A BBC Christmas Collection - Alexander McCall Smith, Rachel Joyce, Charles Dickens, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jeremy Front, various Audiobook

Written by Alexander McCall Smith, Rachel Joyce, Charles Dickens, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jeremy Front, various
Read by Full Cast
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Dramatization

A BBC Christmas Collection
30 Festive Dramas and Stories
By: Alexander McCall Smith, Rachel Joyce, Charles Dickens, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jeremy Front, various
Narrated by: Nikesh Patel, Meera Syal, Stephen Fry, Rebecca Front, Stephanie Cole, Tamsin Grieg, Michelle Fairley, Niamh Cusack, Robert Lindsay, James Fleet, Nina Sosanya, full cast
Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
Radio/TV Program
Release date: 01-12-2022
Language: English
Publisher: BBC Audio

A sparkling seasonal anthology of BBC dramas and readings.

Christmas is the perfect time to curl up with a good story, and this cracking collection brings you 30 wonderfully diverse tales inspired by this most special of seasons. From Santa Claus, gift-giving and family gatherings, to an unexpected encounter in a snowstorm and an alternative take on the Nativity, they’re sure to get you in the festive mood.

Here are modern readings of classics such as Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Tree’, Anton Chekhov’s ‘At Christmas Time’, Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Fir Tree’, O Henry’s ‘The Gift of the Magi’, Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘Christmas Storms and Sunshine’ and Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Papa Panov’s Special Christmas’. Alongside them is some superb short fiction by contemporary authors, including Stella Duffy (’South’), Paul McVeigh (’Daddy Christmas’), Laura Barnett (’Survivors’), and nine delightful stories by Alexander McCall Smith. Among the stellar narrators are Don Gilet, Nina Sosanya, Hannah Gordon, Stephanie Cole and Meera Syal.

Interspersed with these are a range of spellbinding plays, including Rachel Joyce’s poignant Christmas by the Lake; festive action comedy Lena Marsh, Live and Schticking! by Jeremy Front; a very unusual and very dangerous Santa in The Morpeth Carol by Timothy X Atack; and Robert Hudson and Marie Phillips’ epistolary animal tale, Some Hay in a Manger, introduced by Stephen Fry. All feature star casts including Niamh Cusack, Robert Lindsay, Sam Troughton, Clare Corbett, Tamsin Greig and Joel Fry.

Heartwarming and heartfelt, comic and bittersweet, moving and magical, these fantastic, evocative stories are a real Christmas treat.

Contents

Christmas by the Lake by Rachel Joyce

Christmas Short Stories by Alexander McCall Smith:
· ‘Motordrome’
· ‘The Revenge, or Otherwise, of Herbie Bontemps’
· ‘How to Escape in Gaelic’
· ‘The Colourful Life of Cousin Grace’
· ‘Good President Wenceslas’

The Christmas Present by Ben Crompton

Christmas Compass: Series 1:
· ‘North’ by Malachy Tallack
· ‘South’ by Stella Duffy
· ‘East’ by Ruth Thomas
· ‘West’ by Mike McCormack

A Time to Dance by Lucy Gannon

Christmas Compass: Series 2 by Alexander McCall Smith
· ‘Winter Journey’
· ‘In the DRC’
· ‘Primatologist’
· ‘On The Island’

Midnight at Christmas by Elliott Kerrigan

‘The Fir Tree’ by Hans Christian Andersen

‘At Christmas Time’ by Anton Chekhov

‘Papa Panov’s Special Christmas’ by Leo Tolstoy

Some Hay in a Manger by Robert Hudson and Marie Phillips

‘Daddy Christmas’ by Paul McVeigh

‘Christmas Storms and Sunshine’ by Elizabeth Gaskell

The Morpeth Carol by Timothy X Atack

‘Survivors’ by Laura Barnett

Lena Marsh, Live and Shticking! by Jeremy Front

‘A Christmas Tree’ by Charles Dickens

‘The Gift of the Magi’ by O Henry

Get Santa by Peter Gibbs

‘Home’ by Christine Dwyer Hickey

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