A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the bestselling novel by John le Carr‚, starring James Fox, Harriet Walter and Julian Rhind-Tutt. Magnus Pym, Counsellor at the British Embassy, is hosting a dinner party at his home in Vienna when he receives an unexpected telephone call that will profoundly affect his life. Once the guests have gone,...

In 2010, the 30th anniversary year of the Independence of Zimbabwe, BBC Radio 4 commissioned two Friday Plays from leading writers. The first play, God's President: Mugabe of Zimbabwe by Kwame Kwei-Armah, tells the story of the tense negotiations around the Lancaster House Conference, and the road to Zimbabwe's Independence. On 4th March 1980 the S...

Byrne is not alone in believing in angels: three quarters of Americans and more than a third of Britons are also convinced that such heavenly helpers exist. If you met a woman who said that she talked to angels every day, you might be forgiven for raising a discreetly cynical eyebrow but somehow, Lorna Byrne is different.Thousands of people say tha...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of M. M. Kaye's epic novel of love and war. M. M. Kaye's masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that spans over twenty years, moving from the foothills of the Himalayas, to the burning plains, to the besieged British Mission in Kabul. It begins in 1857 when, following the Indian Mutiny,...

A gripping BBC Radio 4 drama about King George VI's struggle to overcome his stammer and his close working relationship with his speech therapist. It is Coronation Day, 1937. As the country celebrates, the new monarch must face one of the most difficult challenges he has ever encountered: the dreaded BBC Radio Broadcast to the Nation. Only one man...

Three of Mark Twain's classic short stories, originally broadcast in the Afternoon Reading slot on BBC Radio 4 from 9-11 November 2010, to accompany the Autobiography of Mark Twain (aired on Book of the Week). Read by Stuart Milligan. Twain's classic short stories, with their familiar trademarks of high farce and droll insight, bring us eccentric b...

Fraser once tracked clients who jumped bail. Then he added a little twist to the business by helping people disappear instead, which is why Kathryn gives him a call. Starring Lia Williams as Kathryn and Neil Pearson as Fraser. Also includes Tessa Nicholson, Michael Shelford and Miche Doherty in the cast. Produced by Eoin O'Callaghan.

In Collateral Damage, DCI John Stone is forced to open up an investigation into the death of Gary Taylor, a veteran of the Iraq War suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The theory that he died from a self-inflicted drug overdose is turned on its head when one of his ex-army mates accuses Gary's grieving widow of having murdered him.

Written by Matthew Solon. This play tells the story of the tense negotiation that followed the 2010 general election, which led to the country's first post-war coalition. Based on interviews with those who were at the meetings, political journalists and on published material-and using actors to play all the key characters-this is a compelling accou...

A BBC Radio 4 fictional dramatisation of L‚on Theremin's espionage work in the lead up to the Cold War, written by Melissa Murray. L‚on Theremin, gifted inventor and reluctant spy, is forced to find a way to bug the US Embassy in London. Now he has to save himself and his former lover from both the CIA and the KGB. Starring Tom Hollande...

Melvyn Bragg goes back to his home town of Wigton in Cumbria to see how English is developing-and how dialects are still spoken. He meets townspeople from all generations and walks of life, from octogenarian horse-dealer Tommy Miller to local poet Mary Haslam, and finds that the old ways of speaking are being lost.

Where better than Hastings to look at the impact of the French on the English language? Melvyn Bragg goes to Hastings, where in 1066 William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold and invaded England. The actual fighting took place in the nearby village of Battle. It was to be the starting point of a long and intense relationship between England a...

A BBC Radio 4 black comedy by Michael Butt, originally broadcast as the Afternoon Play on 19 October 2009. Max is set to inherit a small fortune when he turns 25, but standing between him and the money is his sister Katrin. And then there's the grandmother. It's dog-eat-dog on the mean streets of Weston-super-Mare.

Peggy Ashcroft and Tony Britton star in this 1971 BBC Radio production of Noel Coward's classic comedy about a disastrous weekend house party. Judith Bliss is a famous actress who, after a string of successful roles, has retired to her country retreat. Missing the adulation of her public, she has has invited a fan over for a weekend of uninterrupte...

Toby Stephens stars in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Raymond Chandler's final completed Philip Marlowe mystery. Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the '40s and '50s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe...

Edith Wharton displays typical expertise in this portrayal of high society tensions. Jane Lethbury surprises and confounds her husband in asking him to let her adopt a baby.

Margaret Hale moves from the country into the inner-city and starts to learn what life is like for the workers. Elizabeth Gaskell highlights the difference between the middle and working classes in this tale set in the time of the Industrial Revolution. A largely autobiographical story, she also highlights the good that each group can do for each...

The story of a dark and dangerous love, set on the moors surrounding the looming, oppressive and isolated house, Wuthering Heights.

Evelyn Waugh's acidly funny and daring satire, Vile Bodies reveals the darkness and vulnerability that lurks beneath the glittering surface of the high life. In the years following the First World War a new generation emerges, wistful and vulnerable beneath the glitter. The Bright Young Things of twenties' Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of inn...

Pat Hobby is an ageing film writer who used to do well, but these days is low on ideas that pay, until he stumbles across someone else's flash of inspiration.

These UNABRIDGED short stories largely depict middle-class human relationships within and outside the family written with biting satire, irony, much humour and a pervading sadness.