Sheridan's most famous play, this has been called 'the best existing English comedy of intrigue'. A favourite with audiences and critics alike since its premiere in 1777, this play is a classic English comedy of manners. Full of satirical wit, it subverts the Georgian social customs of its day with subtlety and charm.

'Under Milk Wood' is Dylan Thomas' most successful play: an all-seeing narrator invites the audience to listen to the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants of an imaginary small Welsh village, Llareggub. The classic 1954 recording, featuring a cast led by Richard Burton as 'First Voice', is considered to be definitive. This collection al...

One of the best-known Irish playwrights, John Millington Synge premiered this play in 1907. It immediately provoked controversy, eventually resulting in the infamous 'Playboy' riots. It has been recorded and adapted many times, but this recording stars the Irish actors who made it a classic, including Siobhan McKenna and Cyril Cusack

In the acclaimed BBC Radio Shakespeare series, each play is introduced by Richard Eyre, former Director of the Royal National Theatre. This is Shakespeare for the new millennium. Antony and Cleopatra centres around the soldier and noble prince Mark Antony's enthralment with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, and the tumultuous relationship which ensues...

Two stories of love, lust, happiness and heartache from Britain's longest-running radio serial. Pub landlord Sid Perks is led astray when his keep-fit regime at the local gym leads to a steamy affair with Jolene Rogers, a country-and-western singer. For Emma Carter, choosing a husband is not so straightforward. She finds herself torn between loyal,...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast production of Homer's epic seafaring adventure, dramatised by poet Simon Armitage. In a twenty-year journey, fabulous fantasy mixes with extraordinary reality as Odysseus encounters enchantresses, nymphs, monsters, prophets and ghosts. From the temptations of the lotus flowers and the Sirens' song to the horrors of the Cyclo...

Warren Mitchell plays Shylock the wily Jew with Martin Jarvis as Antonio and Samuel West as Bassanio in Shakespeare's dramatic and complex comedy.

Tolkien's famous saga, the prelude to 'The Lord of the Rings', has all the ingredients of fantasy and adventure: dwarves, elves, goblins and trolls, a fearsome dragon, a great wizard, a perilous quest and a dramatic climax. At the centre is the unsuspecting hero Bilbo Baggins, a home-loving, unambitious Hobbit who is suddenly thrust into the bigges...

Alan Bennett's new, award-winning play as heard on BBC Radio 3 features the National Theatre cast. Richard Griffiths, Clive Merrison and Frances de la Tour star. At a boys' grammar school in Sheffield, eight boys are being coached for the Oxbridge entrance exams. It is the mid-eighties, and the main concern of the unruly bunch of bright sixth-forme...

Douglas Henshall, Sophie Dahl and Susannah York star in Shakespeare's passionate story of doomed love. BBC radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of making Shakespeare to be heard....

Ray Fearon plays Othello with Anastasia Hille as Desdemona in Shakespeare's powerful play of passion, jealousy and bitter rage. In this story of evil cunning perverting a once noble mind, radio captures lago's sly hints & boasts to the audience with shocking clarity. The listener is led along an emotional path taht grips with fascinating horror unt...

David Tennant stars as Benedick with Samantha Spiro as Beatrice in Shakespeare's merry comedy of wit, words & romance. In Much Ado, the clarity of radio allows the wonderful verbal sparring between Beatrice and Benedick to sparkle as, high comedy and melodrama mix magically in a combination of prose and verse. BBC radio has a unique heritage when i...

Richard Eyre directs Ken Stott as Macbeth and Phyllis Logan as Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's dramatic tale of greed and destiny. BBC radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of makin...

Gerard Murphy, Stella Gonet, Nicholas Farrell and Samantha Bond star in Shakespeare's powerful and turbulent Roman history. BBC radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of making Sha...

Sylvestra Le Touzel, Sam West and David Threlfall star in Shakespeare's delightful comic fantasy. Fairy magic wreaks havoc amongst the lovers and midsummer madness takes over as they tread the delicate line between fancy and reality. In the acclaimed BBC Radio Shakespeare series, each play is introduced by Richard Eyre, former Director of the Royal...

Prospero, wise duke of Milan, has been deposed by Antonio, his wicked brother, and exiled with his daughter Miranda to a mysterious island. But Prospero posseses supernatural powers. Aided by the spirit Ariel, Prospero uses his magical art to bring his enemies under control again.

The beautiful and gentle Bianca has no shortage of admirers (Lucentio, Gremio and Hortensio) but her father insists that she will not marry until her shrewish sister, Katharina, is betrothed. Bianca's suitors persuade fortune-seeker Petruchio to court her. The suitors pay for any costs involved and there is also the goal of Katharina's dowry. Petru...

In these six pieces, Alan Bennett retains the gripping stories, intensity of delivery and masterly style of his original monologues. The suburban normality of the world his characters inhabit once again belies their lives of secrets, revelations, fears, crimes and passions. They tell their stories, and in doing so reveal more than they know of the...

The story unfolds through four middle class families - the Mehras, Kappoors, Khans and Chatterjis. Lata Mehra, a university student, is under pressure from her mother to get married. But not to just anyone she happens to fall in love with. There are standards to be met and finding a husband for Lata becomes a family affair in which all the members...

Samuel West stars as Richard II with Joss Ackland as John of Gaunt in a gripping production of Shakespeare's lyrically tragic history. BBC radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of...

Corin Redgrave stars as Lear with Geraldine James as Goneril in this bitter tragedy of loyalty, power and politics. Some of the most stirring scenes Shakespeare ever wrote vibrate with powerful resonance in this grippingly dramatic radio production. Tortured madness, pure evil and the gatal struggle for power grip the listener until the final, sho...