PublicationStatus

Brand

Format

AgeRange

Series

Imprint

CategoryLabel

Tennessee Williams

<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>

Abandoned by her husband, Amanda Wingfield comforts herself with recollections of her earlier, more gracious life in Blue Mountain when she was pursued by 'gentleman callers'. Her son Tom, a poet with a job in a warehouse, longs for adventure and escape from his mother's suffocating embrace, while Laura, her shy crippled daughter, has her glass menagerie and her memories. Amanda is desperate to find her daughter a husband, but when the long-awaited gentleman caller does arrive, Laura's romantic illusions are crushed.

The Glass Menagerie

Peter Shaffer

When a deranged boy, Alan Strang, blinds six horses with a metal spike he is sentenced to psychiatric treatment. Dr Dysart is the man given the task of uncovering what happened the night Strang committed his crime, but in doing so will open up his own wounds. For Dysart struggles to define sanity, and justify his marriage, his career, and his life of normality; ultimately he must ask himself: is it patient or psychiatrist whose life is being laid bare? The most shocking play of its day, Equus uses an act of violence to explore faith, insanity and how the materialism of modern life can destroy humanity&rsquo;s capacity for pain and passion.

Equus

Alfred Hitchcock

Ernest Lehman

Mark Gatiss

Alfred Hitchcock and Ernest Lehman's unfinished screenplay, completed by Mark Gatiss 
 
'Achingly tense scenes... and a masterpiece of a climax' Radio Times 
 
The annals of movie history are full of lost treasures - spectacular scripts from world-renowned writers that could have been classics, had they only been made. Now, for the first time, some of these forgotten gems have been brought to life, fully realised as vivid, cinematic radio productions. Scripted by major 20th Century writers, including Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, Alfred Hitchcock and Dennis Potter, they star a host of A-list actors and feature richly evocative, atmospheric soundtracks. 
 
One of seven 'unmade movies' available on audio, The Blind Man is set in 1961, and features a famous blind jazz pianist, Larry Keating, who agrees to a pioneering surgical procedure: an eye transplant. The operation is a success, but his new eyes are those of a murdered man - and burned onto their retina is the image of his killer. Can Larry track him down before he strikes again? 
 
The proposed follow-up to North by Northwest, The Blind Man was to be set in Disneyland and star Jimmy Stewart - but Walt Disney refused permission, Stewart pulled out and Lehman dropped the project, leading to a 16-year rift with Hitchcock. Decades later, the unfinished script was rediscovered by producer Laurence Bowen in a research institute in Texas - along with extensive notes and letters between Hitchcock and Lehman. Completed and directed by Mark Gatiss, it stars Hugh Laurie (House) as Larry and Rebecca Front (The Thick of It) as Sylvia, with Peter Serafinowicz (Shaun of the Dead) giving a masterly impression of Hitchcock as the narrator. Prepare to be blown away by this explosive new psychological thriller from the Master of Suspense... 
 
 
Production credits 
Written by Alfred Hitchcock and Ernest Lehman 
Completed and directed by Mark Gatiss 
Adapted for radio by Laurence Bowen 
Produced by Laurence Bowen and Peter Ettedgui 
Co-Producer: Laurent Bouzereau 
Original music by Blair Mowat 
Sound Design: Wilfredo Acosta 
A Feelgood Fiction production for BBC Radio 4 
 
Cast 
Larry Keating - Hugh Laurie 
Sylvia Whitehead - Rebecca Front 
Victor Farmer - Nicholas Woodeson 
Jenny Stiles - Kelly Burke 
Mortie Levitt/Captain Barzoni - Andy Nyman 
Linda Whitehead - Hilary Connell 
Herman Graubner - John Guerrasio 
Dr McGraw - John Light 
Autograph Girl - Hollie Burgess 
Narrator, Alfred Hitchcock - Peter Serafinowicz 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 31 October 2015 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
(p) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Unmade Movies: Hitchcock's The Blind Man

A BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the unproduced screenplay

Arthur Miller

Quentin is a successful lawyer in New York, but inside his head he is struggling with his own sense of guilt and the shadows of his past relationships. One of these an ill-fated marriage to the charming and beautiful Maggie, who went from operating a switchboard to become a self-destructive star - a singer everyone wanted a piece of. 
 
After the Fall is often seen as the most explicitly autobiographical of Arthur Miller's plays, and Maggie as an unflinching portrait of Miller's ex-wife Marilyn Monroe, only two years after her suicide. But in its psychological acuity and depth, and its brilliant, dreamlike structure, it is a literary, and not just biographical, masterpiece.

After the Fall

Christopher Douglas

Andrew Nickolds

Ed Reardon returns to lead us through the ups and downs of his life in this 15th series 
 
'His dejection is ... our delight' Radio Times 
 
Berkhamsted's most famous son is back, still ensconced in his 'stylish capsule urban living unit' (aka small office conversion) and continuing to pursue his part-time relationship with Maggie. However, he's once more on the brink of the breadline as his agent, Ping, has failed to come up with any major offers of work, and his best mate and deadly rival, Jaz Milvain, remains a perpetual thorn in his side. 
 
Ed also finds himself supporting his daughter Eli in her new career as a 'Storyteller', tutoring a new student in his creative writing class (Pearl having left to join the silver workforce as a store detective), and struggling to divert himself after the loss of Elgar. Seeking distraction, he tries his hand at woodworking, starts a weekly 'Soapbox Corner', contemplates relaunching his online Quiz Nights and takes advantage of a 'blind recruiting initiative' to apply for a new role. Could the tantalising prospect of a real job - with a regular income - give him the impetus he needs to re-engage with the world? 
 
This fifteenth series is dedicated to its co-creator, Andrew Nickolds, who died in 2022. Christopher Douglas plays Ed, with Barunka O'Shaughnessy as Ping, Pippa Haywood as Maggie, Philip Jackson as Jaz and Lisa Coleman as Eli. Also starring are Geoffrey Whitehead as Stan, Sally Grace as Olive and Ellen Thomas as Winnie. 
 
Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas 
Produced by Dawn Ellis 
Production co-ordinator: Katie Baum 
Sound: Jon Calver 
Dedicated to Andrew Nickolds, who sadly passed away mid-way through writing the series 
 
Cast 
Ed Reardon - Christopher Douglas 
Ping - Barunka O'Shaughnessy 
Jaz Milvain - Philip Jackson 
Eli - Lisa Coleman 
Stan - Geoffrey Whitehead 
Olive/Kebab Woman - Sally Grace 
Winnie - Ellen Thomas 
Maggie - Pippa Haywood 
Jake/Lifeguard - Sam Pamphilon 
Derek - Robert Powell 
Shop assistant/WPC/Claude/Firefighter - Rachel Atkins 
Pool tannoy/Radio presenter/HRH/Sheila - Nicola Sanderson 
Quizzy/Shop assistant - Helen Monks 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 13 July-17 August 2023 
 
© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Ed Reardon’s Week: Series 15

A BBC Radio 4 sitcom

Dan Laurence

George Bernard Shaw

Androcles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw. 
 
Androcles and the Lion is Shaw's retelling of the tale of Androcles, a slave who is saved by the requited mercy of a lion. In the play, Shaw makes Androcles out to be one of many Christians being led to the Colosseum for torture. Characters in the play exemplify several themes and takes on both modern and supposed early Christianity, including cultural clash between Jesus' teachings and traditional Roman values.

Androcles and the Lion

Bertolt Brecht

This play, written during Brecht's exile to the United States and set in pre-Communist China, is a parable of a young woman torn between obligation and reality, between love and practicality, and between her own needs and those of her friends and neighbours.

The Good Woman of Setzuan

William Shakespeare

'He could mingle sublimity with pathos, bitterness with joy and peace and love' Aldous Huxley 
 
In one of Shakespeare's most perennially popular comedies a young woman, Hermia, flees ancient Athens with her lover, only to be pursued by her would-be husband and her best friend. Unwittingly, all four find themselves in an enchanted forest where fairies and sprites take an interest in human affairs, dispensing magical love potions and casting mischievous spells. Slapstick collides with courtly romance and confusion ends in harmony, as love is transformed, misplaced and ultimately restored. 
 
Used and Recommended by the National Theatre 
 
General Editor Stanley Wells 
Edited by Stanley Wells 
Introduction by Helen Hackett

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Terence

The Roman dramatist Terence (c. 186-159 BC) adapted many of his comedies from Greek sources, rendering them suitable for audiences of his own time by introducing subtler characterization and more complex plots. In his romantic play, The Girl from Andros, Terence portrays a love affair saved by a startling discovery. The Self-Tormentor focusses on a man's remorse after sending his son to war, and The Eunuch depicts a case of mistaken identity. Phormio is as rich in intrigue as a French farce, while The Mother-in-Law shows two families striving to save a marriage and The Brothers contrasts strict and lenient upbringings. With their tight plots and spare dialogue, Terence gave his plays a sense of humanity that became a model in the Renaissance and greatly influenced Molière.

The Comedies

Edward Albee

When middle-aged Martha and her husband George are joined by the younger Nick and Honey for late-night drinks after a party, the stage is set for a night of drunken recriminations and revelations. Battle-lines are drawn as Martha and George drag their guests into their own private hell of a marriage.

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

Stephen Sheridan

Lesley Joseph stars as romantic novelist Angela Temple in these three sparkling series 
 
Angela Temple is a best-selling ‘bonk-buster’ writer beloved by her readers for her raunchy, bodice-ripping historical romances. To her adoring public, she’s demure, chaste and respectable – but in reality, she’s a much-married, chain-smoking, heavy-drinking hedonist who treats her staff like dirt. 
 
Her long-suffering housekeeper, Mrs Partridge, is used to the abuse, but when her agent’s son, Conrad Bone, becomes her new personal assistant, he soon finds that life with Angela isn’t exactly a bowl of cherries. An ex-journalist and aspiring author of serious literary fiction, Conrad considers it deeply unfair that he should have to work for a talentless hack. But despite his deep dislike of her, he saves her bacon on more than one occasion as Angela tangles with an old flame, a rival author, an untrustworthy reporter, her soap star sister and her erstwhile boyfriend, the dashing Dr Lockheart... 
 
Starring alongside Lesley Joseph in Stephen Sheridan’s lively sitcom are Matthew Byam Shaw, Anna Wing, Pat Coombs and Gordon Reid, with guest stars including Honor Blackman, Geoffrey Whitehead, Jean Heywood, James Grout and Sally Grace. 
 
Written by Stephen Sheridan 
Produced and directed by Caroline Leddy and Ann Jobson 
 
Cast 
Angela Temple – Lesley Joseph 
Conrad Bone – Matthew Byam Shaw 
Mrs Partridge – Anna Wing/Pat Coombs 
Donald Bone – Gordon Reid 
 
With Jon Glover, Elizabeth Spriggs, Robert Harley, Melinda Walker, Jonathan Adams, Saira Todd, Ken Bruce, Victoria Plum, Michael Melia, Francesca Ryan, Andrew Rashleigh, Chris Emmett, Frank Windsor, Jonathan Gould, Liz Smith, James Grout, Linda Polan, Philip Anthony, Honor Blackman, Ronald Herdman, Ainslie Foster, Christopher Rowe, Geoffrey Whitehead, Jean Heywood, John Baddeley, Michael Onslow, Rachel Atkins, James Taylor, David Thorpe, Barry J Gordon, Robert Lang, Mary Wimbush, Dominic Letts, Colin Pinney, David Swift, John Evitts, Margaret Courtenay, Jonathan Keeble, Hilda Braid, Joshua Towb, Deborah Berlin, Ian Masters, Peter Yapp, Norman Bird, Sally Grace, Dan Strauss, Andrew Branch and Eva Stuart 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 18 November-23 December 1992 (Series 1), 2 December 1993-13 January 1994 (Series 2), 17 February-23 March 1996 (Series 3) 
 
© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The Queen of Romance: The Complete Series 1-3

A Full-Cast BBC Radio Comedy Drama

David Lodge

Helen Reed, a novelist in her early forties, still grieving for her husband who died suddenly a year before, is a visiting teacher of creative writing at a university where Ralph Messenger, a cognitive scientist with a special interest in Artificial Intelligence and an incorrigible womaniser, is director of a prestigious research institute. 
 
He is an atheist and a materialist; she is a Catholic who has lost her faith but still yearns for the consolations of religion. Ralph is attracted to Helen and she, in spite of her principles, to him. They argue about the nature of human consciousness, and the different ways it is examined in science and literature, as she resists with weakening resolution Ralph's efforts to seduce her. 
 
David Lodge has distilled the story of his acclaimed novel Thinks... to create a witty and absorbing drama about a moral, emotional and intellectual struggle between two exceptional people.

Secret Thoughts

Andrew Undershaft, a millionaire armaments manufacturer, loves money and despises poverty. His estranged daughter Barbara, on the other hand, shows her love for the poor by throwing her energies into her work as a Major in the Salvation Army, and sees her father as another soul to be saved. But when the Army needs funds to keep going, it is Undershaft who saves the day with a large cheque - forcing Barbara to examine her moral assumptions. Are they right to accept money that has been obtained by 'Death and Destruction'? Full of lively comedy and sparkling debate, Major Barbara is one of Shaw's most forward-looking plays, brilliantly testing the tensions between religion, wealth and power, benevolence and equality, and metaphors and realities of war.

Major Barbara

Tennessee Williams's controversial Hollywood screenplay Baby Doll opens with Archie Lee's teenage bride driving him to distraction, as she has refused to consummate their marriage until the day of her twentieth birthday. Enter wily Sicilian Silva Vaccaro, Archie's rival both in the cotton business and for the affections of the flirtatious Baby Doll, and things reach breaking-point. This volume also contains Something Unspoken, a brilliantly comic study of a wealthy, manipulative Southern spinster, and Summer and Smoke, a sexually charged portrayal of Alma, a sensitive, unmarried minister's daughter, and her childhood love, the wild, sensual doctor's son John.

Baby Doll and Other Plays

August Wilson

In Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the great blues diva Ma Rainey is due to arrive at a run-down Chicago recording studio with her entourage to cut new sides of old favourites. Waiting for her are the black musicians in her band, and the white owners of the record company. A tense, searing account of racism in jazz-era America that the New Yorker called 'a genuine work of art'. 
 
Fences centres on Troy Maxson, a garbage collector, an embittered former baseball player and a proud, dominating father. When college athletic recruiters scout his teenage son, Troy struggles against his young son's ambition, his wife, who he understands less and less, and his own frustrated dreams.

Fences & Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

John Ford

A visceral, revamped BBC radio production of John Ford's classic play about a doomed love between a brother and sister 
 
With its shocking portrayal of incest, intrigue and murder, this powerful Jacobean revenge drama scandalised audiences when it was first performed in the 1620s, and is still controversial today. 
 
When siblings Giovanni and Annabella embark on a passionate affair, Annabella falls pregnant with her brother's child. Knowing she must marry to protect her honour, she chooses one of the many suitors clamouring for her hand - but when her secret is revealed, the lovers are caught up in a bloody chain of events that culminate in a poisoning, a blinding, a stabbing and a brutal massacre... 
 
Reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, but darker and more twisted, John Ford's 17th-century tale of sex and death is restyled for radio in Pauline Harris's compassionate, disturbing adaptation. Intercut with the music of Jimi Hendrix and Nick Cave, it also features an original song, 'In Deep', composed by Jules Maxwell and sung by Jessie Buckley, Indira Varma, and Abby Andrews. The play is introduced by Professor Emma Smith from Hertford College, Oxford. 
 
 
 
Cast 
Annabella - Jessie Buckley 
Giovanni - Damien Molony 
Signor Florio - Niall Buggy 
Putana - Fenella Woolgar 
Friar Bonaventura - Oliver Cotton 
Lord Soranzo - Matthew Pidgeon 
Vasques - Enzo Cilenti 
Hippolita - Indira Varma 
Grimaldi - Gary Duncan 
Cardinal - Neil McCaul 
Officer - Adam Fitzgerald 
Dorando - Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong 
 
Adapted and directed by Pauline Harris 
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 7 January 2018

'Tis Pity She's a Whore

A BBC Radio full-cast production

Fading southern belle Blanche Dubois depends on the kindness of strangers and is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orleans, her delusions of grandeur bring her into conflict with Stella's crude, brutish husband Stanley. Eventually their violent collision course causes Blanche's fragile sense of identity to crumble, threatening to destroy her sanity and her one chance of happiness.

A Streetcar Named Desire

'Big Daddy' Pollitt, the richest cotton planter in the Mississippi Delta, is about to celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday. His two sons have returned home for the occasion: Gooper, his wife and children, Brick, an ageing football hero who has turned to drink, and his feisty wife Maggie. As the hot summer evening unfolds, the veneer of happy family life and Southern gentility gradually slips away as unpleasant truths emerge and greed, lies, jealousy and suppressed sexuality threaten to reach boiling point. Made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a masterly portrayal of family tensions and individuals trapped in prisons of their own making.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

When Ellie Dunn joins a house-party at the home of the eccentric Captain Shotover, she causes a stir with her decision to marry for money rather than love, and the Captain's forthright daughter Hesione protests vigorously against the pragmatic young woman's choice. Opinion on the matter quickly divides and a lively argument about money and morality, idealism and realism ensues as Hesione's rakish husband, snobbish sister and Ellie's fiancé - a wealthy industrialist - enter the debate. Written between 1916 and 1917 as war raged across Europe, Heartbreak House is a telling indictment of the generation responsible for the First World War. With its bold combination of high farce and bitter tragedy, Shaw's play remains an uncannily prophetic depiction of a society on the threshold of an abrupt awakening.

Heartbreak House

'All the world's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players'­ 
 
Rosalind, banished by her cruel uncle, travels secretly to the Forest of Arden, where her exiled father holds court. There, dressed as a boy to avoid discovery, she encounters the man she loves - now a fellow exile - and resolves to remain in disguise to test his feelings for her. One of Shakespeare's most sunny, fast-paced and accessible comedies, As You Like It is an exuberant combination of 
 concealed identities and verbal jousting, burlesque and pastoral dream, reconciliations and multiple weddings. 
 
Used and Recommended by the National Theatre 
 
General Editor Stanley Wells 
Edited by H. J. Oliver 
Introduction by Katherine Duncan-Jones

As You Like It

Edmond Rostand

Poet and soldier, brawler and charmer, Cyrano de Bergerac is desperately in love with Roxane, the most beautiful woman in Paris. But there is one very large problem - he has a nose of stupendous size and believes she will never see past it to return his feelings. So when he discovers that the handsome but tongue-tied Christian is also pining for Roxane, generous Cyrano offers to help by writing exquisite declarations of love for the young man to woo her with. Will she ever recognize who she is really falling in love with? Set during the reign of Louis XIII, Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) was one of the great theatrical successes of its time and remains as popular today for its dramatic power and, above all, for its good-natured, passionate and swashbuckling hero.

Cyrano de Bergerac

Loneliness, sexual tension and the need for human kindness pervade these three plays by Tennessee Williams, as their characters rage against personal demons and the modern world. In 'Sweet Bird of Youth', a drifter, Chance Wayne, returns to his home town with an ageing movie actress in search of the girl he loved in his youth, but with terrible, violent results. 'Period of Adjustment' tells the story of two young newlyweds who visit the husband's old army friend on Christmas Eve after unsuccessfully consummating their marriage, and unleash forbidden passion, while in 'The Night of the Iguana' a diverse group of people, including a disturbed ex-minister and a troubled spinster, are thrown together in an isolated Mexican hotel for one eventful night.

Sweet Bird of Youth and Other Plays

A car wreck on the slopes of Mount Morgan puts insurance tycoon Lyman Felt in the hospital. While Lyman recovers, two women meet in the hospital waiting room only to discover that they are both married to him. With his secrets exposed, Lyman tries to justify himself to the two women - the prim, cultured Theo and the restless, ambitious Leah - at the same time hoping to convince himself that he is blameless. 
 
Moving between broad farce and delicate tragedy, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan explores the struggle between honesty with others and honesty with oneself.

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan

'If music be the food of love, play on, 
Give me excess of it' 
 
Separated from her twin brother Sebastian after a shipwreck, Viola disguises herself as a boy to serve the Duke Orsino. Wooing a countess on his behalf, she is stunned to find herself the object of her affections. Amorous intrigues, practical jokes, sexual confusion and riotous disorder ensue in this lyrical, hugely popular romantic comedy, which shows both the delights and the perils of desire. 
 
Used and Recommended by the National Theatre 
 
General Editor Stanley Wells 
Edited by M. M. Mahood 
Introduction by Michael Dobson

Twelfth Night

Katie Sayer

Imogen is a classic left-wing student. War is bad, minorities are good, and I don’t care if I’m ruining Christmas, Mum, it’s important! 
 
But when she accidentally falls foul of campus orthodoxy, she finds herself alone, dejected, and friendless. Until a firebrand right-wing news station, Channel Albion, arrives to pick up the pieces... 
 
Suddenly, Imogen’s a “unicorn” –an attractive young woman who is happy to spout right-wing viewpoints on TV. She’s got her own Breakfast Show, she’s winning awards, and she’s the new face of the culture wars in Britain. But she doesn’t really mean any of it… does she? 
 
A satirical comedy about cancel culture, nominated for the 2025 Speakies. 
 
 “Biting satire” – The Times 
 
“Katie Sayer’s pacy forthright satire exposes the absurdities of our age” – The Radio Times 
 
“Bravo to Sayer and to Radio 4” – The Telegraph 
 
 
Starring Alyth Ross as Imogen (nominated for Best Performance at the 2025 Speakies), with Daniel Mays (Line of Duty, Thursday Murder Club) as Mick and Rufus Jones (Rivals) as Theo. 
 
Also starring: 
 
Alex - Harry Trevaldwyn 
Pete - Steve Edge 
Michelle - Robin Weaver 
Cally - Karise Yansen 
Jake - Iain Ferrier 
Sam - Joe Barnes 
Lucy - Ada Player 
Tom - Freddie Walker 
Imam Ali - Naveed Khan 
Will - James Taylor-Thomas 
Zoe - Jade Groves 
Cara - Sapphire Joy 
 
Written by Katie Sayer (The Skewer, The Naked Week, Dead Ringers, The News Quiz, The Now Show, One Person Found This Helpful) 
 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King (Uncanny) 
 
Produced and directed by David Tyler (Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, Armando Iannucci’s Charm Offensive, Cabin Pressure, Spitting Image) 
 
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 13th May 2025. 
 
© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Four Gammons and a Unicorn

A Full-Cast BBC Radio 4 Comedy Drama

Shelagh Delaney

A collection of plays by the trailblazing dramatist Shelagh Delaney 
 
'The fact is, Miss Delaney is not only a shrewd and penetrating observer; she is a very delicate artist.' Bernard Levin 
 
Shelagh Delaney was just 19 when her debut play, A Taste of Honey, premiered in 1958. One of the great &lsquo;kitchen sink dramas&rsquo;, it was ground-breaking in its portrayal of working-class Northern women, gay and Black men, and influenced popular culture from The Smiths to Coronation Street. A huge hit in the West End and on Broadway, it was made into a BAFTA-winning film starring Rita Tushingham. 
 
This collection opens with a 2004 radio production of A Taste of Honey, starring Beth Squires as the pregnant teenager trading insults and repartee with her mother (Siobhan Finneran). It is followed by seven dramas specially written for BBC Radio, all showcasing Delaney&rsquo;s extraordinary gift for depicting the experiences and emotions of ordinary women and children. 
 
In the trilogy Sweetly Sings the Donkey, Tell Me a Film and Baloney Said Salome, we follow the friendship of four women across the decades, from their childhood meeting in a Blackpool convalescent home to their 60th birthday reunion, and their fond farewell to one of their number. Beth Squires, Barbara Marten, Kay Purcell, Susan Twist and Eileen O&rsquo; Brien star in these funny, moving plays. 
 
Country Life and its sequel, Whoopi Goldberg&rsquo;s Country Life, centre around Rose, whose peaceful life on a remote Yorkshire smallholding is disrupted by her moody nephew, her film-star brother and her embittered ex-sister-in law. This witty, poignant double bill about parenting, rural life and family ties stars Barbara Marten as Rose. 
 
Starring Daniel Hanbridge and Brooke Vincent, the rite-of-passage drama Out of the Pirate&rsquo;s Playhouse sees five eleven-year-olds celebrating the start of the holidays by going to their favourite activity centre: only to be told they are too old to play there. Our final play, So Does the Nightingale, is set during another period of transition, as middle-aged Alice prepares for her father&rsquo;s impending death &ndash; and reveals her shocking plans for a new, independent life&hellip; Linda Polan stars, with a cast including Barbara Laurenson and Margot Boyd. 
 
Production credits 
Text copyright &copy; Shelagh Delaney 1959 (A Taste of Honey),1980 (So Does the Nightingale), 2000(Sweetly Sings the Donkey), 2003 (Tell Me a Film, Out of the Pirate&rsquo;s Playhouse), 2004 (Baloney Said Salome), 2007 (Country Life), 2010 (Whoopi Goldberg&rsquo;s Country Life) 
All rights reserved 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 20 Nov 1980, 18 Dec 2000, 6 Mar 2003, 22 Jul 2004, 7 Nov 2004, 22 Mar 2007, 18 Oct 2010, 
 
&copy; 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

A Taste of Honey & more

Eight BBC Radio Full-Cast Productions

A tragicomedy, a satire on materialism and a scream of pain and injustice, Timon of Athens depicts Shakespeare's greatest optimist and his most vehement pessimist in its central character, the wealthy and deluded Timon. This Penguin Shakespeare edition is edited by G. R. Hibbard with an introduction by Nicholas Walton. 
 
'What viler thing upon the earth than friends, 
Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends!' 
 
After squandering his wealth with prodigal generosity, a rich Athenian gentleman finds himself deep in debt. Unshaken by the prospect of bankruptcy, he is certain that the friends he has helped so often will come to his aid. But when they learn his wealth is gone, he quickly finds that their promises fall away to nothing in this tragic exploration of power, greed, and loyalty betrayed. 
 
This book contains a general introduction to Shakespeare's life and Elizabethan theatre, a separate introduction to the play, a chronology, suggestions for further reading, an essay discussing performance options on both stage and screen, and a commentary. 
 
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He wrote about 38 plays (the precise number is uncertain), many of which are regarded as the most exceptional works of drama ever produced, including Romeo and Juliet (1595), Henry V (1599), Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), King Lear (1606) and Macbeth (1606), as well as a collection of 154 sonnets, which are among the most profound and influential love poetry in English.

Timon of Athens

&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

The beautiful but sharp-tongued Katherina has sworn never to accept the demands of any would-be husband. But when she is pursued by the wily Petruchio, it seems that she has finally met her match. And as he meets her own caustic words with a feigned, capricious cruelty, Katherina quickly comes to understand the absurdity of her shrewish behaviour, in one of the greatest of all comic battles of the sexes.

The Taming of the Shrew

Alan Bennett

Until the time of her death in 2003, much-loved actress Thora Hird worked regularly with the playwright Alan Bennett. Now, in a specially written introduction and postscript, Bennett recalls his work and friendship with Thora, and introduces three examples of their collaboration. In The Last of the Sun, Dolly's remaining days in an old people's home are enlivened by a seemingly respectable man. Recorded in 2002, Thora Hird's last ever performance, in a part written especially for her, is moving and memorable. In A Cream Cracker Under the Settee, Doris has taken a fall at home, and until someone comes to rescue her she's left immobile and in reflective mood. This monologue features one of Thora's best-remembered performances. Waiting for the Telegram sees Violet remembering how she lost her first young man - but she does not see how close she is to losing her second. This heartbreaking piece won Thora Hird huge critical acclaim, and showcases her acting genius.

Alan And Thora

biblio.categories.code

biblio.publicationStatus

biblio.brand

biblio.workEditions.format

biblio.ageRange

biblio.series.seriesName

biblio.imprint.description

biblio.type

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

Search Results

The Fall of the West

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Fight or Flight (Book 21)

The Mortons

Little Black Classics Box Set

Extracts

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

8 spirited heroes that will inspire you to be brave 

Features

8 spirited heroes that will inspire you to be brave

6 lessons your child will learn from Terry Pratchett books

6 lessons your child will learn from Terry Pratchett's books

A picture of several illustrations from Terry Pratchett's novels on a blue background

Children's reading lists

Where to start with Terry Pratchett's books

An image showing a selection of adventure stories for 9-12 year olds on a bright yellow background with orange doodles that include a hashtag, flag, danger sign and speech bubble

16 books for 9 to 12-year-olds that love adventures

An image of a selection of spooky children's books on a dark purple background with an orange shape which features a zig-zag pattern

32 spooky books to read this Halloween

An image of the author Terry Pratchett, on a red and purple background, holding out his hand as though he is casting a spell and there are a couple of illustrations from his books riding the wave

'At his best, Terry was a teacher': Why we love Terry Pratchett

A picture of several different children's books on a pink to blue ombre background; each book has a bright yellow shadow

Showing results for: ‘tiffany aching’

Filters

Category

Publication Date

Format

Series

Imprint

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter