Showing results by narrator "Bill Wallis" in All Categories

When it comes to motives for crime, the past can never be forgotten. Sara Hirsch is a nervous elderly spinster who still lives in the flat above a long-standing Florentine antiquities shop in which she was raised. Frightened, she calls Marshal Guarnaccia for help, sure that strangers have been in her apartment. The marshal knows she is a lonely old woman but he is preoccupied with an investigation into an Albanian prostitution ring. Before he can respond to her latest alarm, she is found dead.

With the help of Willbury Nibble QC, some friendly boxtrolls and cabbage-heads, Marjorie the frustrated inventor, and the rats and pirates from the Ratbridge Nautical Laundry, can Arthur thwart the Snatcher's evil plans to take over the world?

A BBC Radio 3 full-cast dramatisation of Shakespeare’s classic ‘Cymbeline’, starring Bill Wallis. Originally broadcast in December 2006 as part of the ‘Drama on 3’ collection.Shakespeare's play, set during the Roman invasion of Britain, centres around the banishment of the man who has incurred the wrath of the king by secretly marrying his daughter. Confusion follows in an intricate plot in which nobody is quite who they seem to be.

In 'Rumpole and Father Christmas', a children's party is taking place in Chambers, and Claude Erskine-Brown has booked a 'genuine and convincing' Santa Claus. The gentleman in question does indeed have a red suit, a fuller figure and a snowy beard - but does he have more than just presents in his sack? Bill Wallis reads this special seasonal story starring Horace Rumpole, scourge of all QCs and friend of the criminal classes.

Naples, 1913. Sun-baked, blue-skied, and with its amazing bay it is one of the most beautiful spots in Italy. But it’s also one of the most corrupt. A new arrival here is a junior British official, Scampion, who has already been banished from Florence. Scampion, however, brings with him a new craze that is sweeping Italy: bicycling. But one day as he walks home after a bicycle race, he is stabbed to death. That happens all the time in Naples, but remarkably his wallet was not taken.

Rumpole and the Health Farm Murder finds the corpulent barrister spending a most untypical Christmas at a health spa, where he is gloomily trying to survive on a not-so-festive diet of yak's milk and steamed spinach. He is soon enlivened, however, when a murder is committed and he is asked to represent the chief suspect. Bill Wallis reads this special seasonal story starring Horace Rumpole, scourge of all QCs and friend of the criminal classes.

Cairo of 1908 lives by and in its cafes. Now, suddenly, Cairo's cafe culture is threatened by gangs in the protection business. The task falls to Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt and head of the secret police, to find out who is behind this threat to Cairo.

In 'Rumpole and the Boy', Rumpole has recently concluded a blackmail case when he finds himself babysitting a small boy. Edmund turns out to have a keen interest in criminal cases and he throws some unexpected light on the case Rumpole has just tried. Bill Wallis reads this special seasonal story starring Horace Rumpole, scourge of all QCs and friend of the criminal classes.

'Rumpole and the Christmas Party' sees Rumpole celebrating with his Chambers colleagues and their wives and partners. There is plenty of claret, paper streamers and mistletoe, but where is She Who Must Be Obeyed? Bill Wallis reads this special seasonal story starring Horace Rumpole, scourge of all QCs and friend of the criminal classes.

A loyal tribute to 10 glorious years from BBC Radio 4's Week Ending team. From the archives of the legendary satirical radio comedy series Week Ending comes this compilation of satirical and sardonic sketches based on Margaret Thatcher's first 10 years as prime minister.

First released on cassette as Ten Years With Maggie, this has now been reissued as a digital download for the first time, on the 30th anniversary of Mrs Thatcher's coming to power.

When a body is found on the new electric railway line, Owen has to discover whether this is just another of Egypt's revenge killings or whether the murdered man had got caught up with the power groups jostling for position around the new railway.

Here are 12 specially selected favourite love poems, read by acclaimed actors Bill Wallis and Jenny Agutter. This literary bouquet of blooms includes Andrew Marvell's classic "To His Coy Mistress"; a beautiful extract from "The Song of Solomon"; Christina Rossetti's joyful "A Birthday"; and Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love".

The expansion of the congestion charge zone, prices going up on the Underground, bendy buses - all ideas brought about to try to make the traffic situation in our capital city run more smoothly. Surely there must be a better way? In fact there is. In Roman times, when the streets were even more crowded, Caesar decreed that all vehicles (except those involved in building work) were banned from the City, while Nero took advantage of a major fire to broaden the streets to improve access.

Olivia, an American-born model, married Count Ugo Brunamonti, a feckless, soon impoverished aristocrat. After his death, she supported her children by starting a fashion house which has prospered. When she is kidnapped, the crime is reported to Marshal Guarnaccia by her daughter, who may have been the intended victim. Kidnapping is almost a second business for the Sardinians nominally engaged in raising sheep in the Tuscan hills.

As the clouds of World War I threaten to engulf Egypt, Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt, head of the Secret Police, confronts a series of personal and professional challenges, from the pitfalls of his marriage, to a riot in Cairo's Camel Market.

Translated by Sandra Smith, with an introduction by Patrick Marnham.In 1929, 26-year-old Irène Némirovsky shot to fame in France with the publication of her second novel David Golder. At the time, only the most prescient would have predicted the events that led to her extraordinary final novel Suite Française and her death at Auschwitz. Yet the clues are there in this astonishingly mature story of an elderly Jewish businessman who has sold his soul.Golder is a superb creation.

'Rumpole and the Old Familiar Faces' finds the claret-loving barrister spending Christmas in chilly Coldsands, staying with an old school friend of Hilda. When he is introduced to the new owner of the Old Manor House, he is surprised to realize that they've met before in more unsavoury circumstances. And Donald Compton's is by no means the only familiar face Rumpole will encounter during this particular festive period.

IQ scores have the power to determine the chances we have in life: the people we meet, the schools we attend, the jobs we get, the lives we live. Very few of us, however, understand what IQ tests and ratings really mean. In this fascinating, provocative book, Stephen Murdoch explains the turbulent history and controversial current uses of intelligence testing.

Robert Burns' well-known poem celebrating the enduring power of true love, read by Bill Wallis.

Shakespeare's sonnet about the comfort brought by dwelling on the one he loves, read by Bill Wallis.