Art audiobooks

Anna Of The Five Towns

By: Arnold Bennett

Narrated by: Charlotte Riley, David Schofield & Full Cast

Length: 1 hour 53 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Arnold Bennett's tale of love, tyranny and rebellion, 'Anna of the Five Towns'. Brought up in the repressive tradition of Methodism by her miserly father, Anna Tellwright dreams of independence and freedom. On coming of age she learns that she is to inherit a fortune and realises that she is loved by the... Read more

Care

By: Clara Glynn

Narrated by: Anne Downie, Carol Ann Crawford, Colin McCredie...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 drama in which a Children's Hearing has to decide if Nicole (13) and Scott (4) should be taken into care or be allowed to return to live with their mother. But is she fit to look after them now? 'Care' was originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 8 March 2011. Michelle has been in drug rehab for the last few months, Dad... Read more

Cabin Pressure: The Complete Series 3

By: John Finnemore

Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch, Full Cast, John Finnemore...

Length: 2 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Cabin Pressure is set in the wing and a prayer world of a tiny, one-plane charter airline; staffed by two pilots, one on his way down, and one who was never up to start with. Whether hunting for polar bears or a cleverly-hidden lemon, no job is too small, but many, many jobs are too difficult. And then there are the otters...

Carolyn... Read more

The Chess Girls

By: Lavinia Greenlaw

Narrated by: Kerry Shale & Sally Orrock

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

The emergence of the Polgar sisters in the 1970s and 80s rocked the chess world. In a heavily male dominated game, the three Hungarian girls broke record after record. The youngest, Judit, was talked of as a potential world champion. The Chess Girls is the story of their parents, Laszlo and Klara Polgar, and how they defied the Communist... Read more

Lyrical Ballads

By: Samuel Taylor Coleridge & William Wordsworth

Narrated by: Full Cast & Mark Meadows

Length: 40 minutes

Abridged: No

A selection of poems from Wordsworth and Coleridge's 1798 collaboration, which marked the beginning of the English Romantic poetry movement. In Episode One, we hear Coleridge's 'Lewti' and Wordsworth's 'The Thorn', while in Episode Two the verses showcased are Coleridge's 'The Nightingale' and Wordsworth's 'Lucy' poems. In the final episode, we... Read more

BBC National Short Story Award 2011

By: Various

Narrated by: Indira Varma, Lydia Wilson, Mike Sengelow, Tim ...

Length: 2 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

The five shortlisted titles for the BBC National Short Story Award 2011 administered in partnership with Booktrust, containing: ‘Rag Love’ by M. J. Hyland, read by Mike Sengelow; ‘The Heart of Denis Noble’ by Alison MacLeod, read by Tim Pigott-Smith; ‘Wires’ by Jon McGregor, read by Lydia Wilson; ‘The Human Circadian Pacemaker’ by K. J. Orr,... Read more

Turf Wars: The Complete Series

By: Simon Brett, Jeremy Front, Kieran Lynn & Nick W...

Narrated by: James Fleet, Joanna Monro, Full Cast, Nigel Pla...

Length: 1 hour 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Four comic dramas about boundaries that are both territorial and personal

Territory is the theme that unites these four humorous plays - whether that means fighting over an allotment plot, dealing with the sudden partition of a country, guarding the privacy of a garden or battling with the council over school catchment areas.

In 'Losing the Plot',... Read more

Landfall (BBC Radio 4 The Saturday Play)

By: Mike Walker

Narrated by: Full Cast

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 science fiction adventure by Mike Walker

When five lost souls, recruited by a company to travel to an abandoned planet, all they know is that they are there to retrieve the only known sample of an ore left over from an old mining operation. However, their task becomes considerably more complicated when one of the five has a close... Read more

Notes To Self (BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play)

By: Deborah Wain

Narrated by: Full Cast

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A full-cast BBC Radio 4 Drama about a family torn apart by Alzheimer's disease reconnecting over music

Based on real experiences ‘Notes to Self’ by Deborah Wain is a drama about Alzheimer’s disease, interwoven with recordings of music sessions carried out in care homes and day centres in the UK.

Doreen has been in a care home for two years. Her... Read more

Diva In Me, The (BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play)

By: Charlotte Jones

Narrated by: Stuart McLoughlin, Sally Orrock, Daniel Rabin, ...

Length: 44 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 comedy musical drama, ‘The Diva in Me’, written by multi award-winning playwright Charlotte Jones, for the actress and extraordinary mimic Phillippa Stanton, with music woven into the narrative.

Phillipa spends Saturday night eating toast and fantasizing about a boy-man from Southern Electric. She can sing anything from Bjork, to... Read more

The Old Spies (BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play)

By: Jonathan Holloway

Narrated by: John Nettles, Clive Swift & Eleanor Bron

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 drama by Jonathan Holloway about three former spies in an old peoples' home.

Three former spies talk and remember their old missions and rage against the dying of their lights. And now in an old peoples' home with nowhere else to go, they hold on to the stories of their adventurous lives, as they feel their own minds, memories and... Read more

Ditched

By: Doug Lucie

Narrated by: Adrian Lukis, Alison Pettitt, Brendan Patricks,...

Length: 1 hour 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Doug Lucie's satirical sequel to 'Hitched' revisits the bride and groom, Emma and Richard, two years after their big day. The honeymoon is well and truly over and wedded bliss hasn't turned out to be, well, blissful. With their relationship at crisis point, Emma returns from America with her young daughter to discover her life isn't the only one... Read more

The Continuity Man

By: Stephen Keyworth

Narrated by: Ben Lewis, Sally Orrock, Nitin Ganatra, Julia I...

Length: 41 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 comedy by Stephen Keyworth about the pitfalls of starring in a major British soap, getting yourself into deep water and trying to find your way out again, starring 'EastEnders' Nitin Ganatra as himself.

Nitin is fed up with playing the 'good family man' Masood. He feels there is more to him as an actor than playing the nice guy, the... Read more

Torchwood The Men Who Sold The World

By: Guy Adams

Narrated by: John Telfer

Length: 5 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

John Telfer reads this exciting Torchwood adventure - a prequel to Torchwood: Miracle Day.

When Oscar Lupe appears 20,000 feet up in the air, his body is frozen solid and free-falling to earth. It shatters on impact. Soon after, a CIA Special Activities Division squad goes rogue with a cargo marked ‘Torchwood’ that they’ve been escorting from... Read more

Torchwood Fallout

By: David Llewellyn

Narrated by: Tom Price

Length: 1 hour 2 minutes

Abridged: No

When Yasmin finds a jewelled egg in her grandfather's shed, her first thought is to sell it. Unfortunately, the object is no valuable Faberge antique, but a dangerous weapon from another planet. Worse still, the buyer she finds online is a Russian secret agent working for the Committee for Extraterrestrial Research, who promptly swipes it, kills... Read more

Torchwood Red Skies

By: Joseph Lidster

Narrated by: John Telfer

Length: 1 hour 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Jack Harness is in need of a holiday. He wants to get away from Torchwood, away from the human race - and where better to get completely away from it all than Cotter Paluni's World, a planet surrounded by deadly scarlet lightning and cut off from the entire universe? But there are some shocks in store for Jack: the 'Devil's World' might be... Read more

Torchwood Mr Invincible

By: Joseph Lidster

Narrated by: Tom Price

Length: 1 hour 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Ross Chapman is one of life's losers. So when he survives a point-blank shooting, dons a superhero costume and becomes a crime-busting vigilante, something strange is clearly going on. And Ross's transformation isn't the only odd thing happening in Cardiff. Time is distorting - around the city, some people are aging, dying and decomposing in a... Read more

6 Minute English Science And Technology

By: BBC Learning English

Narrated by: Full Cast

Length: 1 hour 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Learn and improve your English with the BBC. Collected here for the first time are 12 episodes from BBC Learning English's popular 6 Minute English series. Aimed at intermediate-level learners of English, each programme examines a different topic which is discussed and explained to help learners increase their knowledge of the English language.... Read more

Lamia

By: John Keats

Narrated by: Charlotte Emmerson, Jonathan Keeble, Paterson J...

Length: 44 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 dramatic adaptation of Keats' sensual narrative poem ‘Lamia’, about the ill-starred love affair of the serpent Lamia, and the innocent mortal Lycius. Featuring original music by John Harle, and singer Sarah Leonard. With Paterson Joseph as the Narrator, Charlotte Emmerson as Larnia, Tom Ferguson as Lycius and Jonathan Keeble as... Read more

Conclave

By: Hugh Costello

Narrated by: David Calder, Alison Reid & Full Cast

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 drama by Hugh Costello, about some gripping events at the Vatican. After the short reign and mysterious death of Pope John Paul I, the election of a new Pope takes place in an atmosphere of high tension between opposing factions. Including those who want to elect the first non-Italian Pope for over four hundred years! First... Read more

Attila The Hen

By: Natalie Haynes

Narrated by: Natalie Haynes

Length: 27 minutes

Abridged: No

BBC Radio 4 programme all about the fashion for keeping chickens in your back garden, a hobby which shows no sign of waning. Natalie Haynes has heard some dark rumours about the true habits of the hen. Can they be true? However her own knowledge is limited entirely to chicken lives in Ancient Rome. Natalie hears from chicken breeders and... Read more

43 Letters

By: Rory Robinson

Narrated by: Barbara Marten & David Calder

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 drama written by Rony Robinson and directed by Pauline Harris. Julia and David work together in the family archives. One day a mysterious envelope arrives for David, with letters from 43 women, all answering a lonely hearts advert he didn't place! Starring David Calder as David, Barbara Marten as Julia, Helen Flanagan as... Read more

Prelude, The Complete Series (BBC Radio 4 Classical Serial)

By: William Wordsworth

Narrated by: Ian McKellen

Length: 1 hour 53 minutes

Abridged: No

BBC Radio 4 presents William Wordsworth's autobiographical poem ‘The Prelude’, read by Sir Ian McKellen, directed by Susan Roberts and features specially composed music by John Harle.‘The Prelude’ is arguably the most important piece of poetic writing in our language. Accessible, full of emotion and gripping, the poem is recorded in Wordsworth's... Read more

The Ration Book Olympics

By: Clare Balding

Narrated by: Clare Balding & Various

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

The 1948 Olympics were very different from the impressive spectacle that London put on in 2012. Three years after the end of the Second World War, Britain was still gripped by austerity. Rationing was still in force, severe bomb damage was still much in evidence and no new sports facilities could be built. Visiting athletes were put up in... Read more