A BBC Radio 3 full-cast enactment of Shakespeare's last great tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra, with David Harewood and Frances Barber in the title roles. Originally broadcast as part of the 'Drama on 3' series on 27 June 2010. Telling the story of one of history's most famous couples, Antony and Cleopatra contains some of the most beautiful poetry i...

Following an otherwise-enjoyable literary luncheon, the celebrated crime novelist Ariadne Oliver is accosted by a particularly formidable woman who engages her in conversation about one of her many god-daughters, whom Ariadne hasn't seen since she was a child. She lands a bombshell with the question "What I want to know is this: did her mother kill...

A BBC Radio 4 comedy drama starring James Alexandrou (Martin Fowler, EastEnders), originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 7 December 2010. A touchingly real and comically disingenuous story about the awkwardness of being misshapen, and the misery of not fitting in. Starring James Alexandrou as Liam, Candassaie Liburd as Ethel and Marcella R...

Andrew Sachs stars in this BBC Radio 4 'Afternoon Play' about painter Edward Lear. The Need for Nonsense was originally broadcast on 9 February 2009, and repeated on 17 January 2011. Julia Blackburn's play captures the warm, heartfelt and comic story of the Victorian poet and painter Edward Lear's lifelong friendship with his eccentric Greek servan...

Father Gorman is called to a dingy rooming house to see a woman who, before she dies, confesses a bizarre tale to him. Leaving the house he is followed and, in the fog, a fatal blow is struck. A piece of paper with nine names written on it is found in the dead priest's shoe. The clue leads to The Pale Horse Inn, home of three women: a psychic, a me...

Hercule Poirot and his good friend Captain Hastings are enjoying a well-deserved break on the Cornish Riviera, in the idyllic village of St Loo. Wandering along the terrace of the Hotel Majestic on the first morning of their stay, Poirot literally falls at the feet of a pretty, dark-haired girl and, much to Hastings' delight, insists that she join...

Elinor Carlisle and Roddy Welman are the model English couple, perfect companions set for a life of ease when they inherit Aunt Laura's considerable fortune. But a poison pen letter begins a chain of events which is to end in tragedy. Convinced that Mary Gerrard, a childhood playmate of Elinor's, is attempting to ingratiate herself with her aunt fo...

Gordon Cloade is killed in a London air raid, and his vast fortune passes to his young wife Rosaleen. Five of his relatives are desperate to get their hands on Cloade's money, and Rosaleen begins to fear for her life. The prospects for the Cloades improve when they discover that Rosaleen had a previous husband who perished mysteriously in Africa. T...

Hercule Poirot is a guest at a weekend house party, given at the Cornish clifftop home of the celebrated actor Sir Charles Cartwright. The other visitors include keen amateur detective Mr. Satterthwaite and distinguished Harley Street nerve specialist Sir Bartholomew Strange. Death visits the house soon after Poirot's arrival, the victim an elderly...

When Leonard Vole finds himself accused of murder, his predicament is made even worse when he discovers his wife to be the chief witness against him. The trial proceeds with a number of unexpected twists...

The second series of Lynne Truss's hugely popular BBC Radio 4 comedy thriller. Inspector Steine - the amiable, unworldly detective who refuses to believe in Brighton's criminal underworld - returns for another six episodes. It is 1957 and, as the series opens, all crime has stopped along the South Coast. But Mrs. Groynes - the cockney charlady who...

A compilation of highlights from various Christmas episodes, where we not only hear tidings of the births of Debbie Aldridge and John Archer, but also drop in on shows in the village hall and hear old favourite songs like The Village Pump rendered by Tom Forrest, and Jones' Ale by a group of tuneful male voices.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama written by Stephen Wakelam portraying the tempestuous marriage between Leo and Sofya Tolstoy. Originally broadcast in the "Woman's Hour Drama" slot from 9 August 2010 - 13 August 2010. In his fifties the great writer Leo Tolstoy has a spiritual crisis and converts to Christianity. He stops sleeping with his wife. Th...

This original and refreshingly different dramatisation follows Dante, 'lost in a dark wood', who is met by Virgil, who takes him on a tour of the underworld: a place he could end up if he decides to take his own life. Starring Corin Redgrave as Dante, Alex Jennings as Virgil, Laurie Anderson as Beatrice and Arthur Brown as The Gate of Hell and prod...

A comedy of manners in five acts, The Rivals was Sheridan's second commercially produced play. The play is set in Bath in the 18th century, a town legendary for conspicuous consumption and fashion at the time. Wealthy, fashionable people went there to "take the waters", which were believed to have healing properties. Bath was much less exclusive th...

Beware the gossips! Lady Sneerwell and her hireling Snake are certainly up to no good in this timeless send-up of hypocritical manners. Thanks to their scandal-mongering, the comely Lady Teazle must fend off the slanderous barbs that have caught the ear of her elderly husband - as well as every other gossip in London! What follows is a torrent of m...

Heralded by an instantly memorable signature tune, the adventures of special agent Dick Barton and his friends, Jock and Snowey, originally ran on the BBC Light Programme between 1946 and 1951. Set in an exciting world of criminal masterminds, espionage and adventure, the series was essential listening for an entire generation. Sadly very few of th...

Kenneth Branagh stars in BBC Radio 4's ambitious eight-hour dramatisation of 'Life and Fate', Vasily Grossman's epic masterpiece set during the Battle of Stalingrad. This powerful work, completed in 1960, charts the fate of both a nation and a family in the turmoil of war. Its comparison of Stalinism with Nazism was considered by Soviet authoritie...

Carleton Hobbs stars as Sherlock Holmes in 12 classic full-cast BBC Radio dramas in these twelve classic stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Carleton Hobbs established the 'sound' of Sherlock Holmes, with Norman Shelley as his superb Watson. Now these unique recordings are available together for the first time ever, with specially commissioned introduct...

A BBC Radio 4 fictionalised account of the interrogation of P. G. Wodehouse (Tim McInnerny) by MI5 during World War II. How to be an Internee with No Previous Experience was originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 15 December 2010. In 1944, P. G. Wodehouse, the creator of Jeeves and Wooster, was questioned by MI5 after broadcasting to Amer...

Two BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations, starring Brian Cox as McLevy, Siobhan Redmond as Jean Brash and Michael Perceval-Maxwell as Mulholland. 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 Mulholland....