Showing results by narrator "Nigel Anthony" in All Categories

A collection of dramas set in South and Central America by acclaimed dramatist Mike Walker. An award-winning dramatist, author and feature writer, Mike Walker has written numerous original dramas for BBC Radio 4, including his epic chronicles Tsar, Caesar!, The Stuarts and Castle of the Hawk. Collected here are five of his gripping dramas from the 1980s and '90s, set around the Amazon rainforest and Nicaragua.

What drove Harry Houdini - magician, escapologist, and one of the most famous men in the world? Whether it was escaping from handcuffs, a straitjacket or from a box filled with water, Houdini wowed audiences with his seemingly death-defying performance... This BBC Radio collection shares the...

"It's not fair!" is Kitty's plaintive cry. Why is she the shortest in her class? Why can't anyone in her family take a joke? Why can't she go to bed as late as the boy next door? Why don't holidays last forever? When one day Kitty's mother echoes Kitty's cry of "It's not fair" Kitty thinks up a brilliant idea...

Novelist, poet and critic Kingsley Amis was one of Britain’s greatest postwar writers. A master of comic fiction, he came to fame in 1954, and won the 1986 Booker Prize for The Old Devils. Included in this collection are dramatisations of seven of his short stories and two novels, all imbued with his characteristic wit and social satire. These are complemented by readings of selected correspondence and an interview with Amis himself.

Easter, as the last snows melt on the Swedish island of Öland, Per Morner is preparing for his children’s visit. But his plans are soon disrupted when he receives a phone call from his estranged father, Jerry, begging him for help. In his blazing woodland studio, Per finds Jerry close to death. He’s been stabbed and two dead bodies have been discovered alongside him in the burnt-out building. The only suspect, Jerry’s work partner, is confirmed dead in the fire. But why does Jerry insist his colleague is still alive?

In Mountolive, the third volume in Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet, the events surrounding the interwoven community of Nessim, Justine, Narouz, Pursewarden, and the other major characters are given a very different perspective. The intrigues and complex relationships are seen through the political prism of a world plunging toward war.

William had got a new bike for his birthday, and Kitty wanted one more than anything in the world. 'I wish it was mine - oh, I wish it was mine,' she said to herself, over and over again. In this eighth great book about Kitty, she wishes that her friend's bike was hers, that her brother would go away, that she was pretty and grown up ... and, above all, that wishes come true!

Full-cast adaptations of four works by Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. A descendant of judge John Hathorne, who oversaw the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, he wrote several works inspired by Puritan New England, with themes of guilt, sin and retribution...

The only thing Kitty's friends want to do is to watch TV. Dad's busy and Mum has a new baby. What can Kitty do to stop everyone being so boring? Mooney takes this common childhood complaint and creates a touching, warm and insightful story from it.

This is the poignant and compelling story of perhaps the most naturally gifted musical genius of all time. Copiously illustrated with examples of his music, it tells of Mozart's extraordinary childhood travelling the courts of Europe, and of how, after a brief period of fame in Vienna, his fortunes declined until his early death and last resting place in a pauper's grave.

Nothing could stop Kitty feeling miserable. So miserable, that when Mum went downstairs to make her some hot blackcurrant juice, Kitty turned to cuddle Mr. Tubs and made him all wet with her tears. 'Why me? Why me?' she sobbed. Kitty learns that things do go wrong for her, her family, and her friends, but that it's at times like these that what really matters is having each other and, for Kitty, still being able to make others laugh.

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.

Julian Barnes's Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's extraordinary real-life fight for justice. Arthur and George grow up worlds and miles apart in late nineteenth-century Britain: Arthur in shabby-genteel Edinburgh, George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village. Arthur becomes a doctor, and then a writer; George a solicitor in Birmingham. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, George remains in hardworking obscurity.

Kitty always seems brave and tough, but really she gets scared like everyone else. All sorts of things are frightening for her and her friends from monsters and ghosts to the audience at the school play. And one day Kitty finds out that even her older brother gets scared too and she can help!

The memo landed on Kim Philby's desk in Washington, DC, in July 1950. Three months later Bruno Pontecorvo, a physicist at Harwell, Britain's atomic energy lab, disappeared without a trace. When he resurfaced six years later, he was on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

Do you ever say, 'so what!'? Sometimes Kitty doesn't seem to care about anything. Sometimes she is just pretending she doesn't care. Is she bothered about her homework, her baby brother, or her teddy, Mr. Tubs? What do you think? Kitty doesn't like a fuss, but the truth is, she does care about a lot of things and making her friends happy is just one of them.

The 12th Kitty story from best-selling author Bel Mooney.

The wonderful history-cum-guide answers these and many other questions about the irreplaceable world of Radio 4. Released to mark the station's 40th anniversary it's essential listening for every devotee.

It's not Kitty's fault when she's late for school and Dad crashed into the gatepost! It's not Kitty's fault that baby Tom crawls into trouble or that she's getting too old to sit on Dad's knee! And it's certainly not Kitty's fault that her boring cousin Melissa can't make friends at school! But for some reason Kitty feels that it is.

Tobias Smollet's uproarious satire of 18th-century life, dramatised by Yvonne Antrobus. Squire Bramble and family embark on their whistle-stop tour of Great Britain. They encounter adventure, mayhem and the enigmatic Humphry Clinker. Episode 2: The family is stranded. Bramble is keen to continue...

David Cross can’t tell Ed or Lucy that he is in some ways happier now that their mother is dead; to his own mind he is more himself than he has been for nearly 40 years. When Nancy was alive, he had secrets that he kept from her. Now that she is dead, he has a secret that he must keep from his children: He is not unhappy. To Heaven by Water is a touching and hilarious portrait of the Cross family trying to come to terms with the loss of their mother.