Showing results by narrator "John Sessions" in All Categories

On a wet afternoon in September 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepped off an airplane and announced that his visit to Hitler had averted the greatest crisis in recent memory. It was, he later assured the crowd in Downing Street, "peace for our time." Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began. Appeasement is a groundbreaking history of the disastrous years of indecision, failed diplomacy, and parliamentary infighting that enabled Hitler's domination of Europe.

Tumanbay: the wealthiest city on Earth. The beating heart of a vast empire. A city of dreams, where those who once arrived as slaves now hold power, and merchants, artists and warriors live side-by-side in peace. But this magnificent city is under threat. A rebellion in a far-off province, led by 'Queen' Maya, is gathering strength - and a mysterious force is devouring the empire from within.

Regular team captains Stephen Fry and John Sessions are joined by Lenny Henry, Dawn French, Hugh Laurie, Enn Reitel, Jimmy Mulville, Nonny Williams, Griff Rhys Jones, Kate Robbins, John Bird, Rory Bremner and Jon Glover as they battle their way through a succession of games and romp through a world of literary styles, TV theme tunes, and film genres. Chairman Clive Anderson desperately tries to hold the whole thing together, and the guests make it up as they go along in this riot of improvisation.

London, England, 1952. Meet the mercurial genius Professor Quanderhorn (James Fleet) - a maverick scientist with absolutely no moral compass. Join him and his rag-tag crew on their frontal-lobe-knotting escapades as they battle insane hybrid creatures: the Gorrirrel and the Squirrilla, to the death; become gods to a Stone-Age tribe; are engulfed in a Martian invasion of Earth; escape shipwreck on the Moon in a spacecraft powered by anger; and evade multiple fiendish traps in the Alien Ziggurat of Death. Will our crew of Brave Boffins survive?

An engrossing BBC Radio 4 series spanning the history of the home and domestic relationships over the past 500 years, presented by Amanda Vickery. Professor Vickery is one of the most charismatic historians in Britain today. In 'A History of Private Life' she reveals the intimate secrets of life at home, from the Tudor mansion to the modern bedsit.Through letters, diaries and other first-person accounts, we hear the voices of men and women from very different backgrounds telling their stories.

Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard was made to look a fool in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Now he gets his own back, introducing 16 tales of detectives whose abilities rival that of the great Sherlock Holmes.

It's DS Logan McRae's first day back on the job after a year off on the sick, and it couldn't get much worse. Four-year-old David Reid's body is discovered in a ditch - strangled, mutilated and a long time dead. There's a killer stalking the Granite City and the local media are baying for blood. If that wasn't enough, Logan also has to contend with a new boss, DI Insch, who doesn't suffer fools gladly and thinks everyone's a fool.

In the land of Ingary, where seven league boots and cloaks of invisibility do exist, Sophie Hatter catches the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste and is put under a spell. Deciding she has nothing more to lose, she makes her way to the moving castle that hovers on the hills above Market Chipping. But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the souls of young girls....

Miriam Margolyes, Alison Steadman and Nigel Planer star in Sue Limb's comedy parodying the arty and adulterous adventures of the Bloomsbury Group. A stellar cast, including Roger Lloyd-Pack, Morwenna Banks, Jonathan Coy and John Sessions, join in this affectionate send-up of the infamous Bloomsbury literary group, who dominated the English cultural scene in the early 20th century.

A secret descendant of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, Ricky Lenin is a dyed-in-the-wool Marxist, fervently committed to overthrowing to the decadent world of British football. As a midfield maestro, he's perfectly placed to infiltrate England's top club, Felchester Rovers, where he proceeds to introduce his radical ideas. But there's more to his fellow players than meets the eye, and Ricky soon discovers he's not the only one seeking to foment revolution.

As the third moon rises over Muddle Earth's Perfumed Bog, the twinkling lights are lit on a small houseboat, home to a wizard, Randalf, and his familiar, a very sarcastic budgie called Veronica. Randalf is in trouble: he's stony broke. He's just spent his last silver pipsqueak. There's only one way for a wizard to make cash on Muddle Earth, and that's by doing some magic. Meanwhile, life is about to change beyond recognition for Joe Jefferson, an ordinary schoolboy on ordinary Earth, and his dog, Henry.

Arthur Conan Doyle is well known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but he also wrote numerous works in which the great detective played no part. Included here are a selection of the best, ranging from science fiction to tales of supernatural terror and rip-roaring adventures set in Jacobean and Regency England.

In the pale grey light of a chilly February, Aberdeen is not at its best. There's a rapist prowling the city's cold granite streets, leaving a string of tortured women behind. But while DS Logan McRae's girlfriend is out acting as bait, he's dealing with the blood-drenched body of an unidentified male, dumped outside Accident and Emergency.

Far to the south in the Land of Ingary, lives a young carpet merchant called Abdullah. In his dreams, he is the long-lost son of a great prince. This dream is a complete castle in the air…or is it? Abdullah’s day-dreams suddenly start to come true when he meets the exquisite Flower-in-the-Night, daughter of the ferocious Sultan of Zanzib. Fate has destined them for each other, but a bad-tempered genie, a hideous djinn, and various villanous bandits have their own ideas. When Flower-in-the-Night is carried off, Abdullah is determined to rescue her - if he can find her.

It starts with a prostitute, stripped naked and beaten to death down by the docks, in the heart of Aberdeen's red light district. For DS Logan MacRae it's a bad start to another bad day. Only a few short months ago, he was the golden boy of Grampian police. But one botched raid later, he's palmed off on a DI everyone knows is a jinx, waiting for the axe to fall with all the other rejects in the "Screw-up Squad". But Logan's not going to take it lying down.

1898: What looks like an easy job turns into a life-threatening nightmare as Montmorency and his friends pursue anarchists across Europe to the USA. Science, medicine and opera are entangled in his fight to save lives. But no one is safe in Montmorency's world.

Scientist Dr Jekyll discovers a way of changing his personality and becoming the violent and aggressive Mr Hyde. At the start, moving from one to the other is easy. But not for long. Both a psychological investigation and a thrilling story, the double nature of the hero has made him an iconic figure in literature. The tempestuous nature of the tale makes it an ideal title for Young Adult Classics, the introductory series for the 13-17 age range.

Relocated to New York for The Clockwork Testament, or, Enderby's End, Enderby has to defend himself and his first film scenario, which he based on a poem by Gerald Manley Hopkins but - shades of Burgess's A Clockwork Orange - was transmogrified into an X-rated movie.

Returning in Enderby Outside, Enderby must deal with incongruous plagiarism from the pop star Yod Crewsley and a visit from an apparent personification of his Muse.

The Doctor and Antimony arrive on the planet Santiny, just as it comes under attack by General Tannis and his Canisian battle fleet. Meanwhile, his other companion, Ace, finds herself under the guidance of the mysterious Casmus, who seems to foresee an important and unusual role in store for her. As the adventure lurches from Santiny to contemporary London and on to Gallifrey, it becomes clear that the Canisians' next target is to be Earth.