When Ram Mohammad Thomas, an orphaned, uneducated street kid from Mumbai, wins a billion rupees on a live TV quiz show, he finds himself beaten up and thrown in jail by the programme's producers. During his interrogation he explains, through a series of flashbacks, how he knew the answers to all the show's questions. What he describes about his lif...

Clara Casey, senior cardiologist and mother of two, already has a new job to cope with - and now her ex-husband wants something from her too. For Ania, meeting Clara is a miracle. She never intended to leave Poland, but hopes a new job in a new country will mend her broken heart. Declan is looking forward to joining the clinic - but what should hav...

In this BBC full-cast production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena run to the woods and stumble into a life separate from time itself.Fairy magic wreaks havoc and midsummer madness takes over as lovers tread the delicate line between fantasy and reality.Sylvestra le Touzel stars as Titania in this deligh...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the enchanting children's classic. Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert have sent to the orphanage for a boy. So when a skinny, red-haired girl turns up, she is not quite what they had in mind. Anne Shirley soon sets the quiet island community of Avonlea talking of little else. With her incessant chatter and intense...

A storm is brewing - the water levels of the Bristol Channel are inexplicably rising, and Cardiff Bay is under threat from the worst flooding in years. In the midst of the climate chaos, Torchwood is called to investigate a series of gruesome murders - vagrants found dead around Cardiff with their heads partially eaten. When Owen goes missing fo...

When PC Andy Davidson arrests a young girl for shoplifting, he thinks it's going to be a routine case. That is, until he sees that she is carrying a gun. The girl is soaking wet, covered in mud, and the weapon is like nothing he's ever seen before. He knows that this is a case for Torchwood... The team discovers that the girl is called Freda, but c...

Bernard Cribbins reads this gripping story of a new star and an ancient alien threat. Donna Noble is back home in London, catching up with her family and generally giving them all the gossip about her journeys. Her grandfather is especially overjoyed - he's discovered a new star and had it named after him. He takes the Doctor, as his special guest,...

Even now, at the age of 82, Iris lives in the shadow cast by her younger sister Laura. Now poor and trying to cope with a failing body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister's tragic death.

Dylan Thomas is one of the 20th century's most celebrated poets. His rich rhetoric created poems of magical imagery - nowhere is language more rich and fantastic than in his best-known work, Under Milk Wood. He was also a popular radio entertainer and the BBC Archives contain a wealth of material featuring Dylan Thomas - not only readings of his ow...

Stephen Fry hosts four programmes on the joys of the English language - as heard on BBC Radio 4. Current Puns Why does our language groan with the weight of puns? What exactly is a pun? And who, or what, is the Thief of Bad Gags? Metaphor The English language is chock-full of maritime metaphors: cock up, taken aback, chip on your shoulder and show...

In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, a kind of last testament to his remarkable forebears. Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father - an ardent pacifist - and his grandfather who came west to Kansas to fight for abolition and 'preached men into the Civil War'. And he...

Do you know someone who is incensed by compulsory tipping? Who is infuriated if kept on hold for more than a minute? Who is positively apoplectic if someone answers their phone during dinner? If so, you've probably encountered the phenomenon of the grumpy old man. Following their first massively successful BBC1 series, this autumn will see the grum...

The team from I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue present their own unique take on Lewis Carroll's most famous work, casting their reluctant chairman - the late Humphrey Lyttelton - in the title role, with support from Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer, Sandi Toksvig, Tony Hawks, Andy Hamilton, Rob Brydon, Jeremy Hardy and Jacke Dee, with Colin...

In a commemorative programme to mark the anniversary of John Peel's death, Tom Robinson visits `Peel Acres' to meet John's wife Sheila and their four children.

BILL BRYSON presents a fascinating exploration of THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. This highly entertaining BBC Radio 4 series is written and presented by Bill Bryson and based on his bestselling book, Mother Tongue. In it he romps through the history of Britain to reveal how English became such an infuriatingly complex - but ultimately world-b...

In this BBC full-cast production, Julius Caesar is triumphant after his victory over the sons of Pompey. But as bad omens and weather plague Rome, even his most loyal friends are starting to see the signs...Political intrigue and fierce battle rage in this tense and dynamic production in which a country is torn apart under the legacy of Julius Caes...

Nicholas Parsons introduces four archive episodes of the ever-popular comedy panel game. Just as uproariously funny - and terrifically popular - today as when it first began on BBC Radio 4 in 1968, Just a Minute challenges contestants to speak for one minute on a given subject without repetition, hesitation or deviation. Its mix of irreverent fun a...

When 10-year-old Will's father dies, his mother surprises him with a trip to Indonesia. But little could she have known what awaited them both there. The first Will knows that anything is wrong is when Oona, the elephant he is riding along the beach, begins to spook. Then, suddenly, she takes off into the jungle with Will on her back. And that's wh...

Starring Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge. The complete Award winning BBC TV series starring the man who gives new meaning to leisure wear. And on that bombshell......What is Knowing Me, Knowing You, with Alan Partridge? Well, how long is a piece of string? How many people can you fit in a mini? - four, possibly five. The second question, the string...

Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge take on the world in another hilarious series of the BBC Radio 4 comedy hit. The caustic correspondence between Irene Spencer and Vera Small is always richly entertaining, and these latest letters are no exception. Catty and competitive as ever, the pensioner pen-pals find themselves in yet more trouble in thi...

Little Women begins the much-loved story of the March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. The girls grow up amidst the turmoil, adventures and hardships of the American Civil War. The household is presided over by Mrs. March, 'Marmee', who tries to rule with kindness and to create harmony amongst her four little women.