Aaron Robertson is a writer, an editor, and a translator of Italian literature. His translation of Igiaba Scego’s Beyond Babylon was short-listed for the 2020 PEN Translation Prize and the National Translation Award, and in 2021 he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, n+1, The Point, and Literary Hub, among other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Aaron Robertson

Aaron Shapiro

Aaron T Beck

Aaron Vallance

Aaron Young was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and read Politics and Communications at The University of Liverpool. He is a BAFTA-nominated director, producer and executive producer with over 20 years of experience across projects for the BBC, PBS, Channel 4, Channel 5, UKTV, UK Film Council and Arts Council England. A long-time collaborator of acclaimed historian, James Holland, he is the producer and director of the BAFTA-shortlisted BBC titles ‘Battle of Britain: The Real Story’ and, ‘Dam Busters: The Race to Smash the German Dams’, as well as ‘The Battle for Malta’, ‘Normandy ’44: The Battle Beyond D-Day’, the RTS-nominated ‘Imphal &amp; Kohima: Britain’s Greatest Battle.’, and the 3-part series, 'Normandy '44: D-Day and the Battle for France. His most recent credits include 'Hidden Histories of WWII', 'Lost Temples of Cambodia', the RTS-winning ‘Lost Home Movies of Nazi Germany’, and ‘Prue Leith: Journey with My Daughter’. Aaron was named in the inaugural list of BAFTA ‘Brits to Watch.’ He is the co-owner of award-winning film and television production company, Bright Button Productions, and lives with his wife and children in Poundbury, Dorset.

Aaron Young

Aatish Taseer

Abbe Prevost

Abbey Bryant is an NYC-based award-winning illustrator. With her BFA in Children's Book Illustration, her notable illustrated books include Nautilus award winner Hazel Mist, Hypnotist as well as an Enchanted Fairy House Kit with Scholastic's Klutz! 
 
As a queer illustrator, LGBTQ+ themes and stories hold a spot near to her heart. Most days she can be found around the city drawing New Yorkers or sketching trees at the park.

Abbey Bryant

Abbey Clancy is a model, television presenter and the host of chart-topping podcast The Therapy Crouch. She was the runner-up of Britain's Next Top Model in 2006, winner of Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 and went on to present Britain's Next Top Model. Later this year she will host Celebrity Homes on ITV.

Abbey Clancy

Abbie Greaves studied at Cambridge University before working in a literary agency for a number of years. She was inspired to write her first novel, The Silent Treatment, after reading a newspaper article about a boy in Japan who had never seen his parents speak to one another before. 
 
Abbie lives in Brighton with her boyfriend.

Abbie Greaves

Abbie Ross is a British author and psychotherapist. Her first book, Hippy Dinners, a funny and poignant memoir of her bohemian childhood in 1970s North Wales, has been optioned by Baby Cow, who are developing it into an 8-part television series. 
Before turning to writing, Abbie had a successful career as a producer at Aardman Animations, the acclaimed studios behind Wallace &amp; Gromit and the film Chicken Run. 
Today, she divides her time between her thriving psychotherapy practice in Bristol, and her writing, and finds that the two careers complement each other perfectly.

Abbie Ross

Abbie Spallen

Abbie Taylor lives in Dublin. She works as a doctor and has two daughters.

Abbie Taylor

Abby L Yates co-founded the Ghostbusters with Erin Gilbert. Ghosts from Our Past was her first book, now finally back in print.

Abby L Yates

Abby Lee

Abby Rawlinson is an integrative therapist with a private practice based in east London, UK. Her work mixes traditional psychotherapeutic theories with cutting-edge, evidence-based techniques into a style that feels relatable, down-to-earth, and compassionate. Abby regularly contributes to articles, including but not limited to Stylist, Elle, BBC, Harpers Bazaar, Sheerluxe, Women's Health, and Psychologies. She can be found on Instagram @therapywithabby or online at therapywithabby.co.uk

Abby Rawlinson

Abby Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medallist, FIFA World Cup champion, six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award and one of Time’s Most Influential People. She is a founder of Treat Media, an award-winning media company that makes art for humans who want to stay human. Abby is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wolfpack and the New York Times bestseller Forward. Named one of the ‘50 Most Powerful People in Podcasting,’ she is co-host of the chart-topping podcast We Can Do Hard Things, which has received over a half billion plays. Abby is an executive producer of the Sundance award-winning film Come See Me in the Good Light, part owner of the NWSL’s Angel City Football Club and sits on multiple boards. Her most recent book, We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life’s 20 Questions, created with Glennon Doyle, Amanda Doyle and Treat Media, is being hailed as ‘the guidebook for being alive.’

Abby Wambach

Abel &amp; Cole’s story starts in 1988 with Keith Abel flogging potatoes door-to-door. ‘Of course potatoes are organic,’ he thought, ‘they’re vegetables’. However, he quickly discovered how unnecessarily complicated our food system had become and, consequently, realised the huge benefits of going organic and never looked back. In fact, Abel &amp; Cole still get veg from the farm where Keith's first organic spuds came from. 
To this day, their priorities remain the same. Now, selling 100% organic produce, Abel &amp; Cole believe that organic farming (a holistic system that encourages biodiversity) is the very best way to go. It protects our countryside and the critters that inhabit it, insists on the very best animal welfare, supports your local community and, frankly, tastes heaps better. Abel &amp; Cole think so anyway.

Abel & Cole Limited

Abhijit Banerjee, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, is the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). In 2011, he was named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 global thinkers. Banerjee served on the U.N. Secretary-General’s High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Abhijit V. Banerjee

Abhishek Mukherjee, 30, is a Delhi-based journalist. He holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Delhi University, a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Raipur. He also likes dogs.

Abhishek Mukherjee

Abi Elphinstone grew up in Scotland where she spent most of her childhood running wild across the moors, hiding in tree houses and building dens in the woods. After being coaxed out of her tree house, she studied English at Bristol University and then worked as an English teacher in Africa, Berkshire and London. She is the bestselling and multi-award shortlisted author of RUMBLESTAR (first in The Unmapped Chronicles), SKY SONG &amp; THE DREAMSNATCHER TRILOGY, published by S&amp;S. When she's not writing, Abi volunteers for Beanstalk, speaks in schools and travels the world looking for her next story.

Abi Elphinstone

Abi Falase is a Black British writer and director, reimagining fundamental societal concepts in inventive new worlds. Abi has written and directed a number of plays, including The Village and Rush with the Almedia Theatre, as well as Rift for Immediate Theatre and was shortlisted for the BBC Scriptworks ‘A Thousand Stories’ scriptwriting competition in 2021.

Abi Falase

Abi Titmuss

Abie Longstaff is the eldest of six children and grew up in Australia, Hong Kong and France. She knows all about squabbling, chaos and bossing younger sisters around. So she logically began her career as a barrister. She started writing when her children were born. Her favourite childhood books were Hating Alison Ashley, A Little Princess, Maura's Angel and The Black Stallion and she sneakily reads them again sometimes. Abie lives in Hove with her family.

Abie Longstaff

Abigail Ahern

Abigail is a Brighton-based writer, illustrator and creative producer. Original storytelling has always been at the heart of Abigail's career and she has spent a decade leading social media campaigns for some of the biggest TV &amp; entertainment clients in the world. Abigail also used to perform stand-up comedy and won several tiny trophies for her onstage humour; which involved life-size illustrations, ridiculous songs and rambling stories about her family.

Abigail Balfe

Abigail Docherty

Abigail Foster is a Chartered Accountant and founder of Elent Finance, a financial education company designed to demystify the world of finance and empower you to achieve financial wellbeing. 
 
Abigail has worked with leading financial institutions across the UK, including HMRC, the Bank of England and Downing Street, and global companies such as Google and Goldman Sachs. She hosts a weekly money segment on LBC radio and has also appeared as a finance expert on ITV, Channel 5 and Sky News.

Abigail Foster

Abigail Owen is the #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling author of 30+ books that range from upper YA (18+) epic romantasy to new adult modern mythic romantasy to super spicy adult paranormal romance. She loves magical worlds with plots that move hot and fast, feisty heroines with sass, heroes with heart, a dash of snark, and oodles of HEAs! Other titles include: wife, mother, Star Wars geek, ex-competitive skydiver, AuDHD, spreadsheet lover, Jeopardy! fanatic, organizational guru, true classic movie buff, linguaphile, wishful world traveler, and chocoholic. Abigail currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her own swoon-worthy hero, their (mostly) angelic teenagers, and an adorable fur baby.

Abigail Owen

Abigail Ulman was born and raised in Melbourne. She has a BA in Creative Arts from the University of Melbourne/VCA and was a recent Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University. This is her first book.

Abigail Ulman

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Edna O'Brien

All three BBC radio dramatisations of Edna O’Brien’s coming-of-age trilogy set in 1950s Ireland 
 
 Now a much-loved modern classic, The Country Girls Trilogy was fiercely controversial when first published in the 1960s. Banned by the Irish censors and burned by the Church, the books nonetheless achieved widespread acclaim and international success, and launched Edna O’Brien’s literary career. 
 
 These three BBC radio adaptations follow the lives and loves of best friends Kate and Baba, two teenage girls growing up in repressive rural Ireland in the years before the sexual revolution. The Country Girls sees the duo leaving their small country village for convent school – but the bright lights of Dublin beckon, promising glamour, adventure and romance. In The Lonely Girl, dreamy Kate longs for love, while worldly-wise Baba makes the most of the opportunities the big city offers. Girls in Their Married Bliss finds the two friends living across the sea in London, where both have found husbands – but will marriage and motherhood bring happiness or heartbreak? 
 
 Funny, moving and painfully honest, these evocative dramas are a passionate affirmation of female friendship and desire, and a vivid portrait of a country struggling to throw off the shackles of prudishness, misogyny and religious conservatism. Charlie Murphy (Peaky Blinders, Happy Valley) stars as Kate, with Aoibhinn McGinnity (Resistance, Nightflyers) as Baba. 
 
Edna O'Brien is the much acclaimed author of The Country Girls Trilogy. She recently won the David Cohen Prize for Literature for having “broken down social and sexual barriers for women in Ireland and beyond and moved mountains both politically and lyrically through her writing”. 
 
 Written by Edna O’Brien 
 Dramatised by Lin Coghlan 
 Produced and directed by Sally Avens and Jessica Dromgoole 
 
 First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 26 August-6 September 2019 (The Country Girls), 14-25 October 2019 (The Lonely Girl), 9-13 December 2019 (Girls in Their Married Bliss)

The Country Girls

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the landmark trilogy

Mike Walker

In the early hours of 5 June 1944, Captain Rob Collins, who is languishing in hospital, receives a call that will take him on a journey through England that will change his life. 
 
Mike Walker's play is an epic journey across England poised on the edge of a historical moment: D-Day. It is set on June 5th, the day before the invasion that will change the course of history - but an invasion only a very few know is about happen... 
 
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliet Stevenson, and Claudia Harrison. 
 
Credits 
Narrator...Juliet Stevenson 
Capt Collins...Benedict Cumberbatch 
Cpl Cunningham...Claudia Harrison 
Jack Harris...Danny Webb 
Gloria Harris...Kaye Wragge 
Ray Harris...Joseph Tremain 
Tim...Ben Tibber 
Gen Eisenhower...Colin Stinton 
Flt Lt Paul Parker...Bertie Carvel 
Lilly...Emily Chennery 
Eddie...Ricci Harnett 
Lancaster Skipper...Jamie Glover 
Lancaster Crew...Carl Prekopp/Simon Nehan 
Warders...Chris MacDonnell/John Rowe 
Rosie...Alice Hart 
Sea Captain...David Leonard 
1st Lieutenant RN...Andrew Mackintosh 
G.I....John Guerrasio 
Monty...Philip Fox 
Nursing Sister...Joanna McCallum 
 
Directed by Jeremy Howe 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 5 June 2004

The Biggest Secret

A BBC Radio 4 Drama

Rachel Joyce

Collected radio plays and short stories by Rachel Joyce 
 
Rachel Joyce captured the hearts of millions with her bestselling debut novel, which told the moving tale of an ordinary man, Harold Fry, who embarks on an epic journey to deliver a message and save a life. But Harold’s story began its life on radio, in the award-winning play which opens this collection: To Be A Pilgrim, starring Anton Lesser, Anna Massey and Niamh Cusack. 
 
Here, too, is an adaptation of the companion novel, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, with Sophie Thompson as Queenie; as well as a collection of linked Christmas tales, A Snow Garden and Other Stories, read by the author herself. 
 
Also featured here are eleven more superb radio productions, each showcasing Joyce’s characteristic empathy, compassion and understanding of the human heart. Including a dark modern fairytale set in Baghdad, a Brief Encounter-style romance and the heartbreaking story of the Lindbergh baby, they are: Painting Mrs Jones, Feather, Kissing Shadows, Talking, Take One Night, The Porter and the Three Ladies, The Art of Balance, Little Lower than the Angels, The Wall, and The Memory Thief. 
 
Life-affirming, touching and redemptive, these magical dramas explore themes of friendship, connection, the role of memory in our lives and the true nature of happiness. Among the star casts are Lindsay Duncan, Sophie Thompson, Shaun Dooley, Kenneth Cranham, Stephen Tompkinson and Lia Williams. 
 
This special edition also features Rachel Joyce in conversation with Niamh Cusack.

An Unlikely Pilgrimage: The Radio Dramas of Rachel Joyce

A BBC Radio Collection of Fifteen Full-Cast dramatisations and readings

Marcy Kahan

Stephen Mangan and Claire Skinner star in the final series of the popular BBC Radio 4 comedy drama. 
 
 ‘A wise and witty feast for the senses‘’ Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph 
 
 Bill works as an economist in a right-wing institute giving succour to bankers and businessmen. Bella teaches yoga, waters the plants in Canary Wharf and holds Proust seminars for retirees. Years ago they shared a flat before Bill got married and moved to America. Now he's back and feeling a little off-kilter, so he decides to rekindle his friendship with Bella. 
 
 Once a month they get together for lunch, where they talk about everything from politics to Proust, parenting and the perils of online dating. The only thing they've never discussed is how much they love each other... 
 
 In Marcy Kahan's delightful “platonic romantic comedy”, we join Bill and Bella as they meet, eat and disagree about everything; and, in this final series, end up ordering room service in a hotel room after too much tapas.

Lunch: Series 5

BBC Radio 4 comedy drama

David Attenborough

David Attenborough, Britain’s voice of natural history, narrates his early adventures in Indonesia, New Guinea and Northern Australia. 
 
David Attenborough first appeared in front of a television camera in the 1950s when, together with London Zoo's Curator of Reptiles, Jack Lester, he persuaded the BBC to mount and film an animal-collecting expedition. The result was Zoo Quest. Specially recorded for audio, David Attenborough’s early adventures are sometimes life-threatening, often hilarious and always totally absorbing. The warmth and enthusiasm that have made him a broadcasting legend are instantly apparent here as he recounts this magical journey. 
 
This collection includes three volumes from Attenborough’s chronicles of his early expeditions: 
 
In Zoo Quest For A Dragon, Attenborough tells of the crew’s hazardous boat trip with a gun-smuggling captain and the terror of erupting volcanoes. He also depicts for the listener some of the incredible sights he and his team witnessed – breathtaking butterflies, taking tea with Charlie the orang-utan and the the voyage to the little-known island of Komodo to capture the elusive Komodo Dragon. 
 
Quest in Paradise describes his next animal collecting and filming trip to New Guinea, home of the exotic Birds of Paradise. David tells of his adventures during the trip: being an onlooker at a formal lovemaking ceremony, seeing the skills of ritual axe making, trying to master pidgin English and witnessing a ‘sing sing’ at which hundreds of tribesmen came together from all parts of the country. 
 
In Quest Under Capricorn, David Attenborough ventured to the Northern Territory of Australia. In his first expedition to the other side of the world, he meets Aborigines, goes walkabout in the bush, and learns the craft of the artists of Arnhem Land. 
 
Also included is David Attenborough In His Own Words, a collection of interviews taken from the BBC radio and TV archives.

David Attenborough: The Early Years Collection

The BBC Collection

Louisa May Alcott

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the evergreen classic novel by Louisa May Alcott. 
 
With their father away fighting in the American Civil War, the four March girls are facing a lean Christmas with their mother. But the sisters’ close bond and determination to make the best of things enables them to find happiness despite their poverty. 
 
As the years go by we follow their fortunes as they journey into womanhood. Meg the beauty, Jo the tomboy, shy Beth and precocious Amy will encounter adventure, hardship, joys and disappointments, and learn to meet the challenges of life as they become independent and make their way in the world. While marriage and motherhood may beckon for the sisters, their most enduring love is always for each other. 
 
First published in 1868 and never out of print since, this iconic coming-of-age tale is a perennial favourite that has touched the hearts of generations of readers. This moving BBC Radio 4 dramatisation stars Natasha J Barnes, Julianna Jennings, Bryony Hannah and Samantha Dakin as Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, with Tara Ward as Mrs March and Alex Lanipekun as Laurie.

Little Women

BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

Maeve Binchy

A collection of full-cast dramatisations and readings from the bestselling author 
 
‘There’s nobody like Binchy for warming the cockles’ Times 
 
Maeve Binchy was one of Britain’s best-loved storytellers and this compilation of her finest fiction, as heard on BBC Radio, demonstrates all the warmth, wit and compassion that made her so popular. 
 
Firefly Summer is a moving, humorous novel about a sleepy Irish town facing monumental change, dramatised in six parts with a full cast including David Soul and Lorcan Cranitch. 
 
No Nightingales, No Snakes features full-cast dramatisations of five Maeve Binchy short stories, with a distinguished cast including Niamh Cusack, Sam Dale and Harry Towb. 
 
The Garden Party contains four short stories specially commissioned for BBC Radio 4, read by Niamh Cusack, Dervla Kirwan, Doreen Hepburn and Stella McCusker. 
 
The Homecoming comprises four more stories exclusively written for BBC Radio 4, read by Sean Campion, Joanna Myers, Patricia Hodge and Kate Binchy. 
 
Dealing with families, friendship, love, loss, sorrow and joy, these stories will delight all Maeve Binchy fans. Duration: 6 hours approx

Maeve Binchy: Collected Stories

Collected BBC Radio adaptations

Roald Dahl

Two new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of Roald Dahl's gripping autobiographical stories. 
 
These two compelling adaptations, based on Roald Dahl’s real-life tales of his of his boyhood and youthful overseas adventures, celebrate his remarkable life and commemorate his genius. 
 
Boy Dahl’s childhood was one of excitement, wonder, terror and sadness. From his fascination with the local sweetshop to the Great Mouse Plot, the horrors of boarding school, the obnoxious Boazers and his time as a chocolate taster for Cadbury’s, we hear of the extraordinary events that shaped him and inspired his bestselling books. 
 
Going Solo Setting sail for Africa on the SS Montola, aged 22, Dahl is plunged into an unfamiliar world of eccentric colonial characters. In Tanzania he enjoys life on the savannah, encountering lions and deadly mambas – but when World War II breaks out, and he must round up the Germans in Dar es Salaam, he experiences the brutality of war. As he leaves the bush behind and takes to the skies as an RAF pilot, many thrilling adventures and dangerous missions will ensue before he finally makes his way back home... 
 
Starring Patrick Malahide as the voice of Dahl, these colourful dramatisations will carry you away into worlds every bit as amazing, strange and memorable as the ones in his acclaimed fiction. Duration: 3 hours approx

Boy & Going Solo

BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramas

Alan Bennett

A unique collection of eight Alan Bennett stories, read by the author. Alan Bennett is one of Britain's best-loved authors and an acclaimed storyteller. This exclusive compilation includes eight of his best tales, collected together for the first time. 
 
Here is his celebrated, iconic memoir The Lady in the Van; as well as two fascinating autobiographical accounts of his family and childhood. Uncle Clarence sees Bennett visiting the grave of a relative who died in Flanders in 1917; while in Hymn he joins forces with composer George Fenton and the Medici String Quartet to explore his musical memories. 
 
Bennett's incisive, acute observations shine through in his fiction too, with wry, moving and darkly humorous meditations on death (Father! Father! Burning Bright and The Laying On of Hands), sex (The Shielding of Mrs Forbes) and middle-age ennui (The Clothes They Stood Up In). His gift for affectionate satire reaches its pinnacle in The Uncommon Reader, a delightful tale in which the Queen discovers the pleasures of literature. 
 
Poignant, compassionate, wise and witty, the stories included are The Lady in the Van, Uncle Clarence, The Clothes They Stood Up In, Father! Father! Burning Bright, Hymn, The Laying On of Hands, The Uncommon Reader and The Shielding of Mrs Forbes. Duration: 13 hours approx.

Alan Bennett: Stories

Read by Alan Bennett

A unique collection of twelve full-cast BBC Radio productions of plays by Alan Bennett. The titles are Forty Years On ; A Visit from Miss Prothero ; Say Something Happened ; Kafka’s Dick ; Two in Torquay ; The Madness of George III ; The History Boys ; An Englishman Abroad; A Question of Attribution; The Lady in the Van ; Cocktail Sticks and The Last of the Sun. The cast includes John Gielgud, Patricia Routledge, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Judi Dench, Thora Hird, Alex Jennings and many more. Duration: 15 hours approx

Alan Bennett: Plays

BBC Radio dramatisations

John Finnemore

John Finnemore's Double Acts Series 1 is the winner of the Writers Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy and the Comedy.co.uk awards for Best Radio Sketch Show! 
 
The complete fifth series of BBC Radio 4’s award-winning sketch show, written by and starring the writer of Cabin Pressure. 
 
'One of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time' The Guardian 
 
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme has won a host of awards, including the 2015 BBC Audio Drama Award for 'Best Scripted Comedy with Live Audience'. Written by and starring John Finnemore, this fifth series of the hit show returns with more witty wordplay and laugh-out-loud sketches. 
 
These six episodes include an unlikely wager, a troubled bluesman, a rip-roaring adventure on the high seas, a new approach to the News; and, well, since you asked him for a tale of espionage… 
 
In addition, the voices in John's head push him to the tipping point, we look back at a career in accounting, hear of an over-rated experience and, we're sorry to say, Patsy Straightwoman returns with an interview sketch. 
 
John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme also features Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan. Duration: 3 hours.

John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme: Series 5

The BBC Radio 4 comedy sketch show

The complete audio collection of Alan Bennett’s celebrated monologues, published together for the first time and performed by some of Britain’s best actors 
 
The Talking Heads monologues are widely regarded as one of Alan Bennett’s finest dramatic achievements. First broadcast on BBC TV and BBC Radio 4 in the 1980s and 1990s, they won a host of awards and huge popular acclaim, and remain among his most admired works today.This collection includes all twelve Talking Heads, plus the precursor of that series, A Woman of No Importance. Beautifully crafted and full of compassion and wry observation, each tale is ripe with the quirky, insightful detail that has become Bennett's trademark. The monologues are:A Woman of No Importance (Patricia Routledge); A Chip in the Sugar (Alan Bennett); A Lady of Letters (Patricia Routledge); Bed Among the Lentils (Anna Massey); Soldiering On (Stephanie Cole); Her Big Chance (Julie Walters); A Cream Cracker Under the Settee (ThoraHird); Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet (Patricia Routledge); The Hand of God (Eileen Atkins); Playing Sandwiches (David Haig); The Outside Dog (Julie Walters); Nights in the Gardens of Spain (Penelope Wilton) and Waiting for the Telegram (Thora Hird). 
 
Intensely moving, deeply engrossing and highly entertaining, these spellbinding soliloquies are essential listening.

The Complete Talking Heads

The classic BBC Radio 4 monologues plus A Woman of No Importance

Maggie Smith stars in this BBC radio adaptation of Alan Bennett's highly acclaimed autobiographical stage play 
 
An eccentric old lady moves into a quiet street in Camden Town. There she remains, installed in her van in glorious self-sufficiency, until the council instructs her to move on. Then a kind homeowner invites her to move her van into his garden – where she stays for the next fifteen years. This is the fascinating story of the genteel vagrant who found a unique place in Alan Bennett's life and writing. 
 
But the drama is as much about the author himself as Miss Shepherd. Why did Alan Bennett let her commandeer his driveway? Was he acting out of kindness, weakness, or hidden guilt over not spending enough time with his own mother? Did he always subconsciously plan to exploit Miss Shepherd for literary profit? Thought-provoking and moving, The Lady in the Van tackles profound questions about social responsibility, homelessness and mental illness with a lightness of touch characteristic of Bennett the master storyteller. 
 
With a full cast including Adrian Scarborough, Marcia Warren and Alan Bennett, this bitter-sweet comic tale stars Maggie Smith as Miss Shepherd. 
 
Now a major BBC feature film, starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings.

The Lady in the Van

A BBC Radio 4 adaptation

Elizabeth Jane Howard

Sarah Daniels

Lin Coghlan

Penelope Wilton narrates BBC Radio 4’s epic dramatisation of the treasured family saga 
 
Elizabeth Jane Howard’s five book chronicle of the upper-middle class Cazalet family begins in 1938, as siblings Hugh, Edward, Rupert and Rachel join together for another family holiday at Home Place, their house in the Sussex countryside. 
 
During the course of The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change, the progress of their lives, and those of their children, will be charted. As their stories unfolds we gain a vivid insight into the lives, hopes and loves of three generations during the Second Word War and beyond. 
 
Dramatised by Sarah Daniels and Lin Coghlan, and with a large cast of actors across all five books, this remarkable radio event adds a new dimension to Elizabeth Jane Howard’s extraordinary chronicles. The first four Cazalet novels sold over a million copies, with the fifth being published in 2013, shortly before the author’s death.

The Cazalets

The epic full-cast BBC Radio dramatisation

Various

The last in a short series of stories that each take us to a different part of the UK. He hasn't told anyone, but today is Charles' last early shift, sweeping the streets of the North Laine in Brighton. This afternoon he's leaving. Forever. All he wants to do is get to the Pavilion Gardens for dawn, to say goodbye properly. But it's not going to be that simple. Directed by Abigail le Fleming.  Ed Harris is a young Brighton-based playwright and poet. His plays include Mongrel Island (Soho Theatre), The Cow Play and Never Ever After (shortlisted for the 2008 Meyer-Whitworth Award). He has also written numerous radio plays including TROLL which won The Writers' Guild Award for best radio drama, and The Moment You Feel It (BBC Radio 4) which was nominated for the Tinniswood award.

Take Me To The North Laine

Katharine Way

Sarah has got the job of her dreams. Working with Cal, an Astronomy Professor at a remote observatory in New Zealand. Sarah loves her work, but she would rather look at stars than deal with people. Cal's an exciting person to work with - brilliant and intuitive, generous, funny. He also has an incredible capacity for work and never seems to sleep. They're busy looking at Black Holes when something strange happens - a transmission from a planet that is being destroyed. Cal is convinced it is genuine. But could this be the Holy Grail? 
 
Written by Katharine Way. 
Starring Julia Haworth as Sarah and Philip Bretherton as Cal 
Produced by Gary Brown. 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 2 May 2011 
 
 
©2011 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2011 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Star Struck

Alice Oswald

BBC Radio 4's extraordinary evocation of the experience of moonrise over the Severn Estuary, by award-winning poet Alice Oswald. Originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 10 March 2011.  Set to original music by Roger Goula, the subject of 'A Sleepwalk on the Severn' is moonrise, which happens five times in different forms: new moon, half moon, full moon, no moon and moon reborn. Various characters, some living some dead, all based on real people from the Severn catchment, talk towards the moment of moonrise and are changed by it.  Performed by Ron Cook, Sam Dale, Emma Fielding, Tom Goodman-Hill, James Laurenson and Helen Longworth. Music composed by Roger Goula and performed by the Raven Quartet and Rowland Sutherland.

A Sleepwalk On The Severn

A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation

Lee Hall

The listener response to this play when it was first broadcast as part of the 'God’s Country' series was overwhelming and it has gone on to become an audio bestseller.Performed by Becky Simpson, Spoonface is a young autistic Jewish girl who, learning that she is terminally ill, contemplates the meaning of life and death in a dramatic monologue interwoven with operatic extracts from the magical voice of Maria Callas.It was awarded Best Drama and Talkie of the Year at the 1997 Talkie Awards and was described by Gillian Reynolds in the Daily Telegraph as ‘Funny, intense and poetic’. By the author of Billy Elliott.Written by Lee Hall. Lee Hall has asserted his moral rights (including the right to be identified as the author) in the Work. All rights reserved. Applications for performance or other use should be made to Judy Daish Associates Limited, 2 St Charles Place, London W10 6EG.

Spoonface Steinberg

Annie McCartney

A BBC Radio 4 kitchen comedy by Annie McCartney, starring James Nesbitt as the Fridge. ‘Staring into the Fridge’ was originally broadcast as the ‘Afternoon Play’ on 13 September 2010.  With two twenty-something children and a dubious boyfriend eating her out of house and home, Maggie (Annie McCartney) is beginning to lose the will to live. She feels she has no one to talk to or to listen. But all of that is about to change when she hears a voice speaking to her from the corner of the kitchen. It seems that the only one who understands her predicament is her Fridge (James Nesbitt). But unlike poor beleaguered Maggie, this Fridge has got 'attitude' and is determined to help her get her life back on track!  Also stars Marcella Riordan, Mark Lambert, Katy Gleadhill, Jonathan Harden and Richard Orr. Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan.

Staring Into The Fridge

Paul Gallico

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Paul Gallico’s ‘The Snow Goose’ by Nick Warburton, starring Steven Mackintosh.  When 'Open Book' asked various authors to champion a favourite neglected classic on the programme, Michael Morpurgo chose 'The Snow Goose'; perhaps no surprise, with his own story 'War Horse' depicting a friendship between a boy and his horse which takes them both into the horror of World War I.  In ‘The Snow Goose’, A wounded bird brings together a disfigured artist and a young girl on the eve of World War II.  With Steven Mackintosh as Philip Rhayader, Georgia Groome as Fritha, Deborah Findlay as Mrs Farnes and Sam Dale as the storyteller. Also featuring Michael Shelford, Malcolm Tierney and David Seddon. Directed by Sally Avens.

The Snow Goose

E.R. Braithwaite

E.R Braithwaite was a unique writer, a Guyanese-born British-American novelist, writer, teacher and diplomat best known for his stories of social conditions and racial discrimination against black people. Upon graduating from Cambridge, he found himself barred from work as an engineer because of racism. Unable to find an alternative, he took a job as a teacher at St George-in-the-East school in London’s East End, which was recovering from the battering it had taken during the war. This experience formed the basis of his autobiographical novel- To Sir, with Love. This collection features 3 of his key titles brought together as modern dramatizations. Braithwaite's work brings awareness to the racial prejudice individuals faced after the inequality experienced during the war years. The writing is alert, alive, and full of wonderful characters. The work feels fresh, and the commentary on life remains relevant to modern life in the 21st Century.

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