Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Audio is proud to present Classic Radio Theatre, a new range of audio drama from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Archive. Five plays beautifully presented with detailed sleeve notes and starring some of Britain's finest actors including Maggie Smith, Paul Scofield, Amanda Redman and Jonathan Pryce. Released on 4th March.

CLASSIC RADIO THEATRE

THE COUNTRY WIFE
Available for Β£8.99 from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔShop.com
ISBN: 9781408427859

First Broadcast in 1985 starring Maggie Smith, Jonathan Pryce, John Duttine, John Moffat, Harriet Walter and Michael Aldridge.

Considered too obscene to be staged in its original form for nearly 200 years, William Wycherley's bawdy comedy tells the tale of Mr Horner – a notorious rake who spreads the false rumour that he is impotent in order to gain free access to other men's wives.

When he meets the young, innocent Margery Pinchwife, the 'country wife' of the title, the scene is set for scandal...

The Classic Radio Theatre range presents notable radio productions of much-loved plays by some of the most renowned playwrights, and starring some of our finest actors.

TIME AND THE CONWAYS
Available for Β£8.99 from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔShop.com
ISBN: 9781408426951

First Broadcast in 1994 starring Marcia Warren, Stella Gonet, Belinda Sinclair, Amanda Redman and Toby Stephens.

It is 1919, the War is over and the Conway family are celebrating their daughter Kay's 21st birthday. But her sudden premonition of their lives in 1937 casts a shadow over their dreams and expectations.

Time and the Conways follows the fortunes of one family over a period of years, and offers a moving perspective on the abstract nature of the past, present and future.

THE NORMAN CONQUESTS
Available for Β£12.99 from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔShop.com
ISBN: 9781408426920

First broadcast in 1990 starring Robin Herford, Tessa Peake-Jones, Diane Bull, Jon Strickland and Simon Jones.

When the deviously amorous Norman plans a clandestine weekend away with his sister-in-law, he has some fun and games in mind. But not quite the fun and games that he gets...

Ayckbourn's trilogy – Table Manners, Living Together and Round and Round the Garden – has been hailed as a mould-breaking masterpiece. All three plays take place concurrently – so an exit in one becomes an entrance in another – and can be played in any order. The story of the same dreadful weekend is illuminated from three different vantage points: the dining room, the sitting room and the garden.

PRIVATE LIVES
Available for Β£8.99 from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔShop.com
ISBN: 9781408426944

First broadcast in 1975 starring Paul Scofield, Patricia Routledge, Miriam Margolyes, Carole Boyd and John Rye.

Currently enjoying a revival in London, Private Lives was written in 1930 and has been a mainstay of British theatre ever since. This sharply funny play of reversals focuses on Elyot and Amanda, a passionate but feuding couple who divorced five years before. Now, on the first night of their honeymoons with their new partners, they find that they are all staying in the same hotel on the French Riviera. Fireworks are inevitable...

The roles of the two ex-spouses are brilliantly recreated by Paul Scofield and Patricia Routledge, while Coward's scintillating repartee epitomises all the glamour and sophistication of life between the wars for society's spoilt darlings.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
Available for Β£8.99 from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔShop.com
ISBN: 9781408426937

First broadcast in 1977 starring Prunella Scales, Maurice Denham, Sylvia Coleridge, Richard Pasco, Barbara Leigh-Hunt and Fabia Drake.

Algernon Moncrieff, a bachelor-about-town, has invented an invalid friend called Bunbury in order to get out of tiresome family engagements. At the same time, his friend Jack Worthing has invented a wicked brother called Ernest to disguise his own misdemeanours. When Algernon poses as Ernest to win the heart of Cecily Cardew, confusion reigns, and it takes the discovery of an old black handbag to reveal the truth...

Oscar Wilde's dazzling comedy about mistaken identities and secret engagements still delights audiences over a century after its first performance in 1895.

This Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio production, first broadcast in 1977, features Jeremy Clyde as Algernon, Richard Pasco as Worthing, Prunella Scales as Cecily and Maurice Denham as the Rev. Canon Chasuble, and is the first broadcast of the original four-act version of the play.

Sophie Mae Dixon