Showing results by narrator "Robert Hardy" in All Categories

Following the success of Catching LIfe by the Throat, Josephine Hart compiles more poetry from the like of such poets as Milton, Byron, Keats, Shelley, Browning, Frost and Lowell.

Read by a dazzling cast of actors including Eileen Atkins, Nancy Carroll, Alan Cox, Charles Dance, Joanna David, Lindsay Duncan, Edward Fox, Emilia Fox, Robert Hardy, Tom Hollander, Jeremy Irons, Felicity Kendal, Elizabeth McGovern, Mark Strong, Dominic West, Greg Wise.

Captain Bligh, of Bounty fame, is now governor of New South Wales and facing mutiny anew, having lost the support of local settlers. Jack Aubrey is commissioned to come to his rescue. With a beautiful but dangerous spy on board, along with an unwelcome hold full of convicts, and war with America brewing, can Captain Jack Aubrey reach Australia in one piece?

Accompanied by his friend, ship’s surgeon and spy Stephen Maturin, Captain Jack Aubrey has returned home to England and the life of a country gentleman. But their comfortable experience is cut short when Jack is made a pauper overnight. He flees to the continent, narrowly escaping debtor’s prison, only to find himself a hunted fugitive from Napoleon’s regime as, yet again, war looms.

Dark secrets, blackmail and murder: it’s another classic case for the world’s most famous detective. When a young woman must be rescued from a ruthless blackmailer, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson find themselves pulled dangerously close to being on the wrong side of the law.... Based on real events, this lively short is brought vividly to life by Robert Hardy, known to many for playing Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Is the world’s most famous detective on his deathbed? When Dr Watson finds Sherlock Holmes wasting away from a rare tropical disease, he must act fast if he is to save the life of his best friend. Sherlock Holmes, of course, may well have one more trick up his sleeve. Full of twists and turns, Arthur Conan Doyle’s atmospheric and gripping short story is brought vividly to life by Robert Hardy.

Sherlock Holmes meets his most impressive adversary yet: criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty. Holmes has been tracking Moriarty for months, determined to bring him to justice. Yet Moriarty is as determined to bring about the downfall of Holmes. Their battle to defeat each other ends up in Switzerland - and on the brink of a cliff overlooking a perilously high and powerful waterfall.

It has been three years since Inspector Holmes was seen falling to his death, but Watson is still reluctant to believe it. He has been closely following crimes reported in the newspapers and begins to investigate the murder of Ronald Adair, a case that would have interested his friend greatly. Robert Hardy, known to many for playing Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is the expert reader to bring perhaps the most anticipated Sherlock Holmes story of all time to life.

An army colonel is found dead in a pool of blood, his wife out cold beside him. The room is locked; the key missing. It’s another classic case for Sherlock Holmes to crack, with secrets to untangle and dark pasts to unearth. Robert Hardy, known to many for playing Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is the expert reader bringing this thrilling story to vivid life.

Sherlock Holmes visits his friend Victor out in the Norfolk countryside. There, he meets his friend’s wealthy father, Mr Trevor - and soon finds out that the old man has plenty to hide.... Murder, embezzlement and violence at sea come together into a classic tale of double-crossing and subterfuge.

A horse trainer fears his master, Sir Robert Nortberton, has gone mad, and comes to Sherlock Holmes for help. Holmes and Watson swiftly discover that a horrible secret lurks in the shadows of Shoscombe. The last of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes short stories is brought vividly to life by Robert Hardy, known to many for playing Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

On half-pay and without a command, Captain Jack Aubrey is stranded at home in an over-crowded cottage with his large and frequently bad-tempered family. When Jack has almost given up hope of ever returning to sea, Stephen Maturin, ship's doctor, occasional intelligence agent, and Jack's closest friend, brings secret orders that Jack is to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a Commodore's pennant.

Is the world’s most famous detective on his deathbed? When Dr Watson finds Sherlock Holmes wasting away from a rare tropical disease, he must act fast if he is to save the life of his best friend. Sherlock Holmes, of course, may well have one more trick up his sleeve.... Full of twists and turns, Arthur Conan Doyle’s atmospheric and gripping short story is brought vividly to life by Robert Hardy, known to many for playing Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

As he sails away from Port Jackson, Captain Jack Aubrey feels nothing but relief at leaving the penal colony and its inhabitants far behind. But, unknown to him, hidden among his crew is one Clarissa Oakes. With Britain at war on two fronts, with both America and France, Aubrey’s orders are to make for the Sandwich Islands and intervene in the conflict there.

In the fight against the French, a treaty with the Sultan of Pulo Prabang, a piratical Malay state, may prove decisive. Captain Jack Aubrey and ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin, along with a hand-picked crew, must survive the dangers of the high forties and convey a diplomatic envoy to ensure this key alliance, but dangers, both natural and man-made, will dog their every move.

With a beleaguered Britain already facing war on two fronts – against Napoleon’s armies in Europe but also against the young and vigorous United States – the objective of ship’s surgeon and spy Stephen Maturin is to light the touch paper of Peruvian revolutionary fervour, all while Captain Jack Aubrey engages with their many and varied enemies at sea.

Shipwrecked on an uninhabited island in the Dutch East Indies as the Napoleonic Wars rage on, circumstances look far from promising for Captain Jack Aubrey and his crew. And yet, having overcome the odds and contrived their escape, still further peril awaits in the fiercely tidal waters of the Salibu Passage and the penal settlements of New South Wales.

Jack Aubrey, veteran of numerous battles, has been promoted to senior captain commanding a ship that has been sent out to reinforce the squadron blockading Toulon. Compared to the early days of the Napoleonic conflict, the action is slow, cold and dull. But a sudden turn of events takes Aubrey, and ship’s surgeon and spy Stephen Maturin, off on a hazardous mission to the Greek Islands, where the skill, daring and, indeed, luck of both men will be tested to the utmost.

As Captain Jack Aubrey cools his heels in a Maltese harbour, awaiting repairs to his ship, war rages on. Fearing that hostilities will end before he has any further opportunities for fame and fortune, Aubrey accepts several secret missions, but all is not as it seems.

Racing against time, Captain Jack Aubrey and his crew must chase the USS Norfolk as she rounds Cape Horn, pursuing her into the Great South Sea and beyond. Following the equator, ahead of them lies not only the natural wonders of the Galapagos but also a succession of disasters – men overboard, castaways, typhoons, shipwrecks, to say nothing of murder and criminal insanity.

Jack Aubrey is a naval officer, a post-captain of experience and capacity. When The Letter of Marque opens he has been struck off the Navy List for a crime he has not committed. With Aubrey is his friend and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, who is also an unofficial British intelligence agent.