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Thornton Wilder: Our Town, The Bridge of San Luis Rey & More
- A BBC Radio Full-Cast Drama Collection
- Narrated by: Full Cast, Robert Glenister, Annette Badland, Tom Goodman-Hill, Barbara Barnes, Helen McCrory, Robert Hardy, Sean Barrett, Elizabeth Proud
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
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Publisher's summary
Four of Thornton Wilder's most acclaimed works, adapted for BBC Radio - plus bonus material exploring his life and career
Thornton Wilder is one of America's most important literary figures. He won the Pulitzer Prize three times - for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth - and is the only person to be awarded the Pulitzer for both fiction and drama. Included here are four of his key works, set in different times and places, but sharing the same fundamental motifs - the universality of human experience and our search for life's meaning.
Our Town, his timeless tale of love, marriage, birth and death in a small American community, stars Ed Bishop, William Roberts and Liza Ross. It is preceded by a 10-minute introductory extract from Free Thinking, in which presenter Anne McElvoy and actor/director David Cromer discuss the play's themes and techniques.
Wilder's masterpiece, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, tells the story of the five victims of a bridge collapse, and the eyewitness who sets out to understand why they were fated to die. A poignant philosophical fable, it features a stellar cast including Annette Badland, Robert Glenister, Tom Goodman-Hill and Helen McCrory.
Adapted from the play by Jerome Kilty, The Ides of March is based on Wilder's epistolary novel centred around the last days of the Roman republic, and stars Robert Hardy as Julius Caesar. Next, Ed Bishop reads from Heaven's My Destination, the comic tale of an amateur philosopher who leaves a trail of chaos wherever he goes.
Finally, in a fascinating episode of Front Row, Mark Lawson, theatre director David Lan and New York Times theatre critic Mel Gussow discuss how Wilder became a literary icon, and launched a quiet revolution in American theatre.
Cast and credits
Written by Thornton Wilder
Copyright © by The Wilder Family LLC 1927 (The Bridge of San Luis Rey), 1935 (Heaven's My Destination), 1938 (Our Town), 1948 (The Ides of March)
Free Thinking
Presented by Anne McElvoy
With David Cromer
Produced by Zahid Warley
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 16 October 2014
Our Town
Stage Manager - Ed Bishop
Dr Gibbs - William Roberts
Mrs Gibbs - Liza Ross
George Gibbs - Ben Fairman
Rebecca Gibbs - Teresa Gallagher
Mr Webb - Garrick Hagon
Mrs Webb/Dead Woman - Shelley Thompson
Emily Webb - Barbara Barnes
Joe Crowell/Si Crowell - Tom Bevan
With Vincent Marzello, Peter Whitman, John Evitts and Frances Jeater
Directed by David Hitchinson
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 1 July 1995
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Madre Maria del Pilar - Annette Badland
Uncle Pio - Michael Feast
Jaime/Boy - Frederick Forge
Brother Juniper/Captain Alvarado - Robert Glenister
Esteban/Manuel - Tom Goodman-Hill
Pepita/Dona Clara - Jasmine Hyde
Camila, la Perichole - Helen McCrory
Marquesa de Montemayor - Sian Phillips
Dramatised by Judith Adams
Directed by Gaynor MacFarlane
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 12 May 2002
The Ides of March
Narrator - Patrick Tull
Caesar - Robert Hardy
Brutus - Sean Barrett
Clodia - Margaret Robertson
Cleopatra - Elizabeth Proud
Pompeia, Caesar's wife - Patricia Gallimore
Julia, Caesar's aunt - Betty Hardy
Clodius - Nigel Lambert
Catullus - David Spenser
Adapted for radio by Nesta Pain from the play by Jerome Kilty
Produced by Nesta Pain
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 17 August 1970
Heaven's My Destination
Read by Ed Bishop
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 17 April 1997
Front Row
Presented by Mark Lawson
With David Lan and Mel Gussow
Produced by Nicki Paxman
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 4 March 2004
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By: Elizabeth Bowen
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Aldous Huxley: A BBC Radio Collection
- Including Brave New World, Antic Hay, The Devils & More
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: Peter Bowles, Jonathan Coy, Justin Salinger, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Original Recording
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Philosopher, pacifist, psychonaut and prophet Aldous Huxley was one of the 20th century’s pre-eminent intellectuals and writers. The author of over 50 books, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize nine times, and elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962, a year before his death. Known for his mordant satire and visionary ideas, Huxley spanned the period from post-First World War disillusionment to mid-century mysticism, and the works in this collection reflect his literary evolution.
By: Aldous Huxley
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George Bernard Shaw
- A BBC Radio Drama Collection
- By: George Bernard Shaw
- Narrated by: full cast, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, and others
- Length: 25 hrs and 48 mins
- Original Recording
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George Bernard Shaw - or Bernard Shaw, as he preferred to be known - was one of Ireland's foremost dramatists and thinkers. His plays range from contemporary satires to historical allegories, and are infused with ideas, insight, wit and wisdom. Included here are some of his best works, adapted for radio and brought together in reverse chronological order in one statement collection.
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King Magnus and Prime Minister Proteus
- By SS on 07-06-23
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The Ides of March
- A Novel
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins, Piper Goodeve, Jane Copland, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1948, The Ides of March is a brilliant epistolary novel of the Rome of Julius Caesar. Through imaginary letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of its magnetic personalities. In this novel, the Caesar of history becomes Caesar the human being as he appeared to his family, his legions, his Rome, and his empire in the months just before his death.
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Strong Recommend
- By Anonymous User on 11-16-23
By: Thornton Wilder
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The Guy de Maupassant BBC Radio Drama Collection
- Full-Cast Dramatisations of Un Vie, Bel Ami & More
- By: Guy de Maupassant
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Adam Nagaitis, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Original Recording
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Guy de Maupassant is renowned as one of the fathers of the modern short story. A protégé of Flaubert, he was celebrated for his naturalistic fiction, and wrote over 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books and one volume of verse in his short but highly productive lifetime. He died in an asylum aged just 43. This collection brings together dramatisations of some of his finest works.
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First Class
- By Anonymous User on 10-25-23
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David Edgar: A BBC Radio Drama Collection
- 17 Full-Cast Productions Including The Shape of the Table, Pentecost & Maydays
- By: David Edgar
- Narrated by: Andy Serkis, Charles Dance, Damian Lewis, and others
- Length: 25 hrs and 45 mins
- Original Recording
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David Edgar is among the UK’s leading contemporary dramatists, well known for his powerful plays chronicling Britain's changing political landscape over the past 50 years. More than 60 of his original plays, adaptations and translations have been performed around the world, and in 2023 he was honoured with a Writers’ Guild Outstanding Contribution award for his service to British playwriting. This radio anthology contains some of his most notable work.
By: David Edgar
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Tom Stoppard: A BBC Radio Collection
- 14 full-cast productions including Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead & others
- By: Tom Stoppard
- Narrated by: Rufus Sewell, Bill Nighy, Harriet Walters, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Original Recording
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This is the collected BBC radio productions of the internationally renowned playwright Tom Stoppard. One of the giants of British theatre, Sir Tom Stoppard has been writing for the stage and screen for over 50 years. Full of wit, verbal brilliance and big ideas, his plays appeal to critics and audiences alike and are among the most studied works of the last century.
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Old, outdated and boring
- By M Gilbert on 03-02-21
By: Tom Stoppard
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The Evelyn Waugh BBC Radio Drama Collection
- Decline and Fall, Brideshead Revisited and Other Full-Cast Dramatisations
- By: Evelyn Waugh, Jeremy Front
- Narrated by: Anne-Marie Duff, Ben Miles, Emilia Fox, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Original Recording
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Evelyn Waugh is one of the pre-eminent English novelists of the 20th century. This collection comprises six of his finest works, dramatised by award-winning writer Jeremy Front, including Decline and Fall, Brideshead Revisited, Scoop and Sword of Honour (The Waugh Trilogy).
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One of the best dramatizations I have listened to!
- By Henry Riely on 09-11-20
By: Evelyn Waugh, and others
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The Glass Bead Game
- A Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisation
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Derek Jacobi, Tom Ferguson, full cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
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Originally published in 1943, The Glass Bead Game was Herman Hesse’s last novel. It was hailed as his magnum opus, and was instrumental in securing him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. Set in a utopian future society, it explores themes of knowledge, individualism, creativity and spirituality, and has inspired contemporary thinkers from authors to game designers. Narrated by Derek Jacobi, this two-part radio drama tells the story of Joseph Knecht (Tom Ferguson), plucked from obscurity as a young orphan, admitted to the finest elite school and groomed for greatness.
By: Hermann Hesse
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Henrik Ibsen
- Nine Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisations
- By: Henrik Ibsen
- Narrated by: David Threlfall, Full Cast, Harriet Walters, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Original Recording
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Often described as ‘the father of realism’, Henrik Ibsen was a pioneer of modernist drama. He influenced playwrights as diverse as George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, and is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare. Included in this collection are adaptations of his tragicomic masterpiece The Wild Duck, his complex and compelling play Rosmersholm, the epic drama Brand and the tragedy John Gabriel Borkman.
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A Doll’s House Alone is Worth the Credit
- By Jeffrey Epstein on 12-15-21
By: Henrik Ibsen