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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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- 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 Cabala
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Tristan Morris
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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A young American student spends a year in the exotic world of post-World War I Rome. While there, he experiences firsthand the waning days of a secret community (a "cabala") of decaying royalty, a great cardinal of the Roman Church, and an assortment of memorable American ex-pats.
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Good Narration
- By Jefferson Spires on 06-19-20
By: Thornton Wilder
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The Arthur Miller Collection
- By: Arthur Miller
- Narrated by: Emily Bergl, Kevin Chamberlin, Tim DeKay, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
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This collection includes ten plays by Arthur Miller. In The Crucible, Stacy Keach and Richard Dreyfuss lead an all-star cast in Miller’s searing play about witchcraft that famously mirrors the anti-Communist hysteria that held the United States in its grip. Death of a Salesman follows Willy Loman, the iconic traveling salesman whose family is torn apart by his desperate obsession with greatness. In Incident at Vichy, in Nazi-occupied France, nine men are detained under a shadowy pretext and face a terrifying fate.
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Great!!! 9k
- By B Huygens on 10-06-22
By: Arthur Miller
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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
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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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J.L. Carr: A Month in the Country and The Harpole Report
- Two BBC Radio Full Cast Dramatisations
- By: J.L. Carr
- Narrated by: Hattie Morahan, Stephen Critchlow, Shaun Dingwall, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 5 mins
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This BBC Radio collection includes the Booker nominated A Month in the Country. Be transported to the Yorkshire village of Oxgodby where, in the aftermath of the First World War, survivor Tom Birkin spends a summer uncovering a medieval mural in the local church.
By: J.L. Carr
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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
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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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The Alexander Pushkin BBC Radio Collection
- Including Eugene Onegin, Boris Godunov & The Queen of Spades
- By: Alexander Pushkin
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings, Geoffrey Streatfeild, Ralph Fiennes, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
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One of Russia's most iconic poets, Alexander Pushkin is often described as the 'father of Russian literature'. A gambler, playboy and social reformer, he was exiled by the Tsar for his controversial poetry and died aged 37 in a duel defending his wife's honour. This BBC Radio anthology includes dramatisations and readings of Pushkin's most famous works - plus biographical programmes and an original play based on his life.
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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
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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