Audiobooks narrated by Ayesha Dharker

Unmade Movies: Hammer Horror's The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula: A BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the u

Dracula travels to 1930s India in this celebrated unproduced Hammer Horror script, directed by Mark Gatiss The 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, Arthur Miller, Alfred Hitchcock and Dennis Potter, they star a host of A-list actors and feature richly evocative, atmospheric soundtracks. In The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula, one of seven 'unmade movies' available on audio, it is 1934, and young Englishwoman Penny is travelling by train across India in search of her missing sister. En route, she meets sibling artistes Prem and Lakshmi, who have been hired by a Maharajah and his wife, the Rani, to entertain their aristocratic European guest. But evil lurks in the hidden caverns beneath the ancient palace, where the acolytes of a fiendish blood cult await their next human sacrifice... The intended follow-up to Scars of Dracula, this exotic, blood-drenched tale was nearly filmed on location in India in the early '70s, but financing problems meant it was dropped in favour of Dracula, AD 1972. Rescued from Hammer's vaults, it has been resurrected by Mark Gatiss, and is the first new Hammer Horror Dracula production in 43 years. It stars Anna Madeley (All Creatures Great and Small) as Penny, with Nikesh Patel (Indian Summers) as Prem, Ayesha Dharker (The Indian Doctor) as Lakshmi and Meera Syal (Goodness Gracious Me) as the Rani. Lewis MacLeod (Dead Ringers) channels Christopher Lee as the iconic Count, and Michael Sheen (Staged) narrates. Get ready for a terrifying, edge-of-your-seat encounter as the Prince of Darkness rises from his grave once more... Production credits Written by Anthony Hinds Directed by Mark Gatiss Produced by Laurence Bowen and Peter Ettedgui Original music by Blair Mowat Sound design: Wilfredo Acosta A Dancing Ledge production for BBC Radio 4 Cast Narrator - Michael Sheen Penny - Anna Madeley Prem - Nikesh Patel Lakshmi - Ayesha Dharker Babu - Kulvinder Ghir The Rani/Mrs Mukherjee - Meera Syal Count Dracula - Lewis MacLeod Maharajah/Inspector - Raj Ghatak Lucy - Natalie Kimmerling Evil Face - Sagar Arya First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 28 October 2017 © 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (p) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Anthony Hinds (Author), Anna Madeley, Ayesha Dharker, Full Cast, Lewis Macleod, Meera Syal, Michael Sheen, Nikesh Patel (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Suitable Boy

The award-winning BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Vikram Seth’s masterpiece ‘The drama highlight of the year…this sumptuous production, wonderfully atmospheric, written with pace and performed, by an all-Indian cast, quite superbly. The novel may be vast but I was convinced by this version right from the start. Magnificent drama’ - Radio Times A Suitable Boy is Vikram Seth's epic love story set in India. Funny and tragic, with engaging, brilliantly-observed characters, it is as close as you can get to Dickens for the twentieth century. The story unfolds through four middle-class families - the Mehras, Kapoors, Khans and Chatterjis. Lata Mehra, a university student, is under pressure from her mother to get married. But not to just anyone she happens to fall in love with. There are standards to be met and finding a husband for Lata becomes a family affair in which all the members are to play a part. The characters struggle, they try to buck the system, to break free of restraint, of interference - but ultimately their strength and sense of being comes from their family and friends. It is a celebration of ordinariness; a beautifully composed story that is an affirmation of family and friendship. In his sweeping epic, Vikram Seth has created an entire world filled with warmth, humour, pathos, tragedy - in short, life. Recorded on location in India, A Suitable Boy is made by the production team behind the award-winning Bleak House and The Handmaid's Tale. 2018 is the 25th anniversary of the first publication of this classic story. Shortlisted for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, 1993. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, 1994. Winner of the WH Smith Literary Award, 1994. Dramatised and directed by John Dryden. A Goldhawk Production.

Vikram Seth (Author), Ayesha Dharker, Full Cast, Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal (Narrator)

Audiobook

Brick Lane

This exciting and deeply moving debut novel follows the tumultuous life of Nazneen from her birth in a Bangladeshi village hut, to her arranged marriage to Chanu and the subsequent move to London's Tower HamletsNazneen's inauspicious entry to the world, an apparent stillbirth on the hard mud floor of a Bangladeshi village hut, imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents when she is married off to Chanu. Her life in London's Tower Hamlets is, on the surface, calm. For years, keeping house and rearing children, she does what is expected of her. Yet Nazneen walks a tightrope stretched between her daughters' embarrassment and her husband's resentments. Chanu calls his elder daughter the little memsahib. 'I didn't ask to be born here,' say Shahana, with regular finality.Into that fragile peace walks Karim. He sets questions before her, of longing and belonging; he sparks in her a turmoil that reflects the community's own; he opens her eyes and directs her gaze - but what she sees, in the end, comes as a suprise to them both.While Nazneen journeys along her path of self-realization, a way haunted by her mother's ghost, her sister Hasina, back in Bangladesh, rushes headlong at her life, first making a 'love marriage', then fleeing her violent husband. Woven through the novel, Hasina's letters from Dhaka recount a world of overwhelming adversity. Shaped - yet ultimately not bound - by their landscapes and memories, both sisters struggle to dream themselves out of the rules prescribed for them.Beautifully rendered and, by turns, both comic and deeply moving, Brick Lane establishes Monica Ali as one of the most exciting new voices in fiction.

Monica Ali (Author), Ayesha Dharker (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Ayesha Dharker