Showing results by narrator "Frances Jeater" in All Categories

Investigating a crime seemingly unconnected to the Royal Family, Holmes & Watson uncover a conspiracy to kidnap Queen Victoria and destabilise the British Empire. With a ticking clock to her next public engagement, Holmes and Watson must discover who is behind the plot and locate her majesty, while Mycroft tries to keep the monarch’s disappearance a secret from the British people. At first, Holmes believes Moriarty is responsible for the abduction, but when the Napoleon of Crime is proved innocent, Holmes must work with his arch-nemesis to rescue the Queen.

No great composer’s story is more predominantly happy than Haydn’s, though even his has its share of clouds. A classic rags-to-riches tale, it sees him move from humble beginnings through decades as a liveried servant to his emergence as the most popular and successful composer of his time. One of the healthiest and least neurotic artists in musical history, he did more than any other single figure to pioneer the symphony, the piano sonata and the string quartet - and he was the first truly great practitioner of each.

E Nesbit is widely regarded as the first modern children's writer. Her ground-breaking novels have influenced authors from Oscar Wilde to Jacqueline Wilson, and over 100 years after their first publication, they remain perennially popular. This wide-ranging collection comprises some of her very best children's fiction, commencing with her timeless tale The Railway Children.

The Waves traces the lives of six friends from childhood to old age. It was written when Virginia Woolf was at the height of her experimental powers, and she allows each character to tell their own story, through powerful, poetic monologues. By listening to these voices struggling to impose order and meaning on their lives, we are drawn into a literary journey that stunningly reproduces the complex, confusing and contradictory nature of human experience. It is read with affection and skill by Frances Jeater.

Full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of the first five Falco novels by Lindsey Davis, starring Anton Lesser as Marcus Didius Falco.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe was a colossus of German literature and a true Renaissance man. A novelist, dramatist, poet, humanist, scientist and philosopher, he wrote the first international bestseller, The Sorrows of Young Werther, and his epic masterpiece Faust is one of the most famous and celebrated dramas of all time.

A gritty reimagining of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, this brand new modern-day audiobook adaptation of William Shakespeare's classic love story is full of passion, emotion, scandal, disillusionment and family fallout.

When a high-profile public figure fights a libel case, it becomes clear to the jury members that the trial will have an impact on their own lives ... Full of love, scandal, intrigue and lies and that's just in the jury! This drama explores how 12 people brought together can work together to find justice, will the truth win?

Raunchy, risqué and rebellious, early Restoration comedies were a breath of fresh air for 17th century theatregoers. With Charles II restored to the throne in 1660, Oliver Cromwell's ban on stage performances was rescinded, and for the first time, women were invited to tread the boards as actresses. Playwrights developed a new style of social comedy, packed with amorous escapades, bawdy humour, wicked wit and sexual innuendo. This scintillating anthology showcases six leading lights of early Restoration drama.

Widely considered as one of the finest historical novelists of the 20th century, Mary Renault brought the ancient world alive, turning age-old myths of gods and monsters into compelling human stories. In The King Must Die and its sequel, The Bull from the Sea, she retells the legend of Theseus, one of the greatest heroes of Ancient Greece.

Actor, dramatist and founding member of Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre, Rod Beacham wrote over 15 plays for BBC Radio. This collection comprises seven crime dramas first broadcast on Radio 4’s ‘Saturday Night Theatre’ strand between 1980 and 1987, ranging in tone from tense whodunnits to light-hearted comedy thrillers.

Ted Willis began his creative life in amateur theatre and journalism before moving into writing for films, TV and radio, and was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most prolific writer for television. His best-known creation was the hit police procedural Dixon of Dock Green which he based on the stories told to him by a policeman friend. This radio anthology includes five of his best-loved crime tales from the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

Here are the stories of nine great adventures and the lives of the men who took part in them. They pushed back the frontiers of man's knowledge of the world by their vision, courage, and sheer doggedness. They were very different people, from bold adventurers facing the unknown with enjoyment to careful, more scientific individuals. Their journeys are placed within their historical context, but also contain the words of the men themselves.

This is a story from the Great Explorers collection.

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales II: Modern Verse Translation collection.

It’s the 1990s and the body positivity movement has a yet to be born. Graham Pitscottie dreams of one day becoming a presenter on Blue Peter. However, he is stuck replenishing the pick 'n' mix at Woolworths. By his own admission he is, ‘a bit of a fatso’, and because there are no fat Blue Peter presenters, he joins - at the insistence of his mother Soo - a slimming class run by Wendy Bottomley.

Four more delightful tales from one of the most entertaining storytellers of all time. Though writing in the thirteenth century, Chaucer’s wit and observation comes down undiminished through the ages, especially in this accessible modern verse translation. The stories vary considerably from the uproarious Wife of Bath’s Tale, promoting the power of women to the sober account of patient Griselda in the Clerk’s Tale.

The Waves traces the lives of six friends from childhood to old age. It was written when Virginia Woolf was at the height of her experimental literary powers, and she allows each character to tell their own story, through powerful, poetic monologues. By listening to these voices struggling to impose order and meaning on their lives we are drawn into a literary journey which stunningly reproduces the complex, confusing and contradictory nature of human experience.

Sick of the spying business, professional assassin Art Gordo decides to quit the Secret Service - but his old life won't leave him alone. It's Christmas, three months after his retirement, and Gordo is visited by an old colleague with a proposition. A senior MI7 agent has been selling secrets to the opposition and needs to be eliminated - and the job can't be traced back to the Department. What's more, the task must be completed within the next five days. Clarke's offering big money - but despite the temptation, Art turns him down. Only someone won't take 'no' for an answer.

Janitor Ramsay works at Worthing Court, a once-prestigious block of Edwardian flats in Bloomsbury that has seen better days. He takes pride in keeping the place spick and span, but flirty, feisty Elsie is always distracting him from his duties – and getting him into trouble. While he’s a stickler for the rules, she delights in breaking them, and while he respects authority, she refuses to know her place. In these eight episodes, the odd couple join forces to deal with an MP stuck in a lift, and Elsie takes advantage when she’s given a storeroom and borrows a flat.