Showing results by narrator "Eleanor Bron" in All Categories

At Waterloo, women are stripping the corpses of their valuable shoes and stockings yet the Highlanders are left in mass graves with their coarse tartan socks still on. Roy Strong attending a private dinner with the Prime Minister notes that Margaret Thatcher in floaty chiffon is 'the apotheosis of the boss's wife, with the appeal of cosmeticised putty.' Even at the coronation of George IV, Queen Caroline, who is denied entry to the Abbey, is observed looking like 'a blowsy landlady'.

Pierre and Agnès marry for love against the wishes of his parents and the family patriarch, the tyrannical industrialist Julien Hardelot, provoking a family feud which cascades down the generations. This is Balzac or The Forsyte Saga on a smaller, more intimate scale, the bourgeoisie observed close-up with Némirovsky's characteristically sly humour and clear-eyed compassion.

Jane Moneypenny is the perfect example of chic sophistication and unflappable poise. She handles her cohort of unruly 00 agents with good-humoured grace. Yet, behind her polished perfection, she exudes a certain aura of mystery. Indeed there is more to Miss Moneypenny than meets the eye.

Jane Moneypenny may project a cool, calm and collected image but her secret diaries reveal a rather different story. In the grip of an uncertain love affair and haunted by a dark family secret, the last thing she needs is a crisis at work. But the Secret Intelligence Service is in chaos and her beloved James Bond is in danger. Moneypenny soon finds herself embroiled in a highly-charged adventure infused with the glamour of the Cold War espionage game.

The story follows the life of Tina, a young woman caught between the mother who adopted her - the beautiful, upstanding Delia - and her true mother, her plain, unmarried ‘aunt’ Charlotte, who gave Tina up to provide her with a socially acceptable life. The three women live quietly together until Tina’s wedding day, when Delia’s and Charlotte’s hidden jealousies rush to the surface.

An acclaimed novelist, short story writer and critic, Leslie Poles Hartley is best known for his 1953 novel The Go-Between, which won the W. H. Heinemann Award and was adapted as a BAFTA-winning film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates. Included here is a radio dramatisation of that classic tale, alongside adaptations of three further novels and five short stories.

Join us for an exhilarating and immersive adventure through 500 years of history, told entirely in the words of those who were there. With their artless prose and their polished & witty gossip, these are the men and women who have shaped our past. Brought to life by an award-winning all-star cast of 30 celebrated actors, including Charles Dance, Harriet Walter, David Suchet, Maureen Lipman, Timothy West, Jenny Agutter and many more.

Voices from the Past with David Suchet as Lord Nelson writing to his beloved Emma on the eve of Trafalgar, hoping in God that he will live to finish his letter after the Battle, while Harriet Walter as Virginia Woolf hangs about the House of Commons mourning the passing of Edward VIII and the coming of King Albert I. Winston Churchill is captured and imprisoned by the Boers and Jane Austen sells 'Pride & Prejudice' for £110.

One moment Liselotte, the Duchess of Orleans is observing the Prince of Orange consummating his marriage in thick woollen drawers and the next, Harold Nicolson is at the Savoy Grill dining with the Prince of Wales and Mrs Simpson who is, 'bejewelled, eyebrow-plucked, virtuous and wise'. There's a young medical student watching his friend bowing to the crowd as he is hanged on the roof of Horsemonger Lane Gaol.

When brilliant but penniless pianist Alexei is hired to tutor the 10-year-old daughter of Russian oligarch Mikhail, he is drawn into a world of chance, obsession and violence. Hopelessly infatuated with Mikhail's beautiful stepdaughter, Polina, he vows to do anything to win her love: and so begins his involvement in a dangerous, high-stakes game.

Germany, 1589: the townspeople of Cologne pronounce a sentence of death on a mass murderer who has stalked the countryside in the guise of a ferocious wolf. Russia, 1812: retreating from Napoleon's invading forces, a merchant's daughter is rescued from bandits by a handsome partisan with a ravenous appetite. Brazil, 2080: the Doctor and Turlough arrive for the Rio de Janeiro carnival. Is wealthy heiress Ileana de Santos all that she seems? What sinister ailment afflicts her invalid son, tended by the mysterious Dr Hayashi?

From schooldays to summer holidays, and from childhood fantasies to nostalgic reminiscences, writers have provided us with a rich seam of children’s poetry over the years.This delightful selection brings over seventy poems together, from such celebrated poets as A.A. Milne, Kenneth Grahame...

Three 'witness' insights into history. In 'That Door' by Elizabeth Kuti (read by Eleanor Bron), it is Wittenberg, 1517 and Brother Martin meets the indomitable Frau Sprenger. In 'Nothing but Blue Skies' by Dominic Power (read by Elizabeth Mastrantonio), Katherine Rudd, now 97, recalls events on...

 It’s 1964, and 22-year-old Trisha moves into a West Hampstead bedsitter to escape her controlling suburban parents and her boring fiancé, Keith. She’s determined to make it as a swinging, get-ahead girl-about-town, but finds herself struggling with homesickness, loneliness and the challenges of cooking a decent meal on a single gas ring. Then she rescues a grotty wardrobe from her landlady’s attic, and it yields a surprising treasure – a copy of Cooking in a Bedsitter, which becomes her bible.