Arts & Drama Audio

Universally acclaimed as the maestro of horror and the morbid, Edgar Allan Poe’s dark gift has for more than a century and a half set the standard for the genre.Now, Caedmon Audio presents a classic collection of Poe’s almost terrifying tales performed by two di the most brilliant interpreters of his work, Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone.

Between them, they perform 20 of Poe’s chilling stories and poems, creating an unforgettably intense listening experience.

The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection

Length :  6 hours

Chaucer’s greatest work, written towards the end of the fourteenth century, paints a brilliant picture of medieval life, society and values. The stories range from the romantic, courtly idealism of The Knight’s Tale to the joyous bawdy of The Miller’s; all are told with a freshness and vigour in this modern verse translation that make them a delight to hear.The Canterbury Tales, written near the end of Chaucer’s life and hence towards the close of the fourteenth century, Is perhaps the greatest English literary work of the Middle Ages: yet it speaks to us today with almost undimmed clarity and relevance.

Chaucer imagines a group of twenty-nine pilgrims who meet in the Tabard Inn in Southwark, intent on making the traditional journey to the martyr’s shrine of St Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. Harry Bailly landlord of the Tabard, proposes that the company should entertain themselves on the road with a storytelling competition. The teller of the best tale will be rewarded with a supper at the others’ expense when the travellers return to London. Chaucer never completed this elaborate scheme - each pilgrim was supposed to tell four tales, but in fact we only have twenty-four altogether - yet, with the pieces of linking narrative and the prologues to each tale, the work as a whole constitutes a marvellously varied evocation of the medieval world which also goes beyond its period to penetrate (humorously, gravely tolerantly) human nature itself.

Chaucer, as a member of this company of pilgrims, presents himself with mock innocence as the admiring observer of his fellows, depicted in the General Prologue. Many of these are clearly rogues - the coarse, cheating Miller, the repulsive yet compelling Pardoner - yet in each of them Chaucer finds something human, often a sheer vitality or love of life which is irresistible: the Monk may prefer hunting to prayer, but he is after all a manly man, to be an abbot able. Perhaps only the unassuming, devoted Parson and his humbly labouring brother the Ploughman rise entirely above Chaucer’s teasing irony; certainly the Parson’s fellow clergy and religious officers belong to a Church riddled with gross corruption. Everyone, it seems, is on the make, in a world still recovering from the ravages of the Black Death.

The Canterbury Tales - Volume I

Length :  3 hours 20 minutes

Sian Phillips, Emma Fielding and Miriam Margolyes star in Shakespeare’s comedy of men behaving badly and women doing it for themselves.

BBC radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of making Shakespeare to be heard.

In All’s Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare turns traditional fairytale on its head with the young Helena {Emma Fielding) who cures the King of France from a deadly illness and demands, as her reward, the hand of the young Count Bertram. But marriage is the last thing on badly-behaved Bertram’s mind, and Helena must band together with her sisters to force him to honour his promise.The means may be devious but All’s Well That Ends Well.

The play is introduced by Richard Eyre, former Director of the Royal National Theatre, with specially composed music.
Revitalised, original and comprehensive, this is Shakespeare for the new millennium.

All’s Well That Ends Well

Length :  2 hours 15 minutes