Including Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm and other dramas and readings

George Orwell: A BBC Radio Collection

A radio anthology of George Orwell’s finest novels, memoirs and essays, plus four biographical dramas

A radio anthology of George Orwell's finest novels, memoirs and essays, plus four biographical dramas and a bonus documentary, The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four 
 
Visionary author and journalist George Orwell was the man behind two of the best-loved and most influential novels of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. This collection celebrating his life and work features dramatisations of both these classic books, with stellar casts including Christopher Eccleston, Pippa Nixon, Tim Pigott-Smith, Tamsin Greig and Nicky Henson. 
 
Also included is a drama based on his autobiographical account of the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia, starring Joseph Millson and Lyndsey Marshal. Four biographical radio plays by Mike Walker and Jonathan Holloway - Burma, Dreaming, Loving and Jura - explore further episodes in Orwell's fascinating life, showing the disconnection between the man who was Eric Blair and the writer who was George Orwell. 
 
Timeless examples of his essays and journalism are showcased here, including 'A Hanging', 'Confessions of a Book Reviewer', 'My Country Right or Left', 'Pleasure Spots' and 'As I Please' (all read by Clive Merrison), while Joseph Millson narrates Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell's vivid memoir of his time living among the poor in Europe's two great cities. 
 
Finally, in The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four, David Aaronovitch examines what led avowed socialist George Orwell to write a book beloved of the Right, revealing how the novel grew from a forgotten political world shaped by the atom bomb. 
 
George Orwell worked for BBC Radio from August 1941 to November 1943, and even went on air himself. Sadly, none of the programmes in which he took part survive - in those days, radio was essentially a live medium, and broadcasts were not recorded for posterity. But Orwell's connection to the BBC remains a fascinating part of its wartime history. 
 
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

George Orwell (Author) 
George Orwell (1903–1950) is one of England's most famous writers and social commentators. He is the author of the classic political satire Animal Farm and the dystopian masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is also well known for his essays and journalism, particularly his works covering his travels and his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War. His writing is celebrated for its piercing clarity, purpose and wit and his books continue to be bestsellers all over the world. 
 
Mike Walker (Author) 
Mike Walker is an award-winning dramatist, documentary writer and author. He has adapted many classic novels for BBC Radio 4, including War and Peace, On the Beach and A Tale of Two Cities, which won him the Bronze Sony Award for Best Drama in 2012. Among his original radio plays are Alpha - winner of the Sony Drama Award (World Service); its companion play Omega; Landfall, The Product and the Plantagenet series of historical dramas. He has also written several novels, including one for young adults, Bad Company.

A radio anthology of George Orwell's finest novels, memoirs and essays, plus four biographical dramas and a bonus documentary, The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four 
 
Visionary author and journalist George Orwell was the man behind two of the best-loved and most influential novels of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. This collection celebrating his life and work features dramatisations of both these classic books, with stellar casts including Christopher Eccleston, Pippa Nixon, Tim Pigott-Smith, Tamsin Greig and Nicky Henson. 
 
Also included is a drama based on his autobiographical account of the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia, starring Joseph Millson and Lyndsey Marshal. Four biographical radio plays by Mike Walker and Jonathan Holloway - Burma, Dreaming, Loving and Jura - explore further episodes in Orwell's fascinating life, showing the disconnection between the man who was Eric Blair and the writer who was George Orwell. 
 
Timeless examples of his essays and journalism are showcased here, including 'A Hanging', 'Confessions of a Book Reviewer', 'My Country Right or Left', 'Pleasure Spots' and 'As I Please' (all read by Clive Merrison), while Joseph Millson narrates Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell's vivid memoir of his time living among the poor in Europe's two great cities. 
 
Finally, in The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four, David Aaronovitch examines what led avowed socialist George Orwell to write a book beloved of the Right, revealing how the novel grew from a forgotten political world shaped by the atom bomb. 
 
George Orwell worked for BBC Radio from August 1941 to November 1943, and even went on air himself. Sadly, none of the programmes in which he took part survive - in those days, radio was essentially a live medium, and broadcasts were not recorded for posterity. But Orwell's connection to the BBC remains a fascinating part of its wartime history. 
 
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The complete BBC Radio 4 dramas

The Real George Orwell

A series of four BBC Radio full-cast dramas exploring the disjuncture between the man who was Eric Blair and the writer who was George Orwell.

A series of four BBC Radio full-cast dramas exploring the disjuncture between the man who was Eric Blair and the writer who was George Orwell. 
 
George Orwell - the pen name of Eric Blair - was a writer and political commentator who is very hard to pin down. He is a complex mass of confusions - an anti-establishment, pro-English, ex-Etonian, ex-policeman, and socialist, who was ardently anti-authoritarian. He was as anti-fascist as he was anti-communist, a former Spanish Civil War soldier who was anti-war but pro the Second World War. 
 
Burma: After an undistinguished academic career at Eton, Eric leaves in December 1921. When the girl he hopes to marry rejects him, he sets sail for Burma to join the colonial police. His experiences in Burma will affect him profoundly. When he rejects the Empire and returns to England, Blair begins to spend more and more time with the poor. 
 
Dreaming: In September 1938, Eric and Eileen Blair leave London for Marrakech. He is hoping that the climate will be good for his health, and that he will be able to complete his novel, Coming Up for Air. But the bruising reception he received following the publication of Homage to Catalonia is troubling Eric. And both Eric and Eileen are still feeling guilty about the fate of one of their Spanish Civil War comrades, Georges Kopp. 
 
Loving: Eric Blair's relationship with the opposite sex could be a distraught one; over the course of his lifetime, he made several awkward marriage proposals to different women. But his relationship with Eileen O'Shaugnessy, whom he married in 1935, had a huge influence both on his life and his writing. 
 
Jura: In 1947, the year after Eileen's death, Eric leaves London and moves to Jura in the Scottish Hebrides, with his sister Avril, and his three year old son. He is suffering from tuberculosis but is determined to try and make a go of living off the land. But most of all he is determined to finish Nineteen Eighty-Four, his final book. 
 
Cast: 
Eric Blair . . . Joseph Millson 
Eileen Blair… Lyndsey Marshall 
Jacintha Buddicom . . . Sophie Roberts 
Wilson . . . Joseph Kloska 
Inspector d'Souza . . . Ernest Ignatius 
Georges Kopp…Ewan Bailey 
Avril Blair…Liza Sadovy 
Ricky Blair…James Foster 
Other parts played by Armaan Kirmani, Derek Riddell, Alun Raglan, Paul Stonehouse, Ben Crowe, Will Howard, Alun Raglan, Alexandra Guelff, Lizzy Watts. 
 
Burma was written by Mike Walker and directed by Kate McAll. 
Dreaming was written by Mike Walker and directed by Jeremy Mortimer. 
Loving was written by Jonathan Holloway and directed by Kate McAll. 
Jura was written by Jonathan Holloway and directed by Jeremy Mortimer.

The Old Spies (BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play)

A BBC Radio 4 drama by Jonathan Holloway about three former spies in an old peoples' home. 
 
Three former spies talk and remember their old missions and rage against the dying of their lights. And now in an old peoples' home with nowhere else to go, they hold on to the stories of their adventurous lives, as they feel their own minds, memories and personalities shifting. 
 
Written by Jonathan Holloway 
Stars John Nettles, Clive Swift and Eleanor Bron 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 3 March 2011 
 
 
©2011 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2011 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Jonathan Holloway

Briony Glassco

Philip Martin

Natalia Power

Gregory Evans

Lydia Leonard

Rachel Atkins

Frances Jeater

Chris Moran

Damian Lynch

Claire Cage

Gbemisola Ikumelo

Honeysuckle Weeks

Ioan Meredith

Kenny Blyth

Neil Dudgeon

Jaimi Barbakoff

Chérie Taylor Battiste

Jimi Mistry

Full Cast

Five Eerie Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramas

Five full-cast BBC Radio Dramas to send a chill up the spine 
 
Thrilling, creepy, and utterly unforgettable, these five stories of strange voices, haunting passions, and terrifying nightmares will stay with you forever... 
 
In No Conferring, four students from Bracewell College, Cambridge, attempt a Christmas bonding week in order to prepare for their upcoming University Challenge appearance. But the isolated moorland cottage stay soon goes very, very wrong. Written by Jonathan Holloway. 
 
Myrtle, Mahonia and Rue finds a young landscape gardener who loves her work, but will do anything to escape the terrible nightmares she suffers from. Her only hope is a drastic course of action... Written by Bryony Glassco. 
 
Voices from Another Room sees an artist troubled by the voices he thinks he's hearing - voices discussing his murder. And what is worse: the voices are in the future, and the murder is due to happen at any moment. Written by Philip Martin. 
 
In Sally Go Round the Moon, Sally is working hard at her job - perhaps too hard. Is it stress that's making her hear the voice of a child no one else can? Or is she really being haunted? Written by Natalia Power. 
 
Ghosting is the tale of a young novelist, who agrees to some ghostwriting work on the memoir of supermodel Vita. Soon he discovers exactly how seductive Vita is - but how much will he risk for his work, and for Vita herself? Written by Gregory Evans. 
 
Featuring a star-studded cast including Neil Dudgeon (Midsomer Murders, Life of Riley, Common as Muck), Claire Cage (Casualty, Submarine), Damian Lynch (EastEnders, Tommies, Little Britain), Jaimi Barbakoff (The Archers, Black Mirror, The Power), Lydia Leonard (The Crown, Gentleman Jack, Ten Percent), Rachel Atkins (Absolute Power, Ed Reardon's Week, Mrs Sidhu Investigates), Jimi Mistry (Coronation Street, East is East, The Syndicate), and Honeysuckle Weeks (Foyle's War, Lewis), this is just the collection for those who love the chilling, spine-tingling dramas of The Man in Black, The Price of Fear, and Fear on 4. 
 
©2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Jonathan Holloway

Books by Jonathan Holloway

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