Showing results by narrator "Martin Jarvis" in All Categories

An intimate, evocative, often funny, and always vital portrait of India at the peak of the British Raj. Written at the age of 22, they immediately show Kipling's natural and prodigious talent. Timeless, they can be listened to forever.

In this BBC full-cast production of The Merchant of Venice, love, bigotry, greed, and justice are entwined. Shakespeare's classic play explores the eternal themes of love and hate, mercy and justice, with parallel stories centred on the moneylender, Shylock, and the lovers, Portia and Bassanio...

Modern technology is terrifying. The average smartphone carries out 3.36 billion instructions per second. The average person can carry out only one instruction in that time. Stop and think about that for a second. Sorry, that's two instructions; you won't be able to do that. But what if modern technology was... literally terrifying? What if there really was a ghost in the machine? Prepare to travel through the bad gateway as acclaimed actor, writer and comedian Tom Neenan (The Mash Report) finds out what horrors may be lurking in our apps and gadgets.

Six plays from the Olivier, Tony and Moliere Award winning playwright Alan Ayckbourn: The legendary The Norman Conquests trilogy; as well as a brand-new recording of his play Henceforward… starring Mad Men’s Jared Harris alongside Anne Heche; Just Between Ourselves starring Alfred Molina; and a remaster of L.A. Theatre Works’ recording of Man of the Moment.

These witty vignettes are full of great repartee and wonderfully astute observations – read with the dry humour and enthusiasm they deserve by ‘The Olivier of Audiobooks’ Martin Jarvis.

In the quiet cul-de-sac where Keith and Stephen live, the only immediate signs of the Second World War are the blackouts at night and a single random bomb-site. But the two boys suspect that the ordinary houses in the Close and their inhabitants are not what they seem.

Born in 1832 in Pennsylvania, Louisa May Alcott was best known for Little Women, her phenomenal bestseller loosely based on her childhood experiences with her own sisters. Adapted numerous times for stage and screen, it is dramatised here alongside her follow-up novel Good Wives and the thrilling sensation story A Marble Woman.

An all-star cast attend a mysterious private club in this hilarious parody of classic horror tales. Membership of the exclusive Mausoleum Club isn't for the faint of heart. The Honorable Clarence Green wants in, but to join he must first hear the spine-chilling stories of the existing members, before enthralling them with one of his own. But are their stories fact or fiction? And will Green still want to join after hearing the horrors they have to tell?

The Forsyte Saga initially centres on Soames Forsyte - a successful solicitor living in London with his beautiful wife Irene. A pillar of the late Victorian upper middle class, materially wealthy, his appears to be a golden existence endowed with all the necessary possessions for a 'Man of Property' but beneath this very proper exterior lies a core of unhappiness and brutal relationships. When The Forsyte Saga was shown on television in 1967 it was hugely successful.

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.

In the second “battle” of Ayckbourn’s celebrated triology The Norman Conquests, we rejoin the family weekend, this time hearing the events in the living room, where Norman gets drunk on homemade dandelion wine – and all hell breaks loose. Norman unleashes his merry brand of manipulative charm on the hapless guests and even his most formidable opponents go down in defeat on the drawing room rug.

No more chocolate! It's a new century and the government in power is called the "Good For You Party". They close down all the burger bars and chip shops and they even ban chocolate - a step too far for Huntley and his chum, Smudger. They devise a plan to beat the chocolate plan with amazing results.

A collection of stories in which Jimmy could almost be younger brother to William Brown (of Just William fame). Like William, Jimmy has a big heart and all of his efforts go towards trying to make his family and friends happy. Unfortunately, and again like William, his plans always take a turn for the worst, or don't turn out in the way that he intended. Fortunately for a listener, this makes for a myriad of classic comedy moments.

A tender love story, a serpentine villainess, a glittering setting in London society, and a showering of Wildean witticism are only a few of the reasons why this play has enjoyed hugely successful revivals in London, in New York, and on the silver screen. This 1895 drama is eerily prescient, as it examines the plight of a promising politician, desperate to hide a secret in his past. With empathy and wit, Oscar Wilde explores the pitfalls of holding public figures to higher standards than the rest of us.

Jimmy Crocker, a.k.a. Piccadilly Jim is a lively young American ex-newspaper man who meets Ann Chester, the girl of his dreams, in London. Problem is Jim once wrote a bad review of her first book of poetry. They set sail to New York together with Ann still not knowing he's the dastardly critic!

Full-cast productions of Seneca’s most famous tragedies, plus letters from the Roman philosopher read by Paul Scofield Stoic philosopher and playwright Lucius Annaeus Seneca lived through the reigns of Caligula and Claudius, and was tutor and adviser to Nero, before his untimely suicide in...

An exhilarating new novel from the New York Times-bestselling authors. Shell-shocked and missing a foot-lost to an IED during his tour of duty in Afghanistan-Captain Tom Forsyth has been sent "home" by the army and, at loose ends, returns to his estranged mother's house for the first time since...

Young Julien Sorel, one of the greatest characters in European literature, tries to rise above his humble peasant origins through a combination of talent and hard work - but also seduction, deception, and hypocrisy. The story is set in 19th-century France and is filled with sex, violence, romance, and humour.

This volume details the struggle between Soames and his beautiful wife, Irene, who leaves him but cannot persuade him to grant a divorce. While Soames cannot accept Irene's dissent, he insists his sister deal as she must with her own failed marriage. Irene gains independence through her friendship with Soames' Uncle, Old Jolyon, who leaves her a fortune in his will, and she flees the country, but Soames follows her.

Gush is the stunning saga of the bitter rivals Foxwell Cravate and Max Pomeroy whose destinies are tragically intertwined. Set in Durban at the Transworld Oil Conference and packed with the flair, fun and parody of the best TV mini-series of the 90s, this is comedy that will have you laughing out loud.