Alexander Monro

Alexander Norman has written a number of books with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and has known him personally for over 30 years. He regularly gives lectures on Tibetan history and culture and is fascinated by the country and its people. He lives in the UK.

Alexander Norman

Alexander Piatigorsky

Alexander Pope was born on 21st May 1688.He was brought up a Roman Catholic at a time where the laws of England were prejudicial towards Catholics. He suffered tuberculosis as a child and was crippled by it. He never grew taller than 4'6". He first published The Rape of the Lock when he was twenty-three years old in 1712. He later added to it in 1714 and 1717. It was written to reconcile two families who had fallen out over a similar incident where a young Lord Petre had cut off a lock of hair from Arabella Fermor's head. Pope went on to translate the works of Homer and produce The Dunciad and An Essay on Man. Pope died on 30th May 1744.

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Roy

Alexander Shannon

Alexander Sinclair

Alexander Slater is an author and illustrator from London who loves stories with big ideas and bigger heart. He holds a First Class degree in Graphic Design and Illustration from the University of Hertfordshire and has earned several awards in design and cartooning. When he’s not doodling or daydreaming, he can be found cooking, walking his adorable cockapoo, Bailey, or entertaining his millions of followers on his TikTok account @AlexRabbit

Alexander Slater

Alexander Soderberg previously worked as a scriptwriter and story editor for Swedish television, where he worked on adaptations of well-known crime novels as well as drama and sitcoms.

Alexander Soderberg

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Alexander Stille

Alexander Watson is the author of the prize-winning history of the Central Powers in the First World War, Ring of Steel. He is Professor of History at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Alexander Watson

In his lifetime Alexander von Humboldt was a major international celebrity - only Napoleon, it was said, was more well-known. He was born into the Prussian nobility in 1769 and destined for a career in the civil service. In his twenties he combined his position in the Ministry of Mines with his own investigative studies in science, geology and botany. He travelled around Europe, meeting many other adventurers of his age - including Bligh, Banks and Bougainville – and spent many stimulating months with Goethe in Weimar and Jena. He inherited a fortune on the death of his mother and immediately began planning a major expedition. Napoleon's activities thwarted him at every turn, but he succeeded, rather surprisingly, to gain the permission of Carlos IV to visit the Spanish colonies in South America, and set off with the French botanist Aimé Bonpland and many boxes full of scientific instruments, dodging British warships en route. These five extraordinary years of exploration and research gave Humboldt material for a lifetime's writing. But the expenses of publication exhausted his funds and after more than twenty years living in Paris he was obliged to return to Prussia as a chamberlain at the court of Friedrich Wilhelm III. It was hardly to his taste. He did manage one more major expedition across Russia, when he was sixty years old. Tirelessly energetic, he never stopped working and writing. He was mourned worldwide when he died at the age of nearly ninety in 1859.

Alexander von Humboldt

Alexandr Sergeyevitch Pushkin

Alexandra Bell studied Law at university and signed her first book deal at nineteen. Since then, she has written multiple books for both adults and young people. She works at a legal advice charity and lives in Hampshire with her husband, sons, and Sphynx cats.

Alexandra Bell

Alexandra Brinck is a textile designer and repair specialist. Her work focusses on sustainability and mending – from hands-on repair commissions to delivering training programmes for professional repairers as well as running workshops and events for the general public.

Alexandra Brinck

Allie Brosh has enjoyed writing ever since her mother tricked her into writing a story to distract her from her immediate goal of wrapping the cat in duct-tape.  She started her award-winning blog in 2009.  Brosh lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband Duncan, her two dogs, and six pet rats. Visit HyperboleAndAHalf.blogspot.com.

Alexandra Brosh

Alexandra Bruce

Alexandra Chesterfield is a behavioural scientist with a master's degree in Cognitive and Decision Science. Forever curious about why we do what we do, she currently works in financial services, leading a team of behavioural scientists to help get better outcomes for employees and customers. For four years, she was an elected Councillor in Guildford for the Conservative Party. She has personally experienced the effects of affective polarisation, both in and out of the workplace.

Alexandra Chesterfield

Alexandra Christo is a British author whose characters are always funnier and far more deadly than she is. She studied Creative Writing at university and graduated with the desire to never stop letting her imagination run wild. She currently lives in Hertfordshire with a rapidly growing garden and a never-ending stack of books. Her debut novel To Kill a Kingdom is an international bestseller and her Young Adult fantasy books have been translated into over a dozen languages worldwide.

Alexandra Christo-Cheung

Alexandra Coghlan is a music journalist and critic. She has written for publications including the Spectator, New Statesman, the Independent, Gramophone and Opera magazines, and for ensembles including the BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, The Academy of Ancient Music and The Sixteen. Alexandra was a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, and it was during her time there that she first discovered the beauty of King's College Chapel and the unique sound of the King's College Choir.

Alexandra Coghlan

Alexandra Dudley is a food writer and cook living in London. She is the recipe columnist for Sheerluxe, writer of the bestselling Substack newsletter Come For Supper, and host of the Come For Supper podcast. She has been dubbed a serial dinner party host but believes that the best food is usually simple and cooked at home. She prefers home cooking to restaurant food and believes that the cook should always get the first glass of champagne or slice of pudding.

Alexandra Dudley

Alexandra Fuller is the author of four memoirs, including Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight – a New York Times Notable Book for 2002, the 2002 Booksense Best Non-Fiction book, a finalist for the Guardian’s First Book Award and the winner of the 2002 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize – and the New York Times-bestselling Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, two books of non-fiction, and the novel Quiet Until the Thaw. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, National Geographic, Granta, The New York Times, Guardian and Financial Times.

Alexandra Fuller

Alexandra Heminsley is an author, ghostwriter, journalist, broadcaster and speaker. Her bestselling non-fiction work includes Running Like a Girl and Leap In, and her first novel, Under the Same Stars is to be published in 2022. She lives in Hove with her son, and proudly co-parents her LGBT+ family.

Alexandra Heminsley

Alex Hollingsworth co-founded Dig Club and is an experienced and award-winning garden designer, following a successful career in Management Consultancy. Alex trained with the Garden Design Academy of Ireland and also holds an RHS Level 2 Certificate in Horticulture and has had show gardens at Ireland’s ‘Bloom’ and ‘Gardener’s World Live’ in the UK.

Alexandra Hollingsworth

Alexandra Lapierre

Alexandra Massey

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Arthur Conan Doyle

Here are six extraordinary adventures, never revealed before, starring Simon Callow as Sherlock Holmes and Nicky Henson as Dr Watson, written by John Taylor.

The Unopened Casebook Of Sherlock Holmes

Jonathan Bardon

From The Ice Age to Northern Ireland's Peace Settlement and everything in between, the acclaimed academic Dr Jonathan Bardon presents a history of Ireland spanning 10,000 years. 
 
Beginning with the Ice Age and Ireland's first plants and wildlife, this history encompasses the arrival of Christianity, the age of the Celts, the Viking era, Brian Boru, the Norman invasion, the plantation and the famine through to rebellion, partition and the creation of the Irish Free State. 
 
Recorded to mark BBC Radio Ulster's 30th birthday, this landmark series gets behind the historical headlines to produce a marvellous mosaic of Ireland's rich and turbulent history, delivered with clarity and narrative skill. 
Each programme was read by local actors Frances Tomelty, James Greene and Richard Dormer, who interweave eye-witness accounts, letters and diary extracts from the times with the historical facts.

A Short History Of Ireland

Laura Solon

The complete BBC Radio 4 series by Perrier Award-winner Laura Solon.   Laura Solon won the Perrier at Edinburgh Festival in 2005 with her sensational debut show. In this, her complete Radio 4 series, all six episodes feature a mix of monologues and sketches from this extraordinary writer and performer.   There will be talking, not talking, some stories and a lion made out of china.   Aided by Ben Moor, Katherine Parkinson and Ben Willbond, Laura Solon is an award winning talent with an astonishing eye for detail and ear for voice.   ‘The writing is as fresh as a cowslip, as sharp as a kitchen-knife, and sometimes as coarse as a fishwife’ - Telegraph   '... moments of twisted genius' - Observer   'Talking and Not Talking is very clever' - Times   'Solon's series stood out for its self-assurance, its unforced oddness...' – Independent   'She's a remarkable talent' - Guardian   'Laura Solon is the new Catherine Tate' - Mail on Sunday

Laura Solon Talking And Not Talking

Will Smith

Roger Dew

The complete BBC Radio 4 series starring comedian Will Smith and John Nettles. Will Smith is obsessed with Bergerac, the classic TV show set in Jersey, and has one guiding force: an audio book of John Nettles reading the ancient Chinese text of the Tao. This helps Will find a way through when the road seems blocked. Now Will brings the Tao of Bergerac to you. First heard on BBC Radio 4, over four episodes Will navigates the minefields of justice, individuality, love and machismo. The Tao tells Will to be himself. So why did going to the sixth form ball dressed as Gandalf make him uncool? And is it wrong to dump a woman because she doesn’t alphabetise her CDs? Each episode features guest-starring cameos from John Nettles and climaxes with Will’s tour-de-force – the ‘Six Degrees of Bergerac’ – where he links the TV show to any film suggested by the audience in six steps or less.

The Tao Of Bergerac

John Wyndham

From John Wyndham, author of The Day of the Triffids, comes this chilling tale of a normal boy confronted with abnormal circumstances. Matthew had always been an ordinary boy. Even when he started talking to himself and introduced his invisible friend, Chocky, to the family, it was obviously just a phase he was going through. And all children have imaginary friends, even if Matthew’s a bit old to have one. As he becomes increasingly distressed and blames it on arguments with this unseen companion, his parents become concerned. But when Matthew starts explaining binary maths and anti-gravity propulsion, concerns turn to worry. After all, Chocky is only the product of an overactive imagination. Isn’t he? Chocky stars Sacha Dhawan as Matthew, Owen Teale as David Gore and Cathy Tyson as Mary Gore.

Chocky

Classic Radio Sci-Fi

Malcolm Hulke

Visiting the Master in his high-security prison just off the south coast of England, the Doctor and Jo Grant's curiosity is piqued by a recent spate of disappearing ships. Investigating a nearby sea fort, they encounter a ferocious amphibian creature - the cousin of a reptile race whom the Doctor met once before.   These 'Sea Devils' have been revived from hibernation by the Master, whose scheme is being aided by the prison governor. Realising that the Master wants to create havoc on Earth, and to see humanity subjugated by the Sea Devils, the Doctor once again attempts to broker peace between the two races.   But his efforts are hampered by the intervention of a government minister, whose sole aim is to wipe the sea creatures out. Battle ensues and control of the planet once more hangs in the balance...

Doctor Who: The Sea Devils (TV Soundtrack)

John Mortimer

Edward Marshall-Hall, who was born in Brighton in 1858, became perhaps the country's most successful advocate of all time, building his reputation on a phenomenal talent for acquitting defendants in murder trials where a guilty verdict had seemed a foregone conclusion. Given that murder during this period carried a sentence of execution by hanging, he can be said to have saved a considerable number of souls, male and female, from the horrors of the noose.This series features reconstructions of Marshall-Hall's dramatic courtroom displays and his ingenious and persuasive tactics. It also takes us back to the strange and often sinister stories behind the terrible crimes in question. The series is presented by barrister and writer John Mortimer QC (creator of Rumpole at the Bailey), while actor Tom Baker (one of the best of the early Dr Whos) brings to the role of Marshall Hall all the theatricality, humour and mercurial moodiness for which the great advocate was known. 
© Fiction Factory; (P) BBC Audiobooks Ltd

John Mortimer Presents The Trials Of Marshall Hall

Various

An extraordinary tale of desire, betrayal and death from Britain's longest running and best loved radio serial.   Wealthy, philandering gentleman farmer Brian Aldridge embarked on a casual fling with freelance translator Siobhan Hathaway, but what ensued was the most explosive affair in the history of Ambridge.   After a series of secret trysts, Siobhan got pregnant, and the whole affair came out into the open.   Although devastated, Brian's wife Jennifer stood by her man, and promised to forgive him as long as his mistress left Ambridge forever. Siobhan embarked on a new life in Germany taking with her baby Ruari, the son that Brian had always wanted.   For a while, it seemed as though the Aldridge family could get back to normal: until Siobhan returned with devastating news that looked set to turn everyone's lives upside down...   For the Archers faithful and those who are joining the residents of Ambridge for the first time, this epic saga makes for compelling listening.

Archers Ambridge Affair

Heartache At Home Farm

Forty-five of Britain's best-loved poems, read by John Nettles, Siobhan Redmond, Greg Wise and Emma Fielding. 
 
In a national poll conducted to discover Britain's favourite poem, Rudyard Kipling's 'If -' was voted number one. This unique anthology brings together over forty poems from the poll, including the top ten. 
 
Here is poignant war poetry (Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', Rupert Brooke's 'The Soldier' and Siegfried Sassoon's 'Everyone Sang' ); romantic verse such as Shakespeare's 'Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?' and W. B. Yeats' 'When You Are Old'; Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear's great nonsense poems 'Jabberwocky' and 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat', and much more. Classics such as Wordsworth's 'The Daffodils' and Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shallot' sit alongside contemporary poetry like Allan Ahlberg's 'Please Mrs Butler' and Wendy Cope's 'Bloody Men'. 
 
Superbly read by John Nettles, Siobhan Redmond, Greg Wise and Emma Fielding, this popular collection includes many of the very best examples of British verse, as chosen by poetry lovers nationwide. 
 
The poems included in this collection are: 
 
1 'If -' by Rudyard Kipling, read by John Nettles 
2 'The Lady of Shallot' by Alfred Lord Tennyson, read by Siobhan Redmond 
3 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare, read by Greg Wise 
4 'Not Waving but Drowning' by Stevie Smith, read by Siobhan Redmond 
5 'The Daffodils' by William Wordsworth, read by John Nettles 
6 'To Autumn' by John Keats, read by Siobhan Redmond 
7 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' by William Butler Yeats, read by Emma Fielding 
8 'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen, read by Greg Wise 
9 'Ode to a Nightingale' by John Keats, read by Siobhan Redmond 
10 'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven' by William Butler Yeats, read by John Nettles 
11 'Remember' by Christina Rossetti, read by Siobhan Redmond 
12 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' by Thomas Gray, read by John Nettles 
13 'Fern Hill' by Dylan Thomas, read by John Nettles 
14 'Leisure' by William Henry Davies, read by Emma Fielding 
15 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes, read by Greg Wise 
16 'To His Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell, read by Greg Wise 
17 'Dover Beach' by Matthew Arnold, read by John Nettles 
18 'The Tyger' by William Blake, read by John Nettles 
19 'Adlestrop' by Edward Thomas, read by Siobhan Redmond 
20 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke, read by Greg Wise 
21 'Sea-Fever' by John Masefield, read by John Nettles 
22 'Upon Westminster Bridge' by William Wordsworth, read by Greg Wise 
23 'How Do I Love Thee?' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, read by Emma Fielding 
24 'Cargoes' by John Masefield, read by Greg Wise 
25 'Jabberwocky' by Lewis Carroll, read by Emma Fielding 
26 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, read by John Nettles 
27 'Ozymandias of Egypt' by Percy Bysshe Shelley, read by Greg Wise 
28 'Abou ben Adhem' by Leigh Hunt, read by John Nettles 
29 'Everyone Sang' by Siegfried Sassoon, read by Greg Wise 
30 'The Windhover' by Gerard Manley Hopkins, read by Siobhan Redmond 
31 'Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night' by Dylan Thomas, read by John Nettles 
32 'Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?' by William Shakespeare, read by Siobhan Redmond 
33 'When You Are Old' by William Butler Yeats, read by Emma Fielding 
34 'Lessons of the War (To Alan Mitchell): Naming of Parts' by Henry Reed, read by John Nettles 
35 'The Darkling Thrush' by Thomas Hardy, read by Emma Fielding 
36 'Please Mrs Butler' by Allan Ahlberg, read by Emma Fielding 
37 'Kubla Khan' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, read by John Nettles 
38 'Home-Thoughts, from Abroad' by Robert Browning, read by Greg Wise 
39 'High Flight (An Airman's Ecstasy)' by John Gillespie Magee, read by Greg Wise 
40 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat' by Edward Lear, read by Emma Fielding 
41 'The Glory of the Garden' by Rudyard Kipling, read by Greg Wise 
42 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost, read by Siobhan Redmond 
43 'The Way through the Woods' by Rudyard Kipling, read by Emma Fielding 
44 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' by Wilfred Owen, read by Greg Wise 
45 'Bloody Men' by Wendy Cope, read by Siobhan Redmond 
 
©1998 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)1998 BBC Audiobooks Ltd

The Nation's Favourite Poems

Lee Mack

The star of TV’s ‘Not Going Out’ hosts more mayhem in a collision of comedy, music and carefully rehearsed chaos.   Taking part in the manic mix of sketches and stand-up are special musical guests: former Spice Girl Melanie C, ABC’s Martin Fry, Erasure’s Andy Bell, Jamelia, Alison Moyet and Level 42’s Mark King. Lee is also joined by comedians Andrew Maxwell, Phil Nichol, Jason Byrne, John Hegley, Mark Watson and Will Smith. Ably assisted by long-suffering sidekick Angela McHale and house band leader Steve Brown (‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’’s Glenn Ponder), Lee Mack brings you a new series, with all-new gags.   Includes all six episodes of the second radio series – plus two Christmas specials from 2005 and 2006.

The Lee Mack Show, Series 2

Douglas Adams

Dirk Gently has an unshakeable belief in the interconnectedness of all things, but his Holistic Detective Agency mainly succeeds in tracking down missing cats for old ladies. Then Dirk stumbles upon an old friend behaving bizarrely - and is drawn into a four-billion year old mystery that must be solved if the human race is to avoid immediate extinction. Harry Enfield stars as Douglas Adams's much-loved psychic sleuth, with Billy Boyd, Andrew Sachs, Jim Carter and Olivia Colman ('Peepshow'). Considered by many Adams fans to be as funny - if darker - than The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, this adventure features everything from quantum physics to missing cats, via Coleridge, Bach and an Electric Monk. This is the first of two series adapted from the 'Dirk Gently' books, directed by Dirk Maggs, who was chosen by Douglas Adams to conclude the award-winning The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and this release contains nearly one hour of additional unbroadcast material.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Brian Hayles

‘May I present Princess Josephine... of TARDIS!’   The TARDIS arrives on the storm-lashed planet of Peladon, just as it is being assessed for its suitability to join the Galactic Federation.   Mistaken for Federation delegates from Earth, the Doctor and Jo become involved in a series of dramatic events at the conference.   King Peladon’s Chancellor has died in mysterious circumstances, and his High Priest is vehemently opposed to the Federation’s advances.   Amongst the other delegates are hermaphrodite hexapod Alpha Centauri, half-automaton Arcturus, and two Ice Warriors – whose species the Doctor knows as old adversaries.   Confined together in the Citadel, they struggle to counter myth and superstition with logic and reason.   Is the Curse of Peladon about to strike those who form a union with the Federation? Has the Royal beast Aggedor risen to defend the planet’s independence? And could one of the delegates actually be working to double-cross the others?   The Doctor and Jo must work fast to solve these and other questions, and at the same time stay alive...   Katy Manning, who plays Jo Grant in the story, provides linking narration, and in a bonus interview she also remembers her involvement in its original production.

Doctor Who: The Curse Of Peladon (TV Soundtrack)

Charles Dickens

Mr Samuel Pickwick, retired businessman and confirmed bachelor, is determined that, after a quiet life of enterprise, the time has come to go out into the world. Founder of the Pickwick Club, he and his fellow Pickwickians elect to form a Corresponding Society and report back about their journeys and exploits on a regular basis. Thus begins the chronicle of their hilariously comic adventures.

The Pickwick Papers

(Classic Drama)

J.R.R. Tolkien

The musical soundtrack that accompanies Brian Sibley's highly acclaimed BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of J R R Tolkien's classic Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings, The Soundtrack

Ian Stuart Black

'There’s something alien about that Tower...' It’s 1966, and London’s brand new Post Office Tower looms over the Doctor and Dodo as they step from the TARDIS. When the Doctor meets Professor Brett, creator of a new, superintelligent computer called WOTAN, he is intrigued to hear of a plan to link all the major computers around the world. But there is more to WOTAN than meets the eye: it secretly believes humans to be inferior to machines, and already has a number of Post Office Tower staff under hypnotic power. WOTAN is planning the widespread construction of War Machines, large armoured computers bent on taking over the world! With the help of two new companions – sailor Ben Jackson and Professor Brett’s secretary, Polly – the Doctor races against time to outwit the War Machines and break WOTAN’s power. If he can’t, then the end of humanity is in sight... This remastered soundtrack of the original four-part BBC TV adventure is narrated by Anneke Wills, who plays Polly in the story. She also recalls her time in Doctor Who in a bonus interview.

Doctor Who: The War Machines (TV Soundtrack)

At first the fireballs seemed to be nothing more than a dazzling display of lights in the sky, plunging into the deepest oceans and disappearing without trace. But, when ships started sinking inexplicably and the sea-lanes became impassable, it seemed that the world was facing a threat of unprecedented proportions.   Mike and Phyllis Watson, both radio journalists, are caught up in the centre of events, well aware that it’s not the cold war or international conflicts that are causing these events, but something infinitely more deadly – an alien invasion.   And that’s not all: the sea level is rising, the ice caps are melting, London and other cities are flooding, millions of people are drowning and ecological disaster looms. And, whatever the alien beings are, they have begun to emerge from the sea...   A science fiction story full of contemporary resonances, from the fear of global warming to the distrust of official information and propaganda, and the ultimate fear of a challenge to the supremacy of human beings on Earth.

Kraken Wakes, The (Classic Radio Sci-Fi)

Mark Tully

Sir Mark Tully was the BBC’s Foreign Correspondent in India from 1972 to 1994. He has become familiar to listeners around the world for his incisive and thought-provoking reports. On this special recording, he looks back at a career that coincided with a remarkable period in Indian history.   As well as the assassination of two Indian Prime Ministers - Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv - Mark Tully reported the storming of the Sikh Golden Temple, the horrific aftermath of the Bhopal gas disaster, and the conflict between the Hindus and the Muslims after the demolition of a mosque at Ayodhya.

Mark Tully's India

Stephen Cole

The TARDIS lands the Doctor and Martha in the Lake District in 1909, where a small village has been terrorised by a giant, scaly monster. The search is on for the elusive 'Beast of Westmorland', and explorers, naturalists and hunters from across the country are descending on the fells. King Edward VII himself is on his way to join the search, with a knighthood for whoever finds the Beast.   But there is a more sinister presence at work in the Lakes than a mere monster on the rampage, and the Doctor is soon embroiled in the plans of an old and terrifying enemy.   As the hunters become the hunted, a desperate battle of wits begins - with the future of the entire world at stake...   Featuring the Doctor and Martha, as played by David Tennant and Freema Agyeman in the hit series from BBC Television. The story is read by Reggie Yates, who played Leo Jones in the series.

Doctor Who: Sting Of The Zygons

Ken Dodd

The Squire of Knotty Ash waves his tickling stick in these four inimitable BBC Radio episodes. 
Welcome to Doddy&#39;s world of whimsy, where the puns fly thick and fast, and the quips are as surreal as they are saucy. 

With mirth-quaking jokes and a juggernaut of japes, Ken Dodd gives us his own unique take on topics as diverse as the European Union, sport, the good things in life and people who have shocked the world. There are also favourite Doddy ballads, including &#39;Because of You&#39;, &#39;Morning Please Don’t Come&#39; and &#39;Love Me with All of Your Heart&#39;. 

In this feast of entertainment, join Doddy and just suppose what life would be like if everything were topsy-turvy, or there was no such thing as different sexes. Find out who&#39;s making history in the Brown Ale Book of Records, and examine last week&#39;s news and events with the Hindsight Team. And ponder the great questions of life with Professor Chuckabutty - like, do electricians flex their muscles? Should we be ruled by Brussels, or leeks? Is tossing the caber just a clever Scotsman&#39;s way of getting a stolen telegraph pole home? 

Featuring special guests including Gretchen Franklin, Jo Manning Wilson, Hugh Paddick and Talfryn Thomas, this is a star-studded extravaganza that makes &#39;Gone with the Wind&#39; seem like a hiccup.

The Ken Dodd Show

Daphne du Maurier

Here is a BBC 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 a farm from her house. She saw a farmer busily ploughing a field while above him the seagulls were diving and wheeling. She developed an idea about the birds becoming hostile and attacking him.In her story, the birds become hostile after a harsh winter with little food. First the seagulls, then birds of prey, and finally even small birds all turn against mankind. The nightmarish vision appealed to Alfred Hitchcock, who turned it into the celebrated film. 
©2014 Audible, Inc. (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

The Birds

Vikram Seth

A Suitable Boy is now a major 2020 BBC TV series, and one of the BBC's 100 novels that shaped our world. 
 
The award-winning BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Vikram Seth's masterpiece 
 
'The drama highlight of the year...this sumptuous production, wonderfully atmospheric, written with pace and performed, by an all-Indian cast, quite superbly. The novel may be vast but I was convinced by this version right from the start. Magnificent drama' - Radio Times 
 
A Suitable Boy is Vikram Seth's epic love story set in India. Funny and tragic, with engaging, brilliantly-observed characters, it is as close as you can get to Dickens for the twentieth century. 
 
The story unfolds through four middle-class families - the Mehras, Kapoors, Khans and Chatterjis. Lata Mehra, a university student, is under pressure from her mother to get married. But not to just anyone she happens to fall in love with. There are standards to be met and finding a husband for Lata becomes a family affair in which all the members are to play a part. The characters struggle, they try to buck the system, to break free of restraint, of interference - but ultimately their strength and sense of being comes from their family and friends. It is a celebration of ordinariness; a beautifully composed story that is an affirmation of family and friendship. 
 
In his sweeping epic, Vikram Seth has created an entire world filled with warmth, humour, pathos, tragedy - in short, life. Recorded on location in India, A Suitable Boy is made by the production team behind the award-winning Bleak House and The Handmaid's Tale. 
 
Shortlisted for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, 1993. 
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, 1994. 
Winner of the WH Smith Literary Award, 1994. 
 
Dramatised and directed by John Dryden. A Goldhawk Production.

A Suitable Boy

It's That Man Again is a giant in the history of radio comedy. As Mat Coward's book Classic Radio Comedy says, "Surely the most written-about radio series in history, it was successful to an extent which is hard to imagine today. Its international audience was measured in the tens of millions. Its star, Tommy Handley, was undoubtedly the most popular performer, in any field, ever known in Britain."

It's That Man Again Volume 1

Andy Lane

When Torchwood track an energy surge to a Cardiff nightclub, the team finds the police are already at the scene. Five teenagers have died in a fight, and lying among the bodies is an extraterrestrial device.    Next morning, they discover the corpse of a Weevil, its face and neck eaten away, seemingly by human teeth. And on the streets of Cardiff, an ordinary woman with an extraordinary hunger is attacking people and eating her victims.   The job of a lifetime it might be, but working for Torchwood is putting big strains on Gwen's relationship with Rhys. While she decides to spice up their love life with the aid of alien technology, Rhys decides it's time to sort himself out - better music, healthier food, lose some weight. Luckily, a friend has mentioned Doctor Scotus's weight-loss clinic...   Read by Burn Gorman, who plays Owen Harper, this thrilling adventure by Andy Lane features Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones, as played by John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Naoko Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd in the hit series from BBC Television.   Contains adult themes and language.

Torchwood: Slow Decay

Andrew Cunningham

This major new Radio 4 series charts the development of Western medicine and healing from the ancient Greeks to the pioneering organ transplant operations of the 20th Century and beyond.   ‘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 rise of the great hospitals and the work of the Renaissance anatomists, this fascinating and entertaining series reveals how, in the early 19th Century, modern scientific medicine was born out of a medical ‘Big Bang’ erupting from the white heat of the French Revolution, which would lead to clinical medicine as we know it today.   Written and presented by Andrew Cunningham, an authority on social and scientific medical history, it includes a wide variety of highly illustrative extracts read by acclaimed actors including Tamsin Greig, Annette Badland, David Rintoul and Peter Capaldi.   Whether you’re interested in what it was like to be ill in earlier times, the emergence of women in medicine, the advent of the stethoscope, or the development of antibiotic treatment, this series offers an entertaining and thought-provoking insight into these and many other medical issues.

The Making Of Modern Medicine

Ronnie Taylor

Described by Radio Times as "a brilliant observer of the domestic scene, a master reporter of life as we know it", Al Read's weekly show drew audiences of 35 million during the 1950s and 60s.Born in Salford in 1909, Al started life as a sausage manufacturer, having inherited the family's meat-processing factory. His comedy developed from his sales patter and after-dinner speeches, and he described his humour as "pictures of life". He drew on his working-class roots to come up with catchphrases such as "Right Monkey" and "You'll be lucky, I'll say, you'll be lucky". The rich Northern humour stands the test of time, as this collection of four shows from the 50s hilariously demonstrates. 
©2007 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)2007 BBC Audiobooks Ltd

The Al Read Show

Two classic tales from acclaimed British science fiction writer John Wyndham. In The Chrysalids, ten-year-old David is a happy, ordinary boy, untroubled except for occasional strange dreams about a mysterious city – until he befriends Sophie, who is unlike anybody he has met before: she has six toes. But, in the ultra-religious village of Waknut, all abnormality is abhorred as an offence against God, and he must keep her secret to himself. When he learns that he, too, is ‘deviant’, he realises that differences can be very dangerous indeed... Survival, set in the future, concerns the first auto-piloted space flight. When the ship meets with an accident, one of the passengers is killed and the others are cast adrift into space. They have enough supplies to last for three months – but the only woman on board, Alice Morgan, is pregnant, and needs extra rations. Then, food starts to go missing from the larder. What lengths will the passengers go to in order to survive? Stephen Garlick, Susan Sheridan, John Moffatt and Nicholas Courtney star in these two disturbing stories about the darker side of human nature. This CD release also includes a detailed sleeve note recounting the making of the radio adaptations, written by Andrew Pixley.

The Chrysalids & Survival

Driving back from a weekend in London, Richard and Janet Gayford are surprised to find the village of Midwich sealed off because of ‘army manoeuvres’. There are no birds singing, the air seems thick and there is a strange sort of music in the air. It soon becomes clear that there is an invisible wall around the village, and everyone within the perimeter is unconscious.   When the barrier lifts, the strange occurrence is put down to a gas leak. The villagers seem to have suffered no adverse effects from their ‘day out’ - until, some months later, there is an epidemic of pregnancies among the women.   All the babies are born on the same day, all have golden eyes - and they can all communicate with each other telepathically. As they grow older and their powers grow stronger, the people of Midwich begin to feel threatened...

The Midwich Cuckoos

Michael Palin

Eric Idle

Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones star in this innovative and groundbreaking series which includes 19 of their best sketches.   From the memorable 'Nudge Nudge Wink Wink' to the celebrated 'Dead Parrot Sketch', there’s also the hairdresser with a fear of hair who really wanted to be a lumberjack in 'Barber Shop Sketch' and the 'Lumberjack Song'. Also featuring among many timeless classics are leading figures from the Third Reich, who fetch up in a B&amp;B in the West Country, and the famous composer who only has one shed but did once think of getting a second...   Vintage Beeb: classic albums first available as BBC LPs, now reissued on CD and as downloads.

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Hugh Cunningham

Written by Hugh Cunningham and presented by award-winning children's author Michael Morpurgo, this genuinely ground-breaking history of British childhood teaches us about the key elements that have shaped children's lives. The Invention of Childhood explores how gender, geography and ethnicity has impacted the development of children throughout the ages. Beginning from the year 1000, Cunningham studies the many important events in history for our children, ranging from Britain's earliest child-care guru in the Middle Ages to the first ever Foundling Hospital in the 18th Century. This hugely enjoyable piece of teaching that delves into the idea of how childhood has been constantly reinvented through the centuries, and why the role of children in society continues to obsess us today. 
 
Fascinating and thought-provoking, it will appeal to parents, grandparents and anyone who has ever been a child themselves.

The Invention Of Childhood

John Peel

Sheila Ravenscroft

Includes the BBC Radio 4 serialisation of ‘Margrave of the Marshes’, John Peel’s part-written autobiography completed by his wife, Sheila Ravenscroft and read by Michael Angelis and Carolyn Pickles. John Peel was one such, whose contribution to British culture is undeniable. His 40-year career on Radio 1 and Radio 4 reached a huge and diverse audience, and he influenced the musical tastes of millions.   Guaranteed to appeal to all John Peel’s many devoted fans, this release is a perfect reminder of the genius of a man many regarded as the best DJ ever.

John Peel Remembered Margrave Of The Marshes

KPop Demon Hunters

Kane Chronicles Graphic Novels

Karin Schaeffer

Katie Morag

Katie Price's Perfect Ponies

Keep Calm

Keep Your Friends

Keeper of the Realms

Keiko

Kelly Ann's Diary

Key Words

Key Words with Peter and Jane

Kidnapped - Jon Roscoe

Kiki's Delivery Service

King of

King's Maker

Kingdom of Lies

A gripping historical fiction series set amid England's War of the Roses in which the Houses of Lancaster and York faced each other on the field of battle - and the Tudors won.

Kingmaker

Kings of the Realm

Knights Templar

Knights of the Borrowed Dark

Kurt Wallander

Four of James Ellroy's most popular crime novels featuring the infamous Dudley Smith, which include: 'The Black Dahlia', 'The Big Nowhere', 'L.A. Confidential' and 'White Jazz'.

L.A. Quartet

Lacey Flint has never worked a murder case - until a savage murder, 120 years to the day since Jack the Ripper claimed his first victim, crosses her desk. 
This case sets the precedent that Lacey Flint is never far from danger, or the River Thames, but she will stop at nothing to find the answers.

Lacey Flint

Ladybird Audio Adventures

Ladybird Classics

Ladybird Eco Books

Ladybird Grammar

Ladybird Lane

Introduce your little one to first concepts and themes with Ladybird Learners. From ABC to 123, animals to colours, we've got you covered for fun early learning experiences. The engaging illustrations and clear text offer lots of opportunities to extend young learners' vocabulary and get them talking. 
 
A colourful board book series packed with big learning ideas for curious little minds. 
 
Look out for all the titles in the series: 
 
My First Animals: Ladybird Learners 
My First ABC: Ladybird Learners 
My First Numbers: Ladybird Learners 
My First Colours: Ladybird Learners

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