"A thoughtful and considered kick up the arse to conspiracy theorists and to patriarchy" – Michael Boyd, Artistic Director RSCCleopatra, La Pucelle, Ophelia, Shaw’s St. Joan and Ibsen’s Hedda – a handful of seminal roles for women in the classical canon. Janet Suzman has played them all and directed some. Here she examines their complexity and explores why only Cleopatra has an independence that allows her to speak to modern women.None of these, regrettably...

A début of extraordinary strength and power, Absolution shines a light on contemporary South Africa and the long dark shadow of ApartheidIn her lush garden on the Western Cape, Clare Wald, world-renowned author, takes up her pen and confronts her life. Ambitious young writer Sam Leroux has returned to South Africa to write Clare's biography. But how honest is she prepared to be? Was she complicit in crimes lurking in South Africa's past; is she an accomplice or a victim?As ...

BBC adaptations of four of Rosamond Lehmann’s best-known novels, plus short stories and a bonus documentaryRosamond Lehmann’s first novel, Dusty Answer, was published in 1927 when she was just 26. It was a scandalous success, and was followed by six more acclaimed novels exploring human relationships and the emotional lives of girls and women. Four of the finest are dramatised here, alongside readings of two of her short stories and a fascinating profile o...

BBC Audio presents Persuasion, Jane Austen's last novel. Anne Elliot had never forgotten the personable Captain Wentworth, who reappears in Anne Elliot's life several years after she had been persuaded to break off their engagement.He makes no secret of his angry indignation. Newly wealthy from success at sea, a marriage with Frederick Wentworth could walk Anne and her entire family back from the brink of financial ruin. Can Wentworth forgive, and can the couple reunite?

With Sido safely in England and the Terror at it's height, Yann returns to France to smuggle out aristocratic refugees who will otherwise face the guillotine. But when Sido is kidnapped, he must use all his strength and courage to outwit the evil Count Kalliovski, and rescue her for a second time.Set against a vivid historical background, prize winning author Sally Gardner brings to life the horrors of the French Revolution in this breath-taking adventure, complete with intrepid he...

With Sido safely in England and the Terror at it's height, Yann returns to France to smuggle out aristocratic refugees who will otherwise face the guillotine. But when Sido is kidnapped, he must use all his strength and courage to outwit the evil Count Kalliovski, and rescue her for a second time.Set against a vivid historical background, prize winning author Sally Gardner brings to life the horrors of the French Revolution in this breath-taking adventure, complete with intrepid he...

In this BBC full-cast production of Richard II, the male ego and narcissism of monarchs are hung out to dry...Written entirely in verse, the rhythms of the language in this epic tragedy encompass its themes of dignity and kingship with fitting grandeur and pathos, as the capricious and narcissistic Richard is brought to his own destruction.Starring Samuel West as Richard II.BBC radio has a unique heritage when it comes to S...

Scientist, resistance fighter and Holocaust survivor, Primo Levi was one of Italy's greatest writers and an internationally renowned chronicler of human nature. In his masterpiece The Periodic Table, he charts his incredible life story through the medium of chemistry, using the titular list of elements - the building blocks of everything - as a prism to explore his experiences and search his soul.In this superlative BBC adaptation, all 21 of the peerless stories in Levi's ...

The Waves: Terence Davies's dramatisation of Virginia Woolf's story. Episode 1: Louis, Bernard, Neville, Jinny, Susan and Rhoda recall their childhood and first steps into adulthood.Episode 2: Louis, Bernard, Neville, Jinny, Susan and Rhoda struggle to come to terms with life after Percival.

The story of a remarkable boy called Yann Margoza; Tetu the dwarf, his friend and mentor; Sido, unloved daughter of a foolish Marquis; and Count Kalliovski, Grand Master of a secret society, who has half the aristocracy in thrall to him, and wants Yann dead.Yann is spirited away to London but three years later, when Paris is gripped by the bloody horrors of the Revolution, he returns, charged with two missions: to find out Kalliovski's darkest deeds and to save Sido from the guillo...

Fanny Price, a young girl from a large and relatively poor family, is taken to be raised by her rich uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas, and Lady Bertram, of Mansfield Park. Fanny grows up with her four older cousins but is always treated as something of a poor relation. Only Edmund, the second son, shows her real kindness. Over time, Fanny's gratitude for Edmund's thoughtfulness secretly grows into romantic love.At the age of ten, Fanny Price leaves the poverty of her Portsmouth home to be...

Jane Austen's final novel is the story of Anne Elliot, a woman who gets a second chance. As a teenager she becomes engaged to a man who seems perfect for her, Frederick Wentworth. But she is persuaded to break the engagement off by her friend Lady Russell, who believes that he is too poor to be a suitable match. The episode plunges Anne into a period of bleak disappointment.Eight years later, Frederick returns from the Napoleonic Wars flushed with success. Anne's circumstances have...