Showing results by narrator "Julian Rhind-Tutt" in All Categories

Here is a very funny, very silly collection of questions and answers taken from this column, none of which has any basis whatsoever in fact. This is a must for all those who relish a heady mixture of shaggy-dog stories, toilet humour, and utter lack of insight.

In Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, one of our very best writers brings the opulent world of the Tudors to bloody, glittering life. It is the backdrop to the rise and rise of Thomas Cromwell: lowborn boy, charmer, bully, master of deadly intrigue, and, finally, most powerful of Henry VIII’s coutiers. But the bloody theatre of Cromwell’s ascension will leave no one unscathed.

Alexander of Macedon was one of history’s greatest ever military commanders. By the time of his death, aged just 32, he had conquered the entire Persian Empire and was ruler of a vast territory stretching from Greece to the borders of India. These six episodes tell his extraordinary life story, as reimagined by acclaimed dramatist David Wade.

In Search of Elvis sees Charlie Connelly set off on a journey to discover what makes Elvis so significant today, more than half a century after he changed popular culture forever. Charlie's odyssey takes him to Finland to meet an academic who performs Elvis songs in long-dead languages while wearing a kilt, and to Canada to find Schmelvis, an Orthodox Jewish Elvis tribute artist. It culminates in Memphis, where Charlie stays at the Heartbreak Hotel and records a song in Sun Studio.

It seemed a simple enough idea at the outset: to assemble a team of 11 men to play cricket on each of the seven continents of the globe - except that's not a simple idea at all. And when you throw in incompetent airline officials, cunning Bajan drug dealers, overzealous American anti-terrorist police, idiotic Welshmen dressed as Santa Claus, and whole armies of pitch-invading penguins, you quickly arrive at a lot more than you bargained for.

On 16 August 1952, Ian Fleming wrote to his wife, Ann, "My love, This is only a tiny letter to try out my new typewriter and to see if it will write golden words since it is made of gold". And he did write golden words: 14 best-selling James Bond books and an equally energetic flow of letters to his wife, publisher, editors, fans, friends and critics, charting 007's progress....

Bludden-On-Sand better buckle up as there is a new hero in town! Frustrated furniture fitter Nigel Struddock (Timothy Spall), with the help of a sewing machine, creates an alter ego: ‘Greywing’ - a local caped crusader determined to fight evil and bring justice wherever he can. He’s got the mask and the cape, but where’s the crime?! Every superhero needs an arch enemy and soon dastardly ice cream tycoon, Benny Leake (Bernard Hill) appears on the scene to be Greywing’s.

Classic plays and ghost stories, as performed by the residents of Ambridge and friends - plus bonus drama Dead Girls Tell No Tales. Borsetshire's queen of amateur theatricals, Lynda Snell, never misses the chance to put on a Christmas show. Her productions are always a big hit with Ambridge audiences - and now, Archers fans can enjoy these top-notch performances alongside them (as well as eavesdropping on the shenanigans backstage).

It's 1972 and Vince Cosmos is all the rage. He's the enigmatic Glam Rock star who sings about being an alien and whose followers worship him. Poppy Munday is the secretary of his fan club - Sunderland chapter - and all her dreams are about to come truewhen she finds herself drwan into the strange orbit of the Seventies' most fabulous star. But what if Vince Cosmos really is an alien? One engaged in a secret battle with aliens already on Earth?

March 1928. The Great War has been over for ten years, but Freddie still hasn't recovered from the loss of his brother. Even now, on holiday in south-west France, he cannot escape his grief. When his car crashes, Freddie stumbles down from the hills to a village nearby. There he meets Marie, a beautiful young woman who is also mourning a lost generation. Her story of the fate of her family moves him deeply.

Three children have been kidnapped by some mysterious, mad aunts and panic is spreading. But Myrtle, Coral and Etta are far from killers - they need the children to help them in a very caring mission. The secret island where they live is a sanctuary for strange and wonderful creatures - mermaids, selkies, the amazing boobrie bird, and even the great Kraken himself.

By 1535 Thomas Cromwell is Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes having risen with those of Anne Boleyn, the king’s new wife. But Anne has failed to give the king an heir, and Cromwell watches as Henry falls for plain Jane Seymour. Cromwell must find a solution that will satisfy Henry, safeguard the nation and secure his own career. But neither minister nor king will emerge unscathed from the bloody theatre of Anne’s final days.

Miles Jupp stars as James Boswell, Dr Johnson's time-travelling biographer, with a host of top actors and comedians as his celebrity interviewees. Before James Boswell penned a biography of his friend, Dr Johnson, they were both nobodies. But his Life of Samuel Johnson made them famous - so now Boswell's out to work his magic on other celebrities. Travelling through the centuries, he gives 12 legendary figures the Boswell treatment, hoping to do for them what he did for Johnson....

This dramatisation of Jonathan Franzen's acclaimed, epic, award-winning novel revolves around the troubles of an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-20th century to 'one last Christmas' together near the turn of the millennium. A family saga, that sits against the backdrop of this century's changing face of America, the novel was published 10 days before 9/11 but is widely considered an observation of what happened to the American psyche after 9/11.

Weaving together hints of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty with a shimmering thread of dark magic, this twist on classic fairy tales will hold readers spellbound from start to finish. On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and ventures into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future – and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems.

A BBC radio anthology of the very best short stories by Stacy Aumonier. Stacy Aumonier was an author, stage performer, 'society entertainer', World War One private and draughtsman, who gained an unrivalled reputation for his short fiction in the 1920s. John Galsworthy described him as ‘one of the best short-story writers of all time’, and several of his tales were adapted for television by Alfred Hitchcock.

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Jonathan Coe's brilliant new comic novel Expo 58, read by the actor Julian Rhind-Tutt. Expo 58 - Good-looking girls and sinister spies: a naive Englishman at loose in Europe in Jonathan Coe's brilliant comic novelLondon, 1958: unassuming civil servant Thomas Foley is plucked from his desk at the Central Office of Information and sent on a six-month trip to Brussels.

Deliciously clever and touching, with a compelling twist, I Think I Love You asks what happens when the man you thought you loved turns out to be somebody else… In her bestselling debut, I Don’t Know How She Does It, Allison Pearson spoke to mothers everywhere. Now, in I Think I Love You, she is back with her pitch-perfect ability to observe our lives, loves and relationships. We enter the world of two unforgettable friends: Petra and Sharon, in 1970s South Wales, who live for David Cassidy.

In this gripping series, Helena Kennedy, celebrated human rights lawyer, broadcaster and civil liberties expert and playwright Rib Davis bring to life eight groundbreaking twentieth century trials. With the help of a full cast, they reveal how the British legal system has been influenced by powerful human stories that redefined the law to better reflect our modern society.

One of the first words we learn. Perhaps the best friend we'll have. An animal so much part of our lives that we speak to it like a child and spend small fortunes on its well-being and wardrobe. Dogs and humans: in the last 200 years no inter-species relationship has developed so fast nor come so far. Dogs accompany us in every walk of life, usually three times a day. How and why did this relationship begin? How has it changed over the centuries? And who's getting the upper hand?