as Howards End and Mrs Dalloway, as well as her political activism. She discusses her life and achievements in this collection of BBC Radio and TV interviews.

Sir Derek Jacobi is an award-winning actor who is famous for his many roles on television, film and on stage. He received a Tony Award for his performance as Benedick in the RSC's production of Much Ado About Nothing and is probably most famous for his TV roles in Cadfael and I, Claudius. In this collection, we hear, in his own words, about his influences, his school years and early acting performances, as well as the many roles he has played.

Regarded by many as the greatest actor of the 20th century, Laurence Olivier enjoyed a stellar career in film, theatre and television, winning multiple awards along the way from the 1920s to the 1980s. In this absorbing collection of archive interviews he discusses his schooldays and early acting career, his drama training, his spells as actor-manager running the Old Vic and the National Theatre (which he helped create), his wartime service and his friendship and collaboration with fellow actors, including John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. 

On 25th October 1799—his 18th wedding anniversary—cantankerous Somerset parson William Holland begins his diary, chronicling events at the vicarage and in the small farming community of Over Stowey. He would keep it for the next 19 years, candidly recording the small trials of day-to-day life—from chaotic church services and unruly locals to lazy servants and irksome in-laws.

Beryl Reid, OBE, (1919-1996) was one of Britain's much-loved comedy actresses. She won a BAFTA for Best Actress and received a lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards. In this collection, we hear - in her own words - about other funny women, as well as some of her well-known roles in The Belles of St Trinian's and Smiley's People, and the reaction to her role in The Killing of Sister George. 

As the longest-lived and longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II has presided over an era of tremendous social, political and cultural change. In 2012, to mark her Diamond Jubilee, Radio 4 looked back on the long span of her reign, and asked the public to choose high-profile public figures who have helped to define this New Elizabethan Age. Almost a thousand nominations poured in, and the final selection was decided by a panel of leading writers and historians, including Dominic Sandbrook, Bamber Gascoigne and Max Hastings.

Three dramatic true stories, this is investigative journalism at its very best. In these three gripping series, prominent journalists investigate fascinating human stories, shining a light on history and politics and deepening our understanding of the word we live in.

On 4 January 2011, millionaire businessman and governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer was shot to death. He had been leading a campaign to amend Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, after an illiterate Christian woman was sentenced to death for blasphemy. Within hours, a Facebook page for the assassin Mumtaz Qadri had over 2000 members. Transferred to jail, Qadri was garlanded with roses by lawyers offering to take his case for free.

Broadcaster and current affairs specialist Clare English talks to 12 extraordinary trailblazers. Here are the inspiring stories of politicians and inventors, scientists and surgeons, models, parents, creatives and founders. All, in their own field and in their own way, have broken new ground and changed the world. 

This selection contains eight of Alistair Cooke's Christmas and New Year Letters from America, broadcast in December and January over the five decades of his career and covering a range of festive topics from the light-hearted to the sombre. Starting with his December 2001 letter - broadcast in the wake of 9/11 - he remembers introducing Leonard Bernstein to Handel's 'Messiah', muses on the creation of A Christmas Carol and shares his memories of two friends who died in 1977, Groucho Marx and Bing Crosby.

Comedian Stephen K Amos is one of eight children, whose parents came to London from Nigeria in the 60s. In these three series, co-written with multi-award-winning British playwright Jonathan Harvey, he takes us back in time to the 1980s, as he reminisces about his dysfunctional childhood and formative experiences, and shares the dramas and traumas of his teenage years.