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Daphne du Maurier: The BBC Radio Collection: Including Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek & more
A comprehensive collection of dramatisations of Daphne du Maurier’s works
'Containing performances from well-known actors from past and present, Daphne du The BBC Radio Collection is a rich feast for all fans of the writer's work.' - Entertainment Focus
Daphne du Maurier was one of the 20th century’s most popular writers. Extraordinarily prolific, she produced a string of bestsellers, many of which were adapted as award-winning films. From romance and adventure yarns to psychological thrillers and supernatural tales, the breadth and imaginative variety of her storytelling continues to thrill us today.
This bumper collection features her most famous works and some lesser-known gems, beginning with full-cast adaptations of seven of her much-loved novels – Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, Frenchman’s Creek, The King’s General, My Cousin Rachel, The Scapegoat and The House on the Strand . With settings ranging from the 19th century to the English Civil War and the Black Death of 1349, these thrilling tales take us from the wilds of Cornwall to Monte Carlo, Italy and northwestern France. Among the star casts are Susannah Corbett, Christopher Cazenove, Lorna Heilbron, Cathryn Harrison, Adam Godley, Hugh Burden and Ian Richardson.
Next up are two of her acclaimed plays, The Years Between , set in the 1940s and telling the story of a woman whose MP husband is reported killed in action, and September Tide , a bittersweet love story centred around a mother, her newly-married daughter and her artist son-in-law. Diana Quick, Roger Allam, Paula Wilcox, Jonathan Firth and Alice Hart star in these twisty, subversive dramas.
We conclude with a selection of Daphne du Maurier’s short fiction. Dramatised by Melissa Murray, ‘The Birds’ stars Neil Dudgeon and Nicola Walker. It is followed by ‘The Blue Lenses’ and ‘The Little Photographer’, starring Bethany Muir and Lucy Boynton respectively; and ‘The Apple Tree’, starring Charles Gray. Also included are full-cast adaptations of ‘Panic’ (starring Dinsdale Landen and Maureen O’Brien), ‘The Chamois’ (starring Christopher Cazenove and Anna Cropper), ‘The Alibi’ (starring Tony Britton and Sarah Badel), ‘Ganymede’ (starring John Le Mesurier and Anthony Daniels) and ‘Don’t Look Now’ (starring Jamie Parker and Aisling Loftus).
Please note that the pieces in this collection range from vintage 1970s productions to modern adaptations, and the sound quality reflects the age of the recordings.
Contents
Jamaica Inn
Rebecca
Frenchman’s Creek
The King’s General
My Cousin Rachel
The Scapegoat
The House on the Strand
The Years Between
September Tide
‘The Birds’
‘The Blue Lenses’
‘The Little Photographer’
‘The Apple Tree’
‘Panic’
‘The Chamois’
‘The Alibi’
‘Ganymede’
‘Don’t Look Now’
Text copyright 1936 (Jamaica Inn), 1938 (Rebecca), 1941 (Frenchman’s Creek), 1943 (The Years Between), 1946 (The King’s General), 1949 (September Tide), 1951 (My Cousin Rachel), 1952 (‘The Birds’, ‘The Little Photographer’, ‘Blue Lenses’, ‘The Apple Tree’), 1954 (‘Panic’), 1957 (The Scapegoat), 1959 (‘The Chamois’, ‘The Alibi’, ‘Ganymede’), 1969 (The House on the Strand), 1971 (‘Don’t Look Now’).
2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
'Containing performances from well-known actors from past and present, Daphne du The BBC Radio Collection is a rich feast for all fans of the writer's work.' - Entertainment Focus
Daphne du Maurier was one of the 20th century’s most popular writers. Extraordinarily prolific, she produced a string of bestsellers, many of which were adapted as award-winning films. From romance and adventure yarns to psychological thrillers and supernatural tales, the breadth and imaginative variety of her storytelling continues to thrill us today.
This bumper collection features her most famous works and some lesser-known gems, beginning with full-cast adaptations of seven of her much-loved novels – Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, Frenchman’s Creek, The King’s General, My Cousin Rachel, The Scapegoat and The House on the Strand . With settings ranging from the 19th century to the English Civil War and the Black Death of 1349, these thrilling tales take us from the wilds of Cornwall to Monte Carlo, Italy and northwestern France. Among the star casts are Susannah Corbett, Christopher Cazenove, Lorna Heilbron, Cathryn Harrison, Adam Godley, Hugh Burden and Ian Richardson.
Next up are two of her acclaimed plays, The Years Between , set in the 1940s and telling the story of a woman whose MP husband is reported killed in action, and September Tide , a bittersweet love story centred around a mother, her newly-married daughter and her artist son-in-law. Diana Quick, Roger Allam, Paula Wilcox, Jonathan Firth and Alice Hart star in these twisty, subversive dramas.
We conclude with a selection of Daphne du Maurier’s short fiction. Dramatised by Melissa Murray, ‘The Birds’ stars Neil Dudgeon and Nicola Walker. It is followed by ‘The Blue Lenses’ and ‘The Little Photographer’, starring Bethany Muir and Lucy Boynton respectively; and ‘The Apple Tree’, starring Charles Gray. Also included are full-cast adaptations of ‘Panic’ (starring Dinsdale Landen and Maureen O’Brien), ‘The Chamois’ (starring Christopher Cazenove and Anna Cropper), ‘The Alibi’ (starring Tony Britton and Sarah Badel), ‘Ganymede’ (starring John Le Mesurier and Anthony Daniels) and ‘Don’t Look Now’ (starring Jamie Parker and Aisling Loftus).
Please note that the pieces in this collection range from vintage 1970s productions to modern adaptations, and the sound quality reflects the age of the recordings.
Contents
Jamaica Inn
Rebecca
Frenchman’s Creek
The King’s General
My Cousin Rachel
The Scapegoat
The House on the Strand
The Years Between
September Tide
‘The Birds’
‘The Blue Lenses’
‘The Little Photographer’
‘The Apple Tree’
‘Panic’
‘The Chamois’
‘The Alibi’
‘Ganymede’
‘Don’t Look Now’
Text copyright 1936 (Jamaica Inn), 1938 (Rebecca), 1941 (Frenchman’s Creek), 1943 (The Years Between), 1946 (The King’s General), 1949 (September Tide), 1951 (My Cousin Rachel), 1952 (‘The Birds’, ‘The Little Photographer’, ‘Blue Lenses’, ‘The Apple Tree’), 1954 (‘Panic’), 1957 (The Scapegoat), 1959 (‘The Chamois’, ‘The Alibi’, ‘Ganymede’), 1969 (The House on the Strand), 1971 (‘Don’t Look Now’).
2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
Audible Audio
Published November 21, 2024
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About the author
Daphne du Maurier
425 books10.3k followersDaphne du Maurier was born on 13 May 1907 at 24 Cumberland Terrace, Regent's Park, London, the middle of three daughters of prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel, née Beaumont. In many ways her life resembles a fairy tale. Born into a family with a rich artistic and historical background, her paternal grandfather was author and Punch cartoonist George du Maurier, who created the character of Svengali in the 1894 novel Trilby, and her mother was a maternal niece of journalist, author, and lecturer Comyns Beaumont. She and her sisters were indulged as a children and grew up enjoying enormous freedom from financial and parental restraint. Her elder sister, Angela du Maurier, also became a writer, and her younger sister Jeanne was a painter.
She spent her youth sailing boats, travelling on the Continent with friends, and writing stories. Her family connections helped her establish her literary career, and she published some of her early work in Beaumont's Bystander magazine. A prestigious publishing house accepted her first novel when she was in her early twenties, and its publication brought her not only fame but the attentions of a handsome soldier, Major (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Frederick Browning, whom she married.
She continued writing under her maiden name, and her subsequent novels became bestsellers, earning her enormous wealth and fame. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight. While Alfred Hitchcock's films based upon her novels proceeded to make her one of the best-known authors in the world, she enjoyed the life of a fairy princess in a mansion in Cornwall called Menabilly, which served as the model for Manderley in Rebecca.
Daphne du Maurier was obsessed with the past. She intensively researched the lives of Francis and Anthony Bacon, the history of Cornwall, the Regency period, and nineteenth-century France and England. Above all, however, she was obsessed with her own family history, which she chronicled in Gerald: A Portrait, a biography of her father; The du Mauriers, a study of her family which focused on her grandfather, George du Maurier, the novelist and illustrator for Punch; The Glassblowers, a novel based upon the lives of her du Maurier ancestors; and Growing Pains, an autobiography that ignores nearly 50 years of her life in favour of the joyful and more romantic period of her youth. Daphne du Maurier can best be understood in terms of her remarkable and paradoxical family, the ghosts which haunted her life and fiction.
While contemporary writers were dealing critically with such subjects as the war, alienation, religion, poverty, Marxism, psychology and art, and experimenting with new techniques such as the stream of consciousness, du Maurier produced 'old-fashioned' novels with straightforward narratives that appealed to a popular audience's love of fantasy, adventure, sexuality and mystery. At an early age, she recognised that her readership was comprised principally of women, and she cultivated their loyal following through several decades by embodying their desires and dreams in her novels and short stories.
In some of her novels, however, she went beyond the technique of the formulaic romance to achieve a powerful psychological realism reflecting her intense feelings about her father, and to a lesser degree, her mother. This vision, which underlies Julius, Rebecca and The Parasites, is that of an author overwhelmed by the memory of her father's commanding presence. In Julius and The Parasites, for example, she introduces the image of a domineering but deadly father and the daring subject of incest.
In Rebecca, on the other hand, du Maurier fuses psychological realism with a sophisticated version of the Cinderella story.
She spent her youth sailing boats, travelling on the Continent with friends, and writing stories. Her family connections helped her establish her literary career, and she published some of her early work in Beaumont's Bystander magazine. A prestigious publishing house accepted her first novel when she was in her early twenties, and its publication brought her not only fame but the attentions of a handsome soldier, Major (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Frederick Browning, whom she married.
She continued writing under her maiden name, and her subsequent novels became bestsellers, earning her enormous wealth and fame. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight. While Alfred Hitchcock's films based upon her novels proceeded to make her one of the best-known authors in the world, she enjoyed the life of a fairy princess in a mansion in Cornwall called Menabilly, which served as the model for Manderley in Rebecca.
Daphne du Maurier was obsessed with the past. She intensively researched the lives of Francis and Anthony Bacon, the history of Cornwall, the Regency period, and nineteenth-century France and England. Above all, however, she was obsessed with her own family history, which she chronicled in Gerald: A Portrait, a biography of her father; The du Mauriers, a study of her family which focused on her grandfather, George du Maurier, the novelist and illustrator for Punch; The Glassblowers, a novel based upon the lives of her du Maurier ancestors; and Growing Pains, an autobiography that ignores nearly 50 years of her life in favour of the joyful and more romantic period of her youth. Daphne du Maurier can best be understood in terms of her remarkable and paradoxical family, the ghosts which haunted her life and fiction.
While contemporary writers were dealing critically with such subjects as the war, alienation, religion, poverty, Marxism, psychology and art, and experimenting with new techniques such as the stream of consciousness, du Maurier produced 'old-fashioned' novels with straightforward narratives that appealed to a popular audience's love of fantasy, adventure, sexuality and mystery. At an early age, she recognised that her readership was comprised principally of women, and she cultivated their loyal following through several decades by embodying their desires and dreams in her novels and short stories.
In some of her novels, however, she went beyond the technique of the formulaic romance to achieve a powerful psychological realism reflecting her intense feelings about her father, and to a lesser degree, her mother. This vision, which underlies Julius, Rebecca and The Parasites, is that of an author overwhelmed by the memory of her father's commanding presence. In Julius and The Parasites, for example, she introduces the image of a domineering but deadly father and the daring subject of incest.
In Rebecca, on the other hand, du Maurier fuses psychological realism with a sophisticated version of the Cinderella story.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 27, 2025
5-star overall rating because of the production values, acting and the general excellence of the storytelling and ideas - du Maurier (as the source) is a master. This was also something I looked forward to returning to and/or eagerly anticipated the next story.
Highly recommend!
1. Jamaica Inn - 4/5 stars
2. Rebecca - 2/5 stars (The brilliance and suspense of the novel did not translate very effectively to this radio play. Too much needed to be omitted, therefore compromising the story. A listener not already familiar with the original may feel differently).
3. Frenchman’s Creek - 2/5 stars
4. The King’s General - 1/5 stars
5. My Cousin Rachel - 4/5 stars
6. The Scapegoat - 3/5 stars
7. The House on the Strand - 3/5 stars
8. The Years Between - 4/5 stars
9. September Tide - 3/5 stars
10. The Birds - 5/5 stars (Terrifying! An excellent production. I love how it’s left unresolved and unexplained).
11. The Blue Lenses - 3/5 stars (So weird, yet compelling).
12. The Little Photographer - 2/5 stars (The story was fine, the main characters fairly reprehensible. I do like how du Maurier leaves aspects of the story unresolved, though - true for many of the stories here).
13. The Apple Tree - 4/5 stars
14. Panic - 2/5 stars (The story was fine but there was something disconcerting about the constant ‘you bitch!’).
15. The Chamois - 1.5/5 stars
16. The Alibi - 3/5 stars
17. Ganymede - 1/5 stars (The predatory, paedophilic undertones were too unsettling).
18. Don’t Look Now - 5/5 stars (Excellent voice cast and acting!).
Highly recommend!
1. Jamaica Inn - 4/5 stars
2. Rebecca - 2/5 stars (The brilliance and suspense of the novel did not translate very effectively to this radio play. Too much needed to be omitted, therefore compromising the story. A listener not already familiar with the original may feel differently).
3. Frenchman’s Creek - 2/5 stars
4. The King’s General - 1/5 stars
5. My Cousin Rachel - 4/5 stars
6. The Scapegoat - 3/5 stars
7. The House on the Strand - 3/5 stars
8. The Years Between - 4/5 stars
9. September Tide - 3/5 stars
10. The Birds - 5/5 stars (Terrifying! An excellent production. I love how it’s left unresolved and unexplained).
11. The Blue Lenses - 3/5 stars (So weird, yet compelling).
12. The Little Photographer - 2/5 stars (The story was fine, the main characters fairly reprehensible. I do like how du Maurier leaves aspects of the story unresolved, though - true for many of the stories here).
13. The Apple Tree - 4/5 stars
14. Panic - 2/5 stars (The story was fine but there was something disconcerting about the constant ‘you bitch!’).
15. The Chamois - 1.5/5 stars
16. The Alibi - 3/5 stars
17. Ganymede - 1/5 stars (The predatory, paedophilic undertones were too unsettling).
18. Don’t Look Now - 5/5 stars (Excellent voice cast and acting!).
Displaying 1 of 1 review