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The Essential Shakespeare Live: The Royal Shakespeare Company in Performance (British Library)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Poetry and Drama
starring: Peggy Ashcroft, Judi Dench

November 14, 2005

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Under Milk Wood: BBC Radio 4 Full-cast Dramatisation (BBC Radio Collection)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Poetry and Drama
by: Dylan Thomas

October 23, 1995

'To begin at the beginning'...

I was arranging a visit to Mousehole, Cornwall and whilst researching my visit (incredibly sad, yes - well informed, yes) I stumbled across Thomas' connections with this pretty village. A friend of his, Wyn Henderson, owned the now demolished 'Lobster Pot' harbourside. Thomas delighted in the village and proclaimed that he too, wanted to live somewhere like that. Llareggub, the fictional village Thomas describes is based on another harbourside village in Wales, but the influence of Mousehole on Thomas' creative thoughts is distinctly recognisable to anyone who has visited it and whilst I was reading, I imagined Mousehole through his eyes - the buildings and characters so incredibly vivid. We ... Read More:

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Talking Heads: No.2 (BBC Radio Collection)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Poetry and Drama
by: Alan Bennett

October 05, 1998
The topics covered are similar to TH 1 but they are explored in different ways.

Again Bennett is ahead of his time, for example his portrayal of child abuse.

Throughout all of them we feel that the monologue is the only voice the subjects have and that they cannot talk to anyone else about the saddness in their lives. We are left feeling sympathy and pain for the charatcters.

Above all this is of high Bennett standard and the style awards no surprises.

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Much Ado About Nothing: Complete & Unabridged

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Poetry and Drama
by: William Shakespeare

August 21, 1995
The topics covered are similar to TH 1 but they are explored in different ways.

Again Bennett is ahead of his time, for example his portrayal of child abuse.

Throughout all of them we feel that the monologue is the only voice the subjects have and that they cannot talk to anyone else about the saddness in their lives. We are left feeling sympathy and pain for the charatcters.

Above all this is of high Bennett standard and the style awards no surprises.

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Spoonface Steinberg: Starring Becky Simpson as Spoonface (BBC Radio Collection)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Poetry and Drama
by: Lee Hall

April 07, 1997
This is such a moving piece! I heard it years ago on the radio and then saw it on the TV. I think it has greater impact on the radio, but the tv production is very moving, nonetheless.

Buy it, buy it, buy it!

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The Duchess of Malfi (abridged version)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Poetry and Drama
by: John Webster

April 22, 1996
Webster is scarcely known outside university departments and some enlightened secondary schools who have used him on A-level syllabuses. This is a pity...and a scandal. It means that he is vastly undervalued, if rated at all. His two main plays are great works of art and he is one of the very finest playwrights in existence. Read, and re-read.

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The Complete "Talking Heads" (BBC Radio Collection)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Poetry and Drama
by: Alan Bennett

October 04, 1999
I am a fan of talking books, and I would describe many of the ones that I have heard as good, entertaining, thought provoking even. But this collection of stories stands so far above everything else that I have listened to that I can't see them ever being eclipsed. They are that very rare thing in literature - something that is brilliant, complex, moving - but absolutely not worthy, or 'difficult'. How many of us have struggled through a Booker prize winner because we 'ought to', when really it was too much like hard work? These stories are just so entertaining. You very quickly forget that they are monologues because the scenes and other characters are so real that you can see and hear them as if you were watching a full-cast production. You will be able ... Read More:

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The Tempest: Complete & Unabridged

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Poetry and Drama
by: William Shakespeare

August 21, 1995
I am a fan of talking books, and I would describe many of the ones that I have heard as good, entertaining, thought provoking even. But this collection of stories stands so far above everything else that I have listened to that I can't see them ever being eclipsed. They are that very rare thing in literature - something that is brilliant, complex, moving - but absolutely not worthy, or 'difficult'. How many of us have struggled through a Booker prize winner because we 'ought to', when really it was too much like hard work? These stories are just so entertaining. You very quickly forget that they are monologues because the scenes and other characters are so real that you can see and hear them as if you were watching a full-cast production. You will be able ... Read More:

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Mrs. Miniver: Starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon and Cast (Hollywood Playhouse IV)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Poetry and Drama
by: Jan Struther

2000-02
I knew that 'Mrs Miniver' was a Hollywood film (made during World War 2 and starring Greer Garson, I believe) but not until very recently did I discover that it was based on a book. An utterly delightful book, written in 1939 by an English woman called Jan Struther. It is less of a novel and more a series of snap-shots - each of two or three pages - about Mrs. Miniver's life and her thoughts on it.

I think that Mrs Miniver's life was as near as can be to Jan Struther's own - both English, middle-class, married with three children, living in London during the outbreak of war in a comfortable home with servants. But do not be put off by thinking that this is very predicable stuff and not worth bothering with. Mrs Miniver has a very particular way of looking ... Read More:

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Othello (BBC Radio Shakespeare)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Poetry and Drama
by: William Shakespeare

September 03, 2001
I decided to read "Othello" after enjoying "Hamlet",another one of Shakespeare's celebrated tragedies. I must admit that I did not enjoy "Othello" quite as much however. It's plot is quite complicated; labyrinthine at times, and much of it's language is obscure and hard to follow . The play concerns itself with the endeavours of the thoroughly malevolent and evil Iago to destroy the Moorish Venetian general Othello, his boss. He does so by poisoning Othello against his innocent wife Desdemona. He convinces him that his wife is having an affair with Othello's deputy (and Iago's rival) Cassio. Othello takes the bait and duly obliges Iago by becoming filled up with hatred of his wife which eventually leads to a tragic ending and a series of untimely deaths . The play lasts ... Read More: