The Radio Play's The Thing
December 31, 2023 11:19 AM Subscribe
Getting tired of podcasts but still want to fill your headphones with words in 2024? For nearly a century, the BBC has been producing radio dramas and thanks to the Internet Archive, many older works are available for download...
Here are several collections of plays mainly from the 19th and 20th century in roughly chronological order by playwright:
The Henrik Ibsen Collection includes:
Here are several collections of plays mainly from the 19th and 20th century in roughly chronological order by playwright:
The Henrik Ibsen Collection includes:
The Wild DuckAugust Strindberg
Rosmersholm
Brand
John Gabriel Borkman
A Doll's House
Ghosts
Hedda Gabler
The Lady from the Sea
An Enemy of the People
The Ghost SonaraThe Oscar Wilde Collection includes:
Miss Julie (starring Helen Mirren)
A Woman of No ImportanceThe George Bernard Shaw Collection includes:
An Ideal Husband
The Importance of Being Earnest
Lady Windermere's Fan
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Canterville Ghost
The Apple CartThe Anton Chekhov Collection includes:
Saint Joan
Heartbreak House
Pygmalion
Androcles and the Lion
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets
Press Cuttings
The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet
Major Barbara
Man and Superman
Caesar and Cleopatra
The Devil’s Disciple
The Man of Destiny
Candida
Mrs Warren’s Profession
Wild HoneyEugene O'Neill
The Seagull
The Cherry Orchard
Three Sisters
Ivanov
The Wood Demon
Uncle Vanya
The Hairy ApeThe Tennessee Williams Collection includes:
The Glass MenagerieBertolt Brecht
A Streetcar Named Desire
Spring Storm
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Rose Tattoo
Mr. Puntila & His Man MattiThe Noël Coward Collection includes:
The Life of Galileo
Private LivesLillian Hellman
Hay Fever
Blithe Spirit
Design for Living
The Vortex
Still Life
Present Laughter
Relative Values
This Happy Breed
Waiting In The Wings
The Children's HourThe Arthur Miller Collection includes:
A View From The BridgeThe Samuel Beckett Collection includes:
All My Sons
Death Of A Salesman (David Suchet/Zoë Wanamaker)
Death Of A Salesman (Stacy Keach)
The Price
All That FallThe Harold Pinter Collection includes:
Happy Days
Waiting For Godot
A Night Out: A New Play for RadioThe Tom Stoppard Collection includes:
The Caretaker
The Birthday Party
A Slight Ache (starring Pinter) & Last to Go
Landscape & Family Voices
The Homecoming (Michael Gambon)
Landscape & The Examination (Michael Gambon)
The Caretaker (David Warner)
Betrayal (Olivia Colman, Andrew Scott)
Old Times (Olivia Williams)
The Dreaming Child (BBC Unmade Movies)
A Kind of Alaska & Ashes to Ashes (Harriet Walter)
The Real Inspector Hound
M Is for Moon Among Other Things
The Dissolution of Dominic Boot
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
If You’re Glad, I’ll Be Frank
Albert’s Bridge
Where Are They Now
Professional Foul
The Dog It Was That Died
Dalliance
In the Native State
Arcadia
Rock ‘n’ Roll
Darkside
Thanks for the heads-up. No mention of The Dark Tower (1946) by Louis MacNeice, music by Benj Britten. But it's available on The Beeb itself [73 mins].
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:32 PM on December 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:32 PM on December 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
It's my fault for misparsing the title, but now I'm super-sad that none of those is an audio drama of John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?"
posted by The Tensor at 1:38 PM on December 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by The Tensor at 1:38 PM on December 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
Getting tired of podcasts but still want to fill your headphones with words in 2024?
*squints suspiciously*
Although I never get tired of podcasts, I do like a good radio drama. I’m kind of fond of the BBC’s Drama of the Week, where you can get both stand-alone and “taster episodes” of a wide variety of dramas and readings.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:34 PM on December 31, 2023
*squints suspiciously*
Although I never get tired of podcasts, I do like a good radio drama. I’m kind of fond of the BBC’s Drama of the Week, where you can get both stand-alone and “taster episodes” of a wide variety of dramas and readings.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:34 PM on December 31, 2023
Ooh, this is fabulous - the Stoppard is amazing. (I had heard many of these, but not all.)
The Alan Bennett Drama Omnibus page has a link to BBC radio shows, which turns up, among many, many other things, a David Hare collection.
I am thoroughly chuffed to know about these excellent collections. Thank you so much for posting this, gwint!
posted by kristi at 5:54 PM on December 31, 2023
The Alan Bennett Drama Omnibus page has a link to BBC radio shows, which turns up, among many, many other things, a David Hare collection.
I am thoroughly chuffed to know about these excellent collections. Thank you so much for posting this, gwint!
posted by kristi at 5:54 PM on December 31, 2023
Awesome! Thanks so much gwint.
posted by storybored at 6:42 PM on December 31, 2023
posted by storybored at 6:42 PM on December 31, 2023
I don't know how it works as audio only but I can vouch for The Real Inspector Hound as a good time as a play. It probably helps to have seen (heard?) The Mousetrap though.
posted by juv3nal at 6:43 PM on December 31, 2023
posted by juv3nal at 6:43 PM on December 31, 2023
Or, if you like a bit of the ol' cosmic horror, there's four great series of The Lovecraft Investigations.
They aren't plays of the original Lovecraft stories (thankfully), but are loosely inspired by them and set in the modern-day.
posted by faceplantingcheetah at 3:13 AM on January 1 [3 favorites]
They aren't plays of the original Lovecraft stories (thankfully), but are loosely inspired by them and set in the modern-day.
posted by faceplantingcheetah at 3:13 AM on January 1 [3 favorites]
The Tensor - don't worry, the BBC and the Internet Archive have got you covered.
posted by MarchHare at 4:49 PM on January 1 [2 favorites]
posted by MarchHare at 4:49 PM on January 1 [2 favorites]
Such a terrific post, gwint! Thank you!
posted by mochapickle at 7:17 PM on January 1
posted by mochapickle at 7:17 PM on January 1
BBC Radio 4 also does "radio play" versions of books, which i know because I just listened to Bill Nighy starring as Charles Paris in these wonderful adaptations of Simon Brett's mystery novels.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 8:54 AM on January 2
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 8:54 AM on January 2
OOOOH!!!
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is set in the plantation home in the Mississippi Delta of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon; the play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy's family, primarily between his son Brick and Maggie “the Cat", Brick's wife. Joss Ackland stars as Big Daddy, with Gemma Jones as Big Mama, Elizabeth McGovern as Maggie, Marcus D'Amico as Brick, Alison Steadman as Mae and Roy Dotrice as Rev Tooker.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 9:11 AM on January 2
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is set in the plantation home in the Mississippi Delta of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon; the play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy's family, primarily between his son Brick and Maggie “the Cat", Brick's wife. Joss Ackland stars as Big Daddy, with Gemma Jones as Big Mama, Elizabeth McGovern as Maggie, Marcus D'Amico as Brick, Alison Steadman as Mae and Roy Dotrice as Rev Tooker.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 9:11 AM on January 2
They've also got a 2-part BBC World Service adaptation of Neuromancer, with as I recall fairly preposterous British approximations of Sprawl-American accents for the main characters.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:47 PM on January 2 [3 favorites]
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:47 PM on January 2 [3 favorites]
Mod note: Hey, we've added this post to the sideblog/Best Of blog!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 9:52 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 9:52 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]
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posted by jzb at 11:58 AM on December 31, 2023 [2 favorites]