Showing results by narrator "Bill Nighy" in All Categories

H. G. Wells wrote dozens of novels and short stories and is often called the 'father of science fiction'. Here we collect together the works of H. G. Wells as broadcast on BBC Radio. With full-cast dramatisations of novels including The Time Machine, The Island of Dr Moreau, The War of the Worlds, Ann Veronica, The First Men in the Moon and The Wonderful Visit; plus readings of The Invisible Man, Love and Mr Lewisham and several short stories including The Inexperienced Ghost and In the Abyss.

Writer and director David Hare is one of England's leading political dramatists, celebrated for his many award-winning plays analysing the morality of contemporary Britain. This collection comprises some of his most acclaimed pieces, as well as a fascinating radio interview with Hare himself.

Bill Nighy, Barbara Shelley and Peter Sallis are among the cast in six classic BBC Radio dramatisations of stories by one of Britain's most popular science fiction authors. 'The Day of the Triffids', first broadcast in 1968, is set in a world in which most people have been left blind after a meteor shower, and lethal carnivorous triffids are roaming the land. 'The Kraken Wakes', dramatised for radio in 1998, is a gripping story of monsters from the deep, alien invasion and ecological disaster.

The Royal Bank is facing a crisis, and it's time for a change of management. There are a few problems that may arise with the job.... The Chief Cashier is almost certainly a vampire - there's something nameless in the cellar and it turns out that the Royal Mint runs at a loss. Meanwhile, people actually want to know where the money's gone. It's a job for life. But, as former con-man Moist von Lipwig is learning, that life is not necessarily a long one. He's about to be exposed as a fraud, but if he's lucky the Assassins' Guild might get him first.

Since its founding in 1959, Island Records has been home to legendary artists representing wildly divergent musical styles, yet who share the same maverick, outsider spirit of its founder, Chris Blackwell. Time and again, Blackwell and his Island cohorts identified and nurtured musicians overlooked by other labels, including Bob Marley, U2, Cat Stevens, Grace Jones, Roxy Music, Traffic, Nick Drake, Tom Waits, Robert Palmer, Free, the B-52’s, John Martyn, and Jimmy Cliff.

In 1975, 23-year-old Englishman Tom Michell follows his wanderlust to Argentina, where he becomes assistant master at a prestigious boarding school. But Michell's adventures really begin when, on a weekend in Uruguay, he rescues a penguin covered in oil from an ocean spill, cleans the bird up, and attempts to return him to the sea. But the penguin refuses to leave his rescuer's side.

The three tales that make up Edgar Allan Poe's The Dupin Mysteries introduce us to the cracking character of Chevalier Auguste Dupin. As a rationalist and practitioner of brilliant deduction, he was to become the template for most of the detective fiction that followed speedily in his wake. The first tale, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", details a form of murder solving that was to become only too familiar.

Renowned for his wit, style and sophistication, Noël Coward was one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century. His plays, set in the glittering world of high society in which he lived, are much admired and have remained in the popular theatre repertoire to this day. This collection brings together the very best radio adaptation

Ivan Turgenev stands alongside Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as one of the three great Russian novelists of the 19th century. He was also a consummate short story writer, poet and playwright, and the first Russian author to become popular in the West. This specially curated collection showcases his key works, from the most celebrated to the undeservedly underrated.

This is a dynamic, modern dramatisation of a classic book by John Wyndham. Bill Nighy ( Love Actually and many other films) and Sarah Parish ( Cutting It) play Richard and Janet, a couple caught up in the goings-on of a sleepy English village in which all the children have golden eyes, blond hair, and a sinister talent for telepathy and telekinesis. (Wyndham's novel was filmed as Village of the Damned in 1960 and 1995.)

This is the collected BBC radio productions of the internationally renowned playwright Tom Stoppard. One of the giants of British theatre, Sir Tom Stoppard has been writing for the stage and screen for over 50 years. Full of wit, verbal brilliance and big ideas, his plays appeal to critics and audiences alike and are among the most studied works of the last century.

At the centre of the galaxy, a vast, unknown civilization is preparing for an event of epic proportions: the launch of the greatest, most gorgeous, most technologically advanced spaceship ever built – the Starship Titanic. An Earthling would see the ship as something really, really big, but rather less provincial onlookers would recognize it as the design of Leovinus, the galaxy’s most renowned architect. Before the launch Leovinus is having one last little look round and begins to find that things just aren’t right.

At the centre of the galaxy, a vast, unknown civilization is preparing for an event of epic proportions: the launch of the greatest, most gorgeous, most technologically advanced spaceship ever built – the Starship Titanic. An Earthling would see the ship as something really, really big, but rather less provincial onlookers would recognize it as the design of Leovinus, the galaxy’s most renowned architect. Before the launch Leovinus is having one last little look round and begins to find that things just aren’t right.

Eric Clapton is far more than a rock star. Like Dylan and McCartney, he is an icon and a living legend. He has sold tens of millions of records, played sell-out concerts all over the world, and been central to the significant musical developments of his era. His guitar playing has seen him hailed as "God". Now, for the first time, Eric tells the story of his personal and professional journeys in this pungent, witty, and painfully honest autobiography.

Christmas is the season of good cheer and harmony among men, but things are not working out quite that way in the Bunker household. As a motley collection of friends and relatives fill the house with their own wishes, dreams and attitudes, the stage is set for seasonal disharmony and romantic intrigue. It’s Christmas Eve and while Belinda is rushing around decorating the tree and seeing to all the guests and their needs, Eddie and Pattie are having a serious bust-up.

In a dry dusty place where the sand sparkled gold, stood a mighty flat rock—all craggy and old. And under that rock in a tinyful house, lived the littlest, quietest, meekest brown mouse. Fed up of being ignored by the other animals, Mouse wishes he could roar like Lion. But, as he discovers, even the biggest, bossiest people are scared sometimes...and even the smallest creatures can have the heart of a lion!

Humphrey the whale is on a quest: to find the one perfect object that will make him feel complete. He roams far and wide, gathering endless undersea treasure as he goes. Yet, no matter how many goodies he accumulates, Humphrey still doesn't feel content. Could it be friendship, not possessions, that will really make Humphrey's heart sing?

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast adaptation of Simon Brett's comic murder mystery, starring Bill Nighy as the irrepressible Charles Paris. Charles Paris (unsuccessful actor, bad husband, dipsomaniac) is currently appearing as a fork lift operator in a corporate video. It's not prime-time television or a major film, but it seems like easy money - until the fork lift is used to commit a murder. When Charles himself comes under suspicion, he decides to find out for himself who the murderer is.

The Moonraker project has a millionaire backer, the war hero Sir Hugo Drax - a man who, it seems, cheats at cards. With a ballistic rocket at stake, Sir Hugo’s exposure could threaten Britain’s latest defence system, so James Bond is asked to investigate. Moving from London’s most exclusive gambling club to a missile silo on the Channel coast, 007 and his Special Branch assistant, Gala Brand, discover there’s more to Drax than meets the eye.

Both a portrait of a love triangle - between Tietjens, his beautiful and reckless wife, Sylvia, and the suffragette Valentine - and a depiction of life on the Western Front, Parade's End is one of the greatest fictional works of the 20th century. Ranging from the drawing rooms of England to the trenches of France, and moving between past and present, it is a haunting exploration of identity, loss and memory.