Adam Henson is perhaps the best-known farmer in the UK, presenting on BBC's Countryfile to millions of viewers each Sunday evening. He's also appeared on Lambing Live, Secret Britain, Coast and Inside Out. Adam also runs the award-winning Cotswold Farm Park in Gloucestershire, which welcomes family visitors all year round and is home to many rare breeds. He has a monthly column in Countryfile magazine, as well as the Cotswold Life magazine. He has written several books including the Sunday Times bestseller Like Farmer, Like Son. This is his first children's book and it is the perfect introduction to the farm.

Adam Henson

Adam Henson presents Countryfile, often from his 650-hectare farm in the Cotswolds. Having studied Agriculture at college, Adam took over Bemborough Farm from his father, Joe. The farm now grows wheat, spring barley and oilseed rape, runs a flock of 400 commercial ewes and has the UK's leading collection of rare breeds, many of which are in demand for film sets and advertisements. Cotswold Farm Park (www.cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk) offers a total countryside experience for all the family, welcoming more than 100,000 visitors each year. 
 
Adam presented Lambing Live with Kate Humble, writes for Countryfile magazine and has appeared on Radio 4's On Your Farm and Farming Today. He is the author of three previous books, Adam’s Farm: My Life on the Land, the Sunday Times bestseller, Like Farmer, Like Son and A Farmer and His Dog.

Adam Higginbotham writes for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, Businessweek, Smithsonian, Men’s Journal, and The Atavist. He began his career in magazines and newspapers in London, where he was the editor-­in-chief of The Face and a contributing editor at The Sunday Telegraph. The author of Midnight in Chernobyl, he lives in New York City.

Adam Higginbotham

Adam Hills is an internationally recognised comedian and host of award-winning Channel 4 show The Last Leg. His collection of stories from a life in comedy, Best Foot Forward, was a Times bestseller.

Adam Hills

Adam Howling

Adam J. Kurtz

Adam Jacot de Boinod

ADAM JOHNSON won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2013 for his second novel, the New York Times bestseller The Orphan Master’s Son (‘Excavates the very meaning of life’ New York Times). His short story 'Nirvana' won the prestigious Sunday Times/EFG Short Story Award. He is the author of acclaimed story collections, Fortune Smiles and Emporium and the novel Parasites Like Us. He teaches creative writing at Stanford University and lives with his family in San Francisco.

Adam Johnson

Adam Kay is a former doctor who has written five million books and sold seven copies. No, hang on – he’s written seven books and sold five million copies. His debut book, This is Going to Hurt, is a literary sensation: a Sunday Times number one bestseller for over a year, winning a record-breaking four National Book Awards and selling over 3 million copies. Kay adapted This is Going to Hurt as a BAFTA-winning comedy-drama series for the BBC. Adam Kay’s children’s books have been translated into 32 languages and sold over 1 million copies, making him one of the UK’s bestselling children’s authors. Kay’s Anatomy became the fastest-selling children’s general non-fiction hardback of the decade. His first picture book, Amy Gets Eaten, was published in 2023, and his first children’s novel, Dexter Procter the Ten-Year-Old Doctor, was published in September 2024.

Adam Kay

Adam studied illustration and animation, and received a BA followed by an MA from the Edinburgh College of Art. As a student he won a competition to create a short film for MOMI and Channel 4, and once his career producing animated commercials was under way, he became an illustrator as well. He has regular columns in the UK and the US.

Adam Larkum

Adam Lashinsky

Adam Macqueen

Adam Mars-Jones

Adam O'Riordan was born in Manchester in 1982, where he currently lives. In 2008 he became the youngest Poet-in-Residence at The Wordsworth Trust, the Centre for British Romanticism. His first collection In the Flesh (2010) win a Somerset Maugham Award. He is the Academic Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Adam O'Riordan

Adam Phillips, formerly Principal Child Psychotherapist at Charing Cross Hospital, London, is a practising psychoanalyst and a visiting professor in the English department at the University of York. He is the author of numerous works of psychoanalysis and literary criticism, including most recently On Giving Up, On Wanting to Change, Attention Seeking, In Writing, Unforbidden Pleasures and Missing Out. He is General Editor of the Penguin Modern Classics Freud translations, and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.

Adam Phillips

Adam Rackley

Adam Richardson is the UK's top trending health and fitness coach with a rapidly growing audience across both TikTok and Instagram. Adam is passionate about removing barriers to exercise and movement, a philosophy that is key to his work as a Personal Trainer in which he strives to help his clients feel more confident, as well as more fit and healthy.

Adam Richardson

Adam Roberts is acknowledged as the senior scholar of international relations in the UK. He was Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at Oxford University 1986-2007, and President of the British Academy 2009-13 - the head of humanities in Britain. He was on the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London (2002-08), a member of the UK Defence Academy Advisory Board (2003-15) and is now on the Board of Advisers of the Lieber Institute for Law and Land Warfare at the United States Military Academy, West Point.

Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts is the author of The Amateur Gourmet and Secrets of the Best Chefs, and coauthor of Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway. He started his food blog, The Amateur Gourmet, in 2004 and currently writes The Amateur Gourmet Newsletter on Substack. Roberts has also written for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and for film and television. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband and their dog, Winston. Food Person is his first novel.

Adam Robinson is based in the Middle East and is a regular contributor to newspapers in the Arab world and also to the British media. He is the author of numerous books on the region, including Bin Laden: Behind the Mask of the Terrorist.

Adam Robinson

Adam Ross

Adam Rutherford is an award-winning writer, broadcaster, and geneticist at University College London. His books include A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, The Book of Humans, and the Sunday Times bestseller How to Argue with a Racist. He has written and presented numerous documentaries for BBC radio and television, including Inside Science and The Cell. Adam has also worked as a science advisor on many films, including the Oscar-winning Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018).

Adam Rutherford

Adam Smith

Adam Smyth runs the 39 Step Press, an experiment in printing, from a cold barn in Oxfordshire. He is also Professor of English Literature and the History of the Book at Balliol College, University of Oxford.

Adam Smyth

Adam Sweeting

Adam Tandy

Adam Thirlwell was born in London in 1978. The author of three previous novels, his work has been translated into thirty languages. His essays appear in the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, and he is an advisory editor of the Paris Review. His awards include a Somerset Maugham Award and the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; in 2018 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has twice been selected by Granta as one of their Best of Young British Novelists.

Adam Thirlwell

Adam Thorpe was born in Paris in 1956. His first novel, Ulverton, appeared in 1992 and he has published two books of stories and ten further novels, most recently Missing Fay (2017), and six poetry collections. 
 
 
www.adamthorpe.net

Adam Thorpe

Adam Tooze is the author of the highly praised Crashed, The Deluge and The Wages of Destruction, all published by Allen Lane. He has been the recipient of the Wolfson Prize for History, the Longman-History Today Book of the Year Prize and the Lionel Gelber Prize. Tooze has taught at Cambridge and Yale and is now Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University.

Adam Tooze

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Val McDermid

Gina McKee stars in this chilling apocalyptic radio drama by award-winning writer Val McDermid. 
 
It’s the Summer Solstice weekend, and 150,000 people have descended on a farm in the North East of England for an open-air music festival. Reporting on the event is journalist Zoe Meadows, who files her copy from a food van run by her friends Sam and Lisa. 
 
When some of Sam’s customers get sick, it looks like food poisoning, and it’s exacerbated by the mud, rain and inadequate sanitary facilities. It’s assumed to be a 24-hour thing, until people get home and discover strange skin lesions, which ulcerate and turn septic. More people start getting ill – and dying. 
 
What looked like a minor bug is clearly much more serious: a mystery illness that’s spreading fast and seems resistant to all antibiotics. Zoe teams up with Sam to track the outbreak to its source; meanwhile, can a cure be found before the disease becomes a pandemic? 
 
From a No 1 bestselling author, this original drama envisages a nightmare scenario that seems only too credible in our modern age. 
 
Duration: 2 hours 30 mins approx.

Resistance

BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama

R D Wingfield

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama starring Derek Martin, the precursor to the popular TV series and novels. 
 
Jack Frost is disheveled, disorganised and disrespectful. His superiors don't like him. He has a habit of doing things his way – and getting results. But when Denton CID is faced with a spate of major crimes, Frost finds himself under pressure. 
 
A young woman becomes the sixth victim of a multiple rapist, a teenage girl goes missing, there's a robbery at the Purple Parrot nightclub, and an old man is injured in a hit-and-run. With all this on his plate, Frost has little time and less patience for paperwork – but if he doesn't submit the overtime reports, there will be hell to pay. Has Frost bitten off more than he can chew? 
 
A Touch of Frost gave rise to a hugely successful TV series that ran between 1992 and 2010. This gritty drama, first broadcast on Radio 4 in 1982, features Derek Martin as Jack Frost, with a supporting cast including Haydn Wood, Stephen Thorne and Alan Dudley. 
 
Classic Radio Crime: presenting vintage detectives for your investigation! Duration: 1 hour 25 mins approx.

Frost: A Touch of Frost

Classic Radio Crime

Charles Dickens

Thrilling full-cast radio dramatisations of three of Charles Dickens' classic novels. Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned novelists of all time, and this second volume of the dramatised canon of his work includes the gripping historical novel Barnaby Rudge, picaresque comedy Martin Chuzzlewit and bittersweet tale of family relationships Dombey and Son. 
 
Barnaby Rudge Against the background of the anti-Catholic riots of the 1780s, young Barnaby Rudge becomes entangled with the fanatical George Gordon and his campaign for 'No Popery'. But mob violence, the burning of Newgate Prison and the shadow of murder put his life in danger... 
 
Martin Chuzzlewit Disinherited by his wealthy grandfather because of his love for the beautiful Mary, Martin Chuzzlewit sets sail for America to seek his fortune. 
 
Dombey and Son Wealthy Paul Dombey is desperate for a male heir to continue the family business, and neglects his six-year-old daughter Florence. Then, at last, the longed-for son is born – but Dombey's hopes for him go unfulfilled... 
 
With a star cast including Simon Cadell, Bill Nighy, Alex Jennings, Robert Glenister, Geraldine James and Pam Ferris, these BBC radio adaptations bring out all the suspense, adventure, satire and social realism of Dickens' three classic masterpieces. Duration: 19 hours approx.

Charles Dickens: The BBC Radio Drama Collection: Volume Two

Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit & Dombey and Son

Ted Willis

Sue Rodwell

David Calder, David Tennant and Hamish Clark star in these BBC Radio 4 dramas based on the original TV series. 
 
George Dixon became one of the best-known and most-loved fictional policemen during the course of three decades of BBC TV's Dixon of Dock Green, in which he was played by Jack Warner. In these 12 radio adaptations he once again upholds the law on the streets of 1950s Dock Green. 
David Calder stars as PC George Dixon, with David Tennant and Hamish Clark as PC Andy Dixon. Running time: 6 hours approx.

Dixon of Dock Green

12 episodes of the BBC Radio 4 drama

Powerful full-cast radio dramatisations of four of Charles Dickens' most famous novels 
 
Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned novelists of all time, and this first volume of the dramatised canon of his work includes four of his best-loved stories. 
 
The Pickwick Papers 
Mr Samuel Pickwick, founder of the Pickwick Club, forms a Corresponding Society for members to report back about their travels. So begins the chronicle of their hilariously comic journeys. 
 
Oliver Twist 
Born and brought up in the workhouse, orphan Oliver escapes to London - only to fall into the hands of the notorious Fagin and his gang of child pickpockets. 
 
Nicholas Nickleby 
Left penniless after his father's death, nineteen-year-old Nicholas Nickleby takes a teaching position at Dotheboys Hall, where the brutal Wackford Squeers presides. 
 
The Old Curiosity Shop 
Pretty, innocent Little Nell's childhood is shattered when evil moneylender Quilp discovers her grandfather is in debt. The duo are forced to leave their curiosity shop and go on the run... 
 
With an all-star cast including Pam Ferris, Tim McInnerny, Alex Jennings, Anna Massey, Ken Campbell, Tom Baker, Julia McKenzie and Sandi Toksvig, these BBC radio adaptations bring out all the humour, romance, pathos and tragedy of Dickens' four classic masterpieces.

Charles Dickens: The BBC Radio Drama Collection: Volume One

Classic Drama from the BBC Radio Archive

John Taylor

Benedict Cumberbatch reads these four new Sherlock Holmes stories by John Taylor 
 
'An Inscrutable Masquerade'/ 'The Conundrum of Coach 13'/ 'The Trinity Vicarage Larceny'/ 'The 10.59 Assassin' 
 
Inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes stories, John Taylor has written four more mysteries featuring the world's greatest detective. Read by acclaimed actor Benedict Cumberbatch, these new adventures share all the suspense of the original tales. 
 
In a drawer in his bureau, Dr Watson keeps a locked cedarwood chest - a 'box of secrets'. It contains an archive of notes referring to some of Holmes' cases that, for one reason or another, never saw the light of day. Now, for the first time, Watson has decided to reveal the truth to the world... In these four thrilling stories, Holmes experiments with the science of ballistics, locates some missing gold bullion, investigates the theft of a large amount of money and solves the baffling mystery of the Stovey murder. 
 
©2015 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2015 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Benedict Cumberbatch Reads Sherlock Holmes' Rediscovered Railway Mysteries

Four original short stories

Tommy Bredsted

Joan Rang Christensen

Rum Malmros

A thrilling BBC Radio full-cast spin-off from the Danish TV series, starring Tim Pigott-Smith. 
 
Hans Gammelgaard, Private Secretary in the Danish Ministry of the Environment, is seeking approval for the controlled use of genetically modified crops by Danish farmers. However, unseen enemies seem prepared to go to any lengths in pursuit of their own agenda. 
 
When Hans is sacked, he and his grandson Nick join forces with cynical journalist Jan Gleerup to find out who has been pushing commercial interests in the GMO debate in Borgen. A series of threatening phone calls means time is running out. Hans begins to fear not only for the political situation, but also for his family. 
 
Adapted from the original Danish version, this radio drama is set against the backdrop of the first Borgen television series, which followed the unlikely emergence of Birgitte Nyborg as the country's new Prime Minister. At the centre of the drama is the Danish parliament, nicknamed Borgen - 'the castle'. While the TV drama focuses on the politicians, the radio drama is set in the world of the civil service.

Borgen: Outside the Castle

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama

Victor Whitechurch

Benedict Cumberbatch reads five stories featuring the famous vegetarian railway detective, Thorpe Hazell, as heard on BBC Radio 4. 
 
In The Affair of the German Dispatch-Box, Hazell hatches a daring plan to retrieve a highly sensitive government document before it reaches the German Ambassador. 
 
In Sir Gilbert Murrell's Picture, When an entire wagon containing valuable paintings disappears from a goods train, Hazell's skill is needed. 
 
In The Affair of the Corridor Express, a multimillionaire's son disappears from a moving train. Hazell must find the kidnappers before the boy is lost forever. 
 
In The Stolen Necklace a lady begs Hazell to help when the diamond necklace that she borrowed is stolen from her suitcase. 
 
In The Affair of the Birmingham Bank, customers keep drawing money from a Midlands bank, so gold reserves are sent by train. Hazell must guard against train robbery.

Benedict Cumberbatch Reads Thrilling Stories of the Railway

A BBC Radio Reading

John Dryden

A three-part BBC Radio drama about modern-day spying set in Cairo against a backdrop of the "Arab Spring". Hard-up Coptic art expert Duncan Kavanagh scrapes a living as a private English language tutor and by showing tourists around the ancient churches of Cairo. He lives with his feisty, politically-aware, 15-year-old daughter Ola, who is half-Egyptian, in a modest flat they can barely afford. Since the revolution, the situation has become ever harder for Duncan with tourists in short supply. When approached by seductive Canadian student Tara Moore to deliver a letter - for money - to a prominent Egyptian politician whose son Duncan teaches, he accepts. It's a decision that will solve his short-term financial problems but embroil him in a complex web of secrets and misinformation and a struggle for his own and his daughter's survival. Written and directed by John Dryden. Starring Nigel Lindsay, Aiysha Hart and Sarah Goldberg.

The Reluctant Spy

Tom Baker reads Charles Dickens' timeless seasonal story. 
 
Charles Dickens' story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, has become one of the timeless classics of English literature. First published in 1843, it introduces us not only to Scrooge himself, but also to the memorable characters of underpaid desk clerk Bob Cratchit and his poor family, the poorest amongst whom is the ailing and crippled Tiny Tim. 
 
In this captivating recording, Tom Baker delivers a tour-de-force performance as he narrates the story. The listener joins Scrooge on Christmas Eve, witnesses the visitation of Marley's ghost, and is given a glimpse of the many homes and lives which Scrooge has touched in his wretched life to date. 
 
With atmospheric sound design, this ultimately uplifting tale is a festive delight to be treasured and listened to again and again. 
 
Duration: 3 hours approx

A Christmas Carol

Chris Thorpe

Set in one of Rio de Janeiro's most crowded favelas, this ambitious drama is part love-story and part thriller revolving around a single day in the lives of a couple of thieves, a crooked policeman, a charity worker, a priest, a blind revolutionary and a pregnant street-kid. Recorded in Brazil, it was made with the help of the Nos do Morro theatre in Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro. Starring Charles Paraventi as Marcelo, Julia Bernat as Liza and Matheus Oliveira as Rafael, with Julio Adriao, Danilo Moraes, Andre Cursino, Tatsu Carvalho, Renan Monteiro, Olivia Emes, Fernando Arze and Tecca Ferreira. Written by Chris Thorpe. Casting: Ana Dias Carter and Estela Albani. Production coordinator: Jazmin Castillo. Sound design: Steve Bond. Producer in Brazil: Jan Roldanus. Producer/Director: John Dryden. A Goldhawk Essential Production for BBC Radio 4.

Rio Story

Simon Bovey

Elver season on the River Severn - a time of mystery and danger. The wrong time and place for a young man to be searching for his place in the world. Starring Robert Lonsdale, Emily Wachter, Ian Gelder, Stuart McLoughlin, Lizzy Watts, Stephen Hogan, Benjamin Askew and Matt Addis. Written by Simon Bovey. Directed by Marc Beeby.

Sargasso

A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation

John le Carré

‘You’re not to disturb, annoy or offend. They’re walking on a knife edge out there, anything could tilt the balance.’   Missing: one junior diplomat and 43 of the British Embassy’s most confidential files. The timing is alarmingly significant: with neo-Nazi riots and radical student demonstrations, the threat to Germany’s security  is all too apparent. Britain’s own Alan Turner is sent in, with instructions to tread carefully at all costs.   But will he find the missing man and the files before the political situation erupts?   Kenneth Haigh stars as Alan Turner with Bernard Hepton as Rawley Bradfield in a fast-paced, explosive dramatisation of John le Carré’s acclaimed spy story, dramatised by René Basilico.

A Small Town In Germany

Hugh Costello

Dublin, 1997. When Joe Finnerty marries into Dublin's political aristocracy his fortune appears to be made. Lucrative government contracts and the ready patronage of his heavy hitting father-in-law ensure that Joe soon becomes a man to be reckoned with. His own career in politics seems pre-ordained, until a disgruntled Party apparatchik leaks information concerning the unexplained death of Joe's ex-partner, creating a scandal which shakes the Finnerty empire and threatens to destroy Joe and everything he once held dear.  A cautionary tale about an individual's pact with political preferment - Irish style.  Written by Hugh Costello and directed by Eoin O'Callaghan. Starring Patrick Fitzsymons, John Kavanagh, Amanda Hurwitz, Cathy White, Michael J Murphy, Hugh Costello, Frankie McCafferty, Nicky Doherty and Padraig Doon.

Smoke And Daggers

Michael Butt

El Ultimo Proyecto - The Last Project by Michael Butt, a play in two languages- Spanish and English.  A romantic thriller set in the hills of Andalucia. A British former soldier, Travis, has a love affair with the wife of a famous Spanish film director. Story telling and reality collide when the director insists Travis helps with his latest film, his 'last project' in which a murder is committed.  Starring Bryan Dick, Yolanda Vazquez, William Marquez, and Hugo Cubilla. With original song composition by Akintayo Akinbode and words by Federico Garcia Lorca Produced and Directed by Pauline Harris.

The Last Project: El Utimo Proyecto

Simon Passmore

A fast-paced psychological thriller from BBC Radio 4's 'Saturday Play' slot, originally broadcast 26 March 2011.  A city banker is found dead in an opulent apartment. At the funeral, his former girlfriend Helen is unexpectedly questioned about when she last saw him. Did he mention computer files, or give her anything as a keepsake? Helen's suspicions mount as she retraces his last movements. Her discoveries put her in the firing line...  A taut, character-driven conspiracy thriller, writhing with twists and heavy on menace, by one of radio's leading writers of thrillers, Simon Passmore. 'Leverage' stars Claire Foy, Blake Ritson, Charlie Cox, Sally Orrock, Joanna Monro, Nyasha Hatendi and Sean Baker.

Leverage (BBC Radio 4 The Saturday Play)

David Eldridge

A BBC Radio 3 production from the 'Drama on 3' series exploring the idea of a fascism of the mind.Nigel is bored. But then he meets the glamorous Liv and Tony and becomes part of their beautiful world; a beauty that hides a disturbing secretDavid Eldridge's 'The Secret Grief' stars Paul Chequer as Nigel, Frances Barber as Liv, and David Schofield as Tony. Also featured amongst the cast are Struan Rodger, Alex Tregear, Stuart McLoughlin and Nyasha Hatendi.

The Secret Grief

In the third year of perestroika, London publisher Barley Blair is sent a manuscript from Moscow. Exposing Russian nuclear threats as a sham, the information - if it’s genuine - could shatter East-West relations. Jazz-loving, hard-drinking Blair is hardly the spymasters’ idea of the perfect agent, yet they are forced to send him to Moscow to make contact. But the Cold War thaws when Barley meets Katya, the beautiful Russian intermediary who is equally sceptical of state ideology. Mere pawns in a deadly game of international espionage, they nevertheless represent the breakdown of hostilities and a future which poses a huge threat to the entrenched professionals on both sides... Both a gripping spy saga and a poignant love story, The Russia House delivers all the excitement and tension expected from the master of espionage fiction. This BBC Radio 4 adaptation was dramatised by René Basilico.

The Russia House

Mark Wheatley

A BBC Radio 4 drama by Mark Wheatley, originally broadcast as the ‘Afternoon Play’ on 13 May 2010.  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.

So You Want To Disappear

Three lives on three continents connected by one event - A young British schoolboy obsessed with school massacres, a radio journalist in India on the trail of a scoop for the BBC and the boss of an American church-owned clothing firm are the threads that run through this intricate, suspenseful three-part thriller from award-winning writer-director John Dryden.  At first the three lives seem totally unconnected but as the threads unravel they become tangled in a shocking heap of child labour, abuse and murder. A unique and compelling thriller, recorded on location in the USA, India and the UK.   Written and directed by John Dryden. A Goldhawk Essential Production.

Severed Threads

This BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation is a captivating thriller written by Simon Passmore, originally broadcast as the Afternoon Play on 29 June 2009.  What would you be prepared to do to escape the grind of a life going relentlessly downhill? For former City lawyer Alice, the price is getting higher by the minute.  Stars Claudia Harrison in the lead role of Alice, Emily Joyce as Hattie, Stephen Hogan as Patrick, Lizzy Watts as Marcy and Paul Rider as Stone. Directed by Toby Swift.

Accomplices

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’.   The Berlin Wall is down, the Cold War is over, but the world’s second oldest profession is very much alive. Smiley accepts an invitation to dine with the eager young men and women of the Circus’ latest intake; and over coffee and brandy, by flickering firelight, he beguilingly offers them his personal thoughts on espionage past, present and future. In doing so, he prompts one of his former Circus colleagues into a searching examination of his own eventful secret life.   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a distinguished cast including Patrick Malahide as Ned, this engrossing dramatisation brings le Carré’s masterful novel vividly to life.   'A radio triumph... Simon Russell Beale’s pitch-perfect master spy' - Financial Times.

The Secret Pilgrim

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’.   When a Russian émigré is found murdered on Hampstead Heath, Smiley is called out of retirement to exorcise some Cold War ghosts from his clandestine past. What follows is Smiley the human being at his most vulnerable and Smiley the case officer at his most brilliant; and it takes to a thrilling conclusion his career-long, serpentine battle with the enigmatic and ruthless Russian spymaster Karla...   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a distinguished cast including Anna Chancellor, Lindsay Duncan, Maggie Steed, Alex Jennings and Kenneth Cranham, this enthralling dramatisation captures every nuance of le Carré’s complex and compelling novel - the final book in John le Carré’s Karla trilogy.   ‘a radio triumph... Simon Russell Beale’s pitch-perfect master spy’ - Financial Times.

Smiley's People

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’.   Smiley, now head of the Circus, must rebuild trust in the shattered organisation. He is also determined to destroy his nemesis, Karla, and his spy networks. He recruits Jerry Westerby, occasional spy, occasional news reporter, full-time romantic - the Honourable Schoolboy of the title - and despatches him to the Far East, where, amidst the corruption and decay of former colonies, a new battle is about to begin...   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a star cast including Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Steed and Anna Chancellor, this gripping dramatisation perfectly captures the atmosphere of le Carré’s intricate, intriguing novel, the second in the Karla trilogy.

The Honourable Schoolboy

Smiley, wrestling with retirement and disillusionment, is summoned to a secret meeting with a member of the Cabinet Office. Evidence has emerged that the Circus has been infiltrated at the highest level by a Russian agent. Find the mole, George. Clean the stables. Do whatever is necessary. Reluctantly Smiley agrees, and so embarks on a dark journey into his past - a past filled with love, duplicity and betrayal.   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a star cast including Anna Chancellor, Alex Jennings, Kenneth Cranham and Bill Paterson, this epic dramatisation brilliantly depicts the complicated moral dilemmas of those who practise post-war espionage, and illuminates the murky corners of le Carré’s classic spy thriller - the first in the Karla trilogy.   '... a worthy audio version of the seminal spy drama, brilliantly depicting the complicated moral dilemmas of post-war espionage, and allowing Beale room to shine as the character of Smiley really comes into his own' - Herts Advertiser   'beautifully paced in a dramatisation which captures the essence of the book whilst working supremely well in its own right in the radio medium' - Chichester Observer   'This period dramatisation could not be bettered' - Observer

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’.   When word reaches 'The Department' - an ailing section of British intelligence - that Soviet missiles are being installed close to the West German border, it seems the perfect opportunity to show Control and Smiley, their rivals over at the Circus, that The Department still has value. Former spy Fred Leiser is lured back from retirement to investigate, and manages to cross the border into East Germany in a dangerous night-time operation.   But the world has changed since The Department's glory days during the Second World War. The harsh realities of the Cold War now prevail, and there is no place for heroes...   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a distinguished cast including Ian McDiarmid and Philip Jackson, this compelling dramatisation perfectly captures the atmosphere of le Carré's chilling novel of deception and betrayal.

The Looking Glass War

Robert Forest

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’.   It is 1962: the height of the Cold War and only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. Alec Leamas is a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters. His agents are either on the run or dead, victims of the ruthlessly efficient East German counter-intelligence officer Hans-Dieter Mundt.   Leamas is recalled to London where, to his surprise, instead of being washed up and consigned to a desk he's offered a chance to have his revenge by becoming a pawn in a brilliantly-conceived plot to destroy Mundt. But in order to do so he has to stay out in the cold a little longer...   Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a distinguished cast including Brian Cox as Alec Leamas, this tense, compelling dramatisation perfectly captures the atmosphere of le Carré's taut, intricate thriller.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

Robert Harris

Anton Lesser stars as a Berlin detective who stumbles upon the 20th century's most terrifying secret in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Robert Harris's bestselling novel.  The year is 1964, and it's a week before Hitler's 75th birthday. Nazi Germany won the Second World War, Churchill is living in exile in Canada, Joseph Kennedy is President of the United States, and King Edward and Queen Wallis are puppet monarchs of the United Kingdom. In this dimension, history took a very different turn in 1942 to the one we are familiar with...  Produced by the award-winning John Dryden, this dramatisation of Robert Harris's thriller, with an atmospheric soundtrack recorded on location, is a rollercoaster ride of intrigue, suspense and passion.

Fatherland

R.D Wingfield

A collection of RD Wingfield’s finest thrillers from the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties 
 
Best known for his ‘Inspector Jack Frost’ series of novels, RD Wingfield also penned a string of gripping thrillers for BBC Radio. Initially thought lost, many of the 14 dramas in this collection were recovered and restored by Keith Wickham and the Radio Circle, and thanks to their careful preservation, are now available to enjoy once more. 
 
Credit Risk is a robbery comedy caper about a man with a cunning plan to defraud a credit card company of a quarter of a million pounds. Cleft Stick sees the police investigating an attack on a woman, and the dramatic way she chose to defend herself. In The Last Escape, a mugging ends in murder, and Superintendent Dawson must find the perpetrator – a patient who has escaped from a private nursing home after 35 years. And in The Alternative Plan, a frightened ex-Army captain and a dying ex-Nazi hold the key to preventing a political assassination. 
 
In A Second Class Risk, when a man dies in a car crash the same week he insures his life for £50,000, the widow’s claim must be investigated. A Test for Destruction finds a Security Supervisor at the Department of Scientific Warfare facing an agonising crisis when his son’s safety is at stake. Our West Ladyton Branch centres around a bank manager recovering from a nervous breakdown, whose new assignment in a sleepy Devon town is not at all what he expected. In Letter of the Law, Detective Inspector Nash wants nothing to do with his newly arrved (and newly demoted) Sergeant, but with seven unsolved robberies on his plate, Nash needs all the help he can get…Cover Up features another demoted ex-Inspector, kicked out of the Division but brought back to investigate a bank raid. 
 
Post Mortem Shock concerns a man who appears to have been shot dead by an intruder – but the post mortem reveals he died of a heart attack. Who, or what, really killed him? In Sins of Commission, made redundant after 19 years’ faithful service with a firm?of?diamond merchants, Mr Fletcher is willing to take on almost any job – as long as it’s legal. It’s double or quits when £15,000 goes missing from a safe in Double Entry, and in Adequate Reasons, when a child is abducted, there’s a complex interplay between police, parents and kidnapper. Finally, in Moveable Assets, a crafty crook comes up with an ingenious scheme to rob a supposedly burglar-proof bank – but will it work, and will he get away with it? 
 
With ensemble casts including John Rowe, Diana Olsson, Roger Delgado, Robert Lang, Frederick Treves, Jill Bennett and Patricia Gallimore, these clever, artfully plotted dramas are full of twists, turns and surprises. 
 
With warm thanks to Keith Wickham and the Radio Circle 
 
Cast and credits 
Written by RD Wingfield 
 
Contents 
 
Credit Risk 
Cleft Stick 
The Last Escape 
The Alternative Plan 
A Second-Class Risk 
A Test to Destruction 
Our West Ladyton Branch 
Letter of the Law 
Cover Up 
Post Mortem Shock 
Sins of Commission 
Double Entry 
Adequate Reasons 
Moveable Assets 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

R.D Wingfield: Post-Mortem Shock and other thrillers

14 Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramas

Linda Marshall Griffiths

When the world drowns and there is no land left to stand on — where do you go? 
 
Welcome to No Place But the Water, a haunting, full-cast drama set in a future flooded world. It begins at a hotel on the edge of the water, and with a messy family of dreamers in the middle of nowhere: their last refuge in a world submerged. But the hotel’s walls watch, its mirrors remember — and the water keeps rising. 
 
Through the eyes of three children — Birdie, Jessie and Cal — the series draws you into a reality where ‘home’ might not be dry land, but the constant shimmer of rising tides. Food is dwindling, the water is relentless, and Birdie is certain they’re being watched. Then: there’s the angel. 
As the story unfolds across three spiralling seasons, what lurks beyond safety is darker and more mesmerising than any storm. Secrets will surface. Trust will crack. And every ripple might be the last chance. 
 
This is survival, reimagined — under water, through whispers, in shadows. With atmospheric sound design and an ensemble cast guiding you through a world that’s lost its shape, No Place But the Water drags you into a drenched, destabilized reality. 
 
When there is no place but the water — hold your breath. 
 
'Drawing on the magic-realism of Gabriel García Márquez and the horror of Stephen King; the hotel itself has a strange hold on the occupants, extolling visions from the past like a climate-conscious version of The Shining’s Overlook. An intelligent drama with heart.' Radio Times 
 
Cast and credits 
Birdie – Poppy O’Brien 
Jessie – Sade Malone 
Cal – Cel Spellman 
Maurice – Pearce Quigley 
Gil – Rupert Hill 
Laurie/Selene – Jenny Platt 
The Angel - Vinette Robinson/Remmie Milner 
Gabe – Gabriella Tuicicia 
Leo - Nico Mirallegro/Hamish Rush 
Alex – William Ash 
 
Written by Linda Marshall Griffiths 
Directed by Nadia Molinari 
Sound Design by Steve Brooke & Sharon Hughes 
Programme Consultants: Dr James M Lea, Dr Ian Dawson, Dr. Andrew F. Field. 
A BBC Audio Drama North Production 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 12 August 2020 – 25 August 2022 
 
©2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

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