Martin Jarvis has narrated 57 audiobooks on Listento.it by 47 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 2,477 ratings. The most-rated is Good Omens.
Dick Francis' Refusal
Summary
Six years ago, investigator Sid Halley retired for good. He'd been harassed, beaten, shot, even lost a hand to his investigating business, and enough was enough. For the sake of his wife and new daughter he gave up that life of danger and uncertainty, and he thought nothing would ever lure him back into the game. He thought wrong. Sir Richard Stewart, chairman of the racing authority, begs Sid to investigate a series of dodgy races. Sid adamantly refuses, but the following day, Sir Richard is found dead under suspicious circumstances. And then a man with an Irish accent contacts Sid, telling him to deliver a whitewashed report about the suspected race-fixing...or else. At first Sid ignores these warnings, knowing that once he submits to this criminal bully, he will forever be under his control. But as the intimidation tactics escalate - and Sid' s own family comes under threat - Sid realizes he must meet his enemy head-on...or he might pay the ultimate price for his refusal.
©2013 Felix Francis (P)2013 Recorded Books
A Woman of No Importance
Summary
Devilishly attractive Lord Illingworth is notorious for his skill as a seducer. But he is still invited to all the "best" houses, while his female conquests must hide their shame in seclusion. In this devastating drawing-room comedy, Oscar Wilde uses his celebrated wit to expose English society's narrow view of everything from sexual mores to Americans.
© and (P) L.A. Theatre Works
Crisis
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Felix Francis returns with his newest edge-of-your-seat horse-racing thriller in the Dick Francis tradition. Harrison Foster, a crisis manager for a London firm, is summoned to Newmarket after a fire in the Chadwick stables kills six very valuable horses, including the short-priced favorite for the Derby. There is far more to the "simple" fire than initially meets the eye...for a start, human remains are found among the equestrian ones in the burnt-out shell. All the stable staff are accounted for, so who is the mystery victim? Harry knows very little about horses; indeed, he positively dislikes them, but he is thrust unwillingly into the world of thoroughbred racing, where the standard of care of the equine stars is far higher than that of the humans who attend to them. The Chadwick family is a dysfunctional racing dynasty. Resentment between the generations is rife, and sibling rivalry bubbles away like volcanic magma beneath a thin crust of respectability. Harry represents the Middle Eastern owner of the Derby favorite, and as he delves deeper into the unanswered questions surrounding the horse's demise, he ignites a fuse that blows the volcano sky-high. Can Harry solve the riddle before he is bumped off by the fallout?
©2018 Felix Francis (P)2018 Recorded Books
Front Runner
Summary
Jefferson Hinkley is back in the newest Dick Francis thriller by the New York Times best-selling author of Damage. In his role as an undercover investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, Jeff Hinkley is approached by a multitime champion jockey to discuss the delicate matter of losing races on purpose. Little does he know that the call will set off a lethal chain of events, including the apparent suicide of the jockey and an attempt on Hinkley's own life. Never one to leave suspicious events alone, Hinkley begins investigating the jockey and the races he may have thrown. But there are others out there who intend to prevent his inquiry from probing further...at any cost.
©2015 Felix Francis (P)2015 Recorded Books
The Inimitable Jeeves
Summary
The first volume of Wodehouse's brilliant complete and unabridged short stories. Originally a semi-novel, this version contains self-contained stories which are nonetheless linked, often by Bingo Little, an endearingly hopeless chap and a serial romancer. Jeeves Exerts The Old Cerebellum (18'11") No Wedding Bells For Bingo (16'49") Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind (14'56") Pearls Mean Tears (24'28") The Pride Of The Woosters Is Wounded (16'30") The Hero's Reward (13'38") Introducing Claude And Eustace (11'13") Sir Roderick Comes To Lunch (18'10") A Letter Of Introduction (19'12") Startling Dressiness Of A Lift Attendant (21'54") Comrade Bingo (21'44") Bingo has a Bad Goodwood (18'03")
©2008 CSA Word (P)2009 CSA Word
![Cover art for The Canterbury Tales [Blackstone]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51hYW6lZBaL._SL500_.jpg)
The Canterbury Tales [Blackstone]
Summary
At the Tabard Inn, 30 travelers of widely varying classes and occupations are gathering to make the annual pilgrimage to Becket's shrine at Canterbury. It is agreed that each traveler will tell four tales to help pass the time and that the host of the inn will judge the tales and reward the best storyteller with a free supper upon their return. Thus we hear, translated into modern English, 20-some tales, told in the voices of knight and merchant, wife and miller, squire and nun, and many more. Some are bawdy, some spiritual, some romantic, some mysterious, some chivalrous. Between the stories, the travelers converse, joke, and argue, revealing much about their individual outlooks on life, as well as what life was like in late 14th-century England.
©2003 Gavin Menzies (P)2008 Blackstone Audio
Very Good Jeeves, Volume 2
Summary
The second instalment of this wonderful collection of short stories sees Bertie Wooster in the proverbial soup as usual and Jeeves invariably shimmering to the rescue. Love, comic reunions and errant Uncles are all on the agenda, plus bucket loads of laughter. Where would Wooster be without his infinitely brainy valet? Where would audio listeners be without Wodehouse's sparkling comic invention?
©2011 CSA Word (P)2011 CSA Word
Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare
Summary
Have you ever seen a Shakespeare play and come away without fully understanding it? Or wished you had known the basis of the plot before seeing a play by Shakespeare? Are you studying Shakespeare? Would you like to increase your knowledge of the plays without reading the originals? Then these are the recordings for you! Brother and sister team, Charles and Mary Lamb, originally wrote these stories for children in 1807, based on Shakespeare's most famous plays. Their success was immediate and their appeal quickly extended to an adult readership. This lively and accessibly audio version is compelling listening for the whole family, and will prove a great resource and inspiration to students, scholars, and newcomers to the Bard alike.
©2004 CSA Telltapes Ltd (P)2004 CSA Telltapes Ltd
Man of the Moment
Summary
The price of accidental fame is hashed out in this comedy about a famous bank robber and the clerk who foiled his biggest heist. Ayckbourn’s 1988 play anticipates the popularity - and absurdity - of reality TV. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Rosalind Ayres as Jill Rillington; Jane Carr as Trudy Parks; Kenneth Danziger as Douglas Beechey; Martin Jarvis as Vic Parks; Ian Oglivy as Kenny Collins; and Yeardley Smith as Sharon Giffin. Directed by Robert Robinson. Recorded before a live audience in Santa Monica, California in February 1994.
©2012 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2012 L.A. Theatre Works
Peter Pan
Summary
When Peter Pan flies through the Darling Children's nursery window one night, he is nearly captured and makes a hasty escape, leaving behind his shadow. Returning with the fairy Tinker Bell to reclaim it, he wakes up Wendy, John and Michael and whisks them away to the magical shores of Neverland. There they meet the Lost Boys, befriend Tiger Lily and her Braves, swim with the mermaids in the lagoon and have a host of wonderful adventures. But danger awaits too, for the terrible Captain Hook and his pirate gang are determined to make them walk the plank.... Abridged by Martin Jarvis, J. M. Barrie's timeless masterpiece is introduced by Michael Morpurgo and read by 10 star actors: Kit Harrington, Martin Jarvis, Alex Jennings, Alex Kingston, Joanna Lumley, Helen McCrory, Jennifer Saunders, Juliet Stevenson, David Walliams and Zoe Wanamaker. All of Penguin Random House's profits from the sale of this recording will be shared equally between The Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust (Registered Scottish Charity Number SC041382 and Company Number SC363695) and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (Registered Charity Number 1160024 and Company number 09338724).
Public Domain (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Short Stories: The Vintage Collection
Summary
The fifth volume in CSA Word's massively popular complete and unabridged ‘Short Stories’ collection is bound to please. With something for everyone this collection of classic stories read by only the best-suited and most established readers will delight the ears as a vintage wine excites the gullet; The Vintage Collection is audible gold. Full story listing: 'The Old Couple' - Alphonse Daudet, read by Stephen Fry 13.49 'Pat Hobby Does His Bit' - F. Scott Fitzgerald, read by Kerry Shale 14.46 'A Tale of Negative Gravity' - Frank R. Stockton, read by Nicky Henson 41.50 'The Kiss' - Kate Chopin, read by Rupert Degas 06.54 'A Double Tragedy' - Louisa May Alcott, read by Derek Jacobi 53.48 'The Boar Pig' - Saki, read by Barbara Leigh-Hunt 12.06 'Sredni Vashtar' - Saki, read by Robin Bailey 11.15 'The Werewolf' - Frederick Marryat, read by Robin Bailey 48.23 'At the Article of Death' - John Buchan, read by Iain Cuthbertson 16.28 'The Toys of Peace' - Saki, read by Rupert Degas 12.25 'The Son’s Veto' - Thomas Hardy, read by Joanna David 38.24 'The Wrong Black Bag' - Angelo Lewis, read by Rupert Degas 25.45 'The Foolhardy Mouse and the Cautious Cat, - James Thurber, read by Liza Goddard 03.15 'The Cat and the Lifeboat' - James Thurber, read by Richard Griffiths 04.51 ,The Owl and the Pussycat' - Edward Lear, read by Liza Goddard 01.22 'A Terribly Strange Bed' - Wilkie Collins, read by Robin Bailey 39.10 'Providence and the Butler' - P. G.Wodehouse, read by Martin Jarvis 19.50 'The Box Tunnel' - Charles Reade, read by Rupert Degas 17.33 'On Eating and Drinking' - Jerome K. Jerome, read by Hugh Laurie 13.39 'To Catch a Thief' - E. W. Hornung, read by Rupert Degas 50.28 'The Locket' - Kate Chopin, read by Rupert Degas 14.33
©2009 CSA Word (P)2009 CSA Word
Pigs Have Wings
Summary
In Pigs Have Wings, affably potty Lord Emsworth is embroiled in a fierce pig-rearing battle with his obese neighbour, Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe. Tossed in for good measure: romantic entanglements, some dubious detective work and a fearful dieting product called 'Slimmo'. Blandings is also never complete without the resourcefulness of canny Gally Threepwood, the staunchness of 'man mountain' butler Beach and the stentorian tones of Lady Constance ringing around its batty corridors (there's even an imposter or two). Naturally a pig-napping is afoot, but who will have the last oink?
©1952 P. G. Wodehouse estate (P)2009 CSA Word
Tartuffe
Summary
Initially banned in France by King Louis, Molière's celebrated social satire Tartuffe exposes false piety and hypocrisy in the Catholic Church. When a pious fraud worms his way into a wealthy family and manipulates the patriarch into giving up his fortune, it’s up to his family to expose the truth before they end up in the poorhouse! An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance starring: Brian Bedford as Tartuffe JB Blanc as M. Loyal and Officer Daniel Blinkoff as Damis Gia Carides as Dorine Jane Carr as Mme. Pernelle John de Lancie as Cleante Martin Jarvis as Orgon Alex Kingston as Elmire Matthew Rhys as Valere Sarah Zimmerman as Mariane Translated by Richard Wilbur. Directed by Dakin Matthews. Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood in June, 2010.
©2010 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2010 L.A. Theatre Works
An Ideal Husband
Summary
A tender love story, a serpentine villainess, a glittering setting in London society, and a showering of Wildean witticism are only a few of the reasons why this play has enjoyed hugely successful revivals in London, in New York, and on the silver screen. This 1895 drama is eerily prescient, as it examines the plight of a promising politician, desperate to hide a secret in his past. With empathy and wit, Oscar Wilde explores the pitfalls of holding public figures to higher standards than the rest of us.
(P)2006 L.A. Theatre Works
Summer's Lease
Summary
It’s high summer when Molly Pargeter drags her amiably bickering family to a rented Tuscan villa for the holidays. Molly is sure that the house is the perfect setting for their three-week getaway, but soon she becomes fascinated by the lives of the absent owners and things start to go horribly wrong.
©1988 Advenpress Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The Diary of a Nobody
Summary
The Diary of Nobody (1892) created a cultural icon, an English archetype. Anxious, accident-prone, occasionally waspish, Charles Pooter has come to epitomize English suburban life. His diary chronicles encounters with difficult tradesmen, the delights of home improvements, small parties, minor embarrassments, and problems with his troublesome son. The suburban world he inhabits is hilariously and painfully familiar in its small-mindedness and its essential decency.
©2005 Naxos Audiobooks (P)2005 Naxos Audiobooks
Felix in the Underworld
Summary
Affectionately known as the Chekhov of Coldsands-on-Sea, Felix Morsom enjoys writing about the thwarted hopes of genteel lives. His own existence, he reflects, is comfortable if uneventful, except for the flirtatious moments he shares with his publicist, the delicious Brenda Bodkin. Until he meets Gavin and Miriam.Suddenly he is on the run from PROD, the Parental Rights and Obligations Department, as Miriam announces he is the father of her son Ian, the result of a long-forgotten drunken dalliance. And, as if that wasn't enough, he becomes the prime suspect in a murder case. Disappearing into the underworld of London's homeless, Felix finds friendship and humour and more drama than he has ever encountered - even in his wildest dreams...
©1997 Advanpress Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Table Manners
Summary
England’s famous seducer of other men’s wives lays siege to his sister-in-law in the first “battle” of Ayckbourn’s celebrated trilogy The Norman Conquests. In Table Manners, the action occurs in the dining room of Mother’s house, where a conventional middle-class family is attempting to have a pleasant country weekend. But they are no match for Norman, the bane of the family, who horrifies everyone by doing exactly as he likes. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Rosalind Ayres as Sarah, Kenneth Danziger as Reg, Martin Jarvis as Norman, Jane Leeves as Annie, Christopher Neame as Tom, and Carolyn Seymour as Ruth.
©1997 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2009 L.A. Theatre Works
The Alan Ayckbourn Collection
Summary
Six plays from the Olivier, Tony, and Moliere Award-winning playwright Alan Ayckbourn: The legendary The Norman Conquests trilogy; as well as a brand new recording of his play Henceforward… starring Mad Men's Jarred Harris alongside Anne Heche; Just Between Ourselves starring Alfred Molina; and a remastering of L.A. Theatre Works’ recording of Man of the Moment. Ayckbourn’s celebrated triology The Norman Conquests includes three hilarious and poignant plays depicting the same six characters in one house over one weekend, namely Norman and his romantic follies. "Table Manners" (The Norman Conquests, part 1): England’s famous seducer of other men’s wives lays siege to his sister-in-law in the first “battle”. A middle-class family trying to have a pleasant country weekend is no match for Norman, who horrifies everyone by doing exactly as he likes. "Living Together" (The Norman Conquests, part 2): In the second “battle” Norman gets drunk on homemade wine - and all hell breaks loose. He unleashes his merry brand of manipulative charm on the hapless guests, and even his most formidable opponents go down in defeat on the drawing-room rug. "Round and Round the Garden" (The Norman Conquests, part 3): In the third "battle", the setting is Mother’s overgrown English garden, where something more troublesome than brambles lurks among the roses. Havoc ensues as this satirical masterpiece makes its way to a hilarious conclusion. Cast: Rosalind Ayres as Sarah, Kenneth Danziger as Reg, Martin Jarvis as Norman, Jane Leeves as Annie, Christopher Neame as Tom, and Carolyn Seymour as Ruth. Directed by Dennis Erdman. Just Between Ourselves, starring Alfred Molina - this is the first of Ayckbourn’s darkly comic masterpieces and involves a relentlessly cheerful handyman in a disastrously fractured marriage. Two couples develop an unlikely friendship in this painfully funny portrait of British suburban life. Cast: Gia Carides as Pam, Kenneth Danziger as Dennis, Judy Geeson as Vera, Miriam Margolyes as Marjorie, and Alfred Molina as Neil. Directed by Waris Hussein. Writers block, divorce, and a female robot - these are the ingredients for the hilarious Henceforward.... Alan Ayckbourn writes about the not so distant future of what lengths a man will go to be inspired again, gain the love of his daughter, and redress the pain of his past. Cast: Jared Harris as Jerome, Anne Heche as Nan (act I) and Corrina, Jack Davenport as Mervyn, Paula Jane Newman as Geain, Moira Quirk as Zoe and Nan (act II), and Darren Richardson as Lupus. Directed by Martin Jarvis. In the comedy Man of the Moment, the price of accidental fame is hashed out, inspired by the Great Train Robbers, such as Edward and Ronnie Biggs. It's about a famous bank robber and the clerk who foiled his biggest heist. Ayckbourn’s 1988 play anticipates the popularity - and absurdity - of reality TV. Cast: Rosalind Ayres as Jill Rillington, Jane Carr as Trudy Parks, Kenneth Danziger as Douglas Beechey, Martin Jarvis as Vic Parks, Ian Oglivy as Kenny Collins, and Yeardley Smith as Sharon Giffin. Directed by Robert Robinson.
Public Domain (P)2011 L.A. Theatre Works
Exchange (Dramatized)
Summary
The dreary aspects of Soviet housing and one family’s attempt to “exchange” its tiny Moscow apartment for a larger one. Adapted from a novella by the respected Russian writer Yuri Trifanov, as translated by playwright Michael Frayn. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Ian Abercrombie as Viktor’s Father Rosalind Ayres as Lena Sharon Bamber as Aunt Ahenya Joyce Blair as Viktor’s Mother Barbara Bosson as Lora Peter A. Jacobs as Kalugin and Felix Martin Jarvis as Viktor Zosukuma Kunene as Alik Anna Sophie Loewenberg as Natashka Vonetta McGee as Tanya Marian Mercer as Lena’s Mother Robin Nordli as Factory Director and Funeral Orator William Palmieri as Snitkin and others John Randolph as Viktor’s Grandfather Melissa Smigley as Marina, and Girl Next Door Malachi Throne as Lena’s Father Translated and adapted by Michael Frayn. Directed by Robert Robinson. Recorded before a live audience in Santa Monica, CA in April, 1992.
©2012 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2012 L.A. Theatre Works