Showing titles in Dramatizations

Fast-paced radio dramatisations of six of Dick Francis's classic racing thrillers, plus bonus documentary.

This was to be her last day alive. The renowned criminal psychologist Ira Samin prepared her suicide thoroughly. The death of her eldest daughter had weighed too heavily on her conscience for her to carry on and she yearned for one last drink to raise a toast to oblivion. Her morbid plans are interrupted and she is called in to negotiate a gruesome hostage situation at a radio station where a psychopath is playing a morbid game.

When children go missing, and the Humans have no leads, I'm the one they call. I am their last hope in bringing home the lost ones. I salvage what they cannot. The FBI wants me on their team. Bad enough that they are dangling bait they know I can't resist. The catch? It’s on the other side of the ocean. And if I want what they’re offering, I have to help them with a salvage gone terribly, terribly wrong. But this time, I have no back up. I have no Plan B. And I have no O’Shea.

When Charles Paris’ agent rings with the news that he has a part for him in a new musical, Charles is delighted - and somewhat amazed, as he can neither sing nor dance. But Maurice has an ulterior motive: as one of the show’s backers, he wants Charles to play detective and investigate a series of accidents that have dogged the production. The pianist has been shot in the hand, and another cast member fell downstairs - or was he pushed? Anxious about their investment and their star, Chris Watt, the ‘angels’ are keen to ensure that nothing else goes wrong.

Miss Marple is told that her old friend, Carrie, is in danger and she goes to stay with her at Stoneygates, a home for maladjusted adolescents. While she is there, tragedy strikes as Carrie's step-son, Christian Gulbrandsen, is shot dead. There are at least seven suspects and two more murders follow. But the man with the obvious motive has a cast-iron alibi, as he could hardly be in two places at once - or could he? June Whitfield once again stars as the indomitable amateur detective.

Felicia, Lizbeth Rose’s half-sister and a student at the Grigori Rasputin school in San Diego—capital of the Holy Russian Empire—is caught between her own secrets and powerful family struggles. As a granddaughter of Rasputin, she provides an essential service to the hemophiliac Tsar Alexei, providing him the blood transfusions that keep him alive. Felicia is treated like nonentity at the bedside of the tsar, and at the school she’s seen as a charity case with no magical ability. But when Felicia is snatched outside the school, the facts of her heritage begin to surface.

When children go missing, and the Humans have no leads, I'm the one they call. I am their last hope in bringing home the lost ones. I salvage what they cannot. The clock is ticking, and I can feel the weight of the final battle with the demon hordes looming over my head. The puzzle pieces are becoming clearer, but the casualty list is growing. And with each name that is added to those we've lost, my confidence cracks a little more. Yet there is hope...

A millionaire strikes a deal on the seedier side of Paris and a priceless cache of rubies becomes destined for his beloved daughter Rachel. Two days later Rachel is dead - murdered on a train on her way to the Riviera to meet her scoundrel lover: a mysterious, dark man. The suspects line up... only master slueth Hercule Poirot can unravel the mystery and find the truth. Maurice Denhham stars as the great Belgian detective in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation starring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot. Mrs Farrars is found dead of an apparent overdose one year after the death of her husband. The villagers of King's Abbot are suspicious. The rumour is that she poisoned her husband and was in love with Roger Ackroyd. When he is found murdered the following day, there is little to go on. Luckily one of the newest residents who has retired to this normally quiet village is none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot.

Patrick Hamilton is renowned for his gritty, slice-of-life tales chronicling the hopes, dreams and obsessions of London's working class in the inter-war years. This collection brings together his key pieces, together with some lesser-known classics and a bonus 2004 documentary exploring his achievements and legacy.

The gruesome death of Mrs McGinty provokes Superintendent Spence to seek the help of his old ally Hercule Poirot. The victim’s young lodger has been found guilty and is due to hang. But Spence is not convinced by the circumstantial evidence which influenced the verdict. So, at considerable personal discomfort, Poirot goes down to the sleepy village where the old lady lived and where, by chance, his good friend Ariadne Oliver is also staying.

Poirot has always hated visiting the dentist, but this time his check-up is painless and soon over. As he leaves Mr Morley's surgery, he observes a woman wearing patent leather shoes with large buckles. She catches one of the buckles on the taxi door and wrenches it off, and as Poirot hands it back, he is reminded of the children's rhyme 'One, two, buckle my shoe'. Back home, Poirot is astonished to receive a call from Chief Inspector Japp, informing him that Mr Morley has shot himself.

Three BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations starring John Shrapnel as Morse and Robert Glenister as Lewis, plus a bonus reading by Colin Dexter of one of his short stories. In Last Seen Wearing, Inspector Morse is reluctant to take over an old missing person case from a dead colleague. But two years, three months and two days after teenager Valerie Taylor's disappearance, somebody decides to supply some surprising new evidence....

"My name is Rylee, and I am a Tracker." When children go missing, and the Humans have no leads, I'm the one they call. I am their last hope in bringing home the lost ones. I salvage what they cannot. O’Shea is AWOL, and Tracking him is proving to be harder than I expected. Not to mention the small fact that I have the Beast of Bodmin Moor chasing me across Europe, in a race against the odds, and my life as the prize. But those things are minor compared to the secrets that finally come to light. Secrets I wish had stayed hidden in the darkness....

Gordon Cloade is killed in a London air raid, and his vast fortune passes to his young wife Rosaleen. Five of his relatives are desperate to get their hands on Cloade's money, and Rosaleen begins to fear for her life. The prospects for the Cloades improve when they discover that Rosaleen had a previous husband who perished mysteriously in Africa. Then a mysterious stranger appears in the village, saying that he has something to communicate to her, but the following morning he is found dead.

John Moffatt stars as the great Belgian detective in a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. Famous crime novelist Ariadne Oliver, visiting her friend Judith Butler in the little town of Woodleigh Common, is invited to a Hallowe'en Party put on by society hostess Mrs Rowena Drake for the local teenagers. During her preparations for the party, the conversation turns to Ariadne's grisly novels....

Actor and reluctant sleuth Charles Paris is facing chaos on the domestic front. He’s lodging with his ex-wife Frances, and now their pregnant daughter has moved in as well. It’s all a bit much.... So he is over the moon when he lands a job on the BBC Radio Rep - but the ink is barely dry on his contract when a murder takes place in Broadcasting House. A young female studio manager is found dead in an editing suite, and Charles steps in to investigate....

Seventeen stories from the gritty crime series created by Danny Brocklehurst, starring Hugo Speer as Manchester detective John Stone. This collection brings together Series 1 to 4 of this intelligent detective drama, tackling morally ambiguous, complex and challenging subjects. DCI Stone and his team investigate a series of brutal murders and missing person cases, among other grisly crimes. Starring Hugo Speer as DCI John Stone, Craig Cheetham as DI Mike Tanner and Deborah McAndrew as DS Sue Kelly.

Smiley, wrestling with retirement and disillusionment, is summoned to a secret meeting with a member of the Cabinet Office. Evidence has emerged that the Circus has been infiltrated at the highest level by a Russian agent. 'Find the mole, George. Clean the stables. Do whatever is necessary.' Reluctantly Smiley agrees, and so embarks on a dark journey into his past a past filled with love, duplicity and betrayal.

In the Red sees the anarchic George Cragge investigate a spree of bizarre murders in the world of City finance, a small political party contesting a by-election, and a plan to overthrow the Director-General of the BBC. In the Balance, features George Cragge kicking off a murder trail during the FIFA World Cup at Wembley Stadium. In the Chair follows the maverick hack as he looks into a series of murders of dentists linked to New Labour policy. In the End, sees George Cragge investigating a series of murders of journalists.