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BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Three Roman Plays
BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Three Roman Plays
Nov 21, 2024 5:09 AM

Author:William Shakespeare,Nicholas Farrell,David Harewood,Frances Barber,Stella Gonet,Samuel West,Gerard Murphy,Susannah York,Full Cast

BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Three Roman Plays

Three full-cast BBC Radio productions of Shakespeare's most famous Roman plays

Featuring all-star casts and introduced by Sir Richard Eyre, these three iconic productions of Shakespeare's dynamic Roman histories are full of political intrigue, passion and tragedy.

Julius Caesar

This updated version of Shakespeare's classic play is set in Italy in 1925. Julius Caesar, a new Roman dictator, has swept to power, and his way is clear to assume total control - unless a coup by Cassius and Brutus can alter the tide of history. Nicholas Farrell stars as Brutus and Gerard Murphy as Julius Caesar.

Coriolanus

When Rome's greatest hero, the warrior Coriolanus, divides the people and the patricians through his arrogance, he is driven into exile. Samuel West stars as Coriolanus, with Susannah York as Volumnia.

Antony and Cleopatra

Shakespeare's last great tragedy is an action epic set against the political backdrop of the Roman Empire and the centre of Egyptian culture, Alexandria. But at the heart of the play is the story of what happens when two people fall in love. Starring Frances Barber as Cleopatraand David Harewood as Mark Antony.

Reviews

Jones's trademark warmth and humour suffuse the novel with comedy and pathos, making for a heart-warming, entertaining and, at times, deeply moving story

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A poignant novel about friendship and forgiveness . . . with fantastic characterisation, as you'd expect from the co-creator of Gavin & Stacey, it's an epic journey

—— Woman & Home

Us Three is a warm, smart, uplifting tale of true friendship. I loved Lana, Catrin and Judith - I was genuinely sad to leave them when I turned the final page.

—— Beth O'Leary, bestselling author of THE FLATSHARE

A touching celebration of the beauty and endurance of female friendship. There is nothing mightier. Fact.

—— Dawn French

This novel oozes warmth and honesty. A big-hearted book that provides a cast of characters you'll lose your heart to.

—— Adele Parks

This moving story of three Welsh friends-for-life . . . balances warmth and humour with bleakness and despair. Another winner for Gavin and Stacey star Jones

—— Daily Mail

A funny, moving and uplifting novel

—— The Sun

A funny and warm tale of friendship

—— Evening Standard

I loved spending time immersed in Catrin, Judith and Lana's lives . . . A contender for my Books of the Year list

—— Prima

A wonderfully warm, funny, totally engrossing and unputdownable novel about friendship. A gorgeous treat.

—— Kate Eberlen, bestselling author of MISS YOU

I loved this brilliantly gripping depiction of the complexities of female friendship over the years. Love, betrayal, comedy and loss - Us Three has it all.

—— Fiona Neill

Warm, poignant

—— Saga

Warm-hearted

—— Good Housekeeping

A warm and witty tale of friendship.

—— Daily Mirror

A heart-warming, entertaining and, at times, deeply moving story.

—— Observer

Moving and funny . . . Jones' unique voice is evident from the first sentence, with her infamous colloquial dialect and warm characters.

—— My Weekly

We couldn't turn the pages fast enough on this brilliant book.

—— Closer

Ruth Jones tells her well-crafted characters' experiences, both hilarious and heartbreaking, with compassion and sensitivity, making for a warm and witty story of enduring friendship.

—— Daily Express

Raw, powerful storytelling that tackles race, religion, addiction and grief in a thoughtful way

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Meticulous, psychologically complex ... At once a vivid evocation of the immigrant experience and a sharp delineation of an individual's inner struggle, the novel brilliantly succeeds on both counts

—— Publishers Weekly, starred review

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—— Bad Form Review

The range Gyasi displays in just two books is staggering

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Remarkable, a devastating account of America . . . explores horror without ever losing sight of humanity or hope

—— Sunday Times on 'Homegoing'

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—— New York Times

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—— Naomi Alderman, author of The Power

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Glitteringly good.

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Enright is the most extraordinary writer – her style is simple and honest, no gimmicks, just straight to the heart.

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A powerful evocation of leaving and returning home.

—— Ruth Scurr , Financial Times

Masterful.

—— Fiona Wilson , The Times

Watch out for it come Man Booker time.

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Enright captures beautifully the tensions of…forced festive gatherings, the sibling rivalry and the maternal melancholy of a woman who does not understand her feelings towards her own children.

—— Good Book Guide

Richly and sensuously realised, it’s vivid with the particularity of places and people and bruisingly intelligent.

—— Tessa Hadley , Guardian

Enright shows real insight and perception when it comes to family relationships. It’s a well-structured and well-paced narrative.

—— Mandy Jenkinson , Nudge

Written with raw and brutal honesty, this is one to savour.

—— Justine Carbery , Irish Independent

Enright’s writing is sharp and lucid and full of beautiful phrases and descriptions.

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I love Enright’s style and the spidering out of the siblings’ lives.

—— Claire Skinner , Daily Express

There is beauty and darkness, hypocrisy and humility; it wouldn’t be an Irish novel without them.

—— Sarah Churchwell , New Statesman

The Green Road, about one Irish family, confronts all that is essential: love, death, mothers and our own flawed selves. It is written with a kind of tenderness, beauty and insight that transmogrifies humdrum experience into the epiphanic and back again.

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Blisteringly funny and keenly perceptive.

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Deeply affecting, crackling with wit, and consistently magnificent.

—— Stephanie Cross , Daily Mail

A globe-trotting, kaleidoscopic portrait of Irish siblings and their difficult mother.

—— Justine Jordan , Guardian

A magnificent novel about family and belonging told in stark yet sparkling prose.

—— Stylist

A fierce, funny, loosely woven family saga.

—— Alex Preston , Observer

[A] darkly glinting novel of family life.

—— Ruth Scurr , The Spectator

A bravura example of shifting voices and perspectives, all of which benefit from Enright’s splendid prose and careful restraint.

—— Sarah Churchwell , New Statesman

Enright dissects [her character’s] foibles with warmth, wit and a bracing lack of sentimentality.

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A book you don’t put down until it is finished, dragging you right into the heart of another Irish family as only Anne Enright can.

—— Keelin Shanley , Irish Times

A family saga, beginning with intense and beautifully detailed character studies.

—— Mark O'Halloran , Irish Times

I... enjoyed The Green Road for the dialogue, the clever narrative structure, and the gnarled, contemporary sense of family values.

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Stylish prose that charts the fortunes and misfortunes of this family over a period of 25 years.

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In this brilliant, captivating novel, the poised, impossible and always disappointed matriarch Rosaleen Madigan makes life difficult for her children at a Christmas gathering.

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Sharp yet oh so subtle storytelling […] this is an author at the height of her formidable powers.

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Enright’s virtuosic tale of an Irish family- the Madigans- across continents and decades withholds closure but doesn’t skimp on pleasure

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A compelling novel, full of astute observations, beautifully written, sometimes stark and other times aching with longing

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The sweep of the book and Anne Enright's way fo pulling this global migratuon story together with such energy and detail puts her in somewhere beside Toni Morrison

—— Independent, Ireland

Heart-wrenching novel… The surgical precision of Enright’s writing makes you feel that she can, in Wordsworth’s words, “see into the life of things”. There is a singing simplicity to it that tugs at your heart…A masterly work.

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Beautifully observed. Enright is a great writer.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

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—— The Week

Incredible… I’m totally captivated.

—— Annie Mac , The Sunday Times

An evocative story about family ties and belonging.

—— Western Morning News

A brilliant read.

—— Western Morning News

A story of fracture and family, selfishness and compassion.

—— SheerLuxe.com

Sharply funny portrait of an Irish family meeting for a final Christmas.

—— Metro

Within pages I was wrapped in the warmth of Enright’s prose… This is a beautiful book… Enright is unquestionably a fantastic writer who, for me with this novel, conjured up the world of a family with all its highs and lows that felt like they might be having this reunion down the end of your road… Enright does two of my favourite things in fiction. She makes the ordinary, and everything we take for granted, seem extra ordinary. She also gives voices to those who have not been able to share their tales… The writing is stunning.

—— Simon Savidge , Savidge Reads

An evocative story about family ties and belonging. Anne Enright is deservedly a well-respected writer.

—— Western Morning News

Enright's novels are fantastically well-crafted, eloquent and funny… Each character is beautifully realized… She finds unexpected adjectives, brilliantly exact description, the spot-on emotion. Her writing is lyrical but always unsentimental. There is pleasure in reading every paragraph, and an enormous wisdom throughout the pages.

—— Mumsnet

Truly wonderful… The dialogue is particularly brilliant… It completely envelops you in the story and will leave you wanting more.

—— Belfast Telegraph Morning

Wonderful… The dialogue is particularly brilliant, capturing all the barbed snappiness of dinner with siblings.

—— Herald

I fell headfirst into the beautifully written prose of this novel, so authentic and charming in its telling of one Irish family over more than two decades. Each vibrant character gets a turn in almost short stories of their own that feel almost like entities in their own right. I adored it.

—— Cathy Levy , Red Online

A resonant, masterly work.

—— Sunday Times

[An] exceptional novel.

—— David Nicholls , Guardian

This is a flawless book, it’s utterly flawless… It has just touched so many other readers. This book is heartbreaking… A beautiful examination of unhappy families… The power of Anne’s writing is you all see a reflection of your own family…it’s tender and it’s beautiful and deserves to be widely read.

—— Victoria Sadler

Enright is undoubtedly one of our most prominent novelists

—— Elif Shafak , Week

A delicious page-turner

—— New Scientist

A gripping novel with a satisfying conclusion

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A superb and suspenseful expose of misogyny and the moral ambiguity at the heart of a fanatical regime

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[A] rare combination of a rollicking thriller with major political nous told one of our greatest living writers. Essential

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An era-defining masterpiece

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The Testaments… lived up to the hype

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The extraordinary Margaret Atwood... she's fabulous'

—— Hillary Clinton , Stylist

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Atwood's sequel shines with all the acuity and brilliance of the original, whilst continuing the story with flair and modern insight

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Inspiring and deeply disturbing

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