William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic prose and verse read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly remastered stories are now available to download for the first time.

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

Shakespeare's King John is a rarely performed history which tells the story of John's turbulent reign from 1199 to 1216.

King John goes to war against the French after claims that his nephew should be king instead. John has conflict with the church, orders his nephew's death and turns the nobles against himself. In the end, John dies from poison, the French retreat and his son becomes king.

All of the Shakespeare plays within the ARGO Classics catalogue are performed by the Marlowe Dramatic Society and Professional Players. The Marlowe was founded in 1907 with a mission to focus on effective delivery of verse, respect the integrity of texts, and rescue neglected plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and the less performed plays of Shakespeare himself. The Marlowe has performed annually at Cambridge Arts Theatre since its opening in 1936 and continues to produce some of the finest actors of their generations.

Thurston Dart, professor of music at London University and a fellow of Jesus College Cambridge, directed the music for this production.

The full cast includes Michael Hordern, Anthony Jacobs, David Jones, Tony Church, Roderick Cook, David Buck, John Kimber, George Rylands, Toby Robertson, Richard Marquand, Anthony Jacobs, Roger Prior, Gary Watson, Donald Beves, Olive Gregg, Margaretta Scott, Christine Baker and Freda Dowie.