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This Sceptred Isle: Empire
- The Classic BBC Radio History
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson, Anna Massey, Rob Brydon, Martin Freeman, Mark Heap, Robert Powell, Christopher Eccleston, Denis Lawson, Various
- Length: 22 hrs and 13 mins
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Publisher's summary
Christopher Lee's highly acclaimed and award-winning BBC Radio 4 history of the British Empire.
Britain had the biggest empire the world has ever known. At one time a quarter of the global land mass was British. Over a third of the world was insured at Lloyds. At his coronation, more than 400 million people saluted George V. Truly, the sun never set on this historical phenomenon. Whatever the day, whatever the hour, somewhere on the globe, the empire worked and played the British game, often absurdly so.
BBC Radio 4's monumental history of Britain tells the story of the British Empire from its earliest beginnings through the years when British influence grew steadily around the globe, years when Britain took full advantage of the technical advances of its industrial revolution.
Here are the origins of the modern nations of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and of the ways in which British influence has affected, for better or for worse, nations such as India, Sri Lanka and China. Here are the stories, not always happy and glorious, of Captain James Cook, Mungo Park, Warren Hastings, Sir Stamford Raffles and David Livingstone.
The story of the British Empire is one of enormous personalities, adventure, scientific and maritime development and the building of one of the most complex international administrations the world has ever seen.
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In Toast on Toast - part memoir, part "how to act" manual - Steven Toast draws on his vast and varied experiences, providing the reader with an invaluable insight into his journey from school plays to RADA and from "It's a Right Royal Knockout" to the Colony Club. Along the way he reveals the secrets of his success. He discloses how to brush up on and expand your technical and vocal skills, how to nail a professional voiceover, and how to deal with difficult work experience staff in a recording studio....
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Major Brendan Archer travels to Ireland - to the Majestic Hotel and to the fiancée he acquired on a rash afternoon's leave three years ago. Despite her many letters, the lady herself proves elusive, and the Major's engagement is short-lived. But he is unable to detach himself from the alluring discomforts of the crumbling hotel. Ensconced in the dim and shabby splendour of the Palm Court, surrounded by gently decaying old ladies and proliferating cats, the Major passes the summer.
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