In this BBC full-cast production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena run to the woods and stumble into a life separate from time itself.Fairy magic wreaks havoc and midsummer madness takes over as lovers tread the delicate line between fantasy and reality.Sylvestra le Touzel stars as Titania in this deligh...

In this BBC full-cast production, Julius Caesar is triumphant after his victory over the sons of Pompey. But as bad omens and weather plague Rome, even his most loyal friends are starting to see the signs...Political intrigue and fierce battle rage in this tense and dynamic production in which a country is torn apart under the legacy of Julius Caes...

Richard Eyre directs Ken Stott as Macbeth and Phyllis Logan as Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's dramatic tale of greed and destiny. BBC radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of makin...

In this BBC full-cast production of Much Ado About Nothing, some handsome soldiers return from battle. Yet one soldier finds himself locked in a merry war of his own...In Shakespeare's comedy of wit, love and miscommunication, Beatrice and Benedick and Hero and Claudio are pushed into and pulled out of love, their friends playing cupid with li...

In this BBC full-cast production, Othello is drawn further and further into jealous rage by the manipulative Iago.In this story of evil cunning perverting a once noble mind, radio captures Iago's sly hints and boasts to the audience with shocking clarity. The listener is led along an emotional path that grips with fascinating horror until the play'...

A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Dick Francis' pacey thriller starring Nigel Havers. At the annual party celebrating the success of the racing season, everything is running well to form - until a runaway horsebox ploughs into the marquee, causing terrible death and destruction. A witness to the tragedy, wine merchant Tony Beach presumes it is just on...

In this BBC full-cast production of Romeo And Juliet, the two star-crossed lovers fight for each other until their dying breath. Can their two feuding families reconcile?With the intimacy of radio, the full beauty and meaning of some of the most lyrical lines ever written can be truly heard: tenderness and passion, betrayal and bigotry are bri...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the novel by Ian Rankin. A wealthy banker's daughter goes missing from Edinburgh University. Has she run away, or has something more sinister occurred? Rebus finds a six-inch coffin in her home village, a clue which leads to his discovery that she was involved in an internet game. DC Siobhan Clarke is drafte...

Alan Bennett's new, award-winning play as heard on BBC Radio 3 features the National Theatre cast. Richard Griffiths, Clive Merrison and Frances de la Tour star. At a boys' grammar school in Sheffield, eight boys are being coached for the Oxbridge entrance exams. It is the mid-eighties, and the main concern of the unruly bunch of bright sixth-forme...

Tolkien's famous saga, the prelude to 'The Lord of the Rings', has all the ingredients of fantasy and adventure: dwarves, elves, goblins and trolls, a fearsome dragon, a great wizard, a perilous quest and a dramatic climax. At the centre is the unsuspecting hero Bilbo Baggins, a home-loving, unambitious Hobbit who is suddenly thrust into the bigges...

A cBBC Radio 4 dramatisation of John le Carr‚'s fourth novel, starring Simon Russell Beale as Smiley and Piotr Baumann as Fred Leiser. 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 S...

In this BBC full-cast production of The Merchant of Venice, love, bigotry, greed, and justice are entwined.Shakespeare's classic play explores the eternal themes of love and hate, mercy and justice, with parallel stories centred on the moneylender, Shylock, and the lovers, Portia and Bassanio. Shylock's angry insistence on the repayment of his...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast production of Homer's epic seafaring adventure, dramatised by poet Simon Armitage. In a twenty-year journey, fabulous fantasy mixes with extraordinary reality as Odysseus encounters enchantresses, nymphs, monsters, prophets and ghosts. From the temptations of the lotus flowers and the Sirens' song to the horrors of the Cyclo...

Two stories of love, lust, happiness and heartache from Britain's longest-running radio serial. Pub landlord Sid Perks is led astray when his keep-fit regime at the local gym leads to a steamy affair with Jolene Rogers, a country-and-western singer. For Emma Carter, choosing a husband is not so straightforward. She finds herself torn between loyal,...

In this BBC full-cast production of Antony and Cleopatra, the soldier and noble prince Mark Antony's enthralment with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra is proving controversial. Will the tumultuous relationship ultimately end in tragedy?Antony and Cleopatra is an intense love story, exploring the constant conflict between duty and emotion with char...

BBC Radio 4 dramatisation starring David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher and T. P. McKenna. 'Prodigal Son': In the first of this murder mystery series set in Dublin, Paolo Baldi, Franciscan priest and philosophy lecturer, accidentaly becomes involved in solving a murder at an Italian chip shop. 'Keepers of the Flame': Paolo Baldi, priest, philosophy lect...

This case involves the Fergusons, who Paul and Steve meet while on the way home from New York. They are flying to England to visit their son Richard, a student at Oxford University. But at the airport, there is shocking news: Richard has been murdered, found shot dead in his room. The only clues are a postcard from Harrogate signed `Jonathan', and...

In a thrilling case that takes Paul and Steve to exotic Egypt, Paul Temple is called in to investigate a mysterious murder. The twisting trail takes them from London to the back streets and nightclubs of Cairo...

A new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Ian Rankin's novel. Rebus is ordered to join a team working on an old case, but someone on the team wants it to remain unsolved. Meanwhile, the murder of an art dealer draws Sergeant Clarke into an encounter with a notorious gangster - that Rebus is also investigating.

In this BBC full-cast production of Richard II, the male ego and narcissism of monarchs are hung out to dry...Written entirely in verse, the rhythms of the language in this epic tragedy encompass its themes of dignity and kingship with fitting grandeur and pathos, as the capricious and narcissistic Richard is brought to his own destruction.Sta...

The story unfolds through four middle class families - the Mehras, Kappoors, Khans and Chatterjis. Lata Mehra, a university student, is under pressure from her mother to get married. But not to just anyone she happens to fall in love with. There are standards to be met and finding a husband for Lata becomes a family affair in which all the members...