Audiobooks narrated by Helen Baxendale

Val McDermid: A BBC Radio Drama Collection: Five full-cast BBC Radio productions

A BBC Radio collection of full-cast dramatisations, radio plays and short stories by the bestselling crime writer Award-winning 'Queen of Crime' Val McDermid has sold over 17 million books worldwide, and been translated into over 40 languages. Her 'Wire in the Blood' series was adapted for TV, starring Robson Green and Hermione Norris, and ran for six seasons. Included here are full-cast adaptations of several of her acclaimed novels, as well as four tales specially written for BBC Radio. Clean Break - When a Monet is stolen from a stately home where she'd arranged the security, Manchester-based PI Kate Brannigan sets off on a chase across Europe that brings her face-to-face with organised crime. Starring Charlotte Coleman. The Right Chemistry - Jane Hazelgrove stars in this follow-up to Clean Break, which sees Kate embroiled in a deadly case of industrial sabotage, blackmail, counterfeiting and murder. The Distant Echo - Late one night in the snow, four students stumble upon the body of a dead girl. 25 years later, the police launch a cold-case review of the unsolved murder - but is the killing over? A thrilling dramatisation of the first 'Karen Pirie' novel, starring Jimmy Chisholm, John-Paul Hurley and Claire Knight. Village SOS - Investigating a murder in the sleepy Northumbrian village of Shilwick, DCI Marion Bettany and DS John Hodgson find the residents curiously reluctant to help. Helen Baxendale and David Seddon star as the detective duo. Resistance - Midsummer, and 150,000 revellers are partying at the Solstice music festival. But then people start to get sick with a mystery illness: one that's highly contagious and seemingly resistant to antibiotics... Gina McKee stars in this chilling, apocalyptic drama. I Remember Yesterday - A young woman haunts Edinburgh's alleyways, seeking revenge to the '70s strains of Donna Summer. Hannah Donaldson reads this spine-chilling ghost story. Same Crime, Next Year - Set in Harrogate, this gripping tale imagines the fallout from the torrid affair of two crime writers. Read by Siobhan Redmond. Text copyright © Val McDermid 1995 (Clean Break), 2003 (The Distant Echo), 2011 (Village SOS), 2013 (I Remember Yesterday), 2016 (Same Crime, Next Year), 2017 (Resistance) © 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Val Mcdermid (Author), Charlotte Coleman, Claire Knight, David Seddon, Gina Mckee, Hannah Donaldson, Helen Baxendale, Jane Hazelgrove, Jimmy Chisholm, Siobhan Redmond (Narrator)

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The Henrik Ibsen: Nine full-cast BBC radio dramatisations

Often described as 'the father of realism', Henrik Ibsen was a pioneer of modernist drama. He influenced playwrights as diverse as George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, and is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare. Included in this collection are adaptations of his tragicomic masterpiece The Wild Duck, his complex and compelling play Rosmersholm, the epic drama Brand and the tragedy John Gabriel Borkman. Ibsen's A Doll's House is relocated to 1879 India in Tanika Gupta's Audio Drama Award-winning dramatisation, while the provocative and scandalous Ghosts is adapted by Richard Eyre, with the cast of his Olivier Award-winning Almeida Theatre production. Also featured are vibrant dramatisations of Hedda Gabler, whose desperate heroine is trapped in a suffocating marriage; The Lady from the Sea, about a woman torn between security and passion; and An Enemy of the People, in which a whistleblower reveals an inconvenient truth and is vilified for it. The casts of these stunning dramas include David Threlfall, Nicholas Farrell, Helen Baxendale, Indira Varma, Lesley Manville and Harriet Walter. Track listing: The Wild Duck Rosmersholm Brand John Gabriel Borkman A Doll's House Ghosts Hedda Gabler The Lady from the Sea An Enemy of the People

Henrik Ibsen (Author), David Threlfall, Harriet Walter, Helen Baxendale, Indira Varma, Lesley Manville, Nicholas Farrell, Samuel West (Narrator)

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The Georgette Heyer BBC Radio Drama Collection: Four full-cast dramatisations

BBC Radio adaptations of three of Georgette Heyer’s sparkling Regency romances and a classic comedy thriller The acknowledged ‘queen of Regency romance’, bestselling author Georgette Heyer, also penned a dozen delightful mystery novels. Included here are dramatisations of four of her finest stories from both genres, full of her characteristic wit, charm and period detail. Regency Buck Pretty but shrewd Judith Taverner gallops in from the provinces and daringly defies the gaming, drinking and brawling world of Regency London to claim her rights, her fortune – and who knows, perhaps her happiness? Starring Elizabeth Proud as Judith Taverner and Simon Shepherd as Peregrine Taverner. Friday’s Child ‘I’m going back to London! And I’m going to marry the first woman I see!’ is the cry of young Lord Sheringham when his proposal of marriage is rejected by Isabella, the Incomparable. True to his word, he takes the even younger Hero Wantage as his bride… Starring James Frain as Viscount Anthony Sheringham and Elli Garnett as Hero Wantage, with Simon Russell Beale as Jasper Tarleton. Faro’s Daughter Deborah Grantham’s position in a gaming house makes her utterly unsuitable as a wife for a nobleman, so Max Ravenscar determines to rescue his cousin from her clutches. But the bribe he offers does not go down well, and a battle of wits commences... Starring Sylvestre Le Touzel as Deborah Grantham and Nathaniel Parker as Max Ravenscar, with Anna Massey as Lady Bellingham. Envious Casca An English country Christmas in the 1930s, a Tudor manor house decked with holly, a family gathered for seasonal cheer – and a murder. Inspector Hemingway is on the case, but can he shake off amateur sleuths Toby and Jane French? Starring Peter Kelly as Inspector Hemingway, James Fleet as Toby and Helen Baxendale as Jane.

Georgette Heyer (Author), Anna Massey, Elizabeth Proud, Elli Garnett, Helen Baxendale, James Fleet, James Frain, Nathaniel Parker, Simon Russell Beale, Simon Shepherd (Narrator)

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Paradise Lodge

A delightful story of growing up, getting old, and every step in between, from the acclaimed author of Man at the Helm and Love, Nina. After succeeding in her quest to help her unconventional mother find a new "man at the helm," fifteen-year-old Lizzie Vogel simply wants to be a normal teenager. Just when it looks as if things have settled down, her mother goes and has another baby. On top of that, Lizzie's best friend has deserted her for the punk craze, which Lizzie finds too exhausting to commit to herself. But Lizzie soon gets more commitment than she bargained for when she takes a job as a junior nurse at Paradise Lodge, a ramshackle refuge for the elderly that has seen better days. It's no place for a teenager, much less one with as little experience emptying a bedpan as Lizzie. What begins as away to avoid school and earn some spending money (for the finer things in life, like real coffee and beer shampoo) quickly turns into the education of a lifetime. Lizzie encounters a colorful cast of eccentric characters--including a nurse determined to turn one of the patients into a husband (and a retirement plan); an efficient but clueless nun trying to modernize the place; and Lizzie's unlikely first love--who become her surrogate family. When Paradise Lodge faces a crisis in the form of a rival nursing home with enough amenities to make even the comatose jealous, Lizzie must find a way to save her job before she loses the only place she's ever felt she belongs. A hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age tale, Paradise Lodge proves that it's never too early--or too late--to grow up.

Nina Stibbe (Author), Helen Baxendale (Narrator)

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Paradise Lodge

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Paradise Lodge by Nina Stibbe, read by Helen Baxendale. This is the story of Lizzie Vogel, a 15 year old girl who finds herself working in an old people's home in the 1970s. The place is in chaos and it's not really a suitable job for a schoolgirl: she'd only gone for the job because it seemed too exhausting to commit to being a full-time girlfriend or a punk, and she doesn't realise there's a right and a wrong way to get someone out of a bath. Through a cast of wonderful characters, from the assertively shy Nurse who only communicates via little grunts to the very attractive son of the Chinese take away manager, Paradise Lodge is the story of being very young, and very old, and the laughter, and the tears, in between.

Nina Stibbe (Author), Helen Baxendale (Narrator)

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Dear Amy: The Sunday Times Bestselling Psychological Thriller

FIRST CLASS PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE FROM A MAJOR NEW VOICE IN FICTION In her guise as 'Dear Amy', agony aunt for a local newspaper, Margot Lewis has dealt with all sorts of letters - but never one like this... Dear Amy, I've been kidnapped by a strange man. I don't know where I am. Please help me, Bethan Avery This must be a cruel hoax. Because Bethan Avery has been missing for nearly two decades. But as the present-day search intensifies for another missing schoolgirl, Margot is unnerved enough to take the letter to the police, hoping they will dismiss it as a sick joke. Instead, they let Margot in on a little secret. One that confirms her darkest fears and tangles her up in the search for the sender, which could save one young girl's life and cost Margot her own... Praise for Dear Amy 'Dear Amy sets up a terrific, tricky premise and then delivers the suspense thriller readers hope for-a tense plot, imaginative twists, and smart writing' Julia Heaberlin, author of Sunday Times bestselling Black-Eyed Susans 'Dear Amy is accomplished, engaging and utterly thrilling; beautifully written, with a narrator who manages to be both vulnerable and fierce at the same time. I found myself cheering her on at every gut-wrenching turn. The breathtaking finale is the most exciting and terrifying thing I have read in a very long time' Elizabeth Haynes, bestselling author of Into the Darkest Corner 'I knew from the first page that this was going to be a brilliant book, and I wasn't wrong. A superb debut psychological thriller with an unusual and original premise which keeps the reader hooked until the last page' Rachel Abbott, author of Kill Me Again

Helen Callaghan (Author), Helen Baxendale, John Sackville, Laura Aikman (Narrator)

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Looking Glass Girl

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Looking-Glass Girl by Cathy Cassidy, read Helen Baxendale. Alice nearly didn't go to the sleepover. Why would Savvy, queen of the school, invite someone like her? Now Alice is lying unconscious in a hospital bed. Lost in a wonderland of dreams and half-formed memories, she's surrounded by voices - the doctor, her worried friends and Luke, whose kisses the night of the fall took her by surprise . . . When the accident happened her world vanished - can Alice ever find her way back? Looking Glass Girl is the stunning new book from Cathy Cassidy, an unforgettable tale of friendship and love from one of the UK's best-loved authors.

Cathy Cassidy (Author), Helen Baxendale (Narrator)

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Village SOS (Woman's Hour Drama)

DCI Marion Bettany, played by Helen Baxendale, continues her investigation into Colin Arnott's murder, but the residents of Shilwick are curiously reluctant to help. Colin's plans to turn a deconsecrated chapel into a performing arts centre had ruffled feathers throughout the village, and Bettany wants to know if that's a strong enough motive for murder. Val McDermid is a multi-award winning crime writer, and creator of TV's Wire in the Blood, which stars Robson Green. Set in Shilwick, Village SOS is a fictional version of the BBC One series of the same name. Starring Helen Baxendale, David Seddon, Elaine Claxton, Rachel Bavidge, Adrian Grove, Shaun Prendergast. Producer / Director ..... Fiona Kelcher.

Val Mcdermid (Author), David Seddon, Helen Baxendale (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Helen Baxendale