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Categories: Drama: Classic & Period

  1. GB Shaw - Arms and the Man

    Love, war, honesty, deception and honour, set in 1885 Bulgaria. Starring Andrew Sachs.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  2. Henry James - The Turn of the Screw

    Are two children under an evil influence, or is it in the imagination of their governess?

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  3. The Mystery of Charles Dickens

    Simon Callow brings Charles Dickens to life with a host of his colourful characters.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  4. Martyn Wade - Alias George Eliot

    George Eliot's secret identity meets complications when a certain Mr Liggins gets involved

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  5. JB Priestley - An Inspector Calls

    An unexpected visitor sparks turmoil, at a celebratory family engagement party.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  6. Nought Happens Twice Thus

    Adam Thorpe's play about Thomas Hardy and his strained marriage with second wife Florence.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  7. CS Lewis - The Magician's Nephew

    Tricked with magic rings, young explorers Polly and Digory arrive in a whole new world.

    BBC Radio 7

  8. Bartleby the Scrivener

    A law firm's copyist 'prefers' not to do parts of his job.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  9. The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley

    Mary Shelly's fantastical tale explores man's fascination with eternal life and elixirs.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  10. The Legend of Robin Hood

    The great English hero's adventures take him from Sherwood to the Holy Land and back.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  11. Johanna Spyri - Heidi

    A Swiss mountain girl must leave her grandfather to move to Frankfurt with her aunt.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  12. The Tomb by HP Lovecraft

    The obsessive Jervas Dudley reveals how he came to be incarcerated in an asylum.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  13. Bernard Pomerance - The Elephant Man

    A disfigured man is rescued from a Victorian freak show. But what is 'normality'?

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  14. Miss Marie Lloyd: Queen of the Music Hall

    Costume drama inspired by the life and loves of East End music hall legend Marie Lloyd.

    BBC Four

  15. 15-Minute Hamlet

    Tom Stoppard's humorous take on Shakespeare.

    BBC Radio 4

  16. The Cider House Rules

    Tobey Maguire plays a doctor who wants to experience life beyond his orphanage.

    BBC Two

  17. A Cock and Bull Story

    Tristram Shandy guides viewers through the epic tale of his life.

    BBC Two

  18. Henry V

    Shakespearean drama about the king's invasion of France and the Battle of Agincourt.

    BBC Two

  19. Macbeth

    BBC 7 pays tribute to Paul Scofield with this 1960s production of The Scottish Play.

    BBC Radio 7

  20. Romeo and Juliet

    The Royal Ballet, Fonteyn and Nureyev dance Shakespeare's tragedy of star-crossed lovers.

    BBC Four

  21. She

    Palestine 1918. An expedition sets out to find a lost city and the flame of eternal life.

    BBC Two

  22. Orson Welles - War of the Worlds

    The Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast that caused panic in America on Halloween in 1938

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  23. A View from a Hill

    An archaeologist is sent to authenticate a collection and finds a gruesome local legend.

    BBC Four

  24. Finding Neverland

    Fact-based drama about events that inspired JM Barrie (Johnny Depp) to write Peter Pan.

    BBC Two

  25. Mrs Henderson Presents

    Judi Dench stars as a theatre owner whose idea of using on-stage nudity raises eyebrows.

    BBC Two

  26. Girl with a Pearl Earring

    Adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's hit novel, starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson.

    BBC Two

  27. Ballet Shoes

    When their adoptive father goes missing, three young girls must take to the stage.

    BBC One

  28. The Story of an African Farm

    Drama about three children who are brought up on a South African farm in the 1870s.

    BBC Two

  29. Persuasion

    Adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel about the enduring power of love.

    BBC Four

  30. Northanger Abbey

    Jane Austen's story of a girl whose head is full of romantic notions about the world.

    BBC Four

  31. The English Patient

    A badly burned pilot recounts a doomed love affair to the nurse tending him.

    BBC Two

  32. Miss Austen Regrets

    Jane appears happily unmarried, until she reflects on previous suitors and life choices.

    BBC One

  33. Anne Bronte - Agnes Grey

    A young woman dismays her family by choosing to earn her own living as a governess.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  34. The Name of the Rose

    Thriller set in an Italian monastery in the Middle Ages, based on Umberto Eco's novel.

    BBC Four

  35. The Merchant of Venice

    A Jewish moneylender seeks to forfeit a literal pound of flesh from his Christian nemesis.

    BBC Two

  36. The Postmaster by Alexander Pushkin

    A poor Russian postmaster is distraught when his beloved daughter runs away with a hussar.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  37. Einstein and Eddington

    British astronomer Arthur Eddington supports Albert Einstein's theories.

    BBC Two

  38. Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows

    Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger's famous adventure dramatised and narrated by Alan Bennett.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  39. The Leopard

    Epic drama which details the slow fall from power of a Sicilian aristocrat.

    BBC Four

  40. Marie Lloyd, Queen of the Halls

    Three husbands, but thousands coming out for the funeral of the great music hall star.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  41. A Child's Christmas in Wales

    Dylan Thomas' magical poem, set in a small Welsh town. Read by singer Cerys Matthews.

    BBC Radio Wales

  42. The Gift of The Magi

    Cherrie McIlwaine reads the classic tale of a down at heel young couple at Christmas.

    BBC Radio Ulster

  43. Nicholas Nickleby

    Adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel starring Jamie Bell and Jim Broadbent.

    BBC Two

  44. As You Like It

    Adaptation of Shakespeare's pastoral comedy set in 19th-century Japan.

    BBC Two

  45. The Man Who Would Be King

    Colourful epic in which two British soldiers become godlike rulers in colonial India.

    BBC Four

  46. Honeydripper

    Drama. Ageing Tyrone Purvis tries to save his nightclub from being taken over by the mob.

    BBC Two

  47. The Admirable Crichton by JM Barrie

    Satire about the fortunes a perfect butler. Stars Russell Tovey.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  48. Noel Coward - The Better Half

    A wife's selflessness may conceal a hidden agenda. Surprisingly modern comedy.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  49. Alick Rowe - Odysseus on an Iceberg

    A comic re-telling of the legendary figure's protracted journey home from the Trojan War.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  50. Their Eyes Were Watching God

    Halle Berry plays a free-spirited woman, challenging her small-town in 1920s America.

    BBC One

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