Showing results by author "Mr Punch" in All Categories

George Gordon Byron was born in 1788, the son of the profligate 'Mad Jack' Byron, and succeeded to the title in 1798 moving to the family seat of Newstead Abbey. He attended Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he proved to be a poor scholar, preferring boxing, the low life and poetry, publishing his first volume of poems in 1806. In 1809, at 21, he embarked on a grand tour of Europe and on his return to England he married the humourless Annabella Milbanke, who gave birth to his daughter Augusta in 1815.

Hollywood Playhouse - The Humphrey Bogart Collection is a unique compilation of four Oscar-winning films specially adapted for the radio and performed by many of the original film stars in front of a live studio audience. Originally broadcast on the radio, they were to become as popular with the public as the movies themselves.

Succeeding William IV in 1837, Victoria reigned for nearly 64 years and was always a keen chronicler of life around her, through both her paintings and the detailed diary she kept from the age of 13. Queen Victoria’s Highland Journals cover the period from 1848 to 1882 and provide a fascinating insight into those long 'never-to-be-forgotten days' she spent with her family in her much beloved Scottish Highlands.

Hollywood Playhouse - The Oscar's Collection is a unique compilation of 12 Oscar winning films specially adapted for the radio and performed by many of the original film stars in front of a live studio audience. Originally broadcast on the radio, they were to become as popular with the public as the movies themselves.

In The Eyes of Max Carrados, our blind hero, who can read a newspaper headline with the touch of his fingers and shoot a villain by aiming at the sound of his beating heart, discovers a story of murder, suicide and a desperate daughter’s quest to clear her father’s name. As the First World War rapidly approaches, we arrive in a sleepy south coast town where Max Carrados, the celebrated blind detective, is soon investigating the sudden death of the local museum curator. All is not as it seems, as our blind hero finds himself on the cliff top in a duel to the death.

In March 1950, Timothy Evans, aged 25, was hanged for the murder of his wife and child. Sixteen years, later the queen was to grant him a full pardon. So why did Timothy Evans confess to murder? Why was John Reginald Christie, his neighbour, not arrested until April Fool’s Day three years later? And what was the gruesome discovery behind the kitchen wall? The shocking truth of the sordid and tragic events that took place behind the doors of number 10 Rillington Place was to horrify the nation.

The brief and tragic life of Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) is told through the beautiful and passionate letters written by Charlotte to her best friend Ellen Nussey. Born and brought up in the bleak Haworth parsonage with only her sisters and brother for company, she soon obtains employment as a Governess. Having travelled abroad to study languages in Brussels, she returns to the Yorkshire moors to join her family where she writes her most successful novel, Jane Eyre.

A fascinating glimpse into some of the most notorious crimes and trials of the last 100 years. Using the original trial transcripts, eyewitness accounts and contemporary newspaper reports, we witness the actual events that made each trial a cause célèbre of its day.

Join us for an exhilarating and immersive adventure through 500 years of history, told entirely in the words of those who were there. With their artless prose and their polished & witty gossip, these are the men and women who have shaped our past. Brought to life by an award-winning all-star cast of 30 celebrated actors, including Charles Dance, Harriet Walter, David Suchet, Maureen Lipman, Timothy West, Jenny Agutter and many more.

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), the cynical owner of Rick’s Café Americain helps his former lover Ilse Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and her underground leader husband escape from the Nazis in this powerful love story, featuring the classic song "As Time Goes By". The Maltese Falcon, stars Humphrey Bogart as the private detective Sam Spade. In this compelling thriller, Sam Spade is entrusted with the safe-keeping of the much-coveted black falcon statuette as he becomes involved in a classic tale of greed and illusion.

Mr Punch Presents: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, following the fortunes of three ill-matched gold diggers, who are searching for treasure in Mexico. As they hunt for their elusive prize, the three prospectors become progressively more corrupt and greedy and fall foul of each other’s all-consuming greed, in this exciting adventure story. With Humphrey Bogart recapturing his role as the wicked Fred C. Dobbs and Walter Huston as the grizzled old-timer Howard, the role for which he received the Oscar as best supporting actor.

Born at Steventon in 1775, the daughter of a Hampshire clergyman, Jane Austen was the youngest of seven children. She lived a quiet life, moving to Bath, Southampton, Chawton and eventually to Winchester where she died unmarried in 1817 at the age of 42. It is to her elder sister Cassandra that most of her surviving letters are written, and through them, we discover the intimate world of the English gentry.

Mr Punch Presents: It’s a Wonderful Life, the irresistibly heart-warming story of George Bailey, who is prevented from committing suicide by the elderly angel Clarence, who takes him on a journey back through his life to show him how the town of Bedford Falls would have been had he never lived. Originally directed by the celebrated Frank Capra, it is performed here for radio with James Stewart, Victor Moore and Donna Reed recreating their original roles.

In 1911, Captain Robert Falcon Scott went back to the huge frozen wasteland of the Antarctic with the intention of reaching the South Pole, by a long and terribly arduous trek across the ice. On finally reaching the pole, Scott and his comrades were devastated to find that they had been beaten by the Norwegian explorer Amundsen. With temperatures of minus 30, they began their slow journey back to their base.

Mild-mannered Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen committed one of the most notorious English murders of the 20th century. In early 1910, he dismembered his wife's body and buried the remains in the coal cellar of the house they shared in Hilldrop Crescent, London. Arrested with his lover, Ethel Le Neve, who was disguised as his son, as they tried to escape to Canada aboard the SS Montrose. His subsequent trial at the Old Bailey was expected to be a mere formality, but Dr Crippen pleaded 'not guilty!', and so begins this strangely moving tale of passion and despair.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, this epic three-part serial tells the true story of Fletcher Christian’s dramatic mutiny against his tyrannical Captain and how Lieutenant Bligh when cast adrift in an open rowing boat with 18 loyal men makes an incredible voyage across 3,600 miles of hostile and uncharted seas to the Dutch East Indies, while Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers fight for survival on the battered and wind-swept island of Pitcairn.

A seven-volume collection containing some of the most fascinating journals and letters to have been written in the last two hundred and fifty years, all performed in a dramatised setting.

Viscount Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), known as ‘The Hero’ during his own lifetime was both an inspiring commander and an innovative tactician, becoming a rear admiral after defeating the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape St Vincent. He was also responsible for the great victories of the Nile (1798) and Copenhagen (1801). Revered by his officers and men, he was renowned for both his arrogance and his scandalous love affair with the beautiful Emma Hamilton.

Mr Punch has been around for a long time, but he's never before had his own podcast! Join Mr Punch on a series of whirlwind adventures.

Mr Punch Presents: Sunset Boulevard, nominated for 11 Academy Awards, Billy Wilder’s brilliant 1950 film is about the flamboyant silent-movie star Norma Desmond played by Gloria Swanson and her pitiful attempt to stage a comeback to the silver screen through her friendship with a young, opportunistic screenwriter, played by William Holden. Re-created for the radio with the original stars in this special radio production.