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Categories: Drama: Classic & Period

  1. The Egoist by George Meredith

    The story of self-absorbed Sir Willoughby Patterne and his attempts at marriage.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  2. Lady Chatterley

    Adaptation of DH Lawrence's classic novel starring Sean Bean and Joely Richardson.

    BBC One

  3. Babelsberg Babylon

    Suspenseful drama set amid the creative ferment of 1920s Berlin and its film studio.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  4. Robert Tressell - The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

    Edwardian England: Robert asks will workers ever realise their toil is profit for others?

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  5. Campion

    Peter Davison stars as the gentleman sleuth, as seen in Margery Allingham's novels.

    BBC One

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  6. My Mother Said I Never Should

    Classic drama from BBC Radio 4

    BBC Radio 4

  7. Tracy Chevalier - Girl with a Pearl Earring (Omnibus)

    A poor 16-year-old becomes a servant in Vermeer’s household. What does the future hold?

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  8. Nineteen Eighty-Four

    Special readings from Orwell's dystopian classic, now celebrating its 75th anniversary.

    BBC Radio 4

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  9. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

    Perhaps it was indeed an act of God that had brought disaster to the SS Patna.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  10. The Go-Between by LP Hartley

    James Wilby reads LP Hartley's classic novel of loss of innocence.

    BBC Radio 4

  11. Sister Boniface Mysteries

    The police's secret weapon in fighting crime – new force of habit, Sister Boniface.

    BBC One

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  12. Crossriggs by Jane & Mary Findlater (Omnibus)

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

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  13. Mr Malcolm's List

    Julia Thistlewaite is outraged to discover she does not live up to Mr Malcolm's standards.

    BBC Two

  14. Wolf Hall

    Acclaimed adaptation of Hilary Mantel's tales from the dark heart of Tudor history.

    BBC One

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  15. Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden

    A young orphan moves to a Yorkshire country estate - where she uncovers secrets.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  16. King & Conqueror

    A clash that defined the future of a country – and a continent – for a thousand years.

    BBC One

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  17. The Mayor of Casterbridge

    A man tries to atone for his past, in the Thomas Hardy classic, adapted by Dennis Potter.

    BBC Four

  18. The New Catacomb by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    An archaeologist is overly-keen to share his discovery.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  19. Seaborne by Nuala O'Connor

    Nuala O'Connor's novel is a rollicking portrayal of the life of Irish pirate Anne Bonny.

    BBC Radio 4

  20. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

    1805. Chasing an enemy ship, Jack Aubrey demands much of his crew – perhaps too much.

    BBC Two

  21. Gladiator

    Maximus Decimus Meridius, favoured general of the Roman emperor, is betrayed and enslaved.

    BBC Two

  22. Sherlock Holmes Short Stories

    Listen to Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, narrated by Hugh Bonneville.

    BBC Sounds

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  23. Charles Dickens - The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Omnibus)

    By Charles Dickens, adapted by Mike Walker. With Pippa Nixon as Kate Dickens.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  24. After Moscow by Arnold Yarrow

    1917. The old lives of Chekhov's ‘Three Sisters’ has vanished. What now?

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  25. The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

    A cheeky alias throws the plans of two young lovers into doubt.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  26. Bright Day by JB Priestley

    JB Priestley vividly evokes the town and country of his youth before the First World War.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  27. Cloud Howe

    The second part of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Scots Quair trilogy.

    BBC Two

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  28. Grey Granite

    The third part of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's classic Scots Quair trilogy.

    BBC Two

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  29. Miss Austen

    Will Cassandra send her sister Jane's legacy up in flames?

    BBC One

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  30. Sense and Sensibility

    Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are thrown into sudden hardship on the death of their father.

    BBC Two England

  31. Dope Girls

    Soho, 1918 - London's decadent clubland comes alive.

    BBC One

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  32. Towards Zero

    Murder strikes at a coastal estate, where a volatile mix of guests have gathered.

    BBC One

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  33. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot

    Latimer can see into the future. But can he benefit from his clairvoyant powers?

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  34. Il Conde by Joseph Conrad

    An elderly gent is repulsed by a horrific encounter in Naples.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  35. Maurice by E. M. Forster

    EM Forster's groundbreaking novel - completed in 1914, but not published until 1971.

    BBC Radio 4

  36. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (Omnibus)

    The story of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, and his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  37. Sense and Sensibility (1971)

    Jane Austen's classic tale of two sisters with very different approaches to love.

    BBC Two

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  38. Spartacus

    76 BC. Born into slavery, a gladiator leads a slave revolt against the Roman Empire.

    BBC Two

  39. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

    At the turn of the century a young Australian is determined to make her way in the world.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  40. Spotlight

    Take a deep dive into long-form drama from Radio 4.

    BBC Radio 4

  41. Spotlight

    Take a deep dive into long-form drama from Radio 4.

    BBC Radio 4

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  42. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (Omnibus)

    A spinster lands a job which turns out to be a real education.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  43. Robin Hood

    A dying knight’s request takes crusader Robin Longstride from France to Nottingham.

    BBC One

  44. The Spire by William Golding

    In Golding's novel, one man's obsession endangers an entire community in Medieval England.

    BBC Radio 4

  45. Hardy's Women (Omnibus)

    Omnibus editions of Thomas Hardy novels through the eyes of his female protagonists

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  46. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

    The classic 1986 novel from the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day.

    BBC Radio 4

  47. Crooked Cross by Sally Carson

    Sally Carson's rediscovered 1934 novel about the rise of Hitler.

    BBC Radio 4

  48. Joby by Stan Barstow

    On the eve of the Second World War, an 11 year old boy faces some harsh realities.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  49. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

    The Phantom lurks in the Paris Opera House, obsessed with a young singer, Christine

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  50. Goodbye, Mr Chips by James Hilton

    The gentle old schoolmaster has a thousand memories of sixty years at his beloved school

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

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