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The Read
The Read Episodes
Series 4: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
Steffan Rhodri (Gavin and Stacey, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) gives an enchanting reading performance of CS Lewis’s timeless classic, as we step into the magical ...
25-12-2025
BBC 4
Series 4: Persuasion
Bafta and Olivier Award-winning actor Monica Dolan gives a captivating reading of Jane Austen’s much-loved novel.
18-12-2025
BBC 4
Series 3: Wuthering Heights
Bradford-born actor Vinette Robinson gives a spellbinding performance as she narrates Emily Brontë’s groundbreaking novel. \n\nThe much-loved work stands as a timeles ...
26-11-2025
BBC 4
Series 3: Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde: The Read With Reece Shearsmith
Who is the real monster? Robert Louis Stevenson’s defining gothic horror explores alter egos in this captivating narration that reimagines the 19th-century classic. \ ...
02-02-2025
BBC 4
Series 3: A Christmas Carol
Anne-Marie Duff takes us on a spirited journey through Victorian London with Charles Dickens’s timeless seasonal classic. Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost ...
22-12-2024
BBC 4
Series 3: 1984
A bleak dystopian future plays out before us as Royal Television Society award-winning actor Sacha Dhawan narrates George Orwell’s profoundly impactful and thought-provoki ...
17-11-2024
BBC 4
Series 2: Frankenstein
Alex Kingston breathes life into Mary Shelley’s timeless gothic horror story.\n\nYoung, gifted scientist Victor Frankenstein unwittingly creates a monster. Written more th ...
27-10-2024
BBC 4
Series 2: The Remains Of The Day: The Read With Steve Pemberton
Heartbreak and longing are centre stage as BAFTA-winning actor Steve Pemberton narrates Kazuo Ishiguro’s contemporary classic. \n\nThe Remains of the Day is Ishiguro's bea ...
12-05-2024
BBC 4
Series 2: A Kestrel For A Knave
Christopher Eccleston narrates Barry Hines’s heartbreaking coming-of-age tale in this fresh take on a classic British novel. It’s the story of teenager Billy Casper, ...
17-09-2023
BBC 4
Series 1: 4. A Vision Of Loveliness
Bafta-nominated actor Liv Hill (Three Girls, Jellyfish, The Great, The Serpent Queen) performs A Vision of Loveliness from the novel by Louise Levene, a darkly comic work that r ...
02-04-2023
BBC 4
Series 1: 3. The Day Of The Sardine
The Read is a series of four creative performance readings of iconic British novels. Each episode is directed by exciting, emerging talent from BBC Arts’ and Art Council E ...
06-11-2022
BBC 4
Series 1: 2. On The Black Hill
Based on the novel published in 1982 by Bruce Chatwin, On the Black Hill is about identical twin brothers who grow up on a farm in rural Wales and never leave home. They till th ...
05-06-2022
BBC 4
Series 1: 1. The Lonely Londoners
The Lonely Londoners portrays the experiences of a group of Caribbean immigrants, known as the Windrush Generation, who arrived in London in the late 1940s and 50s searching for ...
11-04-2022
BBC 4