Showing results by narrator "Simon Johns" in All Categories

The modern audience hasn't had a chance to truly appreciate the unknowing dread that readers would have felt when reading Bram Stoker's original 1897 manuscript. Most modern productions employ campiness or sound effects to try to bring back that gothic tension, but we've tried something different. By returning to Stoker's original storytelling structure - a series of letters and journal entries voiced by Jonathan Harker, Dr. Van Helsing, and other characters - with an all-star cast of narrators, we've sought to recapture its originally intended horror and power.

Meet Hilda: explorer, adventurer, avid sketchbook-keeper, friend to almost every creature in the valley, and star of her very own Netflix show. Dive into this immersive multi-voice 3D audio adventure as Hilda encounters her very first troll, negotiates peace with some rather pernickety elves and reunites two lovelorn ancient giants.

In the sixth audiobook starring our blue-haired heroine, Hilda has to rescue her mum from a two-headed troll. Along the way, there are rock-eating slugs, fearsome vikings, an airship crash and a cute baby troll.

Josh Duffy is staring into the abyss. A decorated army veteran turned military contractor, his last mission went sideways, leaving him badly injured and his career derailed. Now, he’s working as a mall cop, trying to keep his family one step ahead of the bill collectors. So when a chance at redemption - and a big pay day - comes his way, Duff eagerly jumps in. The job - to ride shotgun on a motorcade of heavily armed and armored vehicles as they roll into Mexico’s cartel country.

In Elizabethan London, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her education has endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but still she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees the theatre, Emilia discovers the power of stories to beguile audiences. Secretly, she forms a plan to bring a play of her own to the stage – by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

John Finnemore, writer and star of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore's Double Acts, returns for a sixth series of his hugely acclaimed Souvenir Programme, which won him Radio Broadcaster of the Year at the 2016 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. Expect sketches! Expect songs! They're what made up the previous five series, so it seems a pretty safe bet that that's what will be in this series as well. And, well, since you ask him for some tall tales...

This is a collection of the best leadership speeches, gave by the most outstanding leaders of our generation.

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, known under his pseudonym Maxim Gorky, was one of Russia's greatest Soviet writers and the founder of the 'socialist realism' literary movement. Nominated for the Nobel Prize five times, his best-known works include the short story 'Twenty-Six Men and a Girl' and his seminal play The Lower Depths. Both are included in this collection, as well as four more acclaimed dramas.

In 2023 John Finnemore and the Souvenir Programme team returned to Radio 4 with a new format – annual, one-off, 45-minute Specials. Some are in the style of Series 1-8, with sketches, jokes and songs, while others are more discursive and experimental, like Series 9. Collected together here, they all feature his trusty ensemble cast of Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.

In this edition, we hear, translated into modern English, 20-some tales, told in the voices of knight and merchant, wife and miller, squire and nun, and many more. Some are bawdy, some spiritual, some romantic, some mysterious, some chivalrous. Between the stories, the travelers converse, joke, and argue, revealing much about their individual outlooks upon life as well as what life was like in late 14th-century England.

Stand-up fans rejoice—this cracking collection contains a whole seven series of top-drawer comedy, recorded live at London and Manchester's legendary Comedy Store and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Enjoy more than 11 hours of laughs from some of the biggest and best stand-ups on the circuit, hosted by three fantastically funny compères: Simon Bligh, Ross Noble and Adam Hills.

John Finnemore presents the eighth series of his multi-award-winning Souvenir Programme. John Finnemore, creator and star of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore’s Double Acts, is back with series 8 of his highly acclaimed radio sketch show, winner of the Academy Silver Award, a Broadcasting Press Guild award and two BBC Audio Drama awards.

This is the very first Poirot/Hastings story. Set in 1916, we meet Captain Hastings as he is invalided out of the Great War and goes to convalesce at Styles Court, the family home of his great friend, John Cavendish. By an extraordinary coincidence, billeted in the village is a brilliant little retired detective with an egg-shaped head, who made a considerable impression on the Captain when he was in Belgium. Styles is not a happy household and in the blistering summer heat, tensions mount.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation starring John Moffatt as the great Belgian detective with Simon Williams and Philip Jackson. Alice Ascher, a poor, elderly shopkeeper, is murdered in Andover. Betty Barnard, a young waitress, is strangled with her own belt at Bexhill-on-Sea. Next comes Carmichael Clarke, collector of Chinese art, clubbed to death in Churston. Only in Doncaster does the pattern vary: the man found stabbed in the Regal Cinema is called George Earsfield.

In the aftermath of the mysterious death of their lead singer, the young members of a now-legendary British acid folk band hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient English country house with its own dark secrets. There they record Wylding Hall, the album that makes their reputation but at a terrifying cost when Julian Blake, their new lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen again.

Paterson Joseph, John Hurt, Lesley Manville and Harriet Walter are among the cast of BBC Radio 4's epic full-cast dramatisation. Adapted for radio by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Leo Tolstoy's epic story follows the fortunes of three Russian aristocratic families during the Napoleonic War. First broadcast on New Year's Day 2015, the drama also features Alun Armstrong, Natasha Little, David Calder, Phoebe Fox, Sam Reid and Joanna David. Duration: 10 hours approx.

Jesus has so much for you. He's called you to be a joyful outsider like him. He was crucified as an outcast outside the city. Now he welcomes you to join him; to die to yourself and discover that sacrificial love has the power to change the world. In Joyful Outsiders, pastors Patrick Miller and Keith Simon will train you how to be a joyful outsider by laying out six ways to navigate a confusing culture at home, at work, and beyond.

With a host of memorable characters and catchphrases, The Fast Show was one of the most popular BBC TV comedy shows ever. The talents of Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Caroline Aherne, Simon Day and many more come together in this collection of selected TV episodes and special edition of The Fast Show Live.

Edgar Wallace was a bestselling author, journalist, playwright and film director, and the creator of King Kong. A prolific writer and celebrity superstar, he was thought to be responsible for a quarter of all new books read in Britain by the late 1920s. Presented here are full-cast adaptations of four of his classic crime novels, readings of four short detective stories, and vintage recording of Wallace reading one of his own stories. Tying them all together is linking commentary from Edgar Wallace: The Man Who Wrote Too Much?, a documentary celebration of his life.

A collection of fabulous tales of genies, heroes, flying carpets and fantastic voyages, The Arabian Nights has enchanted generations of children and adults. Forged in the Islamic Golden Age, it was brought to Europe in the 18th Century, where it became an instant sensation. Included here are seven full-cast dramatisations, starring Carolyn Backhouse as Shahrazad and Derek Jacobi as the King, as well as a bonus edition of In Our Time exploring the story behind the tales.