Audiobooks Narrated by Ruth Gemmell

Parade’s End & The Good Soldier: Two Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisations

"Major BBC adaptations of Ford Madox Ford’s two most famous works, with stellar casts including Tom Goodman-Hill, Ruth Gemmell, Kyle Soller and Mark Bonnar A forgotten great of British fiction, Ford Madox Ford wrote over 80 books, founded two trailblazing literary journals and was a friend and collaborator to some of the 20th century’s most significant authors, among them Joseph Conrad, DH Lawrence, Ezra Pound and James Joyce. His two masterpieces – the ‘Parade’s End’ quartet of novels and The Good Soldier – are dramatised here, alongside a fascinating profile of the author himself. Parade’s End – The scion of an old aristocratic family, Christopher Tietjens is ‘the last English gentleman’. Unhappily married to the beautiful, faithless Sylvia, he falls in love with young suffragette Valentine – but their burgeoning relationship is interrupted by the onset of the Great War. Plunged into the chaos of the trenches, Christopher must cope with both the terrors of battle and the radically changed world of post-war England... Tom Goodman-Hill and Ruth Gemmell star in this epic drama set in the years leading up to, and following, World War I. The Good Soldier – John Dowell is the original unreliable narrator as he recounts ‘the saddest story ever told’ – a twisted tale of sex, money and betrayal involving two married couples who meet at a German spa in 1904. Over the course of the next nine years, they become close friends, but when Edward Ashburnham embarks on an affair with Florence Dowell, tragedy ensues, and the lives of all four are ripped apart. Starring Kyle Soller, Tonya Cornelisse, Patrick Baladi, Fiona O’Shaughnessy and Mark Bonnar, and adapted by Pilgrim creator Sebastian Baczkiewicz, this searing psychosexual drama is sharp, menacing and mesmerizing. Ford Madox Ford and France – Julian Barnes and Hermione Lee tell the story of Ford Madox Ford, exploring his time in Paris and Aix-en-Provence, his tangled love affairs (including one with his protégé, Jean Rhys), his embroidered accounts of his own life, and his death in Deauville in 1939, three months before the outbreak of World War II. First published 1915 (The Good Soldier), 1924-1928 (Parade’s End) Cast and credits Written by Ford Madox Ford Parade’s End Christopher – Tom Goodman-Hill Sylvia – Ruth Gemmell Valentine – Katherine Igoe Mark/ Father Consett/Sergeant Major Cowley – Crawford Logan General Campion – Gareth Thomas Captain McKechnie – Michael Perceval-Maxwell Macmaster/Ducket – Steven McNicoll Mrs Satterthwaite – Monica Gibb Edith Duchemin – Noreen Leighton Mrs Wannop – Vivienne Dixon Lieutenant Aranjuez – Nick Underwood Perowne/Morgan – Matthew Zajak Adapted by Robert Forrest Produced and diirected by Patrick Rayner First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 18 May 2003 The Good Soldier John Dowell – Kyle Soller Florence Dowell – Tonya Cornelisse Edward Ashburnham – Patrick Baladi Leonora Ashburnham – Fiona O’Shaughnessy Major Hazleton – Mark Bonnar Nancy Rufford – Ashna Rabheru Jimmy Doyle – Ronan Summers Maisie Maidan – Cecilia Appiah Adapted by Sebastian Baczkiewicz Directed by James Robinson First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 22 November 2020 Ford Madox Ford and France Presented by Julian Barnes and Hermione Lee Produced by Robyn Read Reader: Kerry Shale First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 24-31 August 2010 © 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Ford Madox Ford (Author), Ashna Rabheru, Crawford Logan, Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Full Cast, Gareth Thomas, Kyle Soller, Mark Bonnar, Patrick Baladi, Ronan Summers, Ruth Gemmell, Tom Goodman-Hill (Narrator)

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The Pillow Book: Series 1-11: A full-cast historical crime drama

"A thriller and love story set in 10th-century Japan. Lady Shonagon is an imperial courtesan, living at the court of the Japanese Emperor in the 10th century. When a series of disturbing thefts within the palace walls throws the court into confusion and unrest, Shonagon is appointed guide and assistant to Lieutenant Yukinari as he investigates. Together, Shonagon and Yukinari must solve the mysteries and escalating crimes that plague the Japanese court, and their romance blossoms in the tightly enclosed world behind the high palace walls. But soon Shonagon's lover Tadanobu becomes uncomfortable with how closely they are working together... The Pillow Book is inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court. The work of the real-life Sei Shonagon consists of essays, lists, anecdotes, poems, and descriptive passages about her daily life. This full-cast drama stars Ruth Gemmell as Sei Shonagon, with Yukinari played by Mark Bazeley in Series 1-3 and Cal Macaninch in series 4-11. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Tadanobu is Series 1. Directed by Lu Kemp."

Robert Forrest (Author), Benedict Cumberbatch, Cal Macaninch, Full Cast, Mark Bazeley, Ruth Gemmell (Narrator)

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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

"George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’. It is 1962: the height of the Cold War and only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. Alec Leamas is a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters. His agents are either on the run or dead, victims of the ruthlessly efficient East German counter-intelligence officer Hans-Dieter Mundt. Leamas is recalled to London where, to his surprise, instead of being washed up and consigned to a desk he's offered a chance to have his revenge by becoming a pawn in a brilliantly-conceived plot to destroy Mundt. But in order to do so he has to stay out in the cold a little longer... Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a distinguished cast including Brian Cox as Alec Leamas, this tense, compelling dramatisation perfectly captures the atmosphere of le Carré's taut, intricate thriller."

John Le Carré, Robert Forest (Author), Brian Cox, Full Cast, Ruth Gemmell, Simon Russell Beale (Narrator)

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