Classic Love Stories: A BBC Radio Drama Collection

Treat yourself to this stunning collection of classic stories of love, loss, obstacles overcome and desperate attraction. This is a beautiful, moving and at times thrilling listen which takes you on a journey through the greatest tales of romance ever told. These unmissable, dramatised novels feature stellar performances from fantastic casts including and .

is Leo Tolstoy's powerful drama of desire, transgression and heartache. Starring (Wolf Hall), (Harry Potter) and (James Bond films).

by Charlotte Brontë is a fantastic mix of injustice, romance, passion and danger wrapped up in a glorious love story. Starring (Catastrophe) and (Strike).

Gustave Flaubert’s is a masterpiece of betrayal and wantonness - the first great novel of adultery. Starring (Wallander), (Gangs of London) and (Broadchurch) with (Harry Potter) as the Narrator.

by William Shakespeare. In a town full of hatred, where the streets ring with the Capulet-Montague feud and swords are too easily drawn, Romeo and Juliet find each other, fall in love, and never let go. Starring (Mr Selfridge), (Mission Impossible), (Broadchurch) and (Motherland).

by Colette is the story of a love affair between a courtesan and a man half her age, set in Paris before the First World War. Starring (Silk) and (The Last Kingdom) with (Birdman) as the Narrator.

by Jane Austen remains one of the world’s favourite novels, dealing with the timeless issues of love, social class and money with a witty, clever - though flawed - heroine at its heart. Starring (Unforgotten), (The Crown) and (The Detectorists).

by Alessandro Manzoni is an icon of Italian literature: the story of two lovers who want nothing more than to marry but are beset by the hazards of war, bread riots and the machinations of a nameless crime lord. Starring (Killing Eve) and (Masters of the Air).

by Radclyffe Hall, written in 1928, is a pioneering novel about love and attraction between women. Starring as the enigmatic Stephen.

is Emily Brontë's iconic love story. Heathcliff and Cathy's love is the beating heart of the story, set against the backdrop of the bleak Yorkshire moors. Starring (Temple) and (Shameless).

by Elizabeth Gaskell explores social conscience, ideological difference and love in a mill town in the 1800s. Starring (The Pursuit of Love) and (Shameless).

is Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a passionate life-long love affair which breaks all the rules of the restrictive high society of 1870's New York. Starring (Happy Valley) and (Eastenders).

by Thomas Hardy is a story of the belief in true romance and the power of money and love. Starring (Silk: The Clerk’s Room), (The Detectorists) and (Boardwalk Empire).

This stunning collection is packed with the best romance stories written in the last 500 years – a fully dramatised, unmissable listen featuring some of the biggest names of stage and screen.

©2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd