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Behind the Author's Desk: Dramas of Famous Writers' Real Lives
- A BBC Radio 4 Drama Collection
- Narrated by: Andrew Scott, Glenda Jackson, Toby Jones, Haydn Gwynne, Alistair McGowan, Ian McDiarmid, Richard Dormer, full cast, Paul Ritter, Tom Goodman-Hill
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
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George Bernard Shaw
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George Bernard Shaw - or Bernard Shaw, as he preferred to be known - was one of Ireland's foremost dramatists and thinkers. His plays range from contemporary satires to historical allegories, and are infused with ideas, insight, wit and wisdom. Included here are some of his best works, adapted for radio and brought together in reverse chronological order in one statement collection.
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Home Front: The Complete BBC Radio Collection, Volume 1
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Series 1-5 of the groundbreaking BBC Radio 4 drama charting life on the home front during World War One. First heard on radio between 4 August 2014 and 9 November 2018, each episode of Home Front is set exactly 100 years before the broadcast date, and each follows one character’s day. Together they create a mosaic of experience from a wide cross section of society, mixing historical fact with enthralling fiction to explore how ordinary people coped with daily life in wartime Britain.
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Excellent Radio Drama!
- By Lee on 11-24-18
By: Lucy Catherine, and others
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The Wilkie Collins BBC Radio Collection
- Dramatisations and Readings of His Sensational Stories Including The Woman in White & The Moonstone
- By: Wilkie Collins
- Narrated by: Harry Lloyd, John Sharp, full cast, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 36 mins
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Wilkie Collins was one of Victorian England's best-loved and best-selling authors, and a crime-fiction pioneer. His enthralling 'sensation novels' such as The Woman in White paved the way for today's thrillers and his tour de force The Moonstone is one of the first, and greatest, modern-detective stories. This collection features dramatisations of these two masterpieces, with star casts including Toby Stephens (The Woman in White) and John Sharp (The Moonstone). Also included are adaptations of three of Collins' other major novels.
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Bit of a mixed bag
- By Chantal Noordeloos on 08-13-21
By: Wilkie Collins
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The Frederica Quartet: The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, Babel Tower & A Whistling Woman
- A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation Plus Selected Short Stories
- By: A. S. Byatt
- Narrated by: full cast, Rosemary Leach, Indira Varma, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
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Inspired by the novels of D.H. Lawrence, particularly The Rainbow and Women in Love, this ambitious quartet from Booker Prize-winning novelist A.S. Byatt charts the lives of the Potter family between 1953 and 1970. Set against the changing social and political landscape of England in the '50s and '60s, it follows the heroine, Frederica, from precocious teenager to TV talk-show host and from her Yorkshire home to the heart of swinging London.
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Disappointing!
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By: A. S. Byatt
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The Katherine Mansfield BBC Radio Collection
- Dramatisations and Readings of Selected Stories
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Katherine Mansfield is remembered as one of the great modernist short-story writers, who managed to pack a huge amount of creative work into her 34 years before she died of TB in 1923. This impressive collection includes brand-new full-cast BBC dramatisations of 'Bliss', 'Something Childish but Very Natural', 'Marriage a la Mode', 'Daughters of the Late Colonel', 'The Garden Party', 'Life of Ma Parker and Her First Ball', plus many more readings brought to life by a wealth of narrators.
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The Leo Tolstoy BBC Radio Drama Collection
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One of the greatest novelists of all time, Leo Tolstoy is famed worldwide for his masterpieces of realist fiction, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. This comprehensive collection contains both those iconic works, as well as his final novel, Resurrection, his autobiographical essay 'A Confession', Stephen Wakelam's dramatic account of his tempestuous marriage, Mrs Tolstoy, and In Our Time: Tolstoy.
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Excellent adaptation..No chapter titles
- By Anna B. on 01-07-22
By: Leo Tolstoy
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George Bernard Shaw
- A BBC Radio Drama Collection
- By: George Bernard Shaw
- Narrated by: full cast, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, and others
- Length: 25 hrs and 48 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
George Bernard Shaw - or Bernard Shaw, as he preferred to be known - was one of Ireland's foremost dramatists and thinkers. His plays range from contemporary satires to historical allegories, and are infused with ideas, insight, wit and wisdom. Included here are some of his best works, adapted for radio and brought together in reverse chronological order in one statement collection.
-
Home Front: The Complete BBC Radio Collection, Volume 1
- By: Lucy Catherine, Katie Hims, Sebastian Baczkiewicz, and others
- Narrated by: full cast, Toby Jones, Ami Metcalf, and others
- Length: 38 hrs and 23 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
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Series 1-5 of the groundbreaking BBC Radio 4 drama charting life on the home front during World War One. First heard on radio between 4 August 2014 and 9 November 2018, each episode of Home Front is set exactly 100 years before the broadcast date, and each follows one character’s day. Together they create a mosaic of experience from a wide cross section of society, mixing historical fact with enthralling fiction to explore how ordinary people coped with daily life in wartime Britain.
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Excellent Radio Drama!
- By Lee on 11-24-18
By: Lucy Catherine, and others
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The Wilkie Collins BBC Radio Collection
- Dramatisations and Readings of His Sensational Stories Including The Woman in White & The Moonstone
- By: Wilkie Collins
- Narrated by: Harry Lloyd, John Sharp, full cast, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 36 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Wilkie Collins was one of Victorian England's best-loved and best-selling authors, and a crime-fiction pioneer. His enthralling 'sensation novels' such as The Woman in White paved the way for today's thrillers and his tour de force The Moonstone is one of the first, and greatest, modern-detective stories. This collection features dramatisations of these two masterpieces, with star casts including Toby Stephens (The Woman in White) and John Sharp (The Moonstone). Also included are adaptations of three of Collins' other major novels.
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-
Bit of a mixed bag
- By Chantal Noordeloos on 08-13-21
By: Wilkie Collins
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The Frederica Quartet: The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, Babel Tower & A Whistling Woman
- A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation Plus Selected Short Stories
- By: A. S. Byatt
- Narrated by: full cast, Rosemary Leach, Indira Varma, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Inspired by the novels of D.H. Lawrence, particularly The Rainbow and Women in Love, this ambitious quartet from Booker Prize-winning novelist A.S. Byatt charts the lives of the Potter family between 1953 and 1970. Set against the changing social and political landscape of England in the '50s and '60s, it follows the heroine, Frederica, from precocious teenager to TV talk-show host and from her Yorkshire home to the heart of swinging London.
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-
Disappointing!
- By Sam Q on 11-18-21
By: A. S. Byatt
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The Katherine Mansfield BBC Radio Collection
- Dramatisations and Readings of Selected Stories
- By: Katherine Mansfield
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs, Claire Skinner, Derek Jacobi, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Katherine Mansfield is remembered as one of the great modernist short-story writers, who managed to pack a huge amount of creative work into her 34 years before she died of TB in 1923. This impressive collection includes brand-new full-cast BBC dramatisations of 'Bliss', 'Something Childish but Very Natural', 'Marriage a la Mode', 'Daughters of the Late Colonel', 'The Garden Party', 'Life of Ma Parker and Her First Ball', plus many more readings brought to life by a wealth of narrators.
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The Leo Tolstoy BBC Radio Drama Collection
- Full-Cast Dramatisations of War and Peace, Anna Karenina & More
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One of the greatest novelists of all time, Leo Tolstoy is famed worldwide for his masterpieces of realist fiction, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. This comprehensive collection contains both those iconic works, as well as his final novel, Resurrection, his autobiographical essay 'A Confession', Stephen Wakelam's dramatic account of his tempestuous marriage, Mrs Tolstoy, and In Our Time: Tolstoy.
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Excellent adaptation..No chapter titles
- By Anna B. on 01-07-22
By: Leo Tolstoy
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Troy
- The Greek Myths Reimagined
- By: Stephen Fry
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Full of tragic heroes, intoxicating love stories, and the unstoppable force of fate, there is no conflict more iconic than the Trojan War. Troy is the story of the epic battle retold by Fry with drama, humor, and vivid emotion. Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, Helen, their lovers, and their mortal enemies all burn bright in Fry's compelling prose. This volume invites you to explore a captivating world with a brilliant storyteller as your guide.
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Thank the gods
- By Stefan Filipovits on 06-22-21
By: Stephen Fry
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The Rivals: Tales of Sherlock Holmes’ Rival Detectives
- 16 BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramas
- By: Robert Barr, Julius Chambers, R. Austin Freeman, and others
- Narrated by: Tim Piggott-Smith, John Sessions, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
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Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard was made to look a fool in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Now he gets his own back, introducing 16 tales of detectives whose abilities rival that of the great Sherlock Holmes.
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fantastic!!
- By Audible Customer on 10-16-21
By: Robert Barr, and others
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Barbara Pym: A BBC Radio Drama Collection
- Some Tame Gazelle, No Fond Return of Love, Crampton Hodnet & More
- By: Barbara Pym
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes, Hannah Gordon, Samantha Bond, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Original Recording
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Story
Barbara Pym is one of the 20th-century's wittiest, and most underrated, novelists. Her perceptive comedies of manners, centred around the domestic lives and loves of unassuming middle-class Englishwomen, won her many devoted readers and saw her hailed as a modern-day Jane Austen. Yet she spent 15 years out of print in the 1960s and '70s, until Philip Larkin championed her work in the Times Literary Supplement. Her seventh novel was subsequently shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and writers from Jilly Cooper to Alexander McCall Smith continue to laud her talent today.
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A Wonderful Find
- By Martha Alston on 05-24-22
By: Barbara Pym
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Tennessee Williams: A BBC Radio Drama Collection
- A Streetcar Named Desire, A Glass Menagerie, Spring Storm and More
- By: Tennessee Williams
- Narrated by: Anne-Marie Duff, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Celia Imrie, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
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Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams is one of the three most important American dramatists of the 20th century, alongside Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill. Acclaimed for their lyrical language, dark themes and vivid portrayal of the American South, his works have spawned several Oscar-winning films and been translated and performed worldwide. Collected here are some of the best, beginning with the play that launched Williams' career: The Glass Menagerie.
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The George Eliot BBC Radio Drama Collection
- Five Full-Cast Dramatisations Including Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Anna Chancellor, Caroline Martin, Deborah Findlay, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins
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The collected BBC radio adaptations of George Eliot’s pioneering Victorian novels, known for their realism and psychological insight. Includes Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda.
By: George Eliot
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Inspector Purbright
- Five BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Crime Dramatisations from The Flaxborough Chronicles
- By: Colin Watson
- Narrated by: Peter Jeffrey, John Rowe, John Pullen, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
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Inspector Purbright is a thoroughly English policeman: affable, polite, dogged and decent. Created by award-winning crime writer Colin Watson, he appeared in 12 Flaxborough mysteries, four of which were adapted for BBC TV under the title Murder Most English. These five radio dramatisations star Peter Jeffrey, John Pullen and John Rowe as Purbright.
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It passes the time
- By BJM on 03-23-22
By: Colin Watson
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Dr Gideon Fell: The Complete BBC Radio Drama Collection
- Eight Full-Cast Crime Dramas from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction
- By: John Dickson Carr
- Narrated by: Wendy Craig, Donald Sinden, John Hartley, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
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Story
With his cape, canes and shovel hat, portly amateur sleuth Dr Gideon Fell cuts an eccentric figure - but his odd appearance belies his sharp intellect and astonishing faculty for deduction. Created by crime novelist John Dickson Carr and supposedly based on fellow author G. K. Chesterton, Dr Fell appeared in 23 novels between 1933 and 1967. This radio collection comprises all eight of the BBC adaptations based on Carr's best-selling books.
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Baloney
- By Ctd on 03-11-22
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The Merchant of Venice
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Hugh Griffith, Dorothy Tutin, Harry Andrews, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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One of William Shakespeare's greatest plays, The Merchant of Venice is also his most controversial. A tale of the triumph of true love, it is packed with witty dialogue, philosophizing, and lyrical flourishes. But the comedy is often overshadowed by concerns about anti-Semitism swirling around the character of the Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Listen as this production by the Shakespeare Recording Society brings the play to life, warts and all, and demonstrates that an exploration of religious intolerance makes this work even more vital and compelling than ever.
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Great play, acting not bad
- By Donald on 06-18-04
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Raymond Chandler: The BBC Radio Drama Collection
- By: Raymond Chandler
- Narrated by: Toby Stephens
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Original Recording
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The complete collection of landmark BBC Radio dramas of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe mysteries. Philip Marlowe is the archetypal noir detective: wisecracking and world weary, hard boiled yet honourable. This volume includes all eight dramatisations of Raymond Chandler's groundbreaking crime novels featuring his iconic hero.
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Toby Stephens goes California Noir
- By Adeliese Baumann on 10-21-16
By: Raymond Chandler
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The Fyodor Dostoevsky BBC Radio Drama Collection
- Including Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Devils & The Brothers Karamazov
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Roy Marsden, Alex Jennings, Roger Allam, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
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One of the most important and influential Russian writers of the 19th century, Fyodor Dostoevsky is admired worldwide for his great realist novels, exploring questions of morality, philosophy and the nature of existence. This compilation contains the BBC radio productions of his four most famous novels - as well as three lesser-known works and two bonus documentaries - collected together for the first time.
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Awful. Just read/listen to the actual books
- By wahwah on 05-02-22
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The Chief Inspector Dover Mysteries
- Six BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Crime Dramas
- By: Joyce Porter, Paul Mendelson
- Narrated by: Kenneth Cranham, Stuart McQuarrie, full cast
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Original Recording
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Cantankerous and dishevelled, Chief Inspector Dover is no one's idea of a model detective - but he does have an uncanny knack for solving crimes. In these radio dramas, set in the 1960s and '70s, he and his long-suffering sergeant, Charlie McGregor, investigate sinister cases of kidnap and murder. The first four are adapted from Joyce Porter's novels, while the latter two are original stories based on her characters.
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Mildly entertaining
- By wisconsinclark on 02-26-22
By: Joyce Porter, and others
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John Fowles: The Collector, The Magus & The French Lieutenant’s Woman
- Three BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisations
- By: John Fowles
- Narrated by: Judi Dench, Nigel Anthony, Tom Burke, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
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John Fowles won international acclaim for his innovative, allusive novels The Collector, The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman. All were critical and commercial successes, translated into several languages and adapted as feature films. This collection brings together the BBC Radio adaptations of these three modern classics, with stellar casts including Judi Dench, Charles Dance and John Hurt.
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nice
- By Marcy on 06-02-22
By: John Fowles
Publisher's Summary
18 biographical dramas based on the lives and loves of celebrated writers.
These surprising, revealing dramas take a behind-the-scenes look at some of our best-loved authors, mingling fact and fantasy to explore their extraordinary hidden lives. From love affairs, friendships and family relationships to traumas, tragedies and journeys of self-discovery, we glimpse the unwritten worlds that shaped their unforgettable fiction. Among the star casts are Andrew Scott, Toby Jones, Richard Dormer, Glenda Jackson, Bella Ramsey, Julia Davis, Ian McDiarmid, Haydn Gwynne, David Threlfall, Alistair McGowan, Tom Goodman-Hill, Hattie Morahan, Rosie Cavaliero, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Paul Ritter and Lia Williams
Jane and Tom - Writing to her sister, Jane Austen describes her love for Tom Lefroy - a love that would lead to Pride and Prejudice.
When Fanny Met Germaine - A delightful romp through the passionate, scandalous friendship between two 18th-century writers: Fanny Burney and Mme de Stael.
Comrade Ackland - Dorset, 1936. Newly returned from an illicit trip to Civil War Spain, Sylvia Townsend Warner and her lover, Valentine Ackland, have an unexpected visitor....
Tongues of Fire - 1913. When a Nobel laureate visits Dublin's Abbey Theatre, fireworks erupt between WB Yeats and Sean O'Casey.
A Year at the Races - Approaching the end of his career, Groucho Marx meets a wisecracking fan determined to teach him new comedy tricks.
Spike and the Elfin Oak - A comic fantasy inspired by Spike Milligan's madcap attempts in the mid-1960s to preserve a curious sculpture in Kensington Gardens.
Everybody's Got Conditions - Casting Bette Davis in his play The Night of the Iguana proves the biggest mistake in Tennessee Williams' career....
I Believe I Have Genius - Humble and obscure, young Charlotte Brontë travels to Brussels to study at a girls' school.
Marian and George - Marian Evans (a.k.a. George Eliot) must choose between her adored brother and the love of her life....
Lying Low - An intriguing drama imagining what happened to Samuel Beckett during his mysterious three weeks in Folkestone in 1961.
A Terrible Beauty - WB Yeats travels to France to propose to beautiful Maud Gonne, soon after her husband's execution in the 1916 Easter Rising.
The Watcher on the Wall - Dramatised from his letters, this is the story of Louis MacNeice's transatlantic love affair and the poetry it inspired.
Edith Sitwell in Scarborough - Returning to her birthplace, Edith Sitwell sets out to wreak revenge.
Mrs Tolstoy - A five-part drama charting the tempestuous marriage between Leo and Sofya Tolstoy.
The 'B' Word - The opening night of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion causes a scandal and sparks a passionate love/hate triangle....
The Rules of Palship - The young Noël Coward demanded fierce loyalty from his friends - but did he live up to his own high standards?
The Lost Road - A playful tribute to the long friendship between CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien and how it influenced their respective masterpieces.
Luxembourg Gardens - Re-imagined from Katherine Mansfield's stories, letters and journals, this Mansfieldesque play explores her last day in Paris, where she is dying of consumption aged 34.