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Seven BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of P. D. James' acclaimed mysteries, plus P. D. James in Her Own Words. This collection includes: Cover Her Face, A Taste for Death, Devices and Desires, A Certain Justice, The Private Patient, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and The Skull Beneath the Skin.
The complete collection of landmark BBC Radio dramas of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe mysteries. Philip Marlowe is the archetypal noir detective: wisecracking and world weary, hard boiled yet honourable. This volume includes all eight dramatisations of Raymond Chandler's groundbreaking crime novels featuring his iconic hero.
Night Manager: Enter the new world of post-Cold War espionage. Penetrate the secret world of ruthless arms dealers and drug smugglers who have risen to unthinkable power and wealth. Our Game: With the Cold War fought and won, British spymaster Tim Cranmer accepts early retirement to rural England and a new life with his alluring young mistress, Emma.... Tailor of Panama: Le Carre's Panama is a Casablanca without heroes, a hotbed of drugs, laundered money and corruption. It is also the country which on December 31, 1999, will gain full control of the Panama Canal.
The Martin Beck books are widely acknowledged as some of the most influential detective novels ever written. Written by Swedish husband and wife team Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö between 1965 and 1975, the 10-book series set a gold standard for all subsequent Scandinavian crime fiction. Long before Kurt Wallander or Harry Hole, Beck was the original flawed policeman, working with a motley collection of colleagues to uncover the cruelty and injustice lurking beneath the surface of Sweden's liberal society.
John Moffat stars as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in seven more BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations. The stories in this volume are: Evil Under the Sun, Sad Cypress, Murder in Mesopotamia, Lord Edgware Dies, Halloween Party, Murder on the Links and Five Little Pigs. Based on the original novels by Agatha Christie, these superb adaptations feature a cast of outstanding actors playing an array of likely suspects.
Captivating radio dramatisations of seven of Charles Dickens' most famous novels. Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned authors of all time, and this first digital volume of the dramatised canon of his work includes seven of his most popular novels.
Seven BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of P. D. James' acclaimed mysteries, plus P. D. James in Her Own Words. This collection includes: Cover Her Face, A Taste for Death, Devices and Desires, A Certain Justice, The Private Patient, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and The Skull Beneath the Skin.
The complete collection of landmark BBC Radio dramas of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe mysteries. Philip Marlowe is the archetypal noir detective: wisecracking and world weary, hard boiled yet honourable. This volume includes all eight dramatisations of Raymond Chandler's groundbreaking crime novels featuring his iconic hero.
Night Manager: Enter the new world of post-Cold War espionage. Penetrate the secret world of ruthless arms dealers and drug smugglers who have risen to unthinkable power and wealth. Our Game: With the Cold War fought and won, British spymaster Tim Cranmer accepts early retirement to rural England and a new life with his alluring young mistress, Emma.... Tailor of Panama: Le Carre's Panama is a Casablanca without heroes, a hotbed of drugs, laundered money and corruption. It is also the country which on December 31, 1999, will gain full control of the Panama Canal.
The Martin Beck books are widely acknowledged as some of the most influential detective novels ever written. Written by Swedish husband and wife team Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö between 1965 and 1975, the 10-book series set a gold standard for all subsequent Scandinavian crime fiction. Long before Kurt Wallander or Harry Hole, Beck was the original flawed policeman, working with a motley collection of colleagues to uncover the cruelty and injustice lurking beneath the surface of Sweden's liberal society.
John Moffat stars as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in seven more BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations. The stories in this volume are: Evil Under the Sun, Sad Cypress, Murder in Mesopotamia, Lord Edgware Dies, Halloween Party, Murder on the Links and Five Little Pigs. Based on the original novels by Agatha Christie, these superb adaptations feature a cast of outstanding actors playing an array of likely suspects.
Captivating radio dramatisations of seven of Charles Dickens' most famous novels. Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned authors of all time, and this first digital volume of the dramatised canon of his work includes seven of his most popular novels.
Whose Body? first introduced Lord Peter to the world and begins with a corpse in the bath of a London flat. Clouds of Witness finds Wimsey investigating murder close to home, and in Unnatural Death he investigates the suspicious demise of an elderly woman. First broadcast on BBC radio in the 1970s and presented here in their entirety, these full-cast adaptations are admired by fans of the genre worldwide.
John Moffatt stars as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The ABC Murders: A chilling letter sets the sleuth on the trail of an enigmatic killer. After the Funeral: A wealthy businessman is dead, and his sister thinks it was murder. Death on the Nile: Poirot is in Egypt when a chilling murder takes place. Peril at End House: Whilst on holiday, the sleuth encounters a young woman, a hat and a bullet. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: Mrs Farrars is found dead, one year after the death of her husband.
Ian Carmichael stars as Lord Peter Wimsey in the much-acclaimed radio dramatisations of: Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Strong Poison, Five Red Herrings and Have His Carcase.
Over the course of his seemingly irreproachable life, Magnus Pym has been all things to all people: a devoted family man, a trusted colleague, a loyal friend - and the perfect spy. But in the wake of his estranged father's death, Magnus vanishes, and the British Secret Service is up in arms. Is it grief, or is the reason for his disappearance more sinister? And who is the mysterious man with the sad moustache who also seems to be looking for Magnus? In A Perfect Spy, John le Carré has crafted one of his crowning masterpieces.
Three BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations starring John Shrapnel as Morse and Robert Glenister as Lewis, plus a bonus reading by Colin Dexter of one of his short stories. In Last Seen Wearing, Inspector Morse is reluctant to take over an old missing person case from a dead colleague. But two years, three months and two days after teenager Valerie Taylor's disappearance, somebody decides to supply some surprising new evidence....
Benedict Cumberbatch plays the young, feisty, devastatingly acute Horace Rumpole in this collection of cracking cases, also starring Timothy West as the older Rumpole. Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders: It is the '50s, and two war heroes have been shot dead. Defending the suspect is deemed hopeless, so the case is handed to a novice. But the novice's superiors didn't count on the tenacity and wit of the young and hungry Horace Rumpole.
Between 1980 and 1988 on BBC television and radio, the exploits of the Rt Hon Jim Hacker MP (Paul Eddington) - later Prime Minister - kept the British nation enthralled. Helped - and hampered - by his diligent Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne) and his Principle Private Secretary Bernard Woolley (Derek Fowlds), Hacker and his department became synonymous with government bureaucracy and administrative double dealing.
A Murder of Quality, set in the early 1960s, sees George Smiley investigating a murder in a public school. When the wife of one of the masters is found bludgeoned to death, Smiley, out of loyalty to an old friend, agrees to look into the case. But his investigation raises a multitude of questions. Who could have hated Stella Rode enough to kill her? Why was her dog put down shortly before the murder? And what did Mad Janie see on that fatal night?
"Glasnost" is on everyone's lips, but the rules of the game haven’t changed for either side. When a beautiful Russian woman foists off a manuscript on an unwitting bystander at the Moscow Book Fair, it's a miracle that she flies under the Soviets' radar. Or does she? The woman's source (codename: Bluebird) will trust only Barley Blair, a whiskey-soaked gentleman publisher with a poet's heart.
From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, John le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels.
The British Embassy in Bonn is up in arms. Her Majesty's financially troubled government is seeking admission to Europe's Common Market just as anti-British factions are rising to power in Germany. Rioters are demanding reunification, and the last thing the Crown can afford is a scandal. Then Leo Harting - an embassy nobody - goes missing with a case full of confidential files. London sends Alan Turner to control the damage, but he soon realizes that neither side really wants Leo found alive.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays the young Horace Rumpole in this second stellar collection of court cases, also starring Timothy West as the older Rumpole. 'Rumpole and the Man of God': It is 1959, and Rumpole must defend a clergyman accused of shoplifting who, although he clearly did not commit the crime, is curiously reluctant to be cross-examined under oath. Meanwhile, Hilda (she who must be obeyed) has big news....
The complete collection of acclaimed BBC Radio dramas based on John le Carré's best-selling novels, starring Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley. With a star cast including Kenneth Cranham, Eleanor Bron, Brian Cox, Ian MacDiarmid, Anna Chancellor, Hugh Bonneville and Lindsay Duncan, these enthralling dramatisations perfectly capture the atmosphere of le Carré's taut, thrilling spy novels. 'Call for the Dead' is the first Smiley novel, which sees him looking into an apparent suicide only to uncover a murderous conspiracy; 'A Murder of Quality' finds Smiley investigating a murder in a private school; 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' introduces Alec Leamas, a British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters; 'The Looking Glass War' features former spy Fred Leiser, lured back from retirement to investigate a claim that Soviet missiles are being installed close to the West German border; 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' is the first book in the Karla trilogy, and sees Smiley searching for a mole who has infiltrated the Circus; 'The Honourable Schoolboy' sees Smiley determined to destroy his nemesis, Karla, and his spy networks; 'Smiley's People' finds George Smiley called out of retirement to exorcise some Cold War ghosts from his clandestine past; and 'The Secret Pilgrim' sees Smiley invited to dine with the eager new recruits at the Circus. He offers them his thoughts on espionage and, in doing so, prompts a former colleague to re-examine his own eventful secret life. Duration: 19 hours.
You get several novels dramatized over 18 hours, in two massive files. It's impossible to pick one of the novels and listen to it separately. You just have to start at the beginning with Call For the Dead and keep going. The second file starts part way through Smiley's People, so there's no point starting there. God help you if you lose your place and have to find it again in one or the other of these two huge files. That's not quite what I expected from Audible. I like to be able to navigate readily within an audiobook. Audible should've divided this up so that each dramatization is a separate audio file. The production quality is quite decent, a bit hammed up in places, but then many English people do talk that way; also, I don't know that the reader doing Smiley has quite the right accent for a man of his age and social station.
54 of 55 people found this review helpful
While the large cast of characters in John LeCarre's various George Smiley-centered novels can make getting into them a challenge, once you have done that just about all of them, even the baddies, will seem like old friends. I think for those who have not read at least Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy the eight radio plays that are presented here will seem frustrating at first, but even that will pass with time and careful listening. For those thoroughly familiar with Smiley's world, the plays are pure pleasure. You hardly notice the abridgment, and the voicing of each character is spot on. There is some additional dialogue added, mainly as exposition when it is needed, but I believe John Le Carre would wholeheartedly approve- his author's voice is in no way diminished by the additions. I think that these are essential listening, and will only add new fans to this great body of work.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
Mr Beale as Smiley is perfect. From his breathing to his temperament. Exciting and engaging. The time flew by.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
The problem with the BBC radio plays is that the main character, George Smiley, is a subtle introvert. There are scenes where George does nothing but sit there and wait in the novels. How do you do that on radio? The BBC didn't figure it out.
Some of the best bits from the novel were cut out, either for brevity, or because they were nuanced. One of the best bits of dialogue in "The Looking Glass War", where leCarre actually shows you how to convince someone else to do what you want as if it is there idea, was cut.
The audio books are also available on Audible. I have listened to both and recommend the books.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
Where does The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I mean, all the Smiley stories in one purchase with incredible BBC performances. Say no more. Say yes. These got me going back and listening to the full length books and watching the movies as well.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
What did you love best about The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas?
I love the repeatability of this performance. I own about 80 audio books here at audible and a lot more that I've collected over the years and I've listened to this one over and over and over again. Excellent work.
What other book might you compare The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas to and why?
Possibly the Sherlock Holmes dramatizations but I've still listened to this one more often.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
There were unexpected moments when it made me laugh. The accents are very well done and quite a few characters are real ... well characters.
Extreme reactions? I could do with a whiskey. I'm also a bit more partial to frogs.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful
Where does The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Definitely in the top tier
What other book might you compare The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas to and why?
In the pantheon of BBC productions, this ranks with their Lord of the Rings.
What does full cast and Simon Russell Beale bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
George Smiley is such a wonderfully complex character, so frail in some ways and so utterly strong and humane in others. Beale's performance captured this in a way that brings le Carre's masterwork out of the page.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
It's been done, it wasn't as good.
Any additional comments?
The Bbc is justly famous for their radio productions of literature. The entire cast of this sprawling production is excellent, the music is precisely right, the audio production is, of course, beyond compare. All that serves to bring forth a story that was already amazing. I had read the Tinker Tailor books, but the performances here are now my definitive version.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Where does The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
One of my current favorites, and, one I'll keep in my audible library.
Who was your favorite character and why?
George, because of his storylines, along with Connie due to her knowledge
Which character – as performed by Simon Russell Beale – was your favorite?
George, among others.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
I can't think of one, plus, several of these books ahve been adapted as films already.
Any additional comments?
A must-have for fans of John Le Carre, and spy fiction in general, I believe.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful
I enjoyed this performance very much. I recommend it highly I look forward to more in this series
As hard to stop listening to as the books are hard to put down. I kept having visual flashbacks of Alec Guinness, though I haven't watched the mini-series for years.
I stumbled across this presentation after listening to 2 Le Carre novels and must say that it was enthralling. So good was the acting that at times it stopped me from working just so that I could finish a story. I will look out for more in this format
14 of 15 people found this review helpful
This collection is well presented and enjoyable to listen to. The series takes George Smiley through the latter part of his Circus career and beyond, often he is not the mainstay but remains in the background as the master puppeteer.
The condensing of the books has been done well, it is not necessary to have read the books in order to follow the plot.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful
Any additional comments?
The BBC does great radio adaptations of well known novels and this ranks alongside The Lord of the Rings, War and Peace and Asimov's Foundation Trilogy as one of the best.
A good introduction to the Smiley series for those new to Le Carre and tasty comfort food for fans like myself who know his books well.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful
Once I started this compendium radio drama I couldn't stop. It took the best part of two weeks to finish but it was well worth it.
All of the novels about George Smiley are here faithfully dramatised by Simon Russell Beale and a fantastic supporting cast.
It took me a while to get the image of Alex Guinness out of my mind but Simon is a worthy successor to the role and gave a suspenseful and subtle performance.
My favourite was episode was The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, but all of the stories were involving.
John Le Carre is a masterful writer in the spy genre and these productions from the BBC bring the stories to life.
Highly recommended.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
Masterfully told coak and dagger stories of Cold War espionage. Convincingly performed and well produced.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
loved it very good escapism alot of food for thought, would recommend it to all
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
A compendium of the rather marvellous and understated spys adventures vaucluse brought to life by Simon Russell Beale and the BBC. All the acting is great. Couldn't be happier with it.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful
Would you listen to The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas again? Why?
Have already listened to it more than once. Superb quality and excellent writer.
Who was your favorite character and why?
George Smiley always
Have you listened to any of Simon Russell Beale’s other performances? How does this one compare?
Always quality
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Clear speaking voices; heard and understood every word; storylines were perfectly dramatised and paced, allowing total immersion.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
The cast of these radio plays bring the world of George Smiley to life. Right from the first moment you will be hooked.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful
This was, of course, brilliant because it
came from the famed BBC drama department. It was well produced and extremely well acted. However, I did find it a little confusing to follow at times and it required a lot of concentration to try and follow the story and which character was talking. I think I would have followed the stories better if I'd listened to a narration of the books rather than the interpretation of those stories through play.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I was really engrossed in this cold war espionage series. The writing is generally taut with some of the stories more compelling than others, but all were Top shelf in their field if a little fatalistic in tone, which may be an accurate reflection on the "craft' by a firmer operative. The only let down for me was in 'the honourable schoolboy's, in my opinion, the weakest of the Geaorge Smiley novels, where the Chinese, Vietnamese and American accents sounded jarringly inauthentic and contrived. The rest of the acting was excellent. Perhaps the BBC might have used a native-speaking actor for those parts.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I remember the days when the BBC dramsatised stories but they never work as well as a good narrator. The sound effects sound amateurish compared with a description of what is happening.
I live in Thailand part of the year and the use of almost comic Chinese accents for Thai people was especially jarring. Today these would be considered patronising and racist.
The stories themselves are quite good but some are depressing as the whistful memories of an old man
BBC Radio Play, Good cast, Good Actor Playing Smiley. As with all abridged works i yearn for the detail. but overall a good listen. Particularly if you have not read the original works.