Showing results by narrator "Martin Jarvis" in All Categories

This timeless comedy of manners is considered one of Molière's most probing and mature works. While it's still an exemplar of 17th century farce, Molière went beyond his usual comic inventiveness to create a world of rich, complex characters, especially in the cynical title character Alceste, played here by the Tony Award-winning actor Brian Bedford.

Ovid's sensuous and witty poetry brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy.

A second wonderful collection of Just William stories, selected and read by Martin Jarvis. Richmal Crompton’s stories featuring irrepressible schoolboy William Brown have been firm favourites with both young and old for decades. Perpetually scruffy, mud-stained and mischievous, he is a lovable scamp whose pranks usually end in disaster - for his harassed elders at least. With friends Ginger, Douglas and Henry (the Outlaws) and the angelic thorn in his side, the lisping Violet Elizabeth Bott, William has rightly joined the literary and radio immortals.

Bill Russell is acting as a volunteer steward at Warwick races when he confronts his worst nightmare - the violent death of his much-loved wife. But worse is to come when he is accused of killing her and hounded mercilessly by the media. Bill sets out to clear his name and believes he knows who the culprit is. But can he prove it before he becomes another victim of the murderer. Guilty Not Guilty is a journey of greed and jealousy set against the grief of personal tragedy and loss, with many a twist and turn along the way.

We find ourselves in the austerity of the 1950s, when England's aristocracy was feeling the pinch. Bertie Wooster has gone to a residential self-help school to learn how to darn his socks. Until he re-emerges, Jeeves has signed up with Bill Rowcester (pronounced Roaster), an earl who is failing to make ends meet in trade, and yearning to sell his stately home, which has charm and damp in equal measure. In his new environment Jeeves is required to exert his mammoth brain to what would be breaking point for any normal intellect.

Jeeves and Wooster never disappoint on audio and these unabridged stories are of course no exception. Wodehouse/Jarvis deliver another excellent audio collection featuring all your favourite characters, not forgetting our intrepid duo of course! Full Story Listings: 1. Jeeves and the Impending Doom, 2. The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy, 3. Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit, 4. Jeeves and the Song of Songs, 5. Episode of the Dog McIntosh, and 6. The Spot of Art

The usual suspects, including Lord Emsworth and his prize pig, the Empress, line up at Blandings Castle for a Wodehousian caper that sees members of the upper-classes getting hot and bothered over a nude painting they all want to get their hands on. This is wit at its very finest, read by one of our superlative actors, who reads Wodehouse with the requisite style and panache.

The second instalment of this wonderful collection of short stories sees Bertie Wooster in the proverbial soup as usual and Jeeves invariably shimmering to the rescue. Love, comic reunions and errant Uncles are all on the agenda, plus bucket loads of laughter. Where would Wooster be without his infinitely brainy valet? Where would audio listeners be without Wodehouse's sparkling comic invention?

The fifth volume in CSA Word's massively popular complete and unabridged ‘Short Stories’ collection is bound to please. With something for everyone this collection of classic stories read by only the best-suited and most established readers will delight the ears as a vintage wine excites the gullet; The Vintage Collection is audible gold. Features eye-catching typographical series design.

Pip is an orphan, brought up in a village on the Essex marshes by his disagreeable sister and her husband Joe Gargery, the kind-hearted village blacksmith. Life is harsh and Pip has few prospects until he receives from an anonymous benefactor the chance of escaping the forge for a more promising life in London. But his expectations are fraught with difficulties as he is haunted by figures from his past such as the escaped convict Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Havisham, and her proud, beautiful ward, Estella.

Abridged novel depicting the sinister affair of the 18th century cow-creamer and the small, brown, leather-covered notebook tests the Wooster soul as it has never been tested before. Friends and relations, in urgent need, queue up to beg for assistance in a variety of troublesome situations, and ruthless enemies stop at nothing in their determination to bring Bertie down.

Six hilarious satires from the ingenious Molière, France’s original master of comedies: "The Imaginary Cuckold", "The School for Husbands", "The School for Wives", "Tartuffe" and "The Misanthrope".

Adapted by David Mamet from a translation by Vlada Chernornirdik. In this classic of Chekhov’s canon, an overbearing professor pays a visit to his country estate, where Sonya and Vanya, his daughter and former brother-in-law, have slaved to maintain his wealth. But Vanya is enchanted by the professor’s new wife, while Sonya has fallen for the town’s melancholy doctor. Includes a conversation with Rosamund Bartlett, author of Chekhov: Scenes from a Life.

From the author of the highly acclaimed A Fine Balance, comes a brilliantly evocative novel that confirms Mistry's reputation as one of the finest writers of our time. "As close to perfect as a novel can get," raves Booklist.

Here are 10 hilarious stories from the genius pen of Richmal Crompton, featuring legendary, lateral-thinking schoolboy William Brown.

In Pigs Have Wings, affably potty Lord Emsworth is embroiled in a fierce pig-rearing battle with his obese neighbour, Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe. Tossed in for good measure: romantic entanglements, some dubious detective work and a fearful dieting product called 'Slimmo'.

The first volume of Wodehouse's brilliant complete and unabridged short stories. Originally a semi-novel, this version contains self-contained stories which are nonetheless linked, often by Bingo Little, an endearingly hopeless chap and a serial romancer.

"Sadly, death at the races is not uncommon. However, three in a single afternoon was sufficiently unusual to raise more than one eyebrow." It's the third death on Cheltenham Gold Cup Day that really troubles super-sleuth Sid Halley. Last seen in 1995's Come to Grief, former champion jockey Halley knows the perils of racing all too well but, in his day, jockeys didn't usually reach the finishing line with three .38 rounds in the chest.

Galahad Threepwood is causing scandal again...this time by deciding to NOT publish his potentially humiliating high-society memoirs. His decision causes rifts in the ranks at castle Blandings and all involved split into three camps: those who want the book suppressed, those who want it published, and those, who for some reason or another, that have been sent to steal it.

Initially banned in France by King Louis, Molière's celebrated social satire Tartuffe exposes false piety and hypocrisy in the Catholic Church. When a pious fraud worms his way into a wealthy family and manipulates the patriarch into giving up his fortune, it’s up to his family to expose the truth before they end up in the poorhouse!