Art audiobooks

Mr Luby's Fear Of Heaven

By: John Mortimer

Narrated by: Chris Pavlo, Dan Starkey, Donnla Hughes, Flamin...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

When Lewis Luby (Jeremy Irons) comes to, late at night in an Italian hospital, he finds himself lying under the monstrous big toe of God. Surely there has been some mistake: Luby, who has never for one moment believed in the immortality of the soul, cannot possibly be in heaven! John Mortimer had the idea for 'Mr Luby's Fear of Heaven' when he... Read more

Like An Angel Passing Through My Room

By: Christopher Green

Narrated by: Anna-Frid Lyngstad, Christopher Green & Full Cast

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Summer 2006: Christopher Green meets Frida. He is the after-dinner entertainment. She is a dinner party guest. What starts as a 'I'm your biggest fan' conversation turns into a long chat about the nature of loving someone you've never met. 'Like an Angel Passing Through My Room' is about being a fan. About a real and an imagined intimacy. A... Read more

Jelly Babes

By: Judy Upton

Narrated by: David Seddon, Full Cast, Jane Whittenshaw, Nadi...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Resourceful mum Shanice is persuaded by her next-door neighbour, Evie, to take up the bizarre sport of jelly wrestling to make ends meet in this BBC Radio 4 'Afternon Play'. Becky, AKA 'Azaria The Amazon', shows Shanice the ropes, and she is soon wowing the rowdy stag night audiences with her slams and smackdowns. By night she's bikini clad... Read more

Pouring Poison

By: Lou Ramsden

Narrated by: Alison Pettitt, Dan Hagley, Jonathan Keeble, Ka...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Hazel (Kathryn Hunt) spends her life describing plays for visually impaired people. But when she starts to describe the real world to her new friend Davy (Nicholas Boulton), is she giving an accurate picture of the world around her? She's looking for an escape from the pressures of looking after her disabled mother, but is she looking in the... Read more

The Magnificent Andrea

By: Nigel Planer

Narrated by: Brian Bowles, Jane Wittenshaw, Nigel Planer, Ro...

Length: 44 minutes

Abridged: No

At the heart of this explosive BBC Radio 4 comedy-drama are two morally opposed characters, both in love with the same woman, who has just - tragically - died. Originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 22 March 2011, The Magnificent Andrea is the first original radio play by Nigel Planer ('The Young Ones', 'Hairspray'), in which two... Read more

Cavity

By: Sean Grundy

Narrated by: Deirdre Mullins, Full Cast, Hayley Doherty, Ing...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A strange but funny BBC Radio 4 'Afternoon Play' about sex, betrayal, the housing market and a love triangle that follows its own surreal logic. Kirsty is having an affair with a married man, Adrian. When his wife, Lucy, returns unexpectedly from a business conference, Kirsty hides in the attic. In a panic, she falls down the back of the attic... Read more

Leverage (BBC Radio 4 The Saturday Play)

By: Simon Passmore

Narrated by: Blake Ritson, Charlie Cox, Claire Foy & Full Cast

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

A fast-paced psychological thriller from BBC Radio 4's 'Saturday Play' slot, originally broadcast 26 March 2011. A city banker is found dead in an opulent apartment. At the funeral, his former girlfriend Helen is unexpectedly questioned about when she last saw him. Did he mention computer files, or give her anything as a keepsake? Helen's... Read more

The Forgetting Curve

By: Hugh Costello

Narrated by: Andrea Irvine, Annie McCartney, Chris McHallem,...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A tense, white-knuckle ride of a play from BBC Radio 4 in which a rather self-satisfied hero embarks, reluctantly, on a voyage of self-discovery. Originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 7 January 2009, and repeated on 31 March 2011. As an expert on memory loss, Greg Cooke is asked to invalidate the testimony of an eyewitness in a... Read more

A City Killing

By: Mike Walker

Narrated by: David Tse, Full Cast, Janice Acquah, Nathan Osg...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 drama about three City traders who launch an aggressive new hedge fund, which they then struggle to prevent from complete failure. Tim, Meredith and Harry are three sassy, thirty something traders who, tired of making money for someone else, combine to launch a new hedge fund. But it doesn't take long before they get seriously... Read more

My Dear Children Of The Whole World

By: Hugh Costello

Narrated by: Hugh Ross & Nick Dunning

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Vatican City, December 1942. As war rages across the globe, Pope Pius XII prepares to deliver his annual Christmas message. It is perhaps the most important public address he will ever give. This BBC Radio 4 play explores the Pontiff's thoughts as he faces the starkest dilemma of his reign. Originally broadcast as the 'Saturday Play' on 29... Read more

Like Minded People (BBC Radio 4: Friday Play)

By: David Eldridge

Narrated by: Tom Brooke & Ruth Wilson

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

This BBC Radio 4 'Friday Play' is a heady mix of marriage, class, and politics, as Gillian and Ray attempt to keep their relationship alive over 25 years of social change. Starring Ruth Wilson and Tom Brooke, Like Minded People was originally broadcast on 4 February 2011.
Gillian and Ray meet at University. She's from a privileged background... Read more

The Need For Nonsense

By: Julia Blackburn

Narrated by: Alexi Kaye-Campbell, Andrew Sachs, James Rastal...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Julia Blackburn's play captures the warm, heartfelt and comic story of the Victorian poet and painter Edward Lear's lifelong friendship with his eccentric Greek servant, Giorgio, who inspired him to address the painful truths in his life while making us laugh. Stars Andrew Sachs as Edward Lear and Alexi Kaye-Campbell as Giorgio Kokalis. Also... Read more

Payback (BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play)

By: Jonathan Myerson

Narrated by: Full Cast, Henry Goodman, Peter Marinker & Sara...

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

It is 6th October 1973. Golda Meir has become Prime Minister of Israel in her seventies. Syrian and Egyptian troops are massing on Israel's borders, but despite eleven warnings of impending war in the past month, the Israeli cabinet has not called up the reserve. In Florida, Richard Nixon awaits the final verdict of the Washington Appeal court... Read more

The Dos And Don'ts For The Mentally Interesting

By: Louise Ramsden

Narrated by: Full Cast, Janice Acquah, Joseph Kloska, Philip...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 drama by Louise Ramsden, based on Seaneen Molloy's blog 'The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive', her account of learning to live and love with bipolar disorder. Originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 8 May 2009. Facing life as a newly-diagnosed manic depressive, Seaneen fears that Rob has become more nurse than boyfriend,... Read more

Beyond Westminster Lessons Learnt From Coalitions Past

By: Andrew Rawnsley

Narrated by: Andrew Rawnsley

Length: 27 minutes

Abridged: No

The special New Year's Day 2011 edition of BBC Radio 4's 'Beyond Westminster', in which Andrew Rawnsley considers the lessons of history for Britain's coalition government - and its opponents. Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers are busily advancing their ambitious political and economic agenda - albeit amid parliamentary revolts and... Read more

Sexton Blake Lilies For The Ladies & Other Stories

By: Donald Stewart

Narrated by: William Franklyn & Arthur Wontner

Length: 1 hour 38 minutes

Abridged: No

‘The history of crime detection has produced no more famous name than that of Sexton Blake’William Franklyn stars as paperback hero Sexton Blake, with David Gregory as his assistant Tinker, in four original BBC Radio dramatisations from 1967. Lost from the BBC archives for over 40 years, these rediscovered episodes are presented for the very... Read more

Bar Mitzvah Boy

By: Jack Rosenthal

Narrated by: Hugo Raine

Length: 54 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Jack Rosenthal’s award-winning television play, starring Hugo Raine. At the tender age of thirteen Eliot Green is about to become a man - in the Jewish religion at least. In synagogue, in front of the whole congregation, he will read and sing in Hebrew from the Torah (the Hebrew scrolls) - this after a... Read more

Sexton Blake The Vampire Moon & Other Stories

By: Donald Stewart

Narrated by: William Franklyn

Length: 1 hour 37 minutes

Abridged: No

‘The history of crime detection has produced no more famous name than that of Sexton Blake’William Franklyn stars as paperback hero Sexton Blake, with David Gregory as his assistant Tinker, in four original BBC Radio dramatisations from 1967. Lost from the BBC archives for over 40 years, these rediscovered episodes are presented for the very... Read more

It Ain't Half Hot Mum

By: Jimmy Perry & David Croft

Narrated by: Windsor Davies & Full Cast

Length: 1 hour 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Meet the gang in these four classic BBC TV episodes! Enjoy the exploits of the Royal Artillery Concert Party, a motley troupe of military thespians seconded to India during the Second World War. In 'My Lovely Boy', When RSM Williams realises the love of his life is Parky's mum, he sets about recruiting him for the concert party. In 'The Supremo... Read more

The Nation's Favourite Lakeland Poems

By: Various

Narrated by: Full Cast

Length: 2 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Enjoy the best of Lakeland poets Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey in this specially selected anthology, including The Two-Part Prelude, Wordsworth's own shortened version of his great autobiographical work The Prelude, and Coleridge's celebrated Kubla Khan. John Rowe, Alex Jennings and Stephen Critchlow read these perfect evocations of majestic... Read more

The Bat Man

By: Amelia Bullmore

Narrated by: Bill Nighy, Georgia Groome, Jenny Agutter, Kath...

Length: 44 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 'Afternoon Play' starring Bill Nighy as widower Christopher, originally broadcast on 20 April 2011.When his wife died three years ago, Christopher fled London for a simpler existence in Cornwall, where he has settled on bat protection as his mission. Colette and her noisy daughters rent the holiday cottage next door and disturb the... Read more

Lost Property: The Complete Series

By: Katie Hims

Narrated by: Alex Tregear, Edna Dore, Full Cast, Gary Beadle...

Length: 2 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

This history of relatives lost and found was originally broadcast on 3, 10 and 17 May 2011 in the 'Afternoon Play' slot. The first play, 'The Wrong Label', is set in London in 1941. Alice knows that to stop your children from being evacuated is tantamount to siding with Hitler. In 'The Year My Mother Went Missing', it's 1979, and not the first... Read more

The Janitor

By: Ed Jones

Narrated by: Catherine Kinsella, Chris Jack, Gerard Fletcher...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A morality tale from BBC Radio 4's 'Afternoon Play' slot, about a struggling chef in Salford. 'The Janitor' was originally broadcast on 6 May 2011. Kevin is struggling to keep his new restaurant afloat in posh Salford Quays. But then Jonno turns up. The boy he was a dad to for a couple of years when he was shacked up with his mother. He... Read more

Ten Lessons In Love

By: Various

Narrated by: Alex Tregear, Daniel Rabin, Femi Oyeniran, Jane...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Ten short BBC Radio 4 plays from an eclectic mix of writers, including Josie Long, Nick Warburton and Tim Key, exploring one of the most important human emotions. 'Ten Lessons in Love' was originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 25 April 2011.This accumulation of mini-plays encompasses romance, heartbreak and some adult themes; each play... Read more