BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Six Tragedies

By: William Shakespeare

Narrated by: Bill Wallis, Corin Redgrave, full cast, Geraldine James, Juliet Stevenson, Ken Stott, Kenneth Cranham, Michael Sheen, Siân Phillips, Sophie Dahl

Six full-cast BBC Radio productions of Shakespeare's classic tragedies

Treachery, betrayal and fatal power struggles are among the themes of these six iconic productions of Shakespeare's timeless tragedies. Featuring all-star casts, they are introduced by Sir Richard Eyre.

Hamlet

Shakespeare's powerfully poetic tragedy of murder, madness and revenge stars Michael Sheen as the Prince of Denmark, with Kenneth Cranham as Claudius and Juliet Stevenson as Gertrude.

Macbeth

In this notorious 'Scottish play', a lust for power and the prophecy of three witches transform a brave nobleman into a traitor and murderous tyrant. Ken Stott stars as Macbeth and Phyllis Logan as Lady Macbeth.

King Lear

The tragic consequences of evil triumphing over truth, and of the vanity of old age, are set in motion when Lear banishes his favourite daughter, Cordelia, from court. Starring Corin Redgrave as King Lear, with David Troughton, Geraldine James and Robert Glenister.

Othello

Evil cunning perverts a once noble mind, as heroic general Othello is destroyed by both his own jealousy and the machinations of the devious Iago. Ray Fearon stars as Othello, with James Frain as Iago.

Romeo and Juliet

An updated version of Shakespeare's tragedy of feuding families and doomed love, set in modern Verona and starring Douglas Henshall as Romeo and Sophie Dahl as Juliet.

Cymbeline

When Cymbeline discovers his daughter Imogen's secret marriage to Posthumus, he banishes her husband. But Posthumus's boasts of his wife's chastity provoke lachimo to attempt her seduction. Bill Wallis stars as Cymbeline.

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The narrators are outstanding here.

Thank you William Shakespeare and BBC4 Radio for putting together these plays and people. Thank you.

Acting, pacing and diction.

Outstanding performance with excellent character development. Pacing and diction combined with heartfelt acting brought the characters alive.

I love it

Even though I am not a native English speaker and I don’t understand every word of it, I love listening to it all the time. The voices are musical, and the music is authentic.

Amazing adaptation

Really fun to listen too and great acting. A best way to enjoy these classic plays

difficult to listen to

We bought this to introduce our children to Shakespeare but after 3 minutes on Hamlet, we gave up. The background noises and actors heavy breathing made it impossible to understand. For my husband and I, who are familiar with the play we could mostly follow along but our children were frustrated.