Oscar Wilde BBC Radio Collection
from archive.org
Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Included here are six full-cast BBC Radio dramatisations of Wilde's plays and novel, as well as readings of a selection of his short stories.
A Woman of No Importance
At a country house party, Mrs Arbuthnot's long-concealed secret comes back to haunt her.
Mrs Arbuthnot ...... Diana Rigg
Lord Illingworth ...... Martin Jarvis
Lady Hunstanton ...... Annette Crosbie
Lady Caroline Pontefract ...... Irene Sutcliffe
Mrs Allonby ...... Susan Sheridan
Lady Stutfield ...... Auriol Smith
Gerald Arbuthnot ...... Dominic Letts
Hester Worsley ...... Teresa Gallagher
Archdeacon Daubeny ...... David King
Sir John Pontefract ...... Geoffrey Chater
Mr Kelvill, MP ...... Jack Klaff
Alice ...... Adjoa Andoh
Lord Alfred Rufford ...... Peter Penry-Jones
Other parts played by members of the cast.
Adapted and directed by Adrian Bean.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1991
An Ideal Husband
The unprincipled Mrs Cheveley threatens to reveal Sir Robert Chiltern's secret past unless he agrees to give his support in Parliament to a questionable Argentinian venture. Faced with ruin in the eyes of the country and his wife, he seems to have no alternative. Wildean wit and the elegance of English society is woven into this classic drama.
The Earl of Caversham ...... Geoffrey Palmer
Viscount Goring ...... Jasper Britton
Sir Robert Chiltern ...... Alex Jennings
Lady Chiltern ...... Emma Fielding
Lady Markby ...... Sara Kestelman
Miss Mabel Chiltern ...... Joanna Page
Mrs Cheveley ...... Janet McTeer
Vicomte De Nanjac ...... Oliver de Sueur
Mrs Marchmont ...... Patience Tomlinson
Countess of Basildon ...... Lucy Whybrow
Mr Montford/James ...... John Cummins
Phipps ...... Hugh Dickson
Mason ...... Derek Beard
Other parts played by members of the cast.
Directed by David Timson.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in February 2010
The Importance of Being Earnest
London, 1895: crafty friends Jack and Algernon are living a double life.
Lady Bracknell ...... Judi Dench
Algernon Moncrieff...... Martin Clunes
Jack Worthing ...... Michael Sheen
Miss Prism ...... Miriam Margolyes
Canon Chasuble ...... John Moffatt
Lane ..... Michael Hordern
Other parts played by members of the cast.
Produced by Glyn Dearman
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1995
Lady Windermere's Fan
Lady Windermere suspects that her husband is having an affair with another woman and confronts him with it. Although he denies it, he invites the other woman, Mrs. Erlynne, to his wife's birthday ball...
Lady Windermere ..... Eleanor Tremain
Lord Darlington ..... David Calder
Lord Windermere ..... Jonathan Cake
Mrs. Erlynne ..... Isla Blair
Dramatised by Micheline Wandor
Directed by Gordon House
First Broadcast on the BBC World Service in 2000
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
Attending one of Lady Windermere's regular Thursday evening society parties, the dashing Lord Arthur Savile offers his hand for a reading by the dastardly palmist, Podgers. But he's shocked when his murderous fate is revealed...
Read by Michael Maloney.
Produced by Katherine Beacon.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 7 in October 2003.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
A vain aristocrat - a gilded and spoilt hedonist - makes a dangerous pact to preserve his youth.
Dorian Gray ...... Jamie Glover
Lord Henry Wotton ...... Ian McDiarmid
Basil Hallward ...... Steven Pacey
Sybil Vane ...... Tilly Gaunt
Jim Vane ...... Harry Myers
Mrs Vane ...... Elizabeth Mansfield
Lord Fermor ...... Brett Usher
Aunt Agatha ...... Mary Wimbush
Butler ...... Gavin Muir
Mrs Vandelaur ...... Elizabeth Bell
Lady Harley ...... Tessa Worsley
Servant ...... Tom George
Duke Geoffrey ...... Edward de Souza
Thornton ...... Stephen Critchlow
Campbell ...... Geoffrey Beevers
Duchess ...... Alice Arnold
Other parts played by members of the cast.
Dramatised by Nick McCarty.
Director: Gordon House.
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in January 2000
The Canterville Ghost
An American family move to a castle haunted by the ghost of a dead English nobleman, who killed his wife and was then walled in and starved to death by his wife's brothers...
Simon Canterville ..... Edward Petherbridge
Hiram B. Otis ..... Angus MacInnes
Mrs Otis ..... Gwyneth Guthrie
Stripes ..... Eileen McCallum
Stars ..... Mary Riggens
Mrs Amney ..... Rose McBain
Virginia ..... Anne Marie Zola
Lord Cheshire ..... Antony Cochrane
Lord Canterville ..... Raymond Ross
Reverend Dampier ..... John Buick
Dramatised by Nick McCarty
Directed by Hamish Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on New Year's Eve 1992
with thanks to prettyrandom
No MP3s found. The
MP3 files used by this podcast appear to be missing. They may have been removed permanently from their source location.
- A Woman of No Importance (unknown file size)
- An Ideal Husband (unknown file size)
- The Importance of Being Earnest (unknown file size)
- Lady Windermere's Fan (unknown file size)
- Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (unknown file size)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (unknown file size)
- The Canterville Ghost (unknown file size)
- The Happy Prince (unknown file size)
- The Model Millionaire (unknown file size)
- The Nightingale and the Rose (unknown file size)
- The Selfish Giant (unknown file size)
- The Sphinx Without a Secret (unknown file size)
MP3 files hosted by archive.org.