A compilation of highlights from various Christmas episodes, where we not only hear tidings of the births of Debbie Aldridge and John Archer, but also drop in on shows in the village hall and hear old favourite songs like The Village Pump rendered by Tom Forrest, and Jones' Ale by a group of tuneful male voices.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama written by Stephen Wakelam portraying the tempestuous marriage between Leo and Sofya Tolstoy. Originally broadcast in the "Woman's Hour Drama" slot from 9 August 2010 - 13 August 2010. In his fifties the great writer Leo Tolstoy has a spiritual crisis and converts to Christianity. He stops sleeping with his wife. Th...

This original and refreshingly different dramatisation follows Dante, 'lost in a dark wood', who is met by Virgil, who takes him on a tour of the underworld: a place he could end up if he decides to take his own life. Starring Corin Redgrave as Dante, Alex Jennings as Virgil, Laurie Anderson as Beatrice and Arthur Brown as The Gate of Hell and prod...

A comedy of manners in five acts, The Rivals was Sheridan's second commercially produced play. The play is set in Bath in the 18th century, a town legendary for conspicuous consumption and fashion at the time. Wealthy, fashionable people went there to "take the waters", which were believed to have healing properties. Bath was much less exclusive th...

Beware the gossips! Lady Sneerwell and her hireling Snake are certainly up to no good in this timeless send-up of hypocritical manners. Thanks to their scandal-mongering, the comely Lady Teazle must fend off the slanderous barbs that have caught the ear of her elderly husband - as well as every other gossip in London! What follows is a torrent of m...

Heralded by an instantly memorable signature tune, the adventures of special agent Dick Barton and his friends, Jock and Snowey, originally ran on the BBC Light Programme between 1946 and 1951. Set in an exciting world of criminal masterminds, espionage and adventure, the series was essential listening for an entire generation. Sadly very few of th...

Kenneth Branagh stars in BBC Radio 4's ambitious eight-hour dramatisation of 'Life and Fate', Vasily Grossman's epic masterpiece set during the Battle of Stalingrad. This powerful work, completed in 1960, charts the fate of both a nation and a family in the turmoil of war. Its comparison of Stalinism with Nazism was considered by Soviet authoritie...

Carleton Hobbs stars as Sherlock Holmes in 12 classic full-cast BBC Radio dramas in these twelve classic stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Carleton Hobbs established the 'sound' of Sherlock Holmes, with Norman Shelley as his superb Watson. Now these unique recordings are available together for the first time ever, with specially commissioned introduct...

A BBC Radio 4 fictionalised account of the interrogation of P. G. Wodehouse (Tim McInnerny) by MI5 during World War II. How to be an Internee with No Previous Experience was originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 15 December 2010. In 1944, P. G. Wodehouse, the creator of Jeeves and Wooster, was questioned by MI5 after broadcasting to Amer...

Two BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations, starring Brian Cox as McLevy, Siobhan Redmond as Jean Brash and Michael Perceval-Maxwell as Mulholland. Inspired by the real-life memoirs of a Victorian Inspector in Scotland, James McLevy prowls the dark streets of 1860s Edinburgh bringing criminals to justice, with the assistance of Constable Mulholland....

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation written by Amanda Whittington, originally broadcast as the Afternoon Play on 23 February 2009. The tumultuous tale of the trial of Lady Jane Grey, proclaimed Queen of England in 1553 at the age of 16, nine days later locked in the Tower and, within a year, dead.

A sparkling BBC Radio 4 adaptation of J.B. Priestley's comic play, starring Alan Bennett, Brenda Blethyn, Gwen Taylor, Alun Armstrong, Michael Jayston and Nicola Pagett. Three eminently respectable Yorkshire couples are in the midst of their joint silver wedding celebrations when they receive a rude shock - they are not legally married. Confronted...

Tom Ripley detests murder unless it is absolutely necessary. He prefers someone else to do the dirty work. But if he's called on to act there is no one more cool, calculating and clever. In these dramatisations, BBC Radio 4 brings all Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels together in one thrilling series. In The Talented Mr Ripley, Tom makes a bid for...

Considered too obscene to be staged in its original form for nearly 200 years, William Wycherley's bawdy comedy tells the tale of Mr. Horner a notorious rake who spreads the false rumour that he is impotent in order to gain free access to other men's wives. When he meets the young, innocent Margery Pinchwife, the 'country wife' of the title, the sc...

Ronald Frame's BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation starring Forbes Masson as the detective Allan Pinkerton, originally broadcast in the "Afternoon Play" slot on Tuesday 2 March 2010. In the new immigrant community of 1840s America, Scotsman Allan Pinkerton turns detective when an influx of counterfeit dollars threatens the local economy. With For...

A collection of three plays by Mike Walker, inspired by Holinshed's Chronicles, about the early years of the Plantagenet dynasty. The series was originally broadcast on Radio 4 in the "Classic Serial" slots on 14, 21 and 28 February 2010. What is a Man?-The first of the House of Anjou to be king of England, Henry II's long reign was finally beset...

John Fletcher's BBC Radio 3 full-cast play explores the dramatic clash between three key historical figures: a warlord, a historian and a poet. Originally broadcast in Radio 3's "Drama on 3" slot on 16 November 2008. As war swirls around them, three of the most important figures in the history of the Middle and Near East are brought together in fi...

Tom Forrest brother to Doris and uncle to Jack, Phil and Christine. Tom like his father before him worked as gamekeeper. Purveyor of folk lore, Tom was born, married and died in Ambridge.

Three classic Alan Bennett adaptations, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and released on CD for the first time.

A foggy night...a lonely country house...and a woman with a gun in her hand quietly surveying the dead body of her husband. It looked like a straightforward case of murder. Or was it? As the ghosts of an old wrong begin to emerge from the past, the case begins to look anything but straightforward... First staged at the Duchess Theatre in London in...

Walter was everyone's "Old pal" and loveable rogue. An unsuccessful farmer who turned to haulage. A carver of cribs and love spoons who took 17 years to propose-only to be turned down. And of course father to the world weary Nelson.