Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Daphne du Maurier's classic tale of horror. The idea for this famous story came to du Maurier one day when she was walking across to Menabilly Barton farm from the house. She saw a farmer busily ploughing a field whilst above him the seagulls were diving and wheeling. She developed an idea about the birds becoming...

A new edition of the acclaimed Radio 4 dramatisations of Anthony Trollope's gently satirical tales of provincial life, together in one box set. Nearly twenty hours of ironic and witty drama is contained in this box set. The full-star cast includes Anna Massey, Alex Jennings, David Haig, Rosemary Leach, Kenneth Cranham, Emma Fielding and Brenda Blet...

Four Maeve Binchy short stories, exclusively written for BBC Radio 4. Maeve Binchy is one of Britain's most popular storytellers, and these four tales demonstrate the warmth and compassion that have made her many novels bestsellers. In 'Homecoming', read by Sean Campion, the Brennans run Quentin's restaurant in Dublin for the owner, who lives abroa...

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...

The Making of Modern Medicine covers over 2000 years of medical history and draws on a vast range of original sources from diaries, medical journals and stage satires to shed light on the experiences of physicians, surgeons, nurses and patients. From classical beliefs about illness that would dominate medical thinking for centuries, through to the...

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 Special Edition of the original radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. Starring Peter Jones, Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Mark Wing-Davey, Susan Sheridan and Stephen Moore, these six episodes (Fit the First to Fit the Sixth) have been remastered to modern-day standards by Dirk Maggs, and for...

The Hitchhiker's saga returns once again with a brand new full-cast dramatisation of So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, the fourth book in Douglas Adams's famous `trilogy in five parts'. The Earth has miraculously reappeared and, even more miraculously, Arthur Dent has found it. Returning to his cottage after... well... ages, he falls in love wit...

It's the last ever installment of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, with a brand new full-cast dramatisation of Mostly Harmless, the final book in Douglas Adams's famous `trilogy in five parts'. While frequent flyer Arthur Dent searches the universe for his lost love, Ford Prefect discovers a disturbing blast from the past at The Hitchhiker's G...

A BBC radio full-cast dramatisation of the third book in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Brian Sibley's famous 1981 adaptation, starring Ian Holm and Michael Hordern, has been divided into three corresponding parts, with newly-recorded beginning and end narration by Ian Holm (who plays Frodo in this and Bilbo in the feature films).

A Special Edition of the original radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. Starring Peter Jones, Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Mark Wing-Davey, Susan Sheridan and Stephen Moore, these six episodes (Fit the First to Fit the Sixth) have been remastered to modern-day standards by Dirk Maggs, and for...

The long-awaited, brand new third series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comes to audio with 25 minutes of unbroadcast footage. Many of the cast of the original BBC Radio 4 series have been reunited for this new six-part dramatisation of Douglas Adams's book 'Life, the Universe and Everything'. Amongst the returning cast are Simon Jones as...

In a nationwide poll conducted by BBC Television's Bookworm to find the nation's favourite poem, Rudyard Kipling's 'If' was voted number one. This compilation brings together over forty poems from the poll, including the top ten, read by John Nettles, Siobh…n Redmond, Greg Wise and Emma Fielding.

This original 6-part BBC Radio 4 comedy sci-fi series, written by Graham Duff and starring Mark Gatiss (League of Gentlemen) and David Warner, was first broadcast in January 2004. The year is 2099 and Professor Nebulous (Gatiss) is the director of KENT - the Key Environmental Nonjudgemental Taskforce. Nebulous runs an eco-trouble shooting organisat...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the first book in Philip Pullman's trilogy 'His Dark Materials'. Set in a world which is like, yet very unlike, our own, the story begins in Oxford. Children are disappearing from the streets, and when Lyra's friend Roger also vanishes she sets out to find him. The story mixes science, theology and magic to...

This classic TV comedy sketch show launched the careers of Rowan Atkinson, Griff Rhys Jones, Mel Smith and Pamela Stephenson. Written by some of Britain's finest comedy writers including Richard Curtis, Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, and David Renwick, the show was groundbreakingly irreverent, outrageous, innovative and rude. This compilation of mat...

The Now Show is a topical comedy show recorded in front of a live audience and scripted up to the last minute. It stars Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis in a collection of sketches and routines based around recent news items and issues. Comedians Marcus Brigstock and Midge Benn provide additional support.

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...

Andy Hamilton's fiendishly funny BBC Radio 4 sitcom set in Hell returns for a two-part festive special. Satan embarks on an epic quest and encounters Queen Victoria, Harpo Marx, a highly intelligent bluebottle, Death, Davina McCall, and St Peter and his rottweilers. The cast includes Andy Hamilton, James Grout, Jimmy Mulville, Claire Skinner and Mi...

A BBC radio full-cast dramatisation of the second book in J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy. Brian Sibley's famous 1981 adaptation, starring Ian Holm and Michael Hordern, has been divided into three corresponding parts, with newly-recorded beginning and end narration by Ian Holm (who plays Frodo in this and Bilbo in the feature films...

When a Martian spacecraft lands on Woking Common, mankind is terrorised by aliens in tall, armoured capsules which stalk the countryside on three legs. The machines wreak havoc on London and the Southern Counties, and survivors are driven underground. Scientist John Nicholson (Paul Daneman) tells how he was plunged into a paralysing nightmare of st...