Five exciting novelisations featuring adventures for the Doctor and his companions on weird and wonderful planets.
In The Rescue, the First Doctor meets the sole survivors of a crashed spaceliner on Dido.
In Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit, the ruthless Lady Adrasta is keeping an unusual visitor prisoner on the planet Chloris.
In The Twin Dilemma, a newly regenerated Doctor tries to become a hermit on the planet Titan 3.
In Paradise Towers, the Doctor and Mel meet the residents of a dystopian hell, and in The Happiness Patrol the TARDIS lands in trouble on the colony world Terra Alpha.
Maureen O'Brien, Tom Baker, Colin Baker, Bonnie Langford and Rula Lenska are the readers for this quintet of stories based on classic BBC TV serials.
Five classic novelisations of TV adventures on alien planets! In Doctor Who and the Zarbi, the First Doctor and his companions Ian, Barbara and Vicki are trapped on the remote planet Vortis. In Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon, the Third Doctor and Jo are mistaken for delegates of the Galactic Federation on a primitive and superstitious world. In Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah find the living remains of a renegade Time Lord and his maniacal saviour. In Doctor Who and the Leisure Hive, the Fourth Doctor and Romana find subterfuge and corruption lurking beneath the surface of the pleasure planet Argolis. In Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, the Seventh Doctor and Ace fight for their lives on Segonax, home of the Psychic Circus. Read by William Russell, David Troughton, Tom Baker, Lalla Ward and Sophie Aldred. Each purchase is accompanied by a PDF booklet featuring full cast and credits, chapter-by-chapter navigation, and sleeve notes for each book by David J. Howe. **Contact Customer Service for Additional Material**
Blake Ritson, David Warner, Hattie Morahan and John Hurt star in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Dante's epic poem.Inferno: Thirty-five year old Dante finds himself in the middle of a dark wood, in extreme personal and spiritual crisis. Hope of rescue appears in the form of the venerable poet Virgil, now a shade himself, who offers to lead Dante on an odyssey through the afterlife, beginning in the terrifying depths of Hell.Purgatorio: Dante is led up Mount Purgatory by his guide. They encounter numerous souls who have embarked on the same difficult journey - one that will eventually lead to their spiritual salvation. Paradiso: Dante's journey comes to a glorious conclusion as he is led by Beatrice, through the spheres of Paradise and into the presence of God himself. As they ascend, they encounter a number of souls who have also achieved blessedness.Many years later, the older Dante reflects on the episodes from his life that have inspired his great poem.
CREEPY. That's what Ace thinks of clowns. But the Doctor insists on entering the talent contest at the Psychic Circus, the self-proclaimed Greatest Show in the Galaxy, on the planet Segonax. What has reduced Segonax to an arid wasteland? Why have the happy-go-lucky circus folk stayed here so long? And why are they no longer happy? Above all, what is the dreadful truth about the 'talent contests' run by the sinister Ringmaster and his robot clowns? The Doctor and Ace need all their death-defying skills in the big top to uncover a brooding, ancient evil that has broken the spirit of the Circus and demanded the sacrifice of so many lives. Sophie Aldred, who played Ace in Doctor Who, reads Stephen Wyatt's complete and unabridged novelisation, first published by Target Books in 1989.
Series of five comic tales by William Makepeace Thackeray, adapted by Stephen Wyatt, recounting the rise and fall of early-19th century footman Charles Yellowplush. Episode 1: Charles attracts the attention of an elegant gentleman, Frederick Altamont, who is pursuing the lovely Mary. Charles does his best to matchmake, until the awful truth about Altamont comes to light. With full cast. Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.Episode 2: Charles helps his new employer Captain Rook, a wily and roguish cardsharp, to fleece a rich but naive gentleman. With full cast. Directed by Abigail le Fleming.Episode 3:Charles finds himself in Paris in attendance on a young aristocrat of very dubious morals who has fled England to escape his creditors. With full cast. Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.Episode 4: When a fashionable society novelist comes to stay at Diddlesex Towers, he inspires Charles to undertake an ambitious and scandalous enterprise. With full cast. Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.Episode 5: Charles suddenly finds himself a very rich man. He leaves service and embarks on a life of opera, society dinners and balls. And goes a little mad. With full cast. Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
Much in need of a holiday, Mel and the Doctor head for Paradise Towers: a luxury man-made planet with sparkling fountains, sunny streets, exotic flowers and a shimmering blue swimming pool. But when the TARDIS materialises in a dark, rubbish-filled, rat-infested alley it seems that this particular Paradise has turned into Hell! Pursued by rogue cleaning machines, authoritarian caretakers and old ladies with strange eating habits, the Doctor and Mel track down the source of the chaos to one mysterious character - the designer of Paradise Towers, the Great Architect himself... Bonnie Langford, who played Mel in the original TV series, reads Stephen Wyatt's complete and unabridged novelisation, first published by Target Books in 1988.
Patrick Stewart stars as Raymond Chandler and Adrian Scarborough as Billy Wilder in BBC Radio 4's entertaining glimpse inside the Hollywood film industry. In 1944 Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder came together to work on a screen adaptation of James M. Cain's novel 'Double Indemnity'. Wilder is an ambitious 36-year-old German Jewish émigré just making his name as a director, and Chandler is a reformed alcoholic with a developing reputation as a novelist but absolutely no experience of writing for movies. The play follows their famously difficult collaboration. Paramount studios put Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder together because none of the big names would touch James M. Cain's novel. With its adulterous lovers and a crime that could be copied, it was judged too controversial to adapt because of the censorious Production Code guidelines. Chandler and Wilder famously hated each other but in a space of some four months locked in an office together they created an outstanding screenplay for a ground-breaking classic film. With Patrick Stewart ('Macbeth', 'Star Trek') as Chandler and Adrian Scarborough ('Cranford', 'The King's Speech') as Billy Wilder, 'Double Jeopardy' is directed by Claire Grove. 'Double Jeopardy' was originally broadcast as the 'Afternoon Play' on 4 February 2011.
Ken Campbell, Windsor Davies, John Bird and John Fortune star in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation.
When Alice leans too close to the Looking Glass, she suddenly finds herself in a land of caustic characters and twisted logic - a back-to-front world where flowers can talk, Queens can run and a crown could depend on a game of chess... In her bid to become Queen of the Chess Board, Alice must escape the fearful Jabberwock and get to the eighth square. En route, she takes advice - and sometimes downright criticism - from such peculiar folk as Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Lion and the Unicorn, and very helpful gnat.
Even when she has passed this test, the ordeal awaits of dinner with the Red and White Queens - and Alice learns an important lesson about not eating food you've been introduced to.
This witty adaptation of Lewis Carroll's enduring children's classic boasts the much-loved Jabberwocky poem amongst its sparkling collection of gems.
