Alan Pattullo

Alan Pauls

Alan Pollock is a playwright, translator and screenwriter. His numerous plays include One Night in November, Pigs and All Tomorrow's Parties.

Alan Pollock

Alan Root was born in London in 1937 but moved to Kenya as a young boy. He dropped out of school at sixteen but soon found himself behind the camera. He married Joan Thorpe in 1961 and together they produced an array of award-winning wildlife films including Baobab: Portrait of a Tree, commissioned by David Attenborough, Safari by Balloon, The Year of the Wildebeest and Castles of Clay, which was nominated for an Oscar. Alan won over sixty awards during his career, including an Emmy, three Lifetime Achievement Awards an OBE. Alan Root died in August 2017.

Alan Root

Alan Rosenthal

Alan Ruddock

Alan Rugman

Alan Rusbridger

Alan Ryan

Alan S. Blinder

Alan Shearer CBE  grew up in Newcastle, leaving home as a  teenager to pursue a career in professional football with his first  team, Southampton. He went on to  reach football stardom, winning the Premier League with Blackburn in  1995, breaking the world transfer record by signing to Newcastle United  in 1996 and achieving international success as the Captain of England.  Alan also holds the record for most goals scored in Premier League history.

Alan Shearer

Alan Siegel

Alan Simpson

Alan Spence

Alan Stewart

Alan Taylor

Alan Tennant

Alan Thompson

Alan Titchmarsh MBE is known to millions through his career as a television presenter of shows including Love Your Weekend, Love Your Garden, Ground Force, Gardeners' World, The Alan Titchmarsh Show and Spring Into Summer. He has written more than forty gardening books, as well as twelve novels and three volumes of memoirs. He was made MBE in the millennium New Year Honours list and holds the Victoria Medal of Honour, the Royal Horticultural Society's highest award.

Alan Titchmarsh

Alan Unterman

Alan Watts was a British philosopher, writer and speaker who was best known for his expertise in Eastern philosophies including Zen Buddhism and Taoism. He wrote over 25 books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality, higher consciousness, the meaning of life, concepts and images of God and the non-material pursuit of happiness.

Alan W Watts

Alan Warner is the author of eight novels: Morvern Callar, These Demented Lands, The Sopranos, The Man Who Walks, The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven, The Stars in the Bright Sky, which was longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, The Deadman's Pedal and Their Lips Talk of Mischief. He is Writer in Residence at Edinburgh University.

Alan Warner

Alan Watts

Alan Weisman is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including the global bestseller The World Without Us, which has been translated into 34 international languages and was nominated for numerous awards. His writing has appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, The Los Angeles Times Magazine and many other places. Alan has worked on all seven continent and reported from 58 countries, and lives in western Massachusetts.

Alan Weisman

Alanna Mitchell

Alasdair Fotheringham is a freelance journalist and writer based in Spain. He writes regularly on cycling for the ‘I’, The Independent.co.uk, The Express, ProCycling and Cyclingnews. He has been reporting on the Tour de France and other top road cycling events since 1992. His first book was The Eagle of Toledo, a biography of cycling’s greatest ever climber, Federico Martín Bahamontes. He has also written Reckless, a biography of the ill-fated Luis Ocaña, the 1973 Tour winner and considered Eddy Merck’s top Grand Tour rival, and The End of the Road, an account of the 1998 Tour de France.

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Wickham

Alastair Campbell was born in Keighley, Yorkshire in 1957, the son of a vet. Having graduated from Cambridge University in modern languages, he went into journalism, principally with the Mirror Group. When Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party, Campbell worked for him first as press secretary, then as official spokesman and director of communications and strategy from 1994 to 2003. He continued to act as an advisor to Mr Blair and the Labour Party, including during subsequent election campaigns. He now splits his time between writing, speaking, politics in Britain and overseas, consultancy and charity, as chairman of fundraising for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, and a leading ambassador for the mental health campaign Time to Change. 
 
He lives in North London with his partner of thirty-five years, Fiona Millar. They have three children. His interests include running, cycling, bagpipes and Burnley Football Club. He has published six volumes of diaries, including the number one Sunday Times bestseller, The Blair Years, a memoir on depression, The Happy Depressive, and three novels.

Alastair Campbell

Alastair Nathan Cook was born in Gloucester, December 1984. He is an English cricketer. He plays for Essex County Cricket Club and previously for England. Cook is the fifth highest Test scorer of all time. 
 
He is regarded as England's most successful batsman ever and now he is an icon and role model in sport. 
 
Outside of cricket, Alastair has written columns in the Telegraph and Metro, he is a talented saxophone player and donates his time to raising money for cancer charities and the David Randall Foundation. He is now married with three children.

Alastair Cook

Alastair Fothergill studied zoology and joined the BBC Natural History Unit in 1983, working on The Really Wild Show, Wildlife on One and David Attenborough's The Trials of Life. He was appointed head of the Unit in 1992, and during his tenure he produced Attenborough's award-winning series Life in the Freezer. He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Cherry Kearton Medal and Award in 1996. 
In June 1998, he stood down as head of the Natural History Unit to concentrate on his work as series producer, initially on the multi-award-winning The Blue Planet,. In 2006 he completed his next major series Planet Earth, which won the Cinema for Peace Clean Energy Award at the Cinema for Peace Gala Berlin in 2008. He was executive producer of Frozen Planet (2011) and The Hunt (2015). He has also presented several television programmes, including The Abyss. 
In 2008, he signed a multi-picture deal with newly formed Disneynature. In 2012 he left the BBC to co-found Silverback Films, which makes landmark natural history series for various clients including Netflix and the BBC. 
In 2016, Alastair was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society for his work in natural history programming. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to film.

Alastair Fothergill

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Sophocles

The finest editions available of the world's greatest classics from Homer to Achebe, Tolstoy to Ishiguro, Proust to Pullman, printed on a fine acid-free, cream-wove paper that will not discolour with age, with sewn, full cloth bindings and silk ribbon markers, and at remarkably low prices. All books include substantial introductions by major scholars and contemporary writers, and comparative chronologies of literary and historical context.

Ancient Athens produced three great tragic writers - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Of the three Sophocles has in many ways remained the most accessible and may have had the most extensive influence on Western Culture, not least because Freud took from the Theban Plays the name and the idea of the Oedipus complex. Of Sophocles' hundred odd plays only seven have survived, of which three are printed here. The Theban Plays make up a trilogy as was common at the time, in which the story of Oedipus' downfall and its aftermath is explored in three stages.

The Theban Plays

Oedipus the King,Oedipus at Colonus, JACKET LO D2K

George Bernard Shaw

Shaw&rsquo;s story is rife with such &lsquo;beyond opinions&rsquo;, as an Anglo-Irish Protestant, a Dubliner in London, and a socialist living in the aftermath of the industrial revolution. In one sense, as a Protestant choosing to live in London, he is a John Bull, yet he remains Irish &ndash; an Irish Bull, something alluded to in his one play set in Eire, John Bull&rsquo;s Other Island.

John Bull's Other Island

William Shakespeare

The Everyman Complete Shakespeare will publish the History plays in two volumes. In volume I are contained Shakespeare's first five history plays: HENRY VI parts I, II and II; RICHARD III and KING JOHN. The text of the plays is accompainied by extensive notes, author chronology, bibliography and a detailed introduction to each play and to Shakespeare's history plays in general by Tony Tanner.

Histories Volume 1

Dan Laurence

&lsquo;A tearing, flaring, revivalist drama&rsquo; was how Desmond MacCarthy described The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet. Set in America&rsquo;s Wild West and aptly subtitled &lsquo;A Sermon in Crude Melodrama&rsquo;, this single-act play concerns the conversion of a horse thief desperate to &lsquo;keep the devil&rsquo; in him and die game. Published in 1909, it brought Shaw into conflict with the Lord Chamberlain of England, who banned it on the grounds of alleged blasphemy, and it was twelve years before the play was performed in a London theatre. In an interview Shaw commented, &lsquo;I am sorry that Fanny&rsquo;s First Play has destroyed the cherished legend that I am an unpopular playwright &hellip; for the first time I have allowed a play of mine to run itself to death &hellip; And the worst of it is it will not die.&rsquo; First performed in 1911, the play is a delightful farce in which Shaw debates some of his favourite subjects: middle-class morality, marriage, parents and children and women&rsquo;s rights. And, deliberately concealing his authorship, Shaw took the opportunity to satirize contemporary drama critics who, he claimed, &lsquo;do not know dramatic chalk from dramatic cheese when it is no longer labelled for them.&rsquo;

The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet and Fanny's First Play

In Good King Charles's Golden Days: a true history that never happened. A discussion play; the issues of nature, power and leadership are debated between King Charles II ('Mr Rowley'), Isaac Newton, George Fox and the artist Godfrey Kneller. 
Buoyant Billions: a comedy of no manners. 
Farfetched fables. Shaw's thoughts simplified. 
Shakes vs. Shav. Puppets portray Shaw and Shakespeare. The play comprises a comic argument between the two playwrights, an intellectual Punch and Judy. 
Why She Would Not. His final play.

Last Plays

"in Good King Charles's Golden Days"; Buoyant Billions; Farfetched Fables; Shakes Versus Shav; Why She Would not

The second volume of the Everyman Signet Shakespeare completes the survey of Shakespeare's tragic output with Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens and Coriolanus. The authoritatively edited texts of the plays are supplemented with extensive bibliographies, a chronology of Shakespeare's life and times, and a substantial introduction in which Professor Tony Tanner examines Shakespeare's evolution as a tragedian while also providing detailed discussions of the individual plays.

Tragedies Volume 2

Volume 1 of the Everyman Shakespeare, published in 1992, includes the four major tragedies: HAMLET, KING LEAR, OTHELLO and MACBETH. The authoritatively edited texts of the plays are supplemented with extensive bibliographies, a chronology of Shakespear's life and times and a substantial introduction in which Prosessor Tony Tanner examines Shakespeare's evolution as a tragedian while also providing detailed discussions of the individual plays. This is the only two-volume edition of the tragedies with such comprehensive apparatus and it will eventually form part of a complete Shakespeare (plays and poems) in eight volumes.

Tragedies Volume 1

Contains Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear

James Joyce

<a href="https://shop.penguin.co.uk/collections/book-bundles-modern-classics/?&amp;utm_source=Penguin.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=Linked_text&amp;utm_campaign=Penguin_Modern_Classics_Series_26_06">Choose 3 timeless classics for only £21 over on the Penguin Shop</a>

It is only James Joyce's towering genius as a novelist that has led to the comparative neglect of his poetry and sole surviving play. And yet, argues Mays in his stimulating and informative introduction, several of these works not only occupy a pivotal position in Joyce's career; they are also magnificently assured achievements in their own right. Chamber Music is 'an extraordinary d&eacute;but', fusing the styles of the nineties and the Irish Revival with irony and characteristic verbal exuberance. Pomes Penyeach and Exiles (highly acclaimed in Harold Pinter's 1970 staging) were written when Joyce had published Dubliners and was completing A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Both confront painfully personal issues of adultery, jealousy and betrayal and so pave the way for the more detached and fully realized treatment in Ulysses. Joyce's occasional verse includes 'Ecce Puer' for his new-born grandson, juvenilia, satires, translations, limericks and a parody of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. All are brought together in this scholarly, fully annotated yet accessible new edition.

Poems and Exiles

This is a collection of the plays of George Bernard Shaw that includes &quot;The Millionairess&quot;, &quot;Too True to be Good&quot; and &quot;The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles&quot;.

Plays Extravagant

Too True to be Good, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, The Millionairess

This selection comprises: &quot;THE ADMIRABLE BASHVILLE&quot; &quot;HOW HE LIED TO HER HUSBAND&quot; &quot;PASSION, POISON AND PETRIFACTION&quot; &quot;THE GLIMPSE OF REALITY&quot; &quot;THE DARK LADY OF THE SONNETS&quot; &quot;OVERRULED&quot; &quot;THE MUSIC-CURE&quot; &quot;GREAT CATHERINE&quot; &quot;THE INCA OF PERUSALEM&quot; &quot;O'FLAHERTY V.C.&quot; &quot;AUGUSTUS DOES HIS BIT&quot; &quot;ANNAJANSKA, THE BOLSHEVIK EMPRESS&quot; &quot;VILLAGE WOOING&quot; &quot;THE SIX OF CALAIS&quot; and &quot;CYMBELINE REFINISHED&quot;.

Selected Short Plays

Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) is a 1921 series of five plays and a preface by George Bernard Shaw. The five plays are: 
 
In the Beginning: B.C. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden); The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day; The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170; Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000; As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920 
 
The plays were published with a preface titled The Infidel Half Century, and first performed in 1922 by the New York Theatre Guild at the Garrick Theatre.

Back to Methuselah

Shaw's humorous satire of the medical profession.

The Doctor's Dilemma

Antigone defending her integrity and ideals to the death, Oedipus questing for his identity and achieving immortality&mdash;these heroic figures have moved playgoers and readers since the fifth century BC.Towering over the rest of Greek tragedy, these three plays are among the most enduring and timeless dramas ever written. Robert Fagles' translation conveys all of Sophocles' lucidity and power: the cut and thrust of his dialogue, his ironic edge, the surge and majesty of his choruses and, above all, the agonies and triumphs of his characters.

The Three Theban Plays

Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus

Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh&rsquo;s 1970s classic play &lsquo;Abigail&rsquo;s Party&rsquo; focuses on an evening of domestic hell in the guise of a suburban drinks soir&eacute;e. While teenager Abigail parties a few doors away, the pretentious Beverly and her estate agent husband, Laurence, entertain their neighbours &ndash; Abigail&rsquo;s mother, Susan, ex-footballer, Tony, and his wife, Angela. But as the alcohol flows, tensions in the hosts&rsquo; barely functional marriage emerge and their obsessions, prejudices and petty competitiveness are ruthlessly, and hilariously, exposed. 
 
&lsquo;Goose-Pimples&rsquo;, meanwhile, is easily as sharp and uncompromising. This time, the action focuses on ambitious casino croupier, Jackie, and Saudi businessman, Muhammad, who meet &ndash; and misunderstand &ndash; one another spectacularly.

Abigail's Party & Goose-Pimples

Jan Etherington

Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam return in the seventh series of Conversations from a Long Marriage. 
 
Playing a long-married couple who met in the Summer of Love and have stayed together ever since, their conversations are practical, passionate, hilarious - and familiar to every couple. 
 
Written by award-winning comedy writer and journalist Jan Etherington, this gentle comedy will ring a bell with couples of all ages.

Conversations from a Long Marriage: Series 7

A BBC Radio 4 Comedy Drama

Stephen Gallagher

A collection of suspense-filled thrillers from master of the genre Stephen Gallagher 
 
A listening treat for fans of gripping drama: eight thrillers, plus a bonus story, from ‘the finest British writer of bestselling popular fiction since Le Carré’. Full of suspense and utterly immersive with full-cast production values, this collection is not to be missed. 
 
In sci-fi thriller Chimera, there are unexplained killings at a secret research establishment. Within hours, government officials are on the scene and the investigation is hushed up. But why? What was the real purpose of the Jenner Clinic…? Starring Brian Glover. 
 
In The Kingston File, Gary Kingston is just a name on a file until he suddenly appears to be involved in a series of frightening murders. Things take a terrifying turn when a social worker tries to sort him out. Starring Shaun Prendergast and Mick Ford. 
 
By the River, Fontainebleau is a tale of horror, set in France at the end of the nineteenth century. A young painter's obsession with a potential model leads him into a world of degradation and self-disgust. Starring Kim Wall and Stephen Rashbrook. 
 
In A Resistance to Pressure, Dr Lewis is a rising star, not only in the medical profession but also on the social scene. Then a telephone call on New Year's Eve changes everything… Starring Gareth Armstrong and John Rowe. 
 
An Alternative to Suicide is a gripping futuristic sci-fi thriller. Maverick Lesterman is a highly developed computerised human 'meat machine'. When he is involved in an unpleasant accident on board a spaceship, he is returned to earth to be 'comforted' by Esther Anderson, a 17-year-old clone. Maverick rediscovers areas of his submerged personality, with frightening consequences… Starring Michael Jayston and Catherine Kessler. 
 
Life Line explores what would happen if modern technology could open the way to communication beyond the grave. And if so, to what end? Please hold… Starring Nicholas Murchie and Julian Rhind-Tutt. 
 
The Humane Solution is a stunning thriller involving a journalist and his photographer, fog-bound at an airport in Holland. When a hijacking story breaks around them it seems unlikely the truth will ever be revealed. Can silence be bought and if so, at what price? Starring Patrick Mower. 
 
In horror tale The Horn, three strangers are trapped in a snowstorm on a remote stretch of motorway. They find themselves listening for the sound of a horn, which they believe will lead them to safety. They are very much mistaken… Starring Edward de Souza. 
 
In bonus story ‘The Visitor’s Book’, a happy couple rent a holiday home but they soon start to feel that something happened there the year before... Read by Terence Edmond. 
 
Stephen Gallagher’s screen writing credits include Doctor Who, Bugs, Chimera, Chillers, Murder Rooms and more. He was the writer-director of Oktober, creator of Eleventh Hour and lead writer on Crusoe. He is a member of the Writers’ Guild of America and former Norther Chair of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. 
 
Praise for Gallagher’s novel, Follower: 
 
"The finest British writer of bestselling popular fiction since Le Carré.” John Williams, The Independent 
 
"If thriller reading were a sin, Stephen Gallagher would be responsible for my ultimate damnation. His work is fast-paced, well-written, infused with a sense of dark wonder, and altogether fresh.” Dean Koontz 
 
“Stephen Gallagher has been breaking the crime/horror barrier for years, with terrific results…” Christopher Fowler, Time Out 
 
©2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Chimera & other thrillers

Eight Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramas

Peter Child

Peter Matthews

The classic 1970s sitcom about a lively gang of labourers working on the motorways 
 
In 1971, Radio 2’s Comedy Parade – a showcase for new comedy – aired two pilots that would go on to become the highly popular series Parsley Sidings and The Motorway Men. Though the latter ran for just one series in early 1972, it succeeded in gaining up to five million listeners. 
 
Featuring the comic escapades of unruly road crew Number 9 Gang, it starred Dad’s Army stalwarts Bill Pertwee and James Beck as flustered foreman Ponsonby and naive Cockney lad Steve, alongside bolshy shop steward Irish (Milo O’Shea), wily Welshman Randy (Richard Davies), bungling bosses Hanson (Anthony Sagar) and Fairfax (Richard Caldicot) and camp surveyor Peter Stephens. Titillating their palates and keeping them all well provisioned is posh canteen manager Gladys (Amanda Murray). 
 
In these nine entertaining episodes, the hapless highway operatives go on the fiddle to sell off some surplus coal and cement; run into a spot of bother with a bulldozer; get their link roads and their flyovers in a muddle (and accidentally bury Steve in the process); and uncover an ancient Roman hypocaust, only to find themselves participating in an archaeological dig. 
 
They also get into a bit of argy-bargy with Farmer Barrett (and his bull); attempt to impress an observer from a Chinese trade delegation; are sent to extend the runway at London Airport (and end up winging it) and have a bit of trouble with technology in the shape of a new-fangled American steamroller and a specially customized boat... 
 
Content warning: the humour in this programme reflects the era in which it was broadcast and may not reflect current attitudes 
 
Cast and credits 
 
Written by Peter Child and Peter Matthews 
Produced by Alastair Scott Johnston 
 
Ponsonby – Bill Pertwee 
Steve – James Beck 
Irish – Milo O'Shea 
Randy – Richard Davies 
Mr Fanshaw/Mr Fairfax – Richard Caldicot 
Hanson – Anthony Sagar 
The Surveyor – Peter Stephens 
Gladys/Air Traffic Controller – Amanda Murray 
The Minister – Nigel Graham 
Victoria – Gretta Gouriet 
Farmer Barrett – Alan Thompson 
 
With thanks to Keith Wickham and The Radio Circle 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 2, 21 March 1971 (pilot episode), 2 February-22 March 1972 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The Motorway Men

The Classic BBC Radio Comedy

After ten long years spent away from Dublin, Richard, Bertha and their young illegitimate son Archie are back home. Despite expectations of comfort and domesticity, the couple's return to the place where they first met triggers an existential questioning, an anxiousness which is exacerbated by meetings with old friends and lovers. 
 
James Joyce's only surviving play, Exiles builds upon one of his most famous short stories, 'The Dead', to provide a profound exploration of jealousy, doubt and the complexity of human desire.

Exiles

Laurie Wyman

Jimmy Edwards stars in this spin-off from The Navy Lark, chronicling life in and around the higher echelons of British United Plastics Ltd 
 
Following in the footsteps of The Navy Lark, The TV Lark and The Embassy Lark, The Big Business Lark aired for 13 episodes over the summer of 1969. Blending satire with farce, it charted the business machinations at a fictional plastics company. 
 
Ruling the roost at this chaotic commercial enterprise is managing director and chairman Sir Charles Bonniface, a crafty, cricket-loving tycoon who likes to keep one hand firmly on the tiller and the other on his secretary’s posterior. Waiting in the wings is his son Frank, stoically enduring his father’s bluff and bluster as he bides his time to take over the top job. Ensuring that all runs smoothly is Edith, Sir Charles’ put-upon personal assistant, who bears her boss’s lecherous attentions with equanimity. 
 
Together, they endeavour to promote British United Plastics’ sole product – Polystumer, a seemingly indestructible synthetic material with a surprising number of uses, from bathroom fixtures to breakfast cereal toys. In these entertaining episodes, they swing a contract with a camping company to make speedboat shells, land an order to supply the Red Army with tents, attempt to create camel-proof plastic to seal a deal with a Sultan, and make a TV commercial to try and impress a Hollywood film mogul... 
 
Starring Jimmy Edwards as Sir Charles, with Frank Thornton as Frank and Gwen Cherrell as Edith, The Big Business Lark also benefits from the considerable talents of Alexander John, Elizabeth Morgan and Nigel Graham, who between them play over 50 larger-than life characters. So mix business with pleasure, and enjoy this lively, laughter-filled Lark! 
 
Content warning: the humour in this programme reflects the era in which it was broadcast and may not reflect current attitudes 
 
Production credits 
Scripted by Lawrie Wyman 
Produced by Alastair Scott Johnston 
Starring: Jimmy Edwards, Frank Thornton and Gwen Cherrell 
With Elizabeth Morgan, Alexander John and Nigel Graham 
Announcer: Michael de Morgan 
 
With thanks to Keith Wickham and The Radio Circle 
 
Note: none of the episodes were originally given titles. The ones here are taken from the closing announcements of the episode. 
 
Episode guide 
 
1. Leading You Through 
2. Cruising on the River 
3. Taking You Through 
4. Disposing of a Relative 
5. Playing Ducks 
6. Taking Orders 
7. Strike Breaking 
8. Dining Out 
9. Initiating You Through 
10. Searching For Liberty 
11. Contracting Out 
12. Destructing 
13. Advertising 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2, 6 July – 28 September 1969 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The Big Business Lark

Nick Revell

The award-winning 1990s sitcom, written by and starring Nick Revell 
 
Nick Revell plays a slightly stranger version of himself in this surreal comedy – a struggling writer in his mid-thirties who shares his untidy flat with Vince and Alan, a pair of talking geraniums. They, meanwhile, watch on and take stock of his many mishaps and misadventures. 
 
For the beleaguered Nick, even simple tasks like alphabetising his vinyl collection, buying brie and getting rid of Jehovah’s Witnesses are fraught with difficulties – and when it comes to dealing with his imperious agent, Cressida, and his disapproving girlfriend, Caroline, he’s way out of his depth. Fortunately, he can always retreat to the local café run by his friends Shona and Craig – or drown his sorrows at the pub... 
 
In these two series, Nick tries his hand at DIY, quits smoking, heads off on holiday – and acquires a talking Venus flytrap that doesn’t get on with his geraniums. He also finds himself playing surrogate parent when his teenage niece and his oldest rock’n’roll friend come to stay; preparing for the wedding of an old flame (and seething over the way she dumped him); and getting a lucky break with a Hollywood studio. But with his fortunes finally changing for the better, he can’t help asking himself if it’s all going just a little too well... 
 
First broadcast in 1992-3, this offbeat comedy mixes sitcom with a sprinkling of nineties satire – and more than a dollop of the downright odd. Co-starring alongside Nick Revell are a wealth of well-known names, including Doon Mackichan, Alistair McGowan, Stephen Tompkinson and Lesley Sharp. 
 
Cast and credits 
Written by and starring Nick Revell 
With Alistair McGowan, Caroline Gruber, Kate McKenzie, Brian Bowles, Brian Johnston, Doon Mackichan, Alison Sterling, Charles McKeown, Gabrielle Cowburn, Mickey Hutton, Susannah Doyle, Lesley Sharp, Joanna Brookes, Elizabeth Bennet, Stephen Tomkinson, Alison Sterling, John Guerrasio 
Produced by Ioan Magnusson 
 
Series 1 
1. Holy Water 
2. Decoration 
3. Headache 
4. Holiday 
5. Cash 
6. Moving 
 
Series 2 
1. Homeless 
2. Visitors 
3. The Wedding 
4. Health and Fitness 
5. The Promised Land 
6. All’s Well That Ends Well…Well, Well, Well 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 25 January 1991 – 1 March 1992 (Series 1) and 3 June – 8 July 1993 (Series 2) 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The Nick Revell Show

A BBC Radio Comedy

R.D Wingfield

A collection of RD Wingfield’s finest thrillers from the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties 
 
Best known for his ‘Inspector Jack Frost’ series of novels, RD Wingfield also penned a string of gripping thrillers for BBC Radio. Initially thought lost, many of the 14 dramas in this collection were recovered and restored by Keith Wickham and the Radio Circle, and thanks to their careful preservation, are now available to enjoy once more. 
 
Credit Risk is a robbery comedy caper about a man with a cunning plan to defraud a credit card company of a quarter of a million pounds. Cleft Stick sees the police investigating an attack on a woman, and the dramatic way she chose to defend herself. In The Last Escape, a mugging ends in murder, and Superintendent Dawson must find the perpetrator – a patient who has escaped from a private nursing home after 35 years. And in The Alternative Plan, a frightened ex-Army captain and a dying ex-Nazi hold the key to preventing a political assassination. 
 
In A Second Class Risk, when a man dies in a car crash the same week he insures his life for £50,000, the widow’s claim must be investigated. A Test for Destruction finds a Security Supervisor at the Department of Scientific Warfare facing an agonising crisis when his son’s safety is at stake. Our West Ladyton Branch centres around a bank manager recovering from a nervous breakdown, whose new assignment in a sleepy Devon town is not at all what he expected. In Letter of the Law, Detective Inspector Nash wants nothing to do with his newly arrved (and newly demoted) Sergeant, but with seven unsolved robberies on his plate, Nash needs all the help he can get…Cover Up features another demoted ex-Inspector, kicked out of the Division but brought back to investigate a bank raid. 
 
Post Mortem Shock concerns a man who appears to have been shot dead by an intruder – but the post mortem reveals he died of a heart attack. Who, or what, really killed him? In Sins of Commission, made redundant after 19 years’ faithful service with a firm?of?diamond merchants, Mr Fletcher is willing to take on almost any job – as long as it’s legal. It’s double or quits when £15,000 goes missing from a safe in Double Entry, and in Adequate Reasons, when a child is abducted, there’s a complex interplay between police, parents and kidnapper. Finally, in Moveable Assets, a crafty crook comes up with an ingenious scheme to rob a supposedly burglar-proof bank – but will it work, and will he get away with it? 
 
With ensemble casts including John Rowe, Diana Olsson, Roger Delgado, Robert Lang, Frederick Treves, Jill Bennett and Patricia Gallimore, these clever, artfully plotted dramas are full of twists, turns and surprises. 
 
With warm thanks to Keith Wickham and the Radio Circle 
 
Cast and credits 
Written by RD Wingfield 
 
Contents 
 
Credit Risk 
Cleft Stick 
The Last Escape 
The Alternative Plan 
A Second-Class Risk 
A Test to Destruction 
Our West Ladyton Branch 
Letter of the Law 
Cover Up 
Post Mortem Shock 
Sins of Commission 
Double Entry 
Adequate Reasons 
Moveable Assets 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

R.D Wingfield: Post-Mortem Shock and other thrillers

14 Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramas

Samuel Beckett

A sequence of radio plays by Samuel Beckett 
 
Samuel Beckett captures the pathos and irony of modern life like no other dramatist. In the decade following the success of Waiting for Godot (1952), Beckett wrote some of his most absorbing work for radio, including the BBC's Third Programme. 
 
These plays are concerned with human isolation and the frailty of memory and communication, and they are suffused with a musicality that is particularly remarkable in this medium. With the exception of From an Abandoned Work, they can be heard in binaural surround sound, creating a particularly intimate audio experience which makes you feel as though you are in the theatre with the characters around you. 
 
 
This collection includes: 
From an Abandoned Work performed by Stephen Rea 
Rough for Radio 1 starring Ron Cook and Monica Dolan 
Rough for Radio 2 starring Stephen Dillane, Louise Brealey, Brian Protheroe and Nick Underwood, Words and Music starring Ian Mckellen and Carl Prekopp 
Cascando starring Stanley Townsend and David Seddon 
 
 
Matthew Sweet introduces each of the plays and gives context to the productions.

Five Full-Cast BBC Radio Plays

Linda Marshall Griffiths

When the world drowns and there is no land left to stand on — where do you go? 
 
Welcome to No Place But the Water, a haunting, full-cast drama set in a future flooded world. It begins at a hotel on the edge of the water, and with a messy family of dreamers in the middle of nowhere: their last refuge in a world submerged. But the hotel’s walls watch, its mirrors remember — and the water keeps rising. 
 
Through the eyes of three children — Birdie, Jessie and Cal — the series draws you into a reality where ‘home’ might not be dry land, but the constant shimmer of rising tides. Food is dwindling, the water is relentless, and Birdie is certain they’re being watched. Then: there’s the angel. 
As the story unfolds across three spiralling seasons, what lurks beyond safety is darker and more mesmerising than any storm. Secrets will surface. Trust will crack. And every ripple might be the last chance. 
 
This is survival, reimagined — under water, through whispers, in shadows. With atmospheric sound design and an ensemble cast guiding you through a world that’s lost its shape, No Place But the Water drags you into a drenched, destabilized reality. 
 
When there is no place but the water — hold your breath. 
 
'Drawing on the magic-realism of Gabriel García Márquez and the horror of Stephen King; the hotel itself has a strange hold on the occupants, extolling visions from the past like a climate-conscious version of The Shining’s Overlook. An intelligent drama with heart.' Radio Times 
 
Cast and credits 
Birdie – Poppy O’Brien 
Jessie – Sade Malone 
Cal – Cel Spellman 
Maurice – Pearce Quigley 
Gil – Rupert Hill 
Laurie/Selene – Jenny Platt 
The Angel - Vinette Robinson/Remmie Milner 
Gabe – Gabriella Tuicicia 
Leo - Nico Mirallegro/Hamish Rush 
Alex – William Ash 
 
Written by Linda Marshall Griffiths 
Directed by Nadia Molinari 
Sound Design by Steve Brooke & Sharon Hughes 
Programme Consultants: Dr James M Lea, Dr Ian Dawson, Dr. Andrew F. Field. 
A BBC Audio Drama North Production 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 12 August 2020 – 25 August 2022 
 
©2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

No Place But the Water: The Complete Series 1-3

A Full-Cast BBC Radio Drama

Adrian Penketh

A gripping full-cast dramatisation of Japan’s 2011 nuclear emergency, narrated by Romola Garai 
 
When a tsunami hit Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in March 2011, surging past defences and flood reactors, it triggered the worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. This immersive dramatisation tells the extraordinary story of those catastrophic events. 
 
As alarm bells ring, explosions rock the power plant, politicians try to seize control and workers go to extraordinary lengths to avert catastrophe. The young are evacuated and a ‘suicide squad’ of older workers is sent inside… Pressure levels are rising and there is a chance of a second deadly explosion. Public panic reaches terrifying heights and battles rage inside and outside the nuclear plant. In the years after the event, workers and energy company executives alike look back on their role and the chilling legacy of the events that unfolded during those heart-stopping hours, days and weeks. 
 
This tense drama, rich with high production values and a stellar cast, is narrated by Romola Garai (Emma, The Hour, The Crimson Petal and the White), and stars Togo Igawa (Johnny English Reborn, Memoirs of a Geisha), Ami Okumura Jones (My Neighbour Totoro, Midsommer Murders) and Matt McCooey (Agatha Raisin). 
 
Cast and credits 
Written by Adrian Penketh 
Produced by Toby Swift and Sasha Yevtushenko 
Sound designed by Peter Ringrose 
Commissioned by Simon Pitts 
Artwork by Yuko Shimizu 
A BBC World Service Production 
 
Suto - Togo Igawa 
Akiko - Ami Okumura Jones 
Yoshida - Eiji Mihara 
Saito/Hosono - Sadao Ueda 
Ito/Kojima - Matt McCooey 
Shimada/Matsui/Mayor - Akira Koieyama 
Narrator - Romola Garai 
Reporter/Prime minister - Kevin Shen 
Reporter/Keiko - Naoko Mori 
Worker/Kaneko/Aide - Nino Furuhata 
 
First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 31st May - 12th July 2023 
 
©2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Fukushima

Maxim Gorky

Full-cast productions of five plays by the celebrated Russian author, plus a reading of one of his most famous short stories 
 
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, known under his pseudonym Maxim Gorky, was one of Russia's greatest Soviet writers and the founder of the ‘socialist realism’ literary movement. Nominated for the Nobel Prize five times, his best-known works include the short story ‘Twenty-Six Men and a Girl’ and his seminal play The Lower Depths. Both are included in this collection, as well as four more acclaimed dramas. 
 
The Lower Depths – The arrival of the vagrant Luka has unexpected consequences for the down and out denizens of a Moscow dosshouse... First performed in 1902, Gorky’s pioneering play was the first to introduce Russian audiences to characters who were on the fringes of society, and was an instant success. This 1997 production, adapted by Alan Plater, stars Glyn Houston, with John Woodvine, Malcolm Storry, Laurence Allan and Joe Caffrey. 
 
Summerfolk – Spending the summer at their forest dachas, a group of middle-class holidaymakers embark on affairs, intrigues and amateur dramatics, but cannot escape the hollowness of their lives. Written as a response to Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Gorky’s 1904 play depicts the Russian bourgeoisie on the brink of tremendous social change. Initially performed at the National Theatre, this adaptation stars Christine Pritchard, Simon Armstrong, Kelly Hunter and Ruth Jones. 
 
Enemies – Summer 1905, and as Russia stands on the edge of revolution, landowner and textile factory owner Zakhar Bardin and his intransigent managing director are at odds over the sacking of a foreman. The situation quickly spins out of control – with tragic consequences… Allan McClelland and Timothy Bateson star in this powerful dramatisation of Gorky’s 1906 play, which was censored by both Russia’s Tsarist regime and by Stalin. 
 
Vassa Zhelyeznova – Iron-willed Vassa has always done whatever it takes to build up the family business. Now, as her husband lies dying, she is engaged in a life-and-death struggle over its future. This 1986 radio production stars Billie Whitelaw, who won a Sony Radio Award for Best Actress for her performance as Vassa. 
 
The Old Man – Set in provincial Russia at the turn of the century, Maxim Gorky’s philosophical drama centres around a successful building contractor whose life is shattered by the intrusion of an old man he knew in the past. This classic radio production from 1974 stars Freddie Jones, Maxine Audley and Alan Webb. 
 
Twenty-Six Men and a Girl – Working day and night making pretzels in an airless basement, a group of bakers have only one solace: Tanya, the young seamstress who visits every day to enjoy their wares. But then the soldier arrives, determined to seduce her… Read by Joe Melia. 
 
First published 1899 (‘Twenty-Six Men and a Girl’), 1902 (The Lower Depths), 1902 (Summerfolk), 1906 (Enemies), 1910, revised 1935 (Vassa Zhelyeznova), 1915, revised 1922 and 1924 (The Old Man). 
All rights reserved 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Maxim Gorky: A BBC Radio Drama Collection

Five Full-Cast Productions

Emlyn Williams

A superb selection of Emlyn Williams’ finest playsEmlyn Williams was one of the brightest stars of Welsh stage and screen. An acclaimed playwright, actor and director, he made over 40 film and TV appearances, re-invented the one-man show with his virtuoso portrayals of Charles Dickens and Dylan Thomas, and wrote numerous plays and screenplays. Featured here are seven of his most popular works, ranging from his classic semi-autobiographical tale The Corn is Green to a psychological thriller, a ghost story and a drama about Tolstoy.The Corn is Green – It is 1895 in a remote mining village in Wales, a place where children are routinely sent down the pit once they turn 12. But iron-willed English teacher Miss Moffat is determined that her prize pupil, Morgan Evans, should realise his potential, and sets out to bully and inspire him to follow the path of learning. Starring Anna Massey, George Winter and Imelda Staunton.The Light of Heart – Once an actor of genius, Maddoc Thomas is now reduced to playing Father Christmas in a London department store. But his daughter Catrin is determined to help him make a comeback. William Squire stars as Maddoc, with Sharon Morgan as Catrin.The Power of Dawn – An old Russian woman, Katya, recalls the winter night in 1910 when she talked to the great writer Leo Tolstoy as he lay dying. Holed up in a small stationmaster’s hut, he tells the young peasant girl of his passions and his past… Starring Michael Redgrave as Tolstoy, with Felicity Hayes-McCoy as the young Katya and Gwen Ffrancon-Davies as Katya aged 82.The Wind of Heaven – 1856, and in the Welsh mountain village of Blestin, rumours abound of a teenage boy who may be the new Messiah. Drawn to the miracle child for very different reasons, Crimean War widow Dilys Parry and circus owner Ambrose Ellis both find new hope as the village rediscovers its lost faith. Siân Phillips and Freddie Jones star in this moving and absorbing play.Night Must Fall – When the elderly, demanding Mrs Bramson takes on a new odd-job man, her niece Olivia becomes infatuated with him – while also becoming convinced that the charming Dan is responsible for a recent murder. Richard Harrington, Anne Jameson and Melanie Walters star in this chilling study of a household under a psychopath's spell.Trespass – Grief-stricken after her husband’s death, former countess Christine summons a medium to her Welsh castle home to bring him back. The consequences spark a night of terror… Starring Glyn Owen, Patricia Mort and Ray Smith.Cuckoo – In 1935, in a small, shabby Thames bungalow, a Welsh emigré family's life revolves around Cuckoo, a middle-aged woman with the mind of an eight-year-old. But when Cuckoo’s devoted mother dies, what will become of them all? Judy Cornwell stars as Cuckoo in this poignant, captivating drama.Text copyright © Emlyn Williams 1935 (Night Must Fall), 1938 (The Corn is Green), 1940 (The Light of Heart), 1945 (The Wind of Heaven), 1947 (Trespass), 1975 (The Power of Dawn), 1986 (Cuckoo)Production creditsWritten by Emlyn WilliamsContentsThe Corn Is Green The Light of HeartThe Power of DawnThe Wind of HeavenNight Must FallTrespassCuckoo© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Emlyn Williams: A BBC Radio Drama Collection

Seven Full Cast Productions including The Corn Is Green

Folk Art

Football Academy

Football Skills

Forbidden Spaces Trilogy

Foul Play

DICK FRANCIS was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys and author of forty-three bestselling novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), the biography of Lester Piggott and his own autobiography (The Sport of Queens). He was rightly acclaimed as one of the greatest thriller writers in the world. 
 
 Since his death, his son FELIX FRANCIS has taken over the literary reigns from his father and Dick's legacy lives on through the Dick Francis novels. The Francis flair is clear for all to see in these national treasure thrillers, and readers will appreciate the sporadic reappearance of beloved series characters Sid Halley and Jeff Hinkley.

Francis Thriller

Frank Behr

Once a Detective Inspector in the Nottinghamshire Force, Frank Elder has retired to an isolated cottage in Cornwall, and is trying to live the quiet life. The past, however, is never far behind him.

Frank Elder

Fred

Free Collars Kingdom

Jean Plaidy combines imagination with facts to bring the French Revolution alive in this dynamic historical fiction series. From Louis XV’s debauchery to Marie Antionette’s demise, it is clear there was only one way this was going to end.

French Revolution

French Vintage Classics

Frieda Klein

Fright Club

From Scratch

Frontline Nurses Series

Frostheart

Fun With Ladybird

Funnybones

G.F. Newman’s The Corrupted

Gabriel's Inferno

The Roman grip on Britain is growing weaker and Druids are on the rise. Emperor Nero has turned away. Boudicca is preparing to lead tribes to war. 
 
Standing in her way is Gaius Valerius Verrens, commander of the veterans legion. In this battle he earns the accolade of Hero of Rome - but where will that title lead him next?

Gaius Valerius Verrens

Ganglands

Gargoylz

Garnethill

George and Flora

George's Secret Key to the Universe

Georgian Romance

From one of the most distinguished English authors of historical fiction comes a series that explores the lives of eleven Georgian figures. Beginning with the beautiful Sophia Dorothea, darling of Celle, and ending with Victoria's rise to become Queen of England.

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