Showing results by narrator "Siobhan Redmond" in All Categories

At a certain age, women gain a huge confidence about themselves because they realise that life’s too short to waste. These six women are in their 40s and each has a very different – and sometimes surprising – story to tell, from the husband who unexpectedly disappears, to the dreaded ‘other woman’, and the sisters who take an adventurous trip on the Nile together.

In a nationwide poll conducted by BBC Television's Bookworm to find the nation's favourite poem, Rudyard Kipling's "If" was voted number one. This compilation brings together over 40 poems from the poll, including the top 10, all stirringly read by John Nettles, Siobhàn Redmond, Greg Wise, and Emma Fielding.

Master builder Halvard Solness is a self-made man. With no professional qualifications, he has built himself up through ruthless ambition and achieved a position of power and domination in his home town. But his success has come at a cost. His marriage is empty, destroyed by a personal tragedy that has left him wracked with guilt and pain, and he is increasingly frightened of failure and being displaced by the next generation. Then a mysterious young woman, Hilde Wangel, appears from the mountains, claiming to have met Solness 10 years earlier, when she was only 13.

Forced to run for his life after killing two suspects, assaulting the Chief Constable and inadvertently causing the death of Lieutenant Roach, McLevy has fled Leith for San Francisco. Somewhat rashly, and against her better judgement, Jean Brash has decided to accompany him. Arriving in America, it seems they’ve jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. San Francisco is as cold and foggy as Leith, and home to just as many criminals. With the Gold Rush at its height, the city is a madhouse, its inhabitants driven by greed.

Just because you're in love, doesn't mean you're meant to spend your life together, right? Having read Women are from Mars and Men are from Croydon and Set Sail on the SS Relationship, unemployed ex-soldier Andy thinks it's about time he and his left-wing lawyer girlfriend Julie headed into deeper waters. But there's plenty in their way, from comically grim airport trips and fancy dinner parties, to nearly causing the assassination of the Prime Minister and discovering Andy's dad has been living a double life.

When impoverished watchmaker Caron invents a pioneering device that could revolutionise timekeeping, his fortunes begin to change. Marrying a young, upper-class widow, he takes on a new noble name - de Beaumarchais - and sets out to conquer Louis XV's court. But his attempts to rise through the ranks of Versailles society are blocked by royal clockmaker Lepaute - as well as courtly crushes, rumours of war and illicit printing.