Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Literature & Fiction

The Thirteenth Doctor meets the illustrious artist Frida Kahlo in the first of three brand-new novellas starring inspiring characters from history. The Tenth Doctor meets the constantly curious Charles Darwin in the second of three brand-new novellas starring inspiring characters from history. The Fifteenth Doctor meets a literary legend in the third of three brand-new novellas starring inspiring characters from history.

Inspired by the novels of D.H. Lawrence, particularly The Rainbow and Women in Love, this ambitious quartet from Booker Prize-winning novelist A.S. Byatt charts the lives of the Potter family between 1953 and 1970. Set against the changing social and political landscape of England in the '50s and '60s, it follows the heroine, Frederica, from precocious teenager to TV talk-show host and from her Yorkshire home to the heart of swinging London.

Dan Starkey reads an exclusive new audio adventure for the 12th Doctor, as played on TV by Peter Capaldi. The Doctor arrives on the uninhabited planetoid Quish, famous for having the biggest natural amphitheatre in the galaxy. The Blitzats Jazz Quartet are playing, but shortly afterwards the planetoid implodes. Everywhere they play they leave a trail of destruction behind - someone dies; a city is wiped out; an entire planet vanishes.... But why - and how? The Doctor realises that the answer lies close to home.

Frustrated copy man Ken Handley cannot help but conceive of the world in advert form. Over three series witness Ken coping with a drunken boss, straight-laced colleagues and an overactive mind, as we follow his exploits and moral dilemmas in this advertising satire. Martin Jarvis stars as Ken, alongside a cast that includes Miriam Margolyes, Imelda Staunton, Christopher Godwin and Joss Ackland.

Michael Medwin stars as account executive Michael, with Fenella Fielding as his seductive secretary Janet, Joan Sims and Sheila Hancock as shorthand typists Mavis and Shirley, Eleanor Summerfield as no-frills executive Maggie and Nicholas Phipps as copywriter Adrian. This disparate team must stick together to succeed, as they battle to win new accounts and impress clients – and from wooing a US tycoon to putting a glamorous spin on a dreary seaside holiday camp, they always think big. Why else would they hire an elephant to promote bath salts?

2011, Syria. The Arab Spring is underway, and after a wave of peaceful protests, President Assad agrees to a release of political prisoners. Freed after 30 years, Dr Mahmoud is taken in by Taghreed and Emad Daffar, and brought to England by his old friend Jarvis Lorry and the daughter he has never met, foreign correspondent Lina. But his years of suffering have left him a broken man. Back in London, Jarvis convinces his nephew Sid Carton, a feckless but brilliant barrister, to defend a young Syrian émigré doctor, Shwan Dahkurdi, against charges of supporting terrorism. 

A founding father of American literature, James Fenimore Cooper was one of America's first professional novelists, and a pioneer of both the Western and the historical romance. Included here are his 1826 masterpiece The Last of the Mohicans and his 1821 classic The Spy, widely considered the world's first espionage novel. 

Escaping from their previous adventure on Skaro, the Doctor, Susan, Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) are inside the TARDIS when it appears to be taken over by an outside force. Bewildered and confused, the travellers become suspicious of each other’s motives, and tensions within the Ship begin to rise. The TARDIS appears to be trying to tell them something, yet the Doctor has very little idea of how to stop it hurtling backwards in Time, towards destruction.

Five exciting novelisations set in Earth's past history, featuring the Doctor and his companions. The stories are Doctor Who - The Gunfighters, Doctor Who - The Highlanders, Doctor Who and the War Games, Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang and Doctor Who - Black Orchid.

J.R.R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait is a compilation of radio and TV archive material from the '60s and '70s featuring interviews with J.R.R. Tolkien, his relatives, and his colleagues in which he talks about The Lord of the Rings, his other Hobbiton books, life as an academic, correspondence received from fans, and his views on the 20th century. This audiobook is presented by Brian Sibley.

First published as an illustrated book in the 1960s and now a collector’s item, Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space sees the Doctor land in the futuristic world of The One. Along with the Mortimer family, whom he rescued from the Great Fire of London, he finds himself recruited to lead a galactic invasion from Andromeda - with the TARDIS instrumental in the plan! In Ten Fathom Pirates, a story from The Doctor Who Annual 1967, the Doctor encounters underwater raiders on a distant planet.

Helen and Ben are an upwardly mobile couple climbing the social ladder in suburbia. They have just moved into a semi-detached house but discover that their taste for restoring their home to its original character is not shared by the neighbours....

Buy Me Up TV is a live, 24-hour cable channel, described by its CEO, Jacky Tanner, as ‘the crop of the top of the television shops’. Its perky presenters Angela and Bob are experts at flogging you everything you could possibly want for your home, wardrobe and lifestyle – and if the price isn’t right, the Bargain Bee will sting it right down. From ceramic hammers and a home Satanist test, to Robert Mugabe beach towels and a guitar bra (with matching banjo briefs), it’s all on special offer for a limited time only – buy now, while stocks last…

E. F. Benson is probably best known for his wickedly satirical ‘Mapp and Lucia’ series. A prolific writer, his works included novels, biographies and supernatural fiction. His versatility is showcased in these dramatisations and readings, which range from the hilariously comic to the horribly chilling.

Written in 1985, this groundbreaking play premiered at Contact Theatre, Manchester, in 1987. It subsequently won the Royal Court/George Devine Award and the Manchester Evening News Best New Play Award, and in 2000, the National Theatre included it in their list of the 100 ‘Significant Plays of the 20th Century’. Translated into 33 languages, it has been performed worldwide and is acknowledged as a contemporary classic.

Paul Sellar is an award-winning playwright working in theatre, film and radio. This compulsive collection brings together four of his gritty, modern thrillers, set at the intersection of the murky worlds of corrupt business and criminality.

A.L. Kennedy is a celebrated novelist, playwright, short story writer and columnist. She has won numerous UK and international book awards, including the Costa Prize, and has twice been featured on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list. A prolific writer for stage, screen and TV, she has also created several works for radio, among them this trio of dramas specially written for Bill Nighy.

Take It from Here (first broadcast between 1948 and 1960) was one of the most influential radio shows of all time, sweeping in a new era of comedy and introducing an enduring pair of writers: bright young things Frank Muir and Denis Norden. Their literate scripts, and the madcap adventures of the show's stars - Dick Bentley, Jimmy Edwards, Joy Nichols, June Whitfield and Alma Cogan - ensured 11 years of classic capers. The show is best remembered for introducing The Glums, who featured regularly. 

Author and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was one of the 20th Century’s most charismatic writers. His first book, In Patagonia, changed the face of travel writing and made him a literary sensation. Collected here are dramatisations and readings of some of his best-known work, as well as a bonus programme shedding light on his relationships and writing.

Newly elected MP Bobby Khan is forced to question his own motivations and political and personal values when his cousin is arrested on a terrorism charge. Bobby Khan has a tight knit community who have backed his campaign to become their MP but as trouble builds in his community, can he navigate his life back home with his life in Westminster.