Books in Bbc Radio Presents series

Agatha Christie's genius for detective fiction is unparalleled. Her worldwide popularity is phenomenal, her characters engaging, her plots spellbinding. No one knows the human heart--or the dark passions that can stop it--better than Agatha Christie. She is truly the one and only Queen of Crime.Miss Marple--Agatha Christie's immortal spinster sleuth with the razor-sharp mind and an intuitive understanding of criminal behavior--encounters a compelling murder mystery in the sleepy little village of St. Mary Mead, where under the seemingly peaceful exterior of an English country village lurks intrigue, guilt, deception and death.Colonel Protheroe, local magistrate and overbearing land-owner is the most detested man in the village. Everyone--even in the vicar--wishes he were dead. And very soon he is--shot in the head in the vicar's own study. Faced with a surfeit of suspects, only the inscrutable Miss Marple can unravel the tangled web of clues that will lead to the unmasking of the killer.

When Polynesia, Doctor Dolittle's parrot, teaches him how to speak animal language, it seems a good idea. But animals come from far and wide until Doctor Dolittle has no more time for his human patients--and no more money. The animals grow hungry, the house is a mess, and the animals begin to worry.Until one day, a swallow arrives in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh where the good Doctor lives, with news that the monkeys of Africa are ill--and only the doctor who talks to animals can save them. Doctor Dolittle, along with such good friends as Jip, his loyal dog, and Dab-Dab, his housekeeper duck, are now faced with great danger and challenges on their journey to Africa to save the monkeys.This is the story of Doctor Dolittle's adventures and his eventual return home with the miraculous animal who joined the family and provided for them for the rest of their lives. No child should be without this classic story of a misunderstood doctor who finds great understanding and affection among the animals. Produced by the world's foremost creators of radio entertainment and brilliantly read by Alan Bennett, Doctor Dolittle and all his animal friends come magically to life in this charming presentation. Listeners young and old will be enthralled and delighted by The Story of Doctor Dolittle.

2 Cassettes, Approx. 2 hoursDramatizationFor generations, the legend has been passed down. A satanic tale of a gigantic hell-hound, a devil incarnate who stalks the wastes of Dartmoor wreaking a bloody and terrible vengeance upon the heirs of the house of Baskerville.While a country doctor brings the bizarre and seemingly unearthly circumstances surrounding the death of Sir Charles Baskerville to the attention of Sherlock Holmes, it is the beginning of one of the strangest cases of the great detective's career. Convinced by the arrival of an extraordinary warning that Sir Charles' heir, Henry, is in danger of his life, Holmes dispatches Dr. Watson to accompany the young man to the dark and somber house deep within the bleak Devon moor. With peril at every hand and a murderous escaped convict at large, the mystery deepens. Is the ancient legend true, or is the hideous creature merely a part of a sinister conspiracy whose origins are all too diabolically human? A lavish BBC dramatization featuring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams in the classic partnership of Holmes and Watson.

BBC Radio Presents: Peter Pan by J. M. BarrieFull Cast Dramatization2 cassettes: 0-553-47771-42 HoursDiscover the joys of J. M. Barrie's timeless classic in this spectacular, swashbuckling audio production.PETER PANFly away with Peter Pan, Wendy, John, Michael and Tinker Bell as they fly to Neverland, a place beyond the stars where no grownups are allowed, and where they meet the Lost Boys, Princess Tiger Lily, mermaids, Indians, pirates and a crocodile that ticks. Will the crocodile catch Captain Hook? Will the Lost Boys find a mother? And what happens when Wendy grows up?This classic story, filled with an array of magical characters, is brought wonderfully to life in this sparkling BBC dramatization. There's never been a Neverland like this before. Stunning sound effects and music and a first-rate cast of characters open the doors to J. M. Barrie's charming world, delighting lifelong fans of the boy who wouldn't grow up, and thrilling first-time listeners--young and old alike.

In this second Installment in the continuation of the classic collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, England's top-notch sleuth is on the go again, with four more lavish mysteries demanding the master's brilliant powers of deduction. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's timeless stories come alive in this exciting dramatization originally conceived for BBC broadcast and produced by the world's foremost creators of radio entertainment. Featuring a full cast with stirring music and sound effects, listeners fully enter In on the chase with the Inimitable Sherlock Holmes and his loyal friend, Watson.The Return of Sherlock HolmesVolume 2A duke's young son, heir to a vast fortune, suddenly disappears from boarding school, and when Holmes and Watson take on the case to find him, they instead find themselves with a murder on their hands in The Priory School In Black Peter, a retired sea captain with few friends and many enemies is discovered dead in his cabin, with few clues as to the culprit. Holmes meets his match when he crosses paths with Charles Augustus Milverton, notorious for his dastardly blackmail of society women with a past. And in The Six Napoleons, a bizarre act of vandalism piques Holmes's interest. Does someone bear a grudge towards the Emperor, and if so, why?

In this classic social commentary from Dickens, Mr. Samuel Pickwick, retired business man and confirmed bachelor, is determined that after a quite life of enterprise the time has come to go out into the world. Together with the other members of the Pickwick Club: Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass and Nathaniel Winkle, the portly innocent embarks on a series of hilariously comic adventures. But can Pickwick retain his good will towards his fellow humans once he discovers the evils of the world.

Dickens' magnificent tale of private lives and public events takes place in the seething unrest of 1780's London. With a cast of characters as richly diverse and comically grotesque as ever, he expertly weaves the complex themes of public authority and rebellion with the private conflicts of fathers and sons in a spellbinding fictional recreation of the historical facts of the Gordon riots.Despite their implacable enmity, the upright and honest Geoffrey Haredale forges a strange alliance with the duplicitous John Chester to thwart the marriage between his niece and Chester's honorable son Edward. But family concerns are eclipsed when brooding tensions erupt into the Gordon riots. As the simple-minded Barnaby is thrust to the forefront of violent dissent, Edward is driven to an act of desperate heroism in order to save his lover and her uncle. And in the aftermath of chaos, the shadowy figure behind the private tragedies of murder, blackmail and terrible neglect finally comes to light.Originally produced for BBC broadcast by the world's most talented creators of radio entertainment, this audio presentation of Dickens' classic is brought magically to life. Complete with stirring music and sound effects, Barnaby Rudge contains all the charm of a radio broadcast, and all the excitement of a theater performance. Listeners of all ages will be delighted by this extraordinary production and will treasure it for years to come.

Alan Bennett has the perfect voice for reading the famous and beloved adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin, Tigger, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, Piglet and Eeyore. These are classic stories of friendship and fantasy, sure to delight children of all ages. This stellar collection from the BBC includes six stories from A Party for Pooh (including "Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest," "Piglet is Entirely Surrounded by Water," "Christopher Robin Gives a Pooh Party," "Tiggers Don't Climb Trees," "Rabbit Has a Busy Day," and "Tigger is Unbounced." The second part of this special production features the wonderful poems from Now We Are Six, beautifully read by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal.

Women in Love was written in the years before and during World War I. Criticized for its exploration of human sexuality, the novel is filled with symbolism and poetry--and is compulsively entertaining.The story opens with sisters Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, characters who also appeared in The Rainbow, discussing marriage, then walking through a haunting landscape ruined by coal mines, smoking factories, and sooty dwellings. Soon Gudrun will choose Gerald, the icily handsome mining industrialist, as her lover; Ursula will become involved with Birkin, a school inspector--and an erotic interweaving of souls and bodies begins. One couple will find love, the other death, in Lawrence's lush, powerfully crafted fifth novel, one of his masterpieces and the work that may best convey his beliefs about sex, love, and humankind's ongoing struggle between the forces of destruction and life.

In the polluted and poverty-ridden Coketown, Louisa and Tom Gradgrind endure a cold and loveless childhood at the hands of their self-satisfied and unimaginative father Thomas.Louisa, starved of affection, is forced into a miserable marriage with self-made industrialist Josiah Bounderby. Tom descends to a secret life of theft. But for some, even among the squalor there is the hope of redemption and eventful happiness.Dicken's brilliant and moving satire on the Victorian family and the philosophies of a society which sought to turn men into machines was written at the height of both his popularity and creative powers.

A novelist and a poet, Thomas Hardy is best known and loved for his evocative portraits of rural England described in his novels. The Mayor of Casterbridge is one such tale. Set in the 1840's, this powerful story of a man who cannot escape his past is now presented in a stunning dramatization, originally conceived for BBC broadcast and produced by the world's foremost creators of radio entertainment. This exclusive production immediately engages listeners from the spectacular opening scene to the breathtaking series of discoveries at its conclusion, transporting them back in time with a full-cast, authentic sound effects, and a stirring musical score.The Mayor of CasterbridgeDrunk on rum at a country fair, Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a passing sailor for five guineas. The next day, sober and overcome with guilt and remorse, he tries in vain to find them. Abandoning his search, he takes a vow of abstinence for twenty-one years and makes his way towards the town of Casterbridge.Nineteen years later, Henchard's wife seeks him out in Casterbridge, where, as a flourishing corn trader, he has gained both wealth and the well-respected position of mayor. His family now restored to him, his happiness should be complete, but beneath the surface still smolders the same character flaws which combine with fate to bring about his degradation and ultimate ruin.The Mayor of Casterbridge claims a unique place among Thomas Hardy's finest and most powerful novels. Rooted in an actual case of wife-selling in early nineteenth-century England, this awesome drama of guilt and revenge introduces listeners to one of the greatest tragic heroes in fiction history.