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BBC Radio Shakespeare
- A Collection of Three Roman Plays
- Narrated by: David Harewood, Frances Barber, Full Cast, Gerard Murphy, Nicholas Farrell, Samuel West, Stella Gonet, Susannah York
- Length: 8 hrs
- Radio/TV Programme
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
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BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Eight Comedies
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A collection of BBC Radio 3's iconic Shakespeare productions: eight comedies with all-star casts including David Tennant, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Martin Jarvis, Siân Phillips and Miriam Margolyes. The plays included in this collection are: Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, and All's Well That Ends Well.
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BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Four History Plays
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Benjamin Zephaniah, Full Cast, Jamie Glover, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
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Introduced by Sir Richard Eyre, these four iconic productions, dramatised with star casts, bring Shakespeare’s gripping histories to life in all their rich complexity.
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Shakespeare: The Complete Works
- Argo Classics
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Diana Rigg, and others
- Length: 98 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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All of the Shakespeare plays within the Argo Classics catalogue are performed by the Marlowe Dramatic Society and Professional Players. The Marlowe was founded in 1907 with a mission to focus on effective delivery of verse, respect the integrity of texts and rescue neglected plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and the less performed plays of Shakespeare himself. The Marlowe has performed annually at Cambridge Arts Theatre since its opening in 1936 and continues to produce some of the finest actors of their generations.
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Listing for 9 Part Download
- By indigodreamer on 30-01-21
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BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Six Tragedies
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Bill Wallis, Corin Redgrave, full cast, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A collection of BBC Radio 3's iconic Shakespeare productions: six tragedies with all star casts including Michael Sheen, Juliet Stevenson, Kenneth Cranham, Corin Redgrave, Ken Stott, Geraldine James, Bill Wallis, Siân Phillips and Sophie Dahl.
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Unwieldy and difficult to use
- By Sean Watson on 05-10-20
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All the Sonnets of Shakespeare
- By: William Shakespeare, Paul Edmondson - editor, Stanley Wells - editor
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh, Lolita Chakrabarti
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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How can we look afresh at Shakespeare as a writer of sonnets? What new light might they shed on his career, personality, and sexuality? Shakespeare wrote sonnets for at least 30 years, not only for himself, for professional reasons, and for those he loved, but also in his plays, as prologues, as epilogues, and as part of their poetic texture.
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Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
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The dead do not sleep in Denmark. Thrice the vision of the suddenly departed king has haunted the night watchmen. Upon seeing his own son, prince Hamlet, the ghost calls him away to divulge most nefarious secret. This most noble king was murdered by his own brother, Hamlet's uncle, who now wears his crown and beds his bride. To the prince he charges with the unholy quest to avenge his death and kill his murderer. Young Hamlet, shocked and amazed, swears to do the bloody deed. Thus begins one of the greatest works by the greatest English author - William Shakespeare.
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BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Eight Comedies
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Anne-Marie Duff, David Tennant, Full Cast, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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A collection of BBC Radio 3's iconic Shakespeare productions: eight comedies with all-star casts including David Tennant, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Martin Jarvis, Siân Phillips and Miriam Margolyes. The plays included in this collection are: Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, and All's Well That Ends Well.
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BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Four History Plays
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Benjamin Zephaniah, Full Cast, Jamie Glover, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Introduced by Sir Richard Eyre, these four iconic productions, dramatised with star casts, bring Shakespeare’s gripping histories to life in all their rich complexity.
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Shakespeare: The Complete Works
- Argo Classics
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Diana Rigg, and others
- Length: 98 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All of the Shakespeare plays within the Argo Classics catalogue are performed by the Marlowe Dramatic Society and Professional Players. The Marlowe was founded in 1907 with a mission to focus on effective delivery of verse, respect the integrity of texts and rescue neglected plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and the less performed plays of Shakespeare himself. The Marlowe has performed annually at Cambridge Arts Theatre since its opening in 1936 and continues to produce some of the finest actors of their generations.
-
-
Listing for 9 Part Download
- By indigodreamer on 30-01-21
-
BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Six Tragedies
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Bill Wallis, Corin Redgrave, full cast, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of BBC Radio 3's iconic Shakespeare productions: six tragedies with all star casts including Michael Sheen, Juliet Stevenson, Kenneth Cranham, Corin Redgrave, Ken Stott, Geraldine James, Bill Wallis, Siân Phillips and Sophie Dahl.
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Unwieldy and difficult to use
- By Sean Watson on 05-10-20
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All the Sonnets of Shakespeare
- By: William Shakespeare, Paul Edmondson - editor, Stanley Wells - editor
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh, Lolita Chakrabarti
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How can we look afresh at Shakespeare as a writer of sonnets? What new light might they shed on his career, personality, and sexuality? Shakespeare wrote sonnets for at least 30 years, not only for himself, for professional reasons, and for those he loved, but also in his plays, as prologues, as epilogues, and as part of their poetic texture.
-
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The dead do not sleep in Denmark. Thrice the vision of the suddenly departed king has haunted the night watchmen. Upon seeing his own son, prince Hamlet, the ghost calls him away to divulge most nefarious secret. This most noble king was murdered by his own brother, Hamlet's uncle, who now wears his crown and beds his bride. To the prince he charges with the unholy quest to avenge his death and kill his murderer. Young Hamlet, shocked and amazed, swears to do the bloody deed. Thus begins one of the greatest works by the greatest English author - William Shakespeare.
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Classic BBC Radio Shakespeare: Tragedies
- Hamlet; Macbeth; Romeo and Juliet
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: full cast, Paul Scofield, Peggy Ashcroft, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Original Recording
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Three powerful radio productions from the BBC archives starring Ian McKellen, Ronald Pickup and Paul Scofield and a host of celebrated acting talent. These three legendary plays, performed by some of the best-known theatrical actors of the 20th century, are the perfect way to commemorate England's greatest dramatist.
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Not an easy listen
- By Culwen on 14-02-20
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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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I love Ibsen, which is why I HATED this!
- By Benedicte Hovda on 25-11-20
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Classic BBC Radio Shakespeare: Romances
- The Winter's Tale, Pericles, The Tempest
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Hannah Gordon, Paul Scofield, Tim Pigott-Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
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Overall
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Three classic radio productions from the BBC archives starring Hannah Gordon, Tim Pigott-Smith, Paul Scofield and a host of celebrated acting talent. These three legendary plays, performed by some of the best-known theatrical actors of the 20th century, are the perfect way to commemorate England's greatest dramatist.
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Poor sound
- By Amazon Customer on 20-11-18
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Romeo and Juliet
- A BBC Radio 3 full-cast dramatisation
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: full cast, Trystan Gravelle, Vanessa Kirby
- Length: 1 hr and 58 mins
- Original Recording
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A full-cast BBC Radio 3 production of Shakespeare’s quick-witted summer tragedy. In a town full of hatred, where the streets ring with the Capulet-Montague feud and swords are too easily drawn, Romeo and Juliet find each other--and love--and never let go. In Shakespeare’s famous play, first performed in 1595, the warring Capulets and Montagues have been sworn to keep the peace on pain of death. When Capulet’s daughter, Juliet, meets Montague’s son, Romeo, at a masked ball, they immediately fall in love.
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Brilliant
- By J M Rey on 19-05-17
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King Richard III
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh, Geraldine McEwan, Nicholas Farrell, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Written in 1593, King Richard III is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays. This play differs from its predecessors, being amore structured piece, examining the development and motivations of a single character, Richard Duke of Gloucester, who will stop at nothing to gain control of the throne occupied by his brother Edward IV.
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Fantastic performance
- By Colin H on 13-09-21
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Much Ado About Nothing
- A BBC Radio Shakespeare Production
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: David Tennant, Samantha Spiro, full cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 14 mins
- Original Recording
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In Shakespeare's comedy of wit, love and miscommunication, Beatrice and Benedick and Hero and Claudio are pushed into and pulled out of love, their friends playing cupid with life-changing consequences. David Tennant and Samantha Spiro star as the famous sparring partners Benedick and Beatrice, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Emilia Fox as Claudio and Hero. The supporting cast includes Maxine Peake and Julian Rhind-Tutt
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Classic Version
- By Ms on 23-12-12
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Classic BBC Radio Shakespeare: Comedies
- The Taming of the Shrew; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Twelfth Night
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Paul Daneman, Fenella Fielding, Nigel Hawthorne, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
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Three classic radio productions from the BBC archives starring Nigel Hawthorne, Miriam Margolyes, Geraldine McEwan and a host of celebrated acting talent. These three legendary plays, performed by some of the best-known theatrical actors of the 20th century, are the perfect way to commemorate England's greatest dramatist.
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Terrible sound quality don't waste your time.
- By Barry Deri on 12-11-17
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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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Essential for a Shaw Fan
- By Tony on 15-03-22
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The Leo Tolstoy BBC Radio Drama Collection
- Full-Cast Dramatisations of War and Peace, Anna Karenina & More
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Amanda Redman, Emily Mortimer, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins
- Original Recording
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One of the greatest novelists of all time, Leo Tolstoy is famed worldwide for his masterpieces of realist fiction, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. This comprehensive collection contains both those iconic works, as well as his final novel, Resurrection, his autobiographical essay 'A Confession', Stephen Wakelam's dramatic account of his tempestuous marriage, Mrs Tolstoy, and In Our Time: Tolstoy.
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Fantastic collection
- By Book Lover on 06-01-22
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Myths Reimagined: Troy Trilogy, Dionysos & More
- A BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisation Collection
- By: Andrew Rissik
- Narrated by: full cast, Michael Sheen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
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Andrew Rissik's powerful, uncompromising reimaginings of classic tales from Roman and Greek history were hailed as masterpieces when they first aired on BBC radio. Told in contemporary speech, they revitalised the ancient myths, making them fresh, relevant and accessible to a modern-day audience. This collection brings them together on audio for the first time, with stellar casts including Michael Sheen, Paul Scofield, Lindsay Duncan, David Harewood, Eleanor Bron, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Diana Rigg, Roger Allam, Toby Stephens, Anton Lesser and Robert Hardy.
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The Oscar Wilde BBC Radio Drama Collection
- Five Full-Cast Productions
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes, Judi Dench, Diana Rigg, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Original Recording
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A sparkling collection of the major works of the ever-adored Oscar Wilde, with incredible casts including Judi Dench, Martin Clunes, Michael Sheen, Miriam Margolyes, Ian McDiarmid, Joely Richardson, Penelope Keith, Martin Jarvis, Diana Rigg, Simon Russell Beale, Sheila Hancock, Ian McKellen and Stephen Fry.
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Disappointed with selection from Oscar Wilde
- By Sid Percy on 06-12-19
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Beren and Lúthien
- By: Christopher Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Timothy West, Samuel West
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, was deeply opposed to Beren, and imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien. Undaunted by Lord Thingol’s challenge, Beren and Lúthien embark on the supremely heroic attempt to rob Morgoth, the greatest of all evil beings, of a Silmaril, one of the hallowed jewels that adorn the Black Enemy’s crown.
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this is absolute dross. There is NO STORY ! ! !
- By Robert Luke on 16-05-20
Summary
Three full-cast BBC Radio productions of Shakespeare's most famous Roman plays.
Featuring all-star casts and introduced by Sir Richard Eyre, these three iconic productions of Shakespeare's dynamic Roman histories are full of political intrigue, passion and tragedy.
Julius Caesar
This updated version of Shakespeare's classic play is set in Italy in 1925. Julius Caesar, a new Roman dictator, has swept to power, and his way is clear to assume total control - unless a coup by Cassius and Brutus can alter the tide of history. Nicholas Farrell stars as Brutus and Gerard Murphy as Julius Caesar.
Coriolanus
When Rome's greatest hero, the warrior Coriolanus, divides the people and the patricians through his arrogance, he is driven into exile. Samuel West stars as Coriolanus, with Susannah York as Volumnia.
Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare's last great tragedy is an action epic set against the political backdrop of the Roman Empire and the centre of Egyptian culture, Alexandria. But at the heart of the play is the story of what happens when two people fall in love. Starring Frances Barber as Cleopatra and David Harewood as Mark Antony.
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What listeners say about BBC Radio Shakespeare
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jennifer Baratta She/Her
- 31-01-21
Thank you BBC Radio and narrators.
William Shakespeare is an outstanding author and the plays here are amazing to listen to.
2 people found this helpful