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Categories: Drama: Classic & Period

  1. Nick Warburton - My Love Must Wait

    1801: maritime explorer Matthew Flinders must leave behind his newlywed wife, Ann.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  2. Stalingrad

    Vasily Grossman's dark and honest account of the epic battle of Stalingrad.

    BBC Radio 4

  3. Scrooge

    Film based on the classic Dickens novel, with Albert Finney and Alec Guinness.

    BBC Two

  4. A Christmas Carol

    A dark and twisted take on Dickens' classic story, from the creator of Peaky Blinders.

    BBC One

  5. Dracula

    Three-part adaptation of the classic novel by Bram Stoker.

    BBC One

  6. Tommy's Honour

    Drama depicting the relationship between golfing champions Old Tom Morris and his son.

    BBC One

  7. Exile

    Gripping series about one family's journey into the unknown aboard the Mayflower.

    BBC Radio 4

  8. Oliver: Lagos to London

    A radical reimagining of Charles Dickens' most political novel, Oliver Twist

    BBC Radio 4

  9. Coming Up For Air by George Orwell (Omnibus)

    George Orwell's story of a married, middle-aged insurance salesman surveying his life.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  10. Hugh Lofting - The Story of Doctor Dolittle

    The well-loved story of the doctor who learned to talk like the animals.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  11. The Pale Horse

    When a young woman is murdered, a mysterious list of names is discovered.

    BBC One

    Show available episodes

  12. The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd

    Nan Shepherd's 1928 story of a young woman's journey to maturity and independence.

    BBC Radio 4

  13. The Quarry Wood (Omnibus)

    A young woman's journey to maturity and independence in the early 20th century.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  14. DH Lawrence - The Rainbow

    Novel exploring the passionate lives of three generations of the Brangwen family.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  15. Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding

    A comic masterpiece on the morals and manners of high and low society.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  16. The Leopard (Omnibus)

    Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, and his family assemble for dinner.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  17. Eadar na Dha: 1918-1935/Clash of Futures: 1918-1935

    Tracking the fates of men and women in the aftermath of WWI, using their own memoirs.

    BBC ALBA

  18. The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel

    Anton Lesser reads the final part of Hilary Mantel's award-winning Thomas Cromwell series.

    BBC Radio 4

  19. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (Omnibus)

    The eagerly-awaited finale to Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell saga. Read by Anton Lesser.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  20. Stephen Sharkey - The Visitation

    During the plague of 1665, Henry Foe decides to remain in London. Stars Henry Goodman.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  21. The Prelude, by William Wordsworth

    Wordsworth's great autobiographical poem read by Sir Ian McKellen with music by John Harle

    BBC Radio 4

  22. Rodney Stone by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    1814: Rodney Stone is drawn into the colourful and dangerous world of boxing and gambling.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  23. Leo Tolstoy

    Novels by the master of Russian literature.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  24. George Eliot - The Mill on the Floss

    10-part dramatisation of George Eliot's semi-autobiographical novel of Victorian childhood

    BBC Radio 4

  25. Evelyn Waugh - A Handful of Dust

    Embarking on an affair, Brenda Last shocks London society sparking tragic consequences.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  26. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (Omnibus)

    Dramatisation of George Eliot's semi-autobiographical novel of Victorian childhood.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  27. Victoria and Abdul

    Abdul, a clerk, is taken from his job at a prison to present a coin to Queen Victoria.

    BBC Two

  28. Crossriggs by Jane & Mary Findlater

    The sleepy Scottish village of Crossriggs is not the place for an unconventional woman.

    BBC Radio 4

  29. The Elephant Man

    An ambitious surgeon encounters a disfigured sideshow freak and takes him under his wing.

    BBC One

  30. Electric Decade

    Classic titles that influenced and characterised the Jazz Age of the 1920s.

    BBC Radio 4

  31. Tracy Chevalier - Girl with a Pearl Earring

    Tracy Chevalier's much-loved novel about the unknown model in Vermeer's famous painting.

    BBC Radio 4

  32. Darkest Hour

    Churchill must decide whether to negotiate with Hitler or fight for the greater good.

    BBC One

  33. The Luminaries

    An intricately woven, suspenseful tale of love, murder, magic and revenge.

    BBC One

  34. Emma by Jane Austen

    Jane Austen's classic comedy of young love and romantic meddling, read by Eve Best.

    BBC Radio 4

  35. On Chesil Beach

    Graduates from different social classes get married, but the honeymoon proves a challenge.

    BBC Two

  36. Arthur Conan Doyle - Micah Clarke

    Arthur Conan Doyle's historical novel set in 1685.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  37. Harlots

    Sex sells like nothing else in grimy, decadent Georgian London.

    BBC Two

  38. A Suitable Boy

    In 1951, in newly independent India, student Lata is torn between family duty and romance.

    BBC One

    Show available episodes

  39. Dangerous Liaisons

    Two 18th-century French aristocrats play a cruel game of seduction.

    BBC One

  40. The Optimists

    Russian drama set in the 60s during the Khrushchev era and at the height of the Cold War.

    BBC ALBA

  41. The Guardians

    France 1915. A mother and her daughter take over when their men leave for the front.

    BBC Four

  42. Black Narcissus

    A group of nuns travel to a Himalayan palace with a dark past.

    BBC One

  43. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

    The ‘saddest story ever told’ is how Edward Ashburnham left lives in ruins.

    BBC Radio 4

  44. The Mercy

    Amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst (Colin Firth) attempts to circumnavigate the globe alone.

    BBC Two

  45. The Happy Prince

    Biopic about the final years of playwright Oscar Wilde.

    BBC Two

  46. The Mystery of Edwin Drood

    Written by Charles Dickens, adapted by Mike Walker. Stars Pippa Nixon as Kate Dickens.

    BBC Radio 4

  47. Joan Aiken - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

    At stately Willoughby Chase, Sylvia and Bonnie battle to escape their evil governess.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  48. Tea with Mussolini

    Florence 1935. Luca, part-raised by English ladies in Florence, re-enters their lives.

    BBC Two

  49. Blood and Milk by Gregory Evans

    By Gregory Evans. Thriller set in 1890s Whitechapel.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

    Show available episodes

  50. Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson (Omnibus)

    The adventures and perils of an otter born in North Devon.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

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