Samuel Beckett, one of the great avant-garde Irish dramatists and writers of the second half of the twentieth century, was born on 13 April 1906. He died in 1989. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. His centenary will be celebrated throughout 2006 with performances of his major plays, but the most popular of them all will be, without dou...

A tender love story, a serpentine villainess, a glittering setting in London society and a shower of Wildean witticisms are only a few of the reasons this play has enjoyed hugely successful revivals in London and New York. This 1895 drama also seems eerily prescient, as it explores the plight of a promising young politician, desperate to hide a sec...

Charlotte Keatley's powerful, poignant drama follows four generations of mothers and daughters through the sweeping societal changes of the 20th century'A landmark play, the theatrical equivalent of breaking the four-minute mile' GuardianWritten in 1985, this groundbreaking play premiered at Contact Theatre, Manchester, in 1987. It subsequently won...

A lord, his wife, her admirer and an infamous blackmailer converge in the irreverent satire that launched Wilde’s succession of classic social comedies. This delicious comic feast serves up a scandal about good girls, bad husbands and hilarious hypocrisy - utterly contemporary and divinely funny.

Four of Thornton Wilder's most acclaimed works, adapted for BBC Radio - plus bonus material exploring his life and careerThornton Wilder is one of America's most important literary figures. He won the Pulitzer Prize three times - for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth - and is the only person to be...

Finalist: Audio Publishers Association Audie Ward, Best Theatrical Production World War II is over and a family, mourning a son missing in action, plants a memorial tree and tries to go with their lives. A storm blows down the tree and a devastating family secret is uprooted, setting the characters on a terrifying journey towards truth.

Nine classic plays from the award-winning American dramatist, plus a selection of his poetryEugene O'Neill's revolutionary 20th century dramas changed the direction of American theatre, introducing European realism and experimental techniques to the US stage. He wrote more than 50 plays, portraying characters on the margins of society and tackling...

Nora has everything a young housewife could want: beautiful children, an adoring husband, and a bright future. But when a carelessly buried secret rises from the past, Nora's well-calibrated domestic ideal starts to crumble. Blackmail and innocence, love and hypocrisy, collide in one of the most celebrated plays in theatre history. Translated by Ro...

A collection of plays by the trailblazing dramatist Shelagh DelaneyShelagh Delaney was just 19 when her debut play, A Taste of Honey, premiered in 1958. One of the great 'kitchen sink dramas', it was ground-breaking in its portrayal of working-class Northern women, gay and Black men, and influenced popular culture from The Smiths to Coronation Stre...

Kenneth Branagh heads an outstanding cast in playing one of Shakespeare's strongest characters. The eighth production in the widely admired series of Shakespeare plays presented by Naxos AudioBooks in association with Cambridge University Press.

When a young woman is offered the choice ofsaving a man's life at the price of her own chastity,what should she do? The political and moral corruption of Vienna has driven Duke Vincentio into hiding while his deputy governor, Angelo is left to revive the old discipline of civic authority. Angelos First act is to imprison Claudio, a young nobleman...

BBC Audio presents Mansfield Park, Jane Austen's perceptive study of middle class morals in the 19th century. Jane Austen's unlikely heroine Fanny Price is plucked from her impoverished family and brought up by wealthy relatives at Mansfield Park.When two outrageous and flirtatious guests arrive at Mansfield Park, Fanny's moral compass is shattered...

A BBC Radio six-part dramatisation of Marcel Proust's groundbreaking series of novels, tracing the extraordinary story of the author's own life. Starring James Wilby and Jonathan Firth, and with a distinguished cast including Harriet Walter, Imogen Stubbs and Corin Redgrave, this rich, multi-layered adaptation brings out all the variety and subtlet...

Brian Cox stars as McLevy with Siobhán Redmond as Jean Brash and Michael Perceval-Maxwell as Mulholland in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. Inspired by the real-life memoirs of a Victorian Inspector in Scotland, James McLevy prowls the dark streets of 1860s Edinburgh bringing criminals to justice, with the assistance of Constable M...

Michael Kitchen stars as John Jarndyce in a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Dickens’ classic tale of London and the law.

It's the middle of the high-flying, go-getting 80's in Magge Thatcher's England and Marlene finally has something to celebrate - she's just been made Managing Director of Top Girls Employment Agency. But with no friends to speak of, and a past she'd just as soon forget, the guests at Marlene's party are a collection of famous women from history. So...

Terence Alexander stars in these two classic crime dramas, adapted from the novels of John CreaseyMeet The Honourable Richard Rollison - a.k.a the Toff. A debonair aristocrat and ace amateur sleuth, he's the scourge of London's criminal underworld: sometimes working alone, sometimes hand-in-glove with the police. But wherever he goes, he leaves his...

Ken Narasaki's adaptation of the novel by Japanese-American author John Okada is set during the aftermath of the U.S. government's incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II, and the resettlement of Japanese Americans to the West Coast. In the play, Ichiro returns to Seattle, where he struggles to transition into post-w...

Three vintage crime serials, adapted from John Creasey's hugely popular thrillersRoger West is a home-loving, hard-hitting and very human policeman. Nicknamed 'Handsome' West, he's more than just a pretty face - he's also Scotland Yard's youngest, smartest detective and a crime-solving supremo. Six of his adventures were dramatised for radio betwee...

All five series of the BBC Radio 4 crime drama featuring Detective Superintendent Julie Enfield, starring Imelda StauntonDogged DSI Julie Enfield probes eight gruesome cases in these dark, atmospheric radio dramas.Terminus finds her investigating the 'Lucky Charm' murders, as she searches for an elusive serial killer who haunts the railway station....

Bill Nighy stars as actor and amateur sleuth Charles Paris in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Simon Brett's novelCharles' career is on the up. He's starring in a revival of a popular (though hackneyed) 70's farce – and while his fellow actors aren't exactly who you'd want to find yourself in bed with, he's happy to be in work.But...