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The Georgette Heyer BBC Radio Drama Collection  By  cover art

The Georgette Heyer BBC Radio Drama Collection

By: Georgette Heyer
Narrated by: Elizabeth Proud, Simon Shepherd, Simon Russell Beale, Anna Massey, Nathaniel Parker, James Fleet, Helen Baxendale, Full Cast, Elli Garnett, James Frain
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Publisher's summary

BBC Radio adaptations of three of Georgette Heyer’s sparkling Regency romances and a classic comedy thriller.

The acknowledged ‘queen of Regency romance’, best-selling author Georgette Heyer, also penned a dozen delightful mystery novels. Included here are dramatisations of four of her finest stories from both genres, full of her characteristic wit, charm and period detail.

Regency Buck

Pretty but shrewd Judith Taverner gallops in from the provinces and daringly defies the gaming, drinking and brawling world of Regency London to claim her rights, her fortune - and who knows, perhaps her happiness? Starring Elizabeth Proud as Judith Taverner and Simon Shepherd as Peregrine Taverner.

Friday’s Child

‘I’m going back to London! And I’m going to marry the first woman I see!’ is the cry of young Lord Sheringham when his proposal of marriage is rejected by Isabella, the Incomparable. True to his word, he takes the even younger Hero Wantage as his bride.... Starring James Frain as Viscount Anthony Sheringham and Elli Garnett as Hero Wantage, with Simon Russell Beale as Jasper Tarleton.

Faro’s Daughter

Deborah Grantham’s position in a gaming house makes her utterly unsuitable as a wife for a nobleman, so Max Ravenscar determines to rescue his cousin from her clutches. But the bribe he offers does not go down well and a battle of wits commences.... Starring Sylvestre Le Touzel as Deborah Grantham and Nathaniel Parker as Max Ravenscar, with Anna Massey as Lady Bellingham.

Envious Casca

An English country Christmas in the 1930s, a Tudor manor house decked with holly, a family gathered for seasonal cheer - and a murder. Inspector Hemingway is on the case, but can he shake off amateur sleuths Toby and Jane French? Starring Peter Kelly as Inspector Hemingway, James Fleet as Toby and Helen Baxendale as Jane.

©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
  • Radio/TV Program
  • Categories: Romance

What listeners say about The Georgette Heyer BBC Radio Drama Collection

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Beware of Disappointment

Radio dramatizations are an acquired taste in today’s world. I enjoyed the BBC dramatization of the Charles Paris books by Simon Brett but I had not considered before ordering this release that drastically abridging Georgette Heyer’s famous Regency novels, and reducing them to only dialog, loses almost all of the rich period ambiance, amazing characterizations, and (especially) subtle and elegant humor. In short, if you are like me and are a longstanding and devoted fan of Heyer, these adaptations will almost certainly be a disappointment.

That said, I found two of the pieces mildly enjoyable, one adequate, and the fourth, well… unbearable.

Regency Buck: Although not considered among her best, this book has always been one of my favorite Heyer Regencies. I could not even listen to this version. I tried. It’s a badly mangled abridgment, and has been shockingly miscast. I cannot imagine how they found these two duds among all the great British actors. The heroine’s grating, unpleasant voice makes her sound like a middle-aged matron (she is supposed to be a charming if forthright 20-year-old; her reaching her “majority” and coming into her inheritance is a major plot point). As for the Earl of Worth, one of Heyer’s more memorable heroes, someone (I’m guessing the director) decided he should cackle like the stereotype sinister villain; another reviewer mentioned mustache-twirling, and they are right. This is the first of the four stories, and you *must* skip it!

Faro’s Daughter: I almost gave in after “Regency Buck,” but went on to be pleasantly surprised by this one. This story of a young woman who is a dealer in her aunt’s select, high-class gaming establishment and her unlikely pairing with “the very rich Mr. Ravenscar” is one of the shorter Heyer novels, and the adaptation here is both well written and well cast.

Friday’s Child: Meh. One of the sillier Heyer romps, here it becomes an almost slapstick farce, but it’s not bad (at least not after the first horrifying experience). Pleasant voices, silly antics, a little hard to follow the many male characters.

Envious Casca: This is not a Regency but a locked-door murder mystery a la Agatha Christie. Heyer wrote about a dozen contemporary murder mysteries (which means that, like Christie’s, they are set the 1930s – 50s), and this is by far the best of them. It’s one I’ve always wished Masterpiece Theatre would dramatize. Once I got over the shock of meeting--right at the start-- two characters who do not even appear in the book, turning them into the focal-point “observers” of the murder that occurs about 1/3 of the way through, I enjoyed this. There is a lot of dialog in the original book, and a good deal of it is delivered verbatim here (I know, because I’ve read the book more times than I care to admit). The book is better, and the surprise ending does not work nearly as well here as it does in the book, but the adaptation is well done, well cast, and it’s an enjoyable period piece if you like the sort of thing.

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Awful

I rarely write reviews, but I had to for this one. I pre-ordered this and waited patiently for it to be released. Such a disappointment! I LOVE these books but the performance in these was not what I was expecting. The female leads sound petulant and just too annoying to listen to. I think I’ll stick with the books!

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Battered and Beaten Storylines

Stories ripped to pieces, this listens like a audio version of someone's notes on a book read aloud. It kills all the good color of a Heyer novel. The voice acting is sometimes fine but often poor casting choices (such as a 16 year old Hero Wantage played by a 3 pack a day smokey voice). If you have not read these novels, you probably won't follow the stories, or at least, you won't see why you should. If you have read them, you will be appalled.

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Too shortened, wrong voice types

It was a huge disappointment.- I love Georgette Heyer and was hopeful about a dramatization with different voices. When I saw that 4 books were all together aboutr 6 hours long I became suspicious. Then I started listening, and oh dear, what a mess. In Regency Buck, Peregrin's voice ought to have been more youthful and less decisive; Worth's felt like sneering all the time when not chuckling evilly. In Friday's Child, I could not determine whivch male character was speaking, the voice types and intonations were so similar. Also, Hero's voice ought to have been more lighthearted, more excitable and express more naivete. And oh, the storylines were so shortened that one could hardly follow the complexities of Regency Buck, let alone Hero and Sherry's story. I did not begin to experiment with the rest, I returned the title to make better use of my credit.

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Incredibly Disappointing - An Insult to Georgette Heyer’s Wit and Skill

I would be astonished if any of the actors in this travesty of a collection had ever even read a Georgette Heyer novel - and if they did, they clearly didn’t understand it. Missing from their performances is all of the wit, nuance, pace, tone and delight of her writing. The performances are devoid of any perception of Georgette Heyer’s plots or who the characters were written to be. To attempt to perform Georgette Heyer dialogue, without the benefit of her skilled descriptions of scenes, plots and characters, requires an acute understanding of the humor, intelligence and subtlety she beautifully wove into all of her beloved stories. These performances entirely miss the mark, and are an insult to the original books and the author. Don’t waste your time

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Eagerly anticipated, but disappointed

I kind of enjoyed most of added sound effects, and the various narrators. I suppose part of disappointment was there were only four stories. I had just listened to regular Audible performance of two of them, Friday’s Child and Faro’s Daughter. I tried first two and fourth. Having just listened to a Friday’s Child, I was surprised I enjoyed regular one narrator version of Audible over this BBC version. Also I noticed they edited quite liberally, leaving me in
confusion of what was going on, and I knew the story well. The first, Regency Buck, is one of my least favorite of Heyer’s, and the last was one of Heyer’s mystery thrillers set in later era than Regency, and after 15 minutes I couldn’t listen anymore. All were strangely irritating.
So yeah, I was really bummed. I had hoped for more stories and more of my favorites.

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Not her best stories

I have read books by her that I enjoyed more than these. The mystery was the best story but it’s presentation was the least enjoyed because it was broken into parts.

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Stick to the books or audio books so far...

Regency Buck never one of my favorites but the sneering laugh and mustache twirling they use for Worth is such a disservice!
And so much abridgment on RB that the best scenes after the race and pavilion cut out! I listened to Faros Daughter BBC drama before and hope I still like it and will try the rest but poor poor Regency Buck!!!

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very enjoyable

Loved this dramatized version of Georgette Heyers stories. Well done! Always wondered why none of her books became movies.

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ruined a great book with edits

the nature of radio means no narration, but this book simply fails without all of the narrative.

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