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AudioBookRadio are currently archiving many of the programmes we have broadcast. We know it’s not always convenient to listen at a particular time so we’re aiming for everyone to be able to choose from a selection of programmes when you want to as we are sure this is a choice you’d like to have.
The launch of any feature is usually easier said than done but we are looking to add materials on a weekly basis. If there are particular programmes or themes you’d like to hear again then please let us know.
As the archive builds, themes and pockets of interest will develop so you’ll be able to choose more of what you want to hear when you want to hear it.
There are other materials we plan to include here too. Some are what you might call ‘vintage’ or ‘historical’ or just plain old but we hope they’ll still be of interest. You’ll find them here.
Other programmes might just be too specialised to broadcast. Yes, that sounds like a euphemism for boring but it’s probably because they are odd lengths, too niche, a bit long winded by which we mean ‘slow to the boil’. Sometimes we just can’t get broadcast rights but we can deliver them on a one to one basis by streaming. If everything was logical it wouldn’t be as interesting!
Visit regularly for all the latest titles.
Radio Archive featuring Hollywood Stage, Take Five with Peter James & Kobo interviews with Margaret Atwood & Roddy Doyle
Prunella Scales Dandruff Hits The Turtleneck By John Mayfield. Read by Prunella Scales From the moment pub landlord and keen amateur entomologist, Arnold Matson, arrives in Blinkington-on-the-Treacle to take over his new hostelry, the listener is guided superbly by one of Britain’s best-loved actresses, Prunella Scales, as she introduces local characters and intimately narrates her way through a colourful collection of vignettes and poignant flashbacks that are both comically funny and disturbingly familiar.
Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney was born in April 1939, the eldest member of a family which would eventually contain nine children. Heaney, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, uses all aspects of Irish culture, history, folklore, song, myth, and religion to write poetry that not only describes the Irish experience to the reader, but also allows the reader to feel the experience and emotions of the Irish people. He received a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1990.
Gore Vidal Gore Vidal is the author of twenty-two novels, five plays, many screenplays, more than two hundred essays, and the critically lauded, Palimpsest: A Memoir. Vidal’s United States (Essays 1952-1992) won the 1993 National Book Award. In its “American Masters” series PBS said “Vidal’s lineage in American literature may be traced back to Henry James, the sophisticated American from the upper echelons of society who mingles with European sophisticates, and Mark Twain, the raw humorist and critic of American empire.”
Noon & 8pm & 4am
PLAYS/DRAMA
THE YOUTH OF OLD AGE BY STUART PRICE
Wickedly acerbic new writing ‘The Youth Of Old Age’ shows Prunella Scales at her ‘dragon tongued’ best as the matriarch determined her heir should not marry ‘out of sorts’ Performed by The Wireless Theatre Company.
1pm & 9pm & 5am
IN CONVERSATION… TRIBUTE TO DAVID FOSTER WALLACE PART 1
David Foster Wallace (1962-2008) was one of the most acclaimed and influential American writers of his generation. A gifted novelist, essayist and humorist, he is best known for his 1996 opus, the novel Infinite Jest. Courtesy of the Lannan Foundation this recording celebrates his life and work with writers David Lipsky, Rick Moody, and Joanna Scott who read some of their favourite selections from Wallace’s writings including Pale King, published posthumously. Michael Silverblatt, host of the radio interview program, Bookworm introduces and moderates the proceedings.
2pm & 10pm & 6am
POETRY
Classic American Poetry followed by W.S. MERWIN, poet, translator, and environmental activist who has become one of the most widely read poets in America, with a career spanning five decades. The son of a Presbyterian minister, for whom he began writing hymns at the age of five, Merwin went to Europe as a young man and developed a love of languages that led to work as a literary translator. He served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2010 to 2011.
3pm & 11pm & 7am
ALTERNATIVE RADIO with NOAM CHOMSKY on the Consequences of Capitalism
Here at Audiobook Radio we are keen to provide a range of voices – very literally as well as in terms of opinions and views of the world. This strand created by Alternative Radio does just that. We will hear from some of the most informed minds and greatest social activists of our time whose take on justice and power does not chime with those that hold the power and don’t provide justice for all so we rarely get to hear from them in mainstream media. Different opinions always help inform our own and we are always eager to hear from listeners about this or any other strand. Contact us on the tab at www.audiobookradio.net.
Today’s talk is given by the extraordinary MIT professor, Noam Chomsky who by one index is ranked as the eighth most cited person in history, right up there with Aristotle and Shakespeare. He consequences of capitalism during the pandemic have revealed glaring failures and monstrous brutalities. It’s a highly unstable economic system, careening from crisis to crisis. For a handful, it produces unparalleled levels of wealth. But for the many, if they even have a job, it’s a paycheck to paycheck existence. What are the priorities? The U.S. spends close to a trillion on the military. That’s more than the next ten countries combined. Compare that with the less than $50 billion allotted to the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. With robust funding it’s very likely the US would have been better prepared for the pandemic and would not be the world leader in deaths. The future? We will move toward a more humane and decent society or continue on our present destructive path.
4pm & Midnight & 8am
RADIO CITY PLAYHOUSE
The West Coast had Hollywood but New York had somewhere just as special. 1260, 6th Ave. The home of Radio City Playhouse – a glittering, star filled top of the range series featuring the best of acting and writing talent available.
The stories were based not on who you were but what you wrote. It was a tough test. If it passed the audition it ‘aired’. And now it does again with Episode 4 – Betrayal & King of the Moon
20pm & 1am & 9am
THE PODCAST HOUR – THE JO SHOW
Audiobookradio is delighted to launch a new strand, namely the Podcast Hour. Our first podcast is the Jo Show presented by silky voiced Jo Sands and features a wide range of creatives with plenty to say….she calls it soul sipping maybe because her guests do some soul searching as Jo always gets to the parts that other interviewers don’t reach as you are about to find out. Today her guest is Kevin E. West, Hollywood veteran television actor and a bad-ass keynote speaker
6pm & 2am & 10am
HOLLYWOOD STAGE
Hollywood is indelibly printed in our minds as a go to place for entertainment and has been for decades. We take you back in time as The Hollywood ringmaster himself, CECIL B DE MILLE unveils How Green Was My Valley, based in a mining village in Wales at the turn of the 19th century and starring Walter Pidgeon
7pm & 3am & 11am
SHORT STORIES
The Lady’s Maid by Katherine Mansfield is as insightful as it is entertaining. This first person narrative story touches on so many universal themes and emotions including disappointment, control and guilt, as her Lady’s maid has devoted her life to serving her ladyship and in doing so sacrificed her own.
The Death Room by Edgar Wallace features Detective Inspector John Gillette of Scotland Yard and a female journalist who is aware of the detective’s interest in spiritualism as the plot unravels and intrigues.
The Danger of Lying in Bed by Mark Twain is a wonderfully witty and typical Twain story told in the first person that makes you suspect that the I is indeed Mark Twain himself convincing the purchase of insurance to one and all!