A stunning BBC radio adaptation of Monica Ali's bestselling, Booker-shortlisted novel1985. Uprooted from her home in Bangladesh, 18-year-old Nazneen is sent to London for an arranged marriage with a much older man. Her new life is strange and bewildering - the busy streets and crowded tower blocks of the East End are a world away from the rural village she grew up in, and she struggles to adapt to living with her self-important husband, Chanu....

Brought to you by Penguin.AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVEL OF 2023WINNER OF THE 2021 #MERKY BOOKS NEW WRITERS' PRIZENik has lots of questions about his late father but knows better than to ask his mother, Avani. It's their unspoken rule.But when his grandfather dies, Nik has the opportunity to learn about the man he never met. Armed with a key and new knowledge about his parents' past, Nik sets out to u...

A sparkling seasonal anthology of BBC dramas and readingsChristmas is the perfect time to curl up with a good story, and this cracking collection brings you 30 wonderfully diverse tales inspired by this most special of seasons. From Santa Claus, gift-giving and family gatherings, to an unexpected encounter in a snowstorm and an alternative take on the Nativity, they're sure to get you in the festive mood.Here are modern readings of classics such as Charles ...

'Brown Baby is a beautifully intimate and soul-searching memoir. It speaks to the heart and the mind and bears witness to our turbulent times.' - Bernardine EvaristoHow do you find hope and even joy in a world that is racist, sexist and facing climate crisis? How do you prepare your children for it, but also fill them with all the boundlessness and eccentricity that they deserve and that life has to offer?In Brown Baby, Nikesh Shukla explo...

A thrilling full-cast adaptation bringing Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell universe to lifeVeteran Fourth Echelon agent Sam Fisher has a new mission recruiting and training the next generation of Splinter Cell operatives for the National Security Agency's covert action division. But when a lethal assassin from Fisher's past returns from the dead on a mission of murder, he is thrust into a race against time as a sinister threat to global security is revealed. With his dau...

Both series of the engaging romantic comedy set in a 1960s bedsit, inspired by Katharine Whitehorn's cookery classicIt’s 1964, and 22-year-old Trisha moves into a West Hampstead bedsitter to escape her controlling suburban parents and her boring fiancé, Keith. She’s determined to make it as a swinging, get-ahead girl-about-town, but finds herself struggling with homesickness, loneliness and the challenges of cooking a decent meal on a single gas ring.Then s...

Dracula travels to 1930s India in this celebrated unproduced Hammer Horror script, directed by Mark GatissThe annals of movie history are full of lost treasures - spectacular scripts from world-renowned writers that could have been classics, had they only been made. Now, for the first time, some of these forgotten gems have been brought to life, fully realised as vivid, cinematic radio productions. Scripted by major 20th Century writers, including Harold Pinter, Ar...

'Radio drama of the year' - Gillian Reynolds, The TelegraphNikesh Patel stars as Saleem in BBC Radio 4’s epic dramatisation of Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize-winning novel of love, history and magicSaleem Sinai is born on the stroke of midnight on 14th-15th August 1947, at the exact moment that India and Pakistan become separate, independent nations. From that moment on, his fate is mysteriously handcuffed to the history of his country.But S...