Michael Kitchen stars as John Jarndyce in a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Dickens’ classic tale of London and the law.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Charles Dickens', A Tale of Two Cities, begins with these famous words. On the eve of the French Revolution of 1789, the story follows Charles Darney, a French aristocrat-turned-revolutionary, and Sydney Carton, a purposeless British lawyer in love with Darney's wife, Lucie. Sydney's love...

Sydney Carton, a lawyer and wastrel, tries to redeem himself somewhere between Paris and London to make up for his mis-spent youth. A tale of two cities is considered by many to be Dickens' most thrilling novel. Whilst contrasting the tranquility of London with revolution-torn Paris, incident follows incident as Sydney Carton finally redeems himse...

Oliver Twist, the orphan, runs away to Victorian London to make his fortune... Oliver Twist is a family favourite at the same time as being a rather dark examination of the seedier side of life in Victorian London. An orphan, Oliver runs away to the big city, hoping to feel a sense of belonging and love. He falls in with a charismatic group of thi...

Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless by his father's death and becomes a champion for the weak and ill-treated. Nicholas Nickleby is at once a moving and funny novel following the fortunes and misfortunes of an impetuous and high-spirited hero. Left penniless by his father's death, and protector of his sister Kate, Nicholas Nickleby becomes a true...

The Bagman's Story is an uncharacteristically happy story taken from 'The Pickwick Papers'. Dealing with themes of marriage and having an overall positive tone, this tale is uplifting and gentle, with a reassuring and welcome direction.

"Now what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life." So says Thomas Gradgrind in Dickens' immortal story set in the North of England in the 19th Century. Gradgrind, a local industrialist, gave this advice to his children set against a backdrop of huge wealth and even huger poverty where the rich...

The Great Winglebury Duel is a story based in Winglebury; a town inhabited by liberal people. A town renowned for great architecture and art, none better than found at the Winglebury Arms, Dickens' inimitable character studies make this short story essential and captivating listening. A funny and highly-enjoyable listen.

Dickens' most autobiographical novel. It paints a powerful picture of social conditions in Victorian England. One of six Dickens' titles read by the great Martin Jarvis. His interpretation of Uriah Heep for BBC Television is a classic.

Little Nell cares for her grandfather in the gloomy surroundings of his curiosity shop. Reduced to poverty, the pair are forced to flee London and Nell finds herself uprooted from a secure and innocent childhood and cast into a world where evil takes the form of characters such as Swiveller, Nubbles and the grotesque and lecherous Quilp.

Hard Times is Dickens's most political novel. Set in the industrial north of England, in the fictional Coketown, he examines the lives of working people, who are taught by the capitalists Gradgrind and Bounderby to think only of the facts of life and not to indulge in imagination. Gradgrind's own children have been educated thus, and as a result ar...

Mr. Dombey is a successful businessman who looks forward to the day when his young son Paul will be old enough to join the family business. But Dombey also has a loving daughter, Florence, whom he ignores, lavishing all his attention on his precious son. Set in the 1840s, against a background of Britain's emerging industrial power, the world of com...

In one of the most famous openings of any novel, Dickens masterfully presents the turmoil of the French Revolution which is the backdrop for a novel of love, patience, hope and self-sacrifice. It is read by Anton Lesser whose award-winning Dickens recordings in their abridged form have now resulted in the opportunity to read the full unabridged tex...

Recognised as one of the greatest works of English fiction, David Copperfield tells the story of a young man, from his painful childhood, through chance, tragedy and adventure, to self-knowledge and happiness. It includes some of Dickens's most vividly memorable characters. The cruelly saturnine Mr Murdstone; the redoubtable Betsey Trotwood; the ch...

The timeless and enchanting festive story of Scrooge, who declares Christmas 'Humbug' and is taught otherwise. Ebenezer Scrooge is a money-grabbing skinflint who makes his own life and the lives of those around him nigh-unbearable with his mean and economical ways. One night just before Christmas, tucked up in his cold bed, he is shocked to meet ap...

Narrated in the first person, Great Expectations tells the story of Philip Pirrip (known as Pip) from his disadvantaged start as an orphan in the Kent marshes to the improvement in his position following an anonymous allowance. Pip moves to London where, only after many trials, does he learn humility and the value of loyalty. Key Dickens characters...

A complex plot of love and inheritance is set against the English legal system of the mid-nineteenth century, with all its tortuous avenues and disguised resolutions. Here is the firm, Jarndyce & Jarndyce, the young orphan and ward of court Ester Summerson (who tells much of the story). As always, it is the skilled pen of Dickens himself that c...

A workhouse orphan, Oliver escapes by running away to London. He gets drawn into the treacherous underworld of pickpockets and thieves headed by Fagin. His companions are ultimately destined for gruesome ends. Will Oliver emerge unscathed from the darkness of the underworld?

Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old skinflint. He hates everyone, especially children. But at Christmas the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future come to visit him, scare him into mending his ways, and he finds, as he celebrates with Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and their family, that geniality brings its own reward.

The story of a family overshadowed by the Marshalsea, London's debtors' Prison. The Father of the Marshalsea is William Dorrit. He is tended by his daughter Amy, Little Dorrit, to whom the prison is home. She becomes the novel's liberator in her selfless devotion to her father and her redeeming love for Arthur Clennam.

The most gorgeously theatrical of all Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby follows the delightful adventures of a hearty young hero in nineteenth-century England. Nicholas, a gentleman's son fallen upon hard times, must set out to make his way in the world. His journey is accompanied by some of the most swaggering scoundrels and unforgettable eccent...