Other recommendations

THEATRE

  • Aeschylus: The Oresteia (458 BC); Prometheus Bound
  • Sophocles: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone; Electra
  • Euripides: Medea (431 BC); Hippolytus (428 BC); Andromache (c. 425 BC); Hecuba (c. 424 BC); Electra (c. 420 BC); The Trojan Women (415 BC); The Bacchae (405 BC)
  • Aristophanes: The Clouds (423 BC); The Birds (414 BC); Lysistrata (411 BC); Thesmophoriazusae (411 BC); The Frogs (405 BC)
  • Marlowe: Tamburlaine (1587–88); The Jew of Malta (1589–90); Doctor Faustus (1588–92);
  • Shakespeare: ALL, especially Richard II (1595); Henry IV, 1 & 2 (1596–98); Romeo and Juliet (1595); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595); Hamlet (1599–1601); Measure for Measure (1603–04); Othello (1603–04); Coriolanus (1608)
  • Webster: The Duchess of Malfi (1614)
  • Middleton: The Revenger’s Tragedy (1606)
  • Massinger: The Roman Actor (1629)
  • Wycherley: The Country Wife (1675)
  • Farquhar: The Recruiting Officer (1706); The Beaux’ Stratagem (1707)
  • Goldsmith: She Stoops to Conquer (1773)
  • Sheridan: The Rivals (1775); The School for Scandal (1777); The Critic (1779)
  • Lessing: Nathan der Weise (1783)
  • Goethe: Faust (1829) (NOT Werther!)
  • Schiller: Don Carlos (1787)
  • Victor Hugo: Hernani (1830); Lucrèce Borgia (1833); Ruy Blas (1838)
  • Oscar Wilde: Salomé (1896); An Ideal Husband (1895); The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
  • George Bernard Shaw: Arms and the Man (1894); Caesar and Cleopatra (1901); Pygmalion (1913); Saint Joan (1923)
  • Noël Coward: Hay Fever (1925)
  • Christopher Fry: The Lady’s Not for Burning (1948)
  • Michael Frayn: Noises Off (1982); Copenhagen (1998)
  • Martyn Wade: Burn the Aeneid! (1984)
  • Alick Rowe: Odysseus on an Iceberg (1985)

LITERATURE

  • Apuleius: The Golden Ass (late 2nd century AD)
  • E.T.A. Hoffmann: Tales (1814–22)
  • Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo (1844); The Musketeers cycle: The Three Musketeers (1844); Twenty Years After (1845); The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847)
  • Victor Hugo : Notre Dame de Paris (1831)
  • Charles Dickens: Bleak House (1852–53); A Tale of Two Cities (1859); Our Mutual Friend (1864–65); Great Expectations (1860–61)
  • Jules Verne: Cinq semaines en ballon / Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863); Voyage au centre de la Terre / Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864) ; Vingt mille lieues sous les mers / 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1869)
  • Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865); Through the Looking-Glass (1871)
  • Robert Louis Stevenson: The Wrong Box (1889)
  • Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book (1894); The Second Jungle Book (1895); Kim (1901)
  • Saki: Complete Stories (1896–1914)
  • M.R. James: Ghost Stories (1904–25)
  • P.G. Wodehouse: Something Fresh (1915); Summer Lightning (1929); Hot Water (1932); The Code of the Woosters (1938); “Uncle Fred Flits By”
  • T.F. Powys: Mr. Weston’s Good Wine (1927)
  • Evelyn Waugh: Decline and Fall (1928); Vile Bodies (1930); Black Mischief (1932); The Loved One (1948)
  • Sellar & Yeatman: 1066 and All That (1930)
  • Stella Gibbons: Cold Comfort Farm (1932)
  • Robert Graves: I, Claudius / Claudius the God (1934)
  • Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game (1943)
  • Marguerite Yourcenar: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951)
  • Jorge Luis Borges
  • Frederick Crews: The Pooh Perplex (1963); Post-Modern Pooh (2001)
  • Spike Milligan: Puckoon (1963)
  • Gore Vidal: Julian (1964); Creation (1981)
  • Italo Calvino: Cosmicomics (1965); If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller… (1979)
  • Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita (1967)
  • Flann O’Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)
  • Umberto Eco: Misreadings (1963); The Name of the Rose (1980); How to Travel with a Salmon (1995), &c!
  • George Macdonald Fraser: Flashman series (1969–2005); Mr. American (1980); The Pyrates! (1983)
  • Tom Sharpe: Riotous Assembly (1971); Indecent Exposure (1973)
  • Milorad Pavić: Dictionary of the Khazars (1984)
  • Daniel Quinn: Ishmael (1992)
  • Salman Rushdie: The Enchantress of Florence (2008)

SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

  • L. Frank Baum: The Oz books (1900–20)
  • E. Nesbit: Five Children and It (1902); The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904); The Story of the Amulet (1906)
  • James Branch Cabell: Jurgen (1919)
  • Hugh Lofting: Dr. Dolittle (1920–52)
  • P.L. Travers: Mary Poppins (1934–88)
  • J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit (1937); The Lord of the Rings (1954–55)
  • T.H. White: The Once and Future King (1938–58)
  • Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan (1946); Gormenghast (1950)
  • Norton Juster: The Phantom Tollbooth (1961)
  • Lloyd Alexander: The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–68)
  • Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951); The Caves of Steel (1954); The Naked Sun (1957)
  • John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids (1951); The Midwich Cuckoos (1957); Trouble with Lichen (1960)
  • William Goldman: The Princess Bride (1973)
  • Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
  • Michael Ende: The Neverending Story (1979)
  • Terry Pratchett: Discworld series, especially Wyrd Sisters (1988); Pyramids (1989); Guards! Guards (1989); Moving Pictures (1990); Witches Abroad (1991); Small Gods (1992); Men at Arms (1993); Maskerade (1995); Feet of Clay (1996); Jingo (1997)
  • Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow, Thorn: The Dragonbone Chair (1988), Stone of Farewell (1990), To Green Angel Tower (1993)
  • Guy Gavriel Kay: Sailing to Sarantium (1998)
  • Walter Moers: The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear (2000); Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures (2004); The City of Dreaming Books (2006); The Alchemaster’s Apprentice (2009); The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books (2012)
  • Jasper Fforde: Thursday Next series (2001–2012); Nursery Crime (2005–06)
  • Jonathan Stroud: Bartimaeus sequence (2003–2010): The Amulet of Samarkand (2003), The Golem’s Eye (2004), Ptolemy’s Gate (2005), The Ring of Solomon (2010)
  • Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (2004)
  • Jonathan L. Howard: Johannes Cabal series (2009–16)

DETECTIVE STORIES

  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes stories, 1887–1927
  • G.K. Chesterton: Father Brown stories (1911–35)
  • H.C. Bailey: Mr. Fortune short stories (1920–40); Shadow on the Wall (1934); The Sullen Sky Mystery (1935); Black Land, White Land (1937)
  • Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926); Lord Edgware Dies (1933); Murder on the Orient Express (1934); The ABC Murders (1936); Cards on the Table (1936); Death on the Nile (1937); Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (1938); And Then There Were None (1939); One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940); Evil Under the Sun (1941); Five Little Pigs (1942); Towards Zero (1944); A Murder is Announced (1950); After the Funeral (1953); The Pale Horse (1961); Endless Night (1967)
  • Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison (1930); Have His Carcase (1932); Murder Must Advertise (1933); short stories
  • Anthony Berkeley: The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929); Jumping Jenny (1933); Trial and Error (1937)
  • S.S. Van Dine: The Greene Murder Case (1928); The Bishop Murder Case (1929)
  • Margery Allingham: Police at the Funeral (1931); Dancers in Mourning (1937); The Fashion in Shrouds (1938); More Work for the Undertaker (1948)
  • Gladys Mitchell: The Saltmarsh Murders (1932); Death at the Opera (1934); The Devil at Saxon Wall (1935); Come Away, Death (1937); Brazen Tongue (1940); Death and the Maiden (1947); Tom Brown’s Body (1949); The Echoing Strangers (1952); Merlin’s Furlong (1953); The Twenty-third Man (1957)
  • Ellery Queen: The French Powder Mystery (1930); The Tragedy of X (1932); The Siamese Twin Mystery (1933); The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934)
  • John Dickson Carr: The Mad Hatter Mystery (1933); The Blind Barber (1934); The Plague Court Murders (1934); The Three Coffins (1935); The Red Widow Murders (1935); The Unicorn Murders (1935); The Arabian Nights Murder (1936); The Punch & Judy Murders (1936); The Problem of the Green Capsule (1939); The Reader is Warned (1939); Nine—and Death Makes Ten (1940); The Emperor’s Snuffbox (1942); She Died a Lady (1943)
  • Ngaio Marsh: Artists in Crime (1938); Surfeit of Lampreys (1941); Death and the Dancing Footman (1941); Colour Scheme (1943); Final Curtain (1947); Scales of Justice (1955); Off With His Head (1957); Singing in the Shrouds (1958); Clutch of Constables (1968)
  • Nicholas Blake: Thou Shell of Death (1936); The Case of the Abominable Snowman (1941); Head of a Traveller (1949); The Widow’s Cruise (1959)
  • Michael Innes: Death at the President’s Lodging (1936); Hamlet, Revenge! (1937); Lament for a Maker (1938); Stop Press (1939); The Daffodil Affair (1942); The Weight of the Evidence (1944); From London Far (1946)
  • Christianna Brand: Green for Danger (1944); Death of Jezebel (1948); London Particular (1952); Tour de Force (1955)
  • Edmund Crispin: TCOT Gilded Fly (1944); Holy Disorders (1945); Swan Song (1947); Love Lies Bleeding (1948); The Long Divorce (1951)
  • Reginald Hill: Recalled to Life (1992); Pictures of Perfection (1994); The Wood Beyond (1995); On Beulah Height (1998); Dialogues of the Dead (2002)

BDs

  • Hergé: Tintin
  • E.P. Jacobs: Blake & Mortimer
  • Goscinny & Uderzo: Asterix

NON-FICTION

  • E.H. Gombrich: The Story of Art (1950)
  • Harold Bloom: Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998)
  • Jacques Barzun: From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present – 500 Years of Western Cultural Life (2000)
  • C.G. Jung: Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933); The Undiscovered Self (1958); Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1961); Man and His Symbols (1964)
  • Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion (2006)
  • John Shelby Spong: Jesus for the Non-Religious (2007)
  • Karen Armstrong: The Case for God (2009)
  • Catherine Nixey: The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World (2017)
  • Lawrence Griswold: Tombs, Travels & Trouble (1937)
  • Gerald Durrell
  • David Attenborough: Life on Earth (1979); The Living Planet (1984); The Trials of Life (1990)
  • Dougal Dixon: After Man (1981); The New Dinosaurs (1988)
  • Bill Bryson: Mother Tongue (1990); A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)
  • Mary Roach: Stiff (2003)
  • Richard Dawkins: The Ancestor’s Tale (2004); The Greatest Show on Earth (2009)
  • Alex Bellos: Alex’s Adventures in Numberland (2010)
  • Simon Barnes: Ten Million Aliens (2014)
  • Rutger Bregman: Humankind (2019)

MOVIES

  • The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
  • Dinner at Eight (1933)
  • Duck Soup (1933)
  • The Scarlet Empress (1934)
  • Twentieth Century (1934)
  • Captain Blood (1935)
  • A Night at the Opera (1935)
  • Alexander Nevsky (1938)
  • Bringing Up Baby (1938)
  • The Women (1939)
  • His Girl Friday (1940)
  • The Philadelphia Story (1940)
  • Citizen Kane (1941)
  • Dumbo (1941)
  • The Maltese Falcon (1941)
  • Casablanca (1942)
  • Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
  • Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
  • Ivan Grozny (1944)
  • Ministry of Fear (1944)
  • Green for Danger (1946)
  • Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
  • Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
  • Sunset Boulevard (1950)
  • Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
  • Stalag 17 (1953)
  • Kiss Me Kate (1953)
  • Rear Window (1954)
  • Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
  • The Trouble with Harry (1955)
  • Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
  • 12 Angry Men (1956)
  • Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
  • The Seventh Seal (1957)
  • Wild Strawberries (1957)
  • North by Northwest (1959)
  • Some Like It Hot (1959)
  • West Side Story (1961)
  • Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
  • The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
  • What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
  • From Russia with Love (1963)
  • Dr. Strangelove (1964)
  • Goldfinger (1964)
  • Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
  • It Happened Here (1965)
  • The Loved One (1965)
  • The War Game (1965)
  • What’s New Pussycat (1965)
  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
  • Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
  • The Wrong Box (1966)
  • Bedazzled (1967)
  • Casino Royale (1967)
  • The Honey Pot (1967)
  • The Lion in Winter (1968)
  • The Producers (1968)
  • The Assassination Bureau (1969)
  • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
  • The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)
  • Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
  • Cabaret (1972)
  • The Ruling Class (1972)
  • Sleuth (1972)
  • Blazing Saddles (1974)
  • Royal Flash (1975)
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
  • Death on the Nile (1978)
  • The Life of Brian (1979)
  • Don Giovanni (1979)
  • The Elephant Man (1980)
  • E.T. (1982)
  • The Dresser (1983)
  • Wagner (1983)
  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
  • The Neverending Story (1984)
  • Brazil (1985)
  • The Name of the Rose (1986)
  • Whoops Apocalypse (1986)
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
  • The Tall Guy (1989)
  • Gremlins II (1990)
  • Jurassic Park (1993)
  • Schindler’s List (1993)
  • Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
  • The Lion King (1994)
  • Richard III (1995)
  • Hamlet (1996)
  • Life is Beautiful (1997)
  • Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
  • Pleasantville (1998)
  • The Truman Show (1998)
  • Topsy-Turvy (1999)
  • The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003)
  • Chicago (2002)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean (2003–2007)
  • The Aviator (2004)
  • Der Untergang (2004)
  • King Kong (2005)
  • The Illusionist (2006)
  • V for Vendetta (2006)
  • Agora (2009)
  • Hugo (2011)
  • Iron Sky (2012)
  • The Lone Ranger (2013)
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
  • Kingsman (2015)
  • Tolkien (2019)

TELEVISION & RADIO

  • The Goon Show (1951–1960)
    • Scradje
    • 6 Charlies in Search of an Author
    • Insurance, the White Man’s Burden
    • The House of Teeth
    • The Canal
    • Forog
    • Napoleon’s Piano
    • The Man Who Never Was
    • The Nasty Affair at the Burami Oasis
    • The Case of the Missing CD Plates
    • The Lost Year
    • Lurgi Strikes Britain
    • World War I
    • The Phantom Head Shaver
    • The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill on Sea
    • Foiled by President Fred
    • The Affair of the Lone Banana
    • The End
    • The String Robberies
    • The Case of the Vanishing Room
  • Quatermass II (1955)
  • Quatermass and the Pit (1958)
  • The Strange World of Gurney Slade (1960)
  • The Avengers (1961–1969)
    • Don’t Look Behind You / The Joker
  • Danger Man (1964–1968)
    • The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove
    • Colony Three
  • Peter Cook & Dudley Moore (1964–1970)
  • Out of the Unknown (1965–1971)
  • Adam Adamant Lives! (1966–1967)
  • Alice in Wonderland (Jonathan Miller) (1966)
  • The Forsyte Saga (1967)
  • The Prisoner (1967)
  • The Caesars (1968)
  • Dad’s Army (1968–1977)
  • The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968)
  • Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969–1974)
  • Catweazle (1970–1971)
  • The Goodies (1970–1981)
    • “Radio Goodies”
    • “Gender Education” / “Sex & Violence”
    • “It Might As Well Be String”
    • “The Goodies Rule, O.K.”
  • The Two Ronnies (1971–1987)
  • Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979)
  • I, Claudius (1976)
  • Ripping Yarns (1976–1979)
  • The Norman Conquests (1977)
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (radio & TV series) (1978)
  • BBC Shakespeare (1978–1985)
  • Sapphire and Steel (1979–1982)
  • The Mysterious Cities of Gold (1982)
  • Danger Mouse (1981–1992)
  • Blackadder (1983–1989)
  • Miss Marple (1984–1992)
  • Sherlock Holmes (1984–1994)
  • A Very Peculiar Practice (1986–88)
  • The New Statesman (1987–1994)
  • Maid Marian and Her Merry Men (1989–1994)
  • A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1989–1995)
  • Poirot (1989–2013)
  • House of Cards (UK) (1990)
  • Jeeves & Wooster (1990–1993)
  • Neverwhere (1996)
  • Coupling (2000–2004)
  • Believe Nothing (2002)
  • Nebulous (2005–2008) (radio)
  • Bleak Expectations (2007–12) (radio)
  • David Attenborough
    • Life on Earth (1979)
    • The Living Planet (1984)
    • The Trials of Life (1990)
  • The Century of the Self (2002)

DOCTOR WHO

Television

  • First Doctor (William Hartnell): An Unearthly Child (episode 1); Marco Polo; The Aztecs; The Romans; The Crusade (episode 3); The Space Museum (episode 1); The Myth Makers; The Daleks’ Master Plan; The Massacre; The Gunfighters
  • Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton): The Power of the Daleks; The Evil of the Daleks; The Mind Robber
  • Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee): Dr. Who and the Silurians; Inferno; Carnival of Monsters; The Green Death
  • Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker): Genesis of the Daleks; Planet of Evil; The Seeds of Doom; The Talons of Weng-Chiang; Horror of Fang Rock; City of Death
  • Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison): Kinda
  • Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy): The Greatest Show in the Galaxy; Ghost Light; The Curse of Fenric

Big Finish audio plays

  • Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison): Omega; The Kingmaker
  • Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker): The Holy Terror; The One Doctor; …ish; Jubilee; Doctor Who and the Pirates; My Own Private Wolfgang
  • Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy): Flip-Flop; Night Thoughts; The Magic Mousetrap
  • Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann): The Chimes of Midnight; The Natural History of Fear

Books

  • Target: The Romans (Donald Cotton); The Crusaders (David Whitaker); The Myth Makers (Donald Cotton); The Gunfighters (Donald Cotton); The Doomsday Machine (Malcolm Hulke)
  • New Adventures: Love and War (Paul Cornell); Original Sin (Andy Lane); Human Nature (Paul Cornell); Sky Pirates! (Dave Stone); The Also People (Ben Aaronovitch); Just War (Lance Parkin); Down (Lawrence Miles)
  • Missing Adventures: The Plotters (Gareth Roberts); The Empire of Glass (Andy Lane)
  • BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures: Alien Bodies (Lawrence Miles); The Scarlet Empress (Paul Magrs); Interference (Lawrence Miles); The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (Lawrence Miles); The Book of the Still (Paul Ebbs); The Tomorrow Windows (Jonathan Morris)
  • BBC Past Doctor Adventures: Eye of Heaven (Jim Mortimore); Festival of Death (Jonathan Morris); Verdigris (Paul Magrs); The Shadow in the Glass (Justin Richards & Stephen Cole)