Radio Plays - Looking for Recommendations

[Ladymuckypuddle]

A little while ago I found by accident the David Moffet Piorot BBC radio plays I've listened to them all and enjoyed them. I then moved onto Dorothy L Sayers Whimsy radio plays and found them really good also and have now listened to them all.

Can anyone please recommend anything similar?

There were some Charles Dickens ghost stories on BBC sounds over Christmas that I enjoyed.

If it's older crime fiction that's your thing you might like McLevy (also BBC, about a Victorian Edinburgh detective).

Thank you will look these suggestions up.

Posting to hear the recommendations!

Right place wrong time on bbc sounds was good.

November Dead List (BBC Sounds, under the Whodunnits series) is pretty good.

Much appreciated @saveforthat @ElizabethVonArnim will look them up.

A lot more modern, but I like Exemplar - about an audio forensic analyst, with Gina McKee. Good use of audio as a medium.

I love a radio play. Another one I’ve really enjoyed recently is the Cold Tapes (also on BBC Sounds), which is about a murder at an Antarctic scientific research station being investigated remotely by a British police officer via zoom calls. It’s long (85 episodes!) but very involving. You have all the info so can solve the mystery in real time. I basically had it by ep 64 so was very, very chuffed with myself. Had to fill in some bits though.

There are always Agatha Christies on the Whodunnit strand, and if you search in the Crime section, the old Paul Temple mysteries are great, similar to the Wimseys, but set in the 50s.

Much darker, but fascinating, are the This Thing of Darkness series, about a prison psychologist.

BBC Sounds is such an amazing archive. Go to the Drama section and scroll right down to the bottom and click ‘view all’. It’s a treasure trove!

Oh and I've just listened to Baldi.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/b00bg840

I do prefer more cosy older types but this does sound interesting.

@ElizabethVonArnim think I will start tonight with the Paul Temple ones. DH got me a snoozeband for Christmas and the weather is wild!

I'm currently listening to an audio book from.Audible which is entitled Who shot Ada Tansey, and 11 other thrillers. It's actually 14 full cast BBC radio dramas by Peter Whalley.
I've listened to the first 4 and they've been really good. I'm not sure when they were first broadcast because I don't remember hearing any of them.

I don't know if you have listened to the Detective series available in BBC sounds? Starring the late Ray Brooks - i was always a big fan of his. I think this is a great wee series.

Thanks for this thread - I love radio plays and I have lots of recommendations.

As others have said BBC sounds is amazing but it is hard to search. If you look at Drama on 3 and Drama on for you'll find loads although I would say some of the quality is hit and miss. And things aren't always available or come and go which is annoying.

For more classic stuff there are usually a few Agatha Christie's knocking about on there. Whodunnits sometimes has some good stuff.

All the BBC full cast dramatisations are available on Audible I think but you have to buy them.

Ones I have enjoyed on BBC Sounds:
Sad Cypress (Christie - this is available at the moment)
Charles Paris - not always available but I find these very funny
Wives and daughters
Pride and Prejudice read by Julie Andrews
Bright Day by JB Priestley
The shell seekers

On Apple Podcasts there's a great one called Nostalgic Mystery radio which has loads and loads of old radio plays including BBC poirot and Miss Marple etc.

Also, has anyone listened to the free Audible version of Bleak House with lots of big names (Thandiwe Newton etc)? It's so good! I found it so confusing at first but glad I persevered with it.

Listening to the Barchester Chronicles dramatisation on BBC Sounds at the moment (Anthony Trollope).

I loved Barchester it was so good on a dog walk

see if you can find Falco. its set in ancient greece and he’s a sort of detective Anton Lesser plays the lead its very good

Martin Beck radio detective series they are very good as well

Rome! Set in ancient Rome! But yes they’re good.

@ElizabethVonArnim Cold Tapes was a great recommendation, thank you! I'm on about episode 70. I don't know whodunnit but I never do, the thing that's got me hooked is that the cast is so good, plus the unusual setting is very compelling and it's such a clever device that the detective (like us) can't see the people on the base, so there's no sense of missing out on visual cues.

Thank you

Lots to get through and try.

June Whitfield plays Miss Marple very well in various Radio 4 adaptations. Some might be available on Sounds. Failing that, YouTube has lots and lots of radio dramas, many originally from the BBC. The sound quality on some of the very old ones is a bit hit and miss but it's usually fine. I've been listening to everything I can find by R. D. Wingfield, who wrote the Inspector Frost stories, but lots and lots of other radio plays as well. I am in my 60s and was alive when many of these were made in the 1970s and 1980s and even I am brought up short by the casual sexism, snobbery and minimisation of child sexual abuse, but that is very much how things were back then. The one I would particularly recommend is Daylight Robbery.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g listened to your YouTube link this afternoon was really good, enjoyed the twist.

I really like the June W Miss Marples. They are sometimes on Sounds but I am pretty sure they are available on the Nostalgic mystery radio podcast.

I really enjoyed London Particular by Nick Perry on Radio 4. Thinks it’s available on Sounds.
Also, The Interrogation by Roy Williams, also R4