Ed Bishop stars as Philip Marlowe in this powerfully atmospheric BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of Raymond Chandler's novel about the cynical, world-weary, wise-cracking shamus whose honesty in a dishonest world sent him down the mean streets again and again in search of some kind of justice. Linda Conquest was very tough, very kissable and very missin...

Foretold he will become King of Scotland and spurred on by his wife, Macbeth commits deadly treason to seize the throne. Once crowned, guilt and mistrust of all around him leads Macbeth to embark on a trail of bloodshed and murder to stay in power. But under the yoke of his brutal reign, civil war breaks out and a rebellious army gathers to overthr...

When Ed finds himself sleeping in the spare room he realises he might have to rediscover exactly what love is. But coming up with the correct definition proves harder than he first imagines. Starring Paul Ritter, Tessa Peake-Jones, Aurelie Ambland, Jonathan Forbes, Peter Polycarpou, and Jane Whittenshaw. Directed by Sally Avens.

A full-cast dramatisation starring Nicholas Le Prevost as Inspector Maigret In 'Maigret: Inspector Cadaver', Maigret has to deal with an old enemy - an ex-police officer nicknamed 'Inspector Cadaver' - who seems to be doing everything in his power to obstruct him.

El Ultimo Proyecto - The Last Project by Michael Butt, a play in two languages- Spanish and English. A romantic thriller set in the hills of Andalucia. A British former soldier, Travis, has a love affair with the wife of a famous Spanish film director. Story telling and reality collide when the director insists Travis helps with his latest film, hi...

A Man Lay Dead A game of 'murders' at Sir Hubert Handesley's country house party becomes far too realistic for anyone's liking. First a guest arrives with a dangerously lethal dagger and then, when the gong sounds to announce the start of the game, the victim plays dead in a very convincing manner. Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn believes the unus...

A surreal, dark comedy from BBC Radio 3's The Wire, by Cornish writer Carl Grose that was inspired by seeing a Johannesburg local newspaper headline about a farmer who hanged 49 donkeys from tree branches on his land. Originally broadcast 1 November 2008 and repeated 18 July 2009. In Grose's play, Stanley Bray, a Cornish farmer, is compelled to han...

A morality tale from BBC Radio 4's 'Afternoon Play' slot, about a struggling chef in Salford. 'The Janitor' was originally broadcast on 6 May 2011. Kevin is struggling to keep his new restaurant afloat in posh Salford Quays. But then Jonno turns up. The boy he was a dad to for a couple of years when he was shacked up with his mother. He couldn't sa...

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...

Based on the epic novel by Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck. Set during the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath tells the powerful story of the Joad family's trek from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the promise of a new life in California. But what they find threatens to rip apart their lives, and sever the ties that bind them together. Starring Shirl...

Shakespeare classic in which ordinary people are toyed with by jealous and mischievous fairies - Charles and Mary Lamb's wonderful adaptations of Shakespeare translate beautifully to audio.

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...

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...

The first series of Lynne Truss's hugely popular BBC Radio 4 comedy thriller set in 1950s Brighton. A place of knickerbocker glories, end-of-the pier shows...and an enormous amount of unsolved crime. Step forward Inspector Steine. Naive and innocent, he believes that he wiped out all the villains at a single stroke in the Middle Street Massacre whe...

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. Counterfeiters are at work in the city in The Second Shadow, and McLevy is under pressure to secure rapid convictions. But his mind is more on the...

Martin Clunes and Michael Sheen star in this full-cast production of Oscar Wilde's well-known comedy. Oscar Wilde's dazzling comedy about mistaken identities and secret engagements still delights audiences over a century after its first performance in 1895. Algernon Moncrieff, a bachelor-about-town, has invented an invalid friend called Bunbury in...

Alice's adventures, funny, inventive and disturbing, have fascinated children and adults alike since their publication. This is a new unabridged recording using many voices to take the parts of The White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the Cheshire Cat - and, of course, Alice herself. It makes for a roller-coaster ride of delightful...

A BBC Radio 4 murder mystery set in India in 1709. 'Early Belt and the Present' was originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 6 April 2011. A young servant, Early Belt, accompanies a group of superstitious English merchants as they transport a vast wagon train of goods to Delhi. The wagon train - known as The Present - is an incentive for the...

A brand new BBC Radio 4 sequel to Charles Chilton's iconic radio sci-fi series Between 1953 and 1958, Journey Into Space attracted millions of listeners, gripped by the mystery and promise of space exploration in weekly cliffhanging instalments. In this thrilling new episode, the spaceship Ares has been heading back to Earth for 30 years, with the...

Four chilling episodes from the famous 1940s BBC radio series, introduced by Valentine Dyall, aka "The Man in Black". These are the four sole surviving episodes from the BBC archive: The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe (18/9/1943); The Speaking Clock by John Dickson Carr (13/4/1944); The Clock Strikes Eight by John Dickson Carr(18/5/1944);...

The Memory of Water was Stephenson's first play, opening in London in 1996, and was awarded the prestigious Olivier Award for Best Comedy. Three sisters meet on the eve of their mother's funeral; as the conflicts of the past converge, everyday lies and tensions reveal the particular patterns and strains of family relationships.