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Categories: Drama: Classic & Period

  1. W Somerset Maugham - The Razor's Edge

    A story by W Somerset Maugham, dramatised by Ronald Frame.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  2. EM Forster - A Passage to India (Omnibus)

    Tanika Gupta's imaginative and bold adaptation of EM Forster's masterful novel.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  3. Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter

    Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic American novel from 1850. Dramatised by Greg Snow.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  4. Architectural Marriages

    Jonathan Glancey's tale of high Victorian drama.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  5. A United Kingdom

    The future king of Bechuanaland marries a white woman from London, causing an outcry.

    BBC Two

  6. Lucy Catherine - A to Z

    The story of the first A-Z of London. Stars Catherine McCormack and Phyllida Law.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  7. Stephen Wakelam - Answered Prayers

    An ex-soldier helps a priest trying to set up a small community.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  8. William Trevor - The Story of Lucy Gault

    A chain of events is ignited in William Trevor's haunting masterpiece.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  9. Gentleman Jack

    Anne Lister determines to restore the fortunes of Shibden Hall and find herself a wife.

    BBC One

  10. Ivan Turgenev - On the Eve

    Who will Elena fall in love with? Ivan Turgenev's romantic novella.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  11. Alison Joseph - The Ideal Heroine

    A play about love and art and the telling of stories.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  12. Sarah Waters Introduces - The Yellow Wallpaper

    A woman lies alone with only a strange obsession for company. With Charlotte Emmerson.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  13. Edna O'Brien - The Country Girls Trilogy

    Edna O'Brien's trilogy of novels about two girls growing up in 1950s rural Ireland.

    BBC Radio 4

  14. Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time

    Ten-part dramatisation of the classic Proust novel.

    BBC Radio 4

  15. Viceroy's House

    Lord Mountbatten arrives in India to take the post of the last viceroy.

    BBC Two

  16. Sunset Song

    A young woman's coming-of-age journey beset by the struggle between tradition and change.

    BBC Scotland

  17. Their Finest

    A novice screenwriter tries to make a film to lift the nation's spirits during the Blitz.

    BBC Two

  18. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

    Read by Sean Baker. Produced by Anne Bunting.

    BBC Sounds

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  19. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

    Read by Sam Dale. Produced by Julian Wilkinson

    BBC Sounds

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  20. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    The gothic masterpiece about a young scientist’s quest to create new life.

    BBC Sounds

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  21. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

    The universally acknowledged romance about Elizabeth Bennett’s search for love.

    BBC Sounds

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  22. The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

    Read by Kenny Blyth. Produced by Ciaran Bermingham.

    BBC Sounds

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  23. Silas Marner by George Eliot

    Read by Sean Baker. Produced by Martha Littlehailes.

    BBC Sounds

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  24. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

    The intimate and disquieting coming of age classic about secrets and lies.

    BBC Sounds

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  25. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

    Read by Kenny Blyth. Produced by Ciaran Bermingham.

    BBC Sounds

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  26. The War of the Worlds by HG Wells

    The iconic sci-fi story about the battle to save Earth from a Martian invasion.

    BBC Sounds

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  27. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

    The tempestuous tale of passions, betrayal and retribution on the wild moors.

    BBC Sounds

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  28. Elizabeth Bowen - The Last September

    Lois faces womanhood. Elizabeth Bowen's novel set during the Irish war of independence.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  29. The Europeans by Orlando Figes (Omnibus)

    A love triangle amid huge cultural change in Europe. Read by Hugh Bonneville.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  30. John Banville - Kepler

    The clash between two of the 17th century's leading astronomers, Kepler and Brahe.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  31. World on Fire

    Three young people are in the eye of the storm as World War II explodes around them.

    BBC One

  32. The Name of the Rose

    In 1327, a Franciscan friar is asked to investigate the unfortunate death of a monk.

    BBC Two

  33. The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

    A woman discovers that scaling the social ladder needs delicate balance.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  34. Edna O'Brien - The Country Girls Trilogy (Omnibus)

    Edna O'Brien's frank, funny story of growing up in rural Ireland in the 50s.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  35. Elsinore

    Sebastian Baczkiewicz's thrilling prequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet.

    BBC Radio 4

  36. Parson Harding's Daughter by Joanna Trollope

    1775: Caroline Harding's suitor has left her. What will she do now? Stars Rebecca Egan.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  37. The Pallisers

    Jessica Raine and Tim McMullan star in a new adaptation of the novels by Anthony Trollope.

    BBC Radio 4

  38. Candide

    Adrian Scarborough reads Voltaire's witty 18th century novel of ideas about good and evil.

    BBC Radio 4

  39. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

    Lewis Carroll’s curiouser and curiouser tale of a girl discovering a strange new world.

    BBC Sounds

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  40. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

    Mrs Gaskell’s much-loved portrait of life in a small town and its female inhabitants.

    BBC Sounds

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  41. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

    Edith Wharton’s novella about a young man attempting to escape a loveless marriage.

    BBC Sounds

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  42. Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift

    Jonathan Swift’s satire following Lemuel Gulliver’s strange travels through odd lands.

    BBC Sounds

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  43. Orlando by Virginia Woolf

    Virginia Woolf’s comic biography of a time-travelling hero who transforms into a heroine.

    BBC Sounds

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  44. The Call of the Wild by Jack London

    Jack London’s tale of one dog's unbreakable spirit and survival in the Alaskan Klondike.

    BBC Sounds

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  45. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

    Henry James’ chilling novella about a governess and two children on a haunted estate.

    BBC Sounds

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  46. The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

    E Nesbit’s heart-warming story of three siblings hoping to be reunited with their father.

    BBC Sounds

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  47. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

    John Buchan’s thrilling tale of derring-do, secrets and spies set in the shadows of war.

    BBC Sounds

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  48. Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

    Kenneth Grahame’s jolly riverside romp with the eccentric Mr. Toad and his animal chums.

    BBC Sounds

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  49. The War of the Worlds

    Three-part adaptation of HG Wells's classic tale of a Martian invasion of Earth.

    BBC One

  50.

    Candide by Voltaire (Omnibus)

    Voltaire’s 18th century novel about good and evil: Candide's adventures begin.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

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