Showing results by narrator "Stephen Tompkinson" in All Categories

A blizzard has hit England. In the tiny village of Sittaford, on the fringes of Dartmoor, a party of six is gathered in Sittaford House, home of Captain Trevelyan. He has rented the house out for the winter and is staying in a nearby village. As evening draws in, a seance is proposed. The...

Polish-born author and mariner Joseph Conrad is widely regarded as one of the greatest English novelists. His 16 years in the merchant navy profoundly shaped his fiction, giving him transformative experiences of adventure and exotic places, and a unique insight into the human psyche. Included here are adaptations of six of his best works, brought together for the first time and collected in chronological order, plus one fascinating bonus programmes exploring his life and art.

Writer and director David Hare is one of England's leading political dramatists, celebrated for his many award-winning plays analysing the morality of contemporary Britain. This collection comprises some of his most acclaimed pieces, as well as a fascinating radio interview with Hare himself.

Set during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, we meet Max Carrados, the celebrated blind detective 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...and Norman Conquest, the fast talking, hard hitting adventurer with a nose for trouble and a hell-rake disregard for danger, who keeps up good cheer while he biffs the baddies...and not forgetting Ben, the chivalrous and perky non-descript little man, whose thumbs itch just before ‘something ‘orrible ‘appens’.

British detective writer H. R. F. Keating was best known as the creator of Inspector Ghote of the Mumbai CID. He won two Crime Writers’ Association Gold Daggers, and in 1996 was awarded the Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement. Included here are dramatisations of two of his most popular murder mysteries, set in 1930s India and Victorian London, plus a short clip from Radio 4’s Bookshelf featuring the award-winning author.

One of Britain's leading contemporary playwrights, Howard Brenton is well known for his controversial state-of-the-nation plays, dark comedies and powerful political satires. He has written over 50 works for the theatre and numerous screenplays, including 13 episodes of the hit TV series Spooks. Included here are some of his most acclaimed dramas, including the award-winning Pravda, co-written with David Hare.

When Kenny (Stephen Tompkinson) gives up his life in the geography classroom to join a struggling a capella group with a beautician, a dentist and a boxer, he doesn't realise he'll soon be in the best band on the wedding circuit—and fronting the potential future of rock 'n' roll. Between trying to manage the band's failing love lives and their battling ambitions, Kenny finds that chaos greets them wherever they go. Arguments about who gets to sing the lead? Check. Rowing about recording contracts? Check. Selling out for a TV talent show? Check.

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales III: Modern Verse Translation collection.

Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a collection of narratives written between 1387 and 1400, tells of a group of 30 people from all layers of society who pass the time along their pilgrimage to Canterbury by telling stories to one another, their interaction mediated (at times) by the affable host - Chaucer himself. Naxos AudioBooks’ third volume presents the tales of six people, here in an unabridged modern verse translation (by Frank Ernest Hill, 1935).

With fascination, Davie and his friend Geordie watch the arrival of a new boy, Stephen Rose, in their town. He seems to have come from nowhere, and when he arrives to live with his distant aunt, the local Crazy Mary, no one envies his new home. But perhaps he's the answer to Davie and Geordie's...

In a seedy backstreet, in a rotting theatre, the sinister Dr Caligari runs a cabaret with his demonic assistants, Snuff and Anthrax. A riot of a listen, this surreal and macabre comedy follows the smooth-talking Dr Caligari as he encourages unwilling guests to tell their story in his London nightclub. Written by Alan Gilbey, strange encounters and dark mysteries are recounted by guest acts on London’s most bizarre stage.

A trilogy of contemporary plays inspired by tales from The Arabian Nights: Arabian Afternoons includes The Casper Logue Affair by Sebastian Baczkiewicz, The Porter and the Three Ladies by Rachel Joyce and A Dish of Pomegranates by Peter Jukes.

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.

Tim is thrilled when his parents allow his best friend, Biscuits, to come on holiday to Llanpistyll, Wales, with them. He and Biscuits are having an absolutely brilliant time eating ice cream, having picnics, and making sandcastles - until a deadly, fiendish enemy in the form of the bully Prickle-Head and his sidekick, Pinch-Face, arrive, and things begin to go wrong.

From climbing and abseiling to canoeing and a Crazy Bucket Race, the adventure holiday promises to be full of action. There's just one problem as far as Tim is concerned: he is hopeless at sports of any kind.

The award-winning 1990s sitcom, written by and starring Nick Revell Nick Revell plays a slightly stranger version of himself in this surreal comedy – a struggling writer in his mid-thirties who shares his untidy flat with Vince and Alan, a pair of talking geraniums. They, meanwhile, watch on...

Three dramas by Barry Hines and an abridged reading of his classic Kes (A Kestrel for a Knave) Yorkshire-born author Barry Hines is renowned for his 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave (later turned into Ken Loach’s award-winning film Kes) and for scripting the BAFTA-winning BBC TV film Threads...