Showing results by narrator "Paul Scofield" in All Categories

The Arthurian legends have long held a powerful grip on our collective imagination, inspiring numerous poets, novelists and playwrights to interpret them in countless different ways. In this epic play cycle, based on Malory's classic Le Morte D'Arthur, Graeme Fife gives us his dramatic, in-depth retelling of these perennially popular myths. Focusing on seven key characters: Merlin, Tristram, Gareth, Lancelot, Galahad, Guenever and Arthur himself, he builds a vivid, multi-layered picture of the fabled king and his heroic knights.

Three powerful radio productions from the BBC archives starring Ian McKellen, Ronald Pickup and Paul Scofield and a host of celebrated acting talent. These three legendary plays, performed by some of the best-known theatrical actors of the 20th century, are the perfect way to commemorate England's greatest dramatist.

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.

These are masterly readings, by renowned thespian Paul Schofield, of two substantial works of poetry by T.S. Eliot.

The tragedy of King Lear receives an outstanding performance in an all-star cast led by Britain’s senior classical actor, Paul Scofield. He is joined by Alec McCowen as Gloucester, Kenneth Branagh as The Fool, Harriet Walter as Gonerill, Sara Kestelman as Regan and Emilia Fox as Cordelia. This is the ninth recording of Shakespeare plays undertaken by Naxos AudioBooks in conjunction with Cambridge University Press, and is directed by John Tydeman. It was released to mark the 80th birthday of Paul Scofield in January 2002.

One of postwar France’s most influential writers, Albert Camus was fêted for his masterful exploration of the absurdity of the human condition. Included here are adaptations of his three iconic existential novels – The Plague, The Outsider and The Fall – alongside four bonus pieces shining a light on the man and his work.

These three legendary plays, performed by some of the best-known theatrical actors of the 20th century, are the perfect way to commemorate England's greatest dramatist. The Winter's Tale: one man's consuming jealousy threatens to destroy both himself and those around him, but his actions arouse a passionate sense of honour, love, justice and self-sacrifice in members of his Court and family. First broadcast in 1982, starring Ronald Pickup as Leontes, with Hannah Gordon as Hermione and John Gielgud as Time.

Virgil's Aeneid, one of the greatest classical poems, tells the story of Aeneas, son of Priam, after the fall of Troy. His quest is to find the site "in the west" where he will found a new town prophesied to be the seat of a world empire: Rome.

I am a man more sinned against than sinning.

Andrew Rissik's powerful, uncompromising reimaginings of classic tales from Roman and Greek history were hailed as masterpieces when they first aired on BBC radio. Told in contemporary speech, they revitalised the ancient myths, making them fresh, relevant and accessible to a modern-day audience. This collection brings them together on audio for the first time, with stellar casts including Michael Sheen, Paul Scofield, Lindsay Duncan, David Harewood, Eleanor Bron, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Diana Rigg, Roger Allam, Toby Stephens, Anton Lesser and Robert Hardy.

Paul Scofield, Siobhan McKenna and John Neville perform Twelfth Night. This is Shakespeare's comedy of gender confusion, in which a girl disguises herself as a man to be near the count she adores - only to be pursued by the woman he loves.

A pauper's child reared in a workhouse, young Oliver Twist serves an apprenticeship in a loveless house. Despairing, he runs away and is befriended by a gang of young pickpockets who offer him the only welcome home he has ever known. Falling under the influence of villainous company, the young orphan struggles to escape from a life of poverty and crime, in search of the love he longs for. Oliver Twist is one of Dickens' greatest achievements, a vivid depiction of London's outlaw society with an array of memorable characters.

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. He is best known for Moby-Dick, the opening line of which - ‘Call me Ishmael’ - is one of the most famous opening lines in literature. This BBC collection features lively full-cast dramatisations of three of Melville’s best-known works.

This unique presentation combines classic children's favorites with an anthology of stories, poems, and songs of the holiday season.

Paul Scofield and Patricia Routledge star in Noël Coward’s classic comedy of manners. Private Lives was written in 1930 and has been a mainstay of British theatre ever since. This sharply funny play of reversals focuses on Elyot and Amanda, a passionate but feuding couple who divorced five years before. Now, on the first night of their honeymoons with their new partners, they find that they are all staying in the same hotel on the French Riviera. Fireworks are inevitable.

On Christmas Eve, miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, who warns Scrooge that three more ghosts will visit him before the night is over—the ghost of Christmases Past, the ghost of Christmas present, and the ghost of Christmas yet to come. One of the greatest Christmas stories ever written comes to life in this performance by Academy-award winning actor, Paul Scofield.

This quintessential Christmas tale shows Dickens at his dazzling and provocative best, leaving Scrooge no doubts about the true spirit of Christmas, nor about the perils of ignoring the insistent ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come.

First published in 1843-4, the novel which Dickens considered 'in a hundred points immeasurably the best of my stories' concerns the Chuzzlewit family in all various branches. At the heart of the story is young Martin, who is disowned by his wealthy grandfather and dismissed from the household of the architect Pecksniff, and sets out to make his own way in the world and win the hands of Mary Graham, an orphan raised by his grandfather.

"I am born" famously begins David Copperfield. However, this is a birth which is blighted by its timing: 12 o'clock on a Friday night at precisely the time the clock began to strike. Such untimeliness means that David was destined to be unlucky in life and would be privileged to see ghosts and spirits, a dubious privilege. In David Copperfield, ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are invoked in relation to a range of male characters and situations.

Esther Summerson is an orphan who comes to live with John Jarndyce and is a companion to his wards Richard Carstone and Ada Clare, who are in love. Soon a mysterious connection comes to light between Esther and Lady Dedlock and the romantic tangle of trails is followed by three unforgettable sleuths, Guppy, Tulkinghorn and Bucket. When Lady Deadlock's astonishing secrets are revealed it becomes plain that she has been concealing an all-too-passionate past.