Audiobooks narrated by George Baker

Murder International: Ten Classic Full-Cast BBC Radio Crime Dramas

"Ten vintage dramas on the theme of murder, written by internationally recognised authors and set across the globe ‘Murder is murder, anywhere in the world. The taking of life, the most terrible crime a human being can commit, is the same in any language, whether it springs from vengeance, greed, hate, love or whatever...’ Conceived by BBC World Service producer Derek Hoddinott, the 1976 anthology series Murder International comprised half-hour adaptations of famous murder mysteries by world-renowned writers past and present, set in locations ranging from Corsica to St Petersburg, Malaysia, France and Spain. Collected here are ten of those thrilling dramas, each with a different theme, ranging from ‘murder by the supernatural’ to ‘murder by duel’. Bringing them to life are a host of leading actors including Denis Quilley, Maureen O'Brien, George Cole, Christopher Cazenove, Joss Ackland, Michael Denison and George Baker. In The Hand by Guy Maupassant, an English aristocrat awaits his nemesis – alongside a gruesome trophy from his days in Africa. Mess, by Francis King, sees an adolescent boy taking extreme measures to escape his chaotic home life. The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin finds a high-stakes gambler risking his life and his sanity when he discovers the secret of how to win at cards. Face to face with the state assassin, a dissident writer defends his right to free speech in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Conversation at Night. Three men, maddened by greed for gold, turn on each other in The Treasure in the Forest by H.G. Wells. Serial wife-killer Clayton Allenby meets his match with bride number four in Julian Symons’ The Accident. The youngest son of the Monkton family seems afflicted with hereditary madness in Wilkie Collins’ Mad Monkton – but is he insane, or cursed? The Executioner, by Honoré de Balzac, centres on a young Captain in the Napoleonic wars, who is ordered to carry out a terrible crime. Somerset Maugham’s Footprints in the Jungle concerns a charming married couple with a shocking skeleton in their closet. In Stacy Aumonier’s The Fall, when a petty crook turns murderer, Inspector Tolozan uses the man’s greatest fear to extract a confession... First broadcast BBC Radio, 4 21 July - 29 September 1976 With warm thanks to Keith Wickham and the Radio Circle NB: Some of the language on these vintage recordings reflects the era in which it was first broadcast, and due to the age of the source material, the sound quality may vary Conversation at Night © 1986 by Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich © 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Alexander Pushkin, Francis King, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Guy De Maupassant, H.G. Wells, Honoré De Balzac, Julian Symonds, Stacy Aumonier, W. Somerset Maugham, Wilkie Collins (Author), Christopher Cazenove, Dennis Quilley, Full Cast, George Baker, George Cole, Joss Ackland, Maureen O'Brien, Michael Denison (Narrator)

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A Dark Blue Perfume and Other Stories

"A collection of sleek and sinister stories from the creator of Chief Inspector Wexford. “Her range is extraordinary … a shocking fusillade of finales” Sunday Times. Read by Isla Blair and George Baker, TV’s Inspector Wexford. A Dark Blue Perfume A man with a gun and nothing left to live for brings this chilling tale to a fatal, but unexpected, climax. Hare’s House Could simply knowing about the first murder in Hare’s house really have led Norman to a copy-cat crime?"

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker, Isla Blair (Narrator)

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A Demon in My View

"Another Wexford mystery read by George Baker Her white face, beautiful, unmarked by any flaw of skin or feature, stared blankly back at him. He fancied that she had cringed, her slim body pressing further into the wall behind her. He didn’t speak. He had never known how to talk to women. There was only one thing he had ever been able to do to women, and, advancing now, smiling, he did it. Then, when it was all over, he straightened her against the wall so that she would be ready to die for him again. It was the best thing in his life, just knowing that she was there, waiting until the next time….. But one day, she wasn’t waiting…wasn’t there…"

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker (Narrator)

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Murder Being Once Done

"Sent to London for a rest by his doctor, Wexford can’t resist getting involved in the investigation of a mysterious murder. Read by TV’s Chief Inspector Wexford. In a vast and gloomy overgrown London cemetery, a girl is found murdered. A girl with a name that isn’t hers, and little else that is. A girl with no friends, no possessions and no past. Chief Inspector Wexford has been sent to London by his doctor for a rest – no late nights, no rich food, no alcohol and above all, no criminal detective work. To add insult to injury, it is Wexford’s own nephew Howard who is leading the investigation into the macabre mystery. Even though Howard and his subordinates might think he’s out of his league, and even though his doctor won’t approve, Wexford can’t resist just taking a look at things for himself."

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker (Narrator)

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A Needle for the Devil and Other Stories

"A collection of compelling short stories by the author of the Wexford novels – A Needle for the Devil, The Dreadful Day of Judgement, A Glowing Future, A Case of Coincidence, The Wrong Category and Paint Box Place When Alice Gibson married Lieutenant Colonel Clarigate (Retd.) she discovered that her mother had been right. The devil does indeed find work for idle hands to do."

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker, Isla Blair (Narrator)

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A New Lease of Death

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker (Narrator)

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Put on by Cunning

"The great flautist’s death seemed to Chief Inspector Wexford an open-and-shut case of misadventure, but with the return of his daughter after an absence of 19 years come a couple of niggling doubts… Read by ITV’s Inspector Wexford, George Baker. Sir Manuel Camargue, one of the greatest flautists of his time, was dead. Misadventure. An old man, ankle-deep in snow, he lost his foothold in the dark, slipping into water to be trapped under a lid of ice. Only a glove remained to point to where he lay, one of its fingers rising up out of the drifts. There’s nothing Chief Inspector Wexford likes better than an open-and-shut case. They’re so restful. And yet there are one or two niggling doubts – and the disturbing return of Camargue’s daughter, now a considerable heiress, after an absence of nineteen years. Is Wexford going to listen to that naggin inner voice of his? and if he does, what exactly does he plan to do?"

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker (Narrator)

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Shake Hands for Ever

"Most people would have screamed. Mrs Hathall made no sound. She had seen death many times before, but she had never before seen a death by violence. Heavily, she plodded across the room and descended the stairs to where her son waited. ‘There’s been an accident’, she said. ‘Your wife’s dead.’ Chief Inspector Wexford could discover no motive, no reason and no suspect – all he had were his intuitive suspicions. Probably he was reading meaning where there was none; probably Angela Hathall really had picked up a stranger, and that stranger had killed her. But why such doubt? Was Wexford becoming cynical and untrusting – or was this simply one of the most ingenious crimes he had ever tackled?"

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker (Narrator)

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Simisola

"Another Wexford mystery read by George Baker 'We're all racist in this country' said Wexford. 'Without exception. People over 40 are the worst and that's about all you can say. ' But until he became involved with the Akandes, whose daughter had gone missing, Wexford hadn't applied that reality to himself. Melanie Akande was black, one of only eighteen black people living in Kingsmarkham, and her father Raymond was Wexford's doctor. So he had a personal interest in the case. Melanie was also unemployed, like Wexford's son-in-law Neil. A point in common. But as the case developed, Wexford discovered things hidden inside himself that he didn't like, found his own, unthinking attitudes prejudicing the case….."

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker (Narrator)

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A Sleeping Life

"The body found under the hedge was that of a middle-aged woman, biggish and gaunt. The grey eyes were wide and staring, and in them Detective Chief Inspector Wexford thought he saw a sardonic gleam, a glare, even in death, of scorn. But that must have been his imagination, and imagination was almost all he had to go on The body found under the hedge was that of a middle-aged woman, biggish and gaunt. The grey eyes were wide and staring, and in them Detective Chief Inspector Wexford thought he saw a sardonic gleam, a glare, even in death, of scorn. But that must have been his imagination, and imagination was almost all he had to go on. The woman was a stranger. Her handbag held little more than three keys on a ring and forty-two pounds in a new wallet. There was nothing to give him her address, her occupation or even her identity – let alone any clues that might lead to her killer. The woman was dead, but, as Wexford knew only too well, death, by murder is, in a way, not an end but a beginning…"

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker (Narrator)

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The Speaker of Mandarin

"Another Wexford mystery read by George Baker and available for the first time on digital download. China both delighted and frustrated Wexford; the beauty, the history, all of that brought immense pleasure. But the unending attention of Mr Sung of the Chinese Tourist Board was hugely irritating – and that an old woman with bound feet should haunt him was puzzling and slightly frightening, without explanation. Back home, he found an answer to the last and then a whole new mystery opened up when he found himself in charge of yet another murder investigation, this time of one of his fellow tourists. And suddenly an apparently accidental death in China no longer seemed so accidental…."

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker (Narrator)

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An Unkindness of Ravens

"When a local Romeo goes missing and two more young men are attacked, Chief Inspector Wexford begins to suspect murder. Rodney Williams was neither handsome nor wealthy, but he had an unerring eye for a pretty girl and when he disappeared and two other men were later attacked by a young woman, Chief Inspector Wexford couldn’t help wondering if there was a connection. If there wasn’t, where was Rodney Williams and why had he vanished? He had committed no crime, though he had certainly lied to his wife about both his job and his salary. Wexford was convinced Williams was dead…."

Ruth Rendell (Author), George Baker (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by George Baker

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