Bookcases BBC - Martyn Wade

Category: Full Cast, Humor, Radio Productions
Language: English
Keywords: BBC Full Cast Radio 4 Sit Com

Written by Martyn Wade
Read by Maggie Steed, Michael Cochrane, Joan Sims, Elizabeth Spriggs, David Horovitch, Charles Simpson, Geoffrey Whitehead, full cast
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Dramatization

Bookcases
A BBC Radio 4 Comedy Drama
By: Martyn Wade
Narrated by: Maggie Steed, Michael Cochrane, Joan Sims, Elizabeth Spriggs, David Horovitch, Charles Simpson, Geoffrey Whitehead, full cast
Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins
Radio/TV Program
Release date: 10-06-2021
Language: English
Publisher: BBC Audio

The complete series one and two of the historical comic sitcom about an embattled Victorian publishing company.

London, 1853, and the sedate religious publishing house of Spavin and Spavin is about to experience a radical shake-up. Vivacious actress Cordelia is on the hunt for a husband and has her eye on Gerald, one of the firm’s partners, while her son, Primus, has ambitions to take over the firm. And when he does, it’ll be out with the Bibles and in with the best sellers - starting with Charlotte Brontë’s latest blockbuster….

Full of grand plans, he sets about wooing a wealth of other writers, including explorer Richard Burton, Charlotte Bronte and struggling novelist Wilkie Collins (who takes quite a shine to Cordelia). He even hires an assistant, Simeon, to manage publicity, and attempts to win a literary award by fair means or foul. But Primus’ enthusiasm doesn’t go down too well with Gerald’s mother Edith (the firm’s other partner), who is strongly opposed to the company publishing fiction. Worse, his willingness to spend the company’s money has pushed Spavin and Spavin to the edge of bankruptcy….

Hoping for salvation from financial ruin, Primus turns to luminaries such as Prince Albert and Charles Dickens - but could the crock of gold he’s searching for be right under his nose?

Written by Martyn Wade (The Little Ottleys), this delightful, tongue-in-cheek comedy stars Michael Cochrane as Primus and Maggie Steed as Cordelia, with a cast including Elizabeth Spriggs, Charles Simpson, David Horovitch, Joan Sims and Ioan Meredith.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 20 August-10 September 1998 (Series One), 7-28 January 2000 (Series Two)

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