Showing results by narrator "Ruth Jones" in All Categories

A BBC Radio collection bringing together much-loved works by Alexandre Dumas and Alexandre Dumas fils, starring Timothy Spall, Anton Lesser, Iain Glen, Ruth Wilson and Dan Stevens. Alexandre Dumas père and fils are among the most popular and widely read authors in French literature, whose works have been adapted numerous times for stage, screen and radio. This BBC radio collection brings together three of their most famous tales of chivalry, heroism and romance.

In 1896, in a pilgrim church in the Alps, an abandoned baby girl is found by a cook and a housemaid. They take her home, and Annika grows up in the servants' quarters of a house belonging to three eccentric Viennese professors. She is happy there but dreams of the day when her real mother will come to find her. One day a glamorous stranger arrives at the door.

Renowned novelist and poet Thomas Hardy is best known for his fatalistic, often tragic novels set in the 'realistic dream-country' of Wessex, in south and south-west England. Drawing on his own life, he created some of the most memorable characters and stories in Victorian literature—many of which are included here. In five dramas taken from Radio 4's 'Hardy's Women' season, we meet a few of Thomas Hardy's most compelling female protagonists.

Alison Steadman and Sue Johnston star as world-weary hack Dee T. Mitchell in these two mystery thrillers set in South Wales. These two gripping crime dramas follow the dogged, imaginative and impressive investigations of Dee T. Mitchell, a reporter on a local Swansea newspaper, as she attempts to uncover the murders of two individuals and in the process exposes deep secrets and cover-ups across the Gower peninsula and beyond.

On the 31st of October 2019, Britain finally didn't quite yet leave the EU. To celebrate this, Matt Lucas and David Walliams returned for a special episode of their much-loved sketch show Little Britain, the hit comedy that moved from radio to TV in 2003, running for three series, and went on to win back-to-back BAFTA awards for best comedy programme. News of the show was kept secret right up to the moment Matt & David walked out on stage to a tremendous roar.

This collection of poetry, memoirs, and stories of short fiction presents to the listener such themes as depression, suicide, hopelessness, grief, loss, love, mental illness, and abuse both emotional and physical experienced by the writers or someone close to them. This collection serves to demonstrate that hiding behind shame or fear rather than sharing emotional pain as the authors in these works do is tantamount to putting on a mask; wearing a person suit.

Throughout the centuries, death has been something to be terrified about. The fear comes from the lack of knowing what it is like to experience the last breaths of life. For sure, no one knows exactly what it is like. What is certain is that death leaves a strong impression on us all, not so much as participants, but as witnesses.

In the mountains of Transylvania there stands a castle. It is the home of Count Dracula – a dark, lonely place, and at night the wolves howl around the walls. In the year 1875 Jonathan Harker comes from England to do business with the Count. But Jonathan does not feel comfortable at Castle Dracula. Strange things happen at night, and very soon, he begins to feel afraid. And he is right to be afraid, because Count Dracula is one of the Un-Dead – a vampire that drinks the blood of living people.