The all-conquering King Henry V is dead and the throne is occupied by his infant son, Henry VI. The good Duke Humphrey of Gloucester has been appointed Protector, but a struggle for power soon...

Sinéad Cusack, Anna Massey, Patricia Routledge, Andrew Sachs and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies star in this 1974 BBC Radio full-cast production of Chekhov’s classic play.Madame Ranyevskaya and her...

Set in the rural midlands of England, 'The Rainbow' revolves around three generations of Brangwens, a family deeply involved with the land and noted for their strength and vigour. When Tom...

Young Claudio has fallen for the lovely heiress Hero. The path to the altar seems smooth, until the evil Don John decides to intervene. All ends happily, thanks to the lucky discoveries of the...

Simon Russell Beale and Clare Higgins read some of Shakespeare's best-loved stories, skilfully abridged and adapted by Leon Garfield. The plays featured include: As You Like It, Hamlet, Julius...

‘Hard Times’ is Dickens’s powerful and withering portrait of a Lancashire mill town in the 1840s... In the persons of Gradgrind and Bounderby he stigmatised the prevalent philosophy of...

Prunella Scales reads the classic tale by Elizabeth Gaskell - complete and unabridged.

'It is very pleasant dining with a bachelor... I only hope it is not improper; so many pleasant...

King Leontes of Sicilia is seized by sudden and terrible jealousy of his wife Hermione, whom he accuses of adultery. He believes the child Hermione is bearing to have been fathered by his friend...

Padua holds many suitors for the hand of fair Bianca, but Bianca may not be married until her spinster sister Kate is wed. Could any man be rash enough to take Kate on? The witty adventurer...

Young King Henry VI has married the beautiful Margaret of Anjou but the new Queen is ruthless and ambitious. Supported by the powerful Duke of Suffolk, Margaret plots the overthrow of her enemies,...

Can it be right to persist in a bigamous marriage?

Mr Peacocke, a Classical scholar, has come to Broughtonshire with his beautiful American wife to live as a schoolmaster. But when the...

Born and raised in the workhouse, orphan Oliver Twist’s life is miserable. When he is taken on as an apprentice by Mr Sowerby the undertaker, he hopes things will get better, but Sowerby’s...

Flaubert's novel scandalized its readers when it was first published in 1857, and it remains unsurpassed in its unveiling of character and society.

While England is threatened by rebellion, the king’s scapegrace son Hal haunts the taverns of London, accompanied by the dissolute Falstaff and his band of rogues. The Earl of Northumberland and...

Judi Dench, Samantha Bond and Ronald Pickup star in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama from 2000, which features many of the original West End and Broadway stage cast.Esme Allen is a middle-aged...