Classic Radio Theatre
3 total works
The simple story of an unrequited love affair between a suburban doctor and a middle-class housewife, Brief Encounter is perhaps the most romantic film in the history of British cinema. Noel Cowards' screenplay conjures the drab, emotionally restrained world of post-World War II Britain better than almost any other literary text. This edition is being published to coincide with the centenary of Coward's birth and contains an illuminating Foreword on his work by his official biographer, Sheridan Morley.
Private Lives is one of the most sophisticated, entertaining plays ever written. Elyot and Amanda, once married and now honeymooning with new spouses at the same hotel, meet by chance, reignite the old spark and impulsively elope. After days of being reunited, they again find their fiery romance alternating between passions of love and anger. Their aggrieved spouses appear and a roundelay of affiliations ensues as the women first stick together, then apart, and new partnerships are formed.
This Happy Breed covers twenty years in the life of the Frank and Ethel Bibbons and their children, from the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II. On one level the story is the chronicle of a middle class family. They haven't done well in the years between the wars, but in the face of another conflict, family unity spans the chasm between the generations. At another level, this is the story of England, torn at times by the conflicts of its own progress, but quietly firm in its historical moments of crisis.