Drama of the Week

Radio 4 celebrates 250 years of Jane Austen with fresh, funny, and female-focused adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Expect heartbreak, love, hilarity, and the enduring power of sisterhood.

Pride and Prejudice the iconic love story between Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, and a delightful portrayal of a family. It perfectly conjures up the period, and the pressure on women to find husbands. A tapestry of unforgettable characters and wonderfully funny.

Dramatised by award winning writer Rachel Joyce

Jane Austen ..... Tamsin Greig
Elizabeth ..... Isabella Laughland
Darcy ..... Luke Thompson
Mr Bennet ..... Miles Jupp
Mrs Bennet ..... Rosie Cavaliero
Jane ..... Lucy Doyle
Bingley ..... Louis Landau
Wickham ..... Toby Regbo
Lady Catherine ..... Adjoa Andoh
Lydia ..... Kitty O'Sullivan
Kitty ..... Gaia Wise
Mary ..... Imogen Front
Mr Collins ..... Josh Bryant Jones
Charlotte ..... Sasha McCabe
Caroline Bingley ..... Catherine Bailey

Directed by Tracey Neale

Dramatised by Rachel Joyce

Rachel Joyce is a best-selling author and award winning audio drama writer. Her audio work includes the entire Bronte canon for Radio 4. Her first novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry has been adapted for both film and stage. The sold out Chichester Festival Theatre Musical of Harold Fry's story opens at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on the 29th January. Rachel's latest novel, The Homemade God, was published in February this year.

Produced and Directed by Tracey Neale
Sound by Andrew Garratt and Sam Dickinson
Production Co-Ordinator, Luke MacGregor
Casting Manager, Alex Curran
A BBC Studios Production.

Jonathan Hall's comedy drama about a Salford secondary school starring Julie Hesmondhalgh.

Yvette is convinced that, wherever possible, kids should stay in school. But transfer pupil Logan is testing those limits. Exclusion is not an easy decision, and Logan's keyboard-warrior father complicates the process. As tensions rise, a late-night confrontation uncovers a pivotal truth.

YVETTE.....Julie Hesmondhalgh
CAROL / QUEENIE.....Susan Twist
TIM.....Ashley Margolis
SIR KEN.....Jonathan Keeble
LOGAN.....Ellis Hollins
MR SHAW.....William Ash

Writer - Jonathan Hall
Director - Pippa Day
Technical Producer - Sharon Hughes
Additional Technical Production - Kelly Young
Production Co-ordinator - Victoria Moseley

A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 4

Presented by Paul French
Drama written by Sarah Wooley

Whatever anyone declared categorically about Shura Giraldi, someone else insisted on the exact opposite. Shura was handsome and beautiful; Shura was kind and good, Shura was exploitative and evil. Shura was just another struggling White Russian refugee trying to get by in 1930s China; Shura was the heart and brains of a gang that ran clubs, sex workers, illicit booze and drugs, when not robbing banks and stealing gems to fence in Shanghai. Shura loved ballet and cabaret, creating the Shura Giraldi Dance Troupe that topped the bill at all the best Peking nightclubs.

Shura sometimes presented as male and sometimes as female. When passing as a man Shura bound his breasts tightly and wore a sharp tailored suit; when she was a woman she wore startlingly coloured robes, both Chinese-style cheongsam and Western dresses, letting her raven hair flow loose, said witnesses. Shura had added an incredibly massive layer of confusion and obfuscation to anyone looking by changing gender. Switching for anonymity, for commercial gain or criminal advantage, for love, for a whim.

Paul French is a historian and writer who focuses on China in the first half of the 20th century. He's been on Shura’s trail for 15 years, digging through the paper records and archives in half a dozen countries in an attempt to get to grips with the enigma that was Shura. This story, a product of that tireless research, is full of truths, but like an old jigsaw brought down from the attic after decades, there are many pieces missing. So we're using drama, written by Sarah Wooley, to conjure and join the dots of Shura’s story, and go in search of a lost life and a forgotten world.

The search will take us from a Russian far east in violent revolution, to the chaos of the mass emigration of the White Russians, to the crowded hutongs of Peking; from that city’s nightclubs and cabarets, to the casinos of Shanghai; from a China wracked by rampaging warlordism, invaded by Japan, and then fighting its own civil war that culminated in its own revolution.

Shura saw it all; Shura lived through it all; Shura, in part, explains it all.

Shura . . . . . Maggie Bain
Zaichek . . . . . Leo Wan
Roy . . . . . Daniel York Loh
Leopard . . . . . Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Tatiana . . . . . Charlotte East
Anton . . . . . Luke Nunn
Marie . . . . . Cecilia Appiah
Saxsen . . . . . Ian Dunnett Jnr
The MC . . . . . Roger Ringrose
Anna . . . . . Jane Whittenshaw

Editing and sound design by Peter Ringrose.

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.

Presented by Paul French
Drama written by Sarah Wooley

Whatever anyone declared categorically about Shura Giraldi, someone else insisted on the exact opposite. Shura was handsome and beautiful; Shura was kind and good, Shura was exploitative and evil. Shura was just another struggling White Russian refugee trying to get by in 1930s China; Shura was the heart and brains of a gang that ran clubs, sex workers, illicit booze and drugs, when not robbing banks and stealing gems to fence in Shanghai. Shura loved ballet and cabaret, creating the Shura Giraldi Dance Troupe that topped the bill at all the best Peking nightclubs.

Shura sometimes presented as male and sometimes as female. When passing as a man Shura bound his breasts tightly and wore a sharp tailored suit; when she was a woman she wore startlingly coloured robes, both Chinese-style cheongsam and Western dresses, letting her raven hair flow loose, said witnesses. Shura had added an incredibly massive layer of confusion and obfuscation to anyone looking by changing gender. Switching for anonymity, for commercial gain or criminal advantage, for love, for a whim.

Paul French is a historian and writer who focuses on China in the first half of the 20th century. He's been on Shura’s trail for 15 years, digging through the paper records and archives in half a dozen countries in an attempt to get to grips with the enigma that was Shura. This story, a product of that tireless research, is full of truths, but like an old jigsaw brought down from the attic after decades, there are many pieces missing. So we're using drama, written by Sarah Wooley, to conjure and join the dots of Shura’s story, and go in search of a lost life and a forgotten world.

The search will take us from a Russian far east in violent revolution, to the chaos of the mass emigration of the White Russians, to the crowded hutongs of Peking; from that city’s nightclubs and cabarets, to the casinos of Shanghai; from a China wracked by rampaging warlordism, invaded by Japan, and then fighting its own civil war that culminated in its own revolution.

Shura saw it all; Shura lived through it all; Shura, in part, explains it all.

Shura . . . . . Maggie Bain
Zaichek . . . . . Leo Wan
Roy . . . . . Daniel York Loh
Leopard . . . . . Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Tatiana . . . . . Charlotte East
Anton . . . . . Luke Nunn
Marie . . . . . Cecilia Appiah
Saxsen . . . . . Ian Dunnett Jnr
The MC . . . . . Roger Ringrose
Anna . . . . . Jane Whittenshaw

Editing and sound design by Peter Ringrose.

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.

Presented by Paul French
Drama written by Sarah Wooley

Whatever anyone declared categorically about Shura Giraldi, someone else insisted on the exact opposite. Shura was handsome and beautiful; Shura was kind and good, Shura was exploitative and evil. Shura was just another struggling White Russian refugee trying to get by in 1930s China; Shura was the heart and brains of a gang that ran clubs, sex workers, illicit booze and drugs, when not robbing banks and stealing gems to fence in Shanghai. Shura loved ballet and cabaret, creating the Shura Giraldi Dance Troupe that topped the bill at all the best Peking nightclubs.

Shura sometimes presented as male and sometimes as female. When passing as a man Shura bound his breasts tightly and wore a sharp tailored suit; when she was a woman she wore startlingly coloured robes, both Chinese-style cheongsam and Western dresses, letting her raven hair flow loose, said witnesses. Shura had added an incredibly massive layer of confusion and obfuscation to anyone looking by changing gender. Switching for anonymity, for commercial gain or criminal advantage, for love, for a whim.

Paul French is a historian and writer who focuses on China in the first half of the 20th century. He's been on Shura’s trail for 15 years, digging through the paper records and archives in half a dozen countries in an attempt to get to grips with the enigma that was Shura. This story, a product of that tireless research, is full of truths, but like an old jigsaw brought down from the attic after decades, there are many pieces missing. So we're using drama, written by Sarah Wooley, to conjure and join the dots of Shura’s story, and go in search of a lost life and a forgotten world.

The search will take us from a Russian far east in violent revolution, to the chaos of the mass emigration of the White Russians, to the crowded hutongs of Peking; from that city’s nightclubs and cabarets, to the casinos of Shanghai; from a China wracked by rampaging warlordism, invaded by Japan, and then fighting its own civil war that culminated in its own revolution.

Shura saw it all; Shura lived through it all; Shura, in part, explains it all.

Shura . . . . . Maggie Bain
Zaichek . . . . . Leo Wan
Roy . . . . . Daniel York Loh
Leopard . . . . . Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Tatiana . . . . . Charlotte East
Anton . . . . . Luke Nunn
Marie . . . . . Cecilia Appiah
Saxsen . . . . . Ian Dunnett Jnr
The MC . . . . . Roger Ringrose
Anna . . . . . Jane Whittenshaw

Editing and sound design by Peter Ringrose.

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.