The entire audio assortment of Alan Bennett’s celebrated monologues, published together for the very first time and performed by some of Britain’s best actors

The Talking Heads monologues are widely thought to be one of Alan Bennett’s finest dramatic achievements. Initial broadcast on BBC Television and BBC Radio 4 in the 1980s and 1990s, they received a bunch of honours and huge well-known acclaim, and stay among his most respected works today.This collection includes all twelve Talking Heads, plus the precursor of about The Complete Talking Heads: The classic BBC Radio 4 monologues plus A Woman of No Importance that series, A FEMALE of No Importance. Beautifully crafted and full of compassion and wry observation, each story is ripe with the quirky, insightful details that has been Bennett’s trademark. The monologues are:A Woman of No Importance (Patricia Routledge); A Chip in the Sugars (Alan Bennett); A Lady of Letters (Patricia Routledge); Bed Among the Lentils (Anna Massey); Soldiering On (Stephanie Cole); Her Big Possibility (Julie Walters); A Cream Cracker Under the Settee (ThoraHird); Miss Fozzard Finds Her Foot (Patricia Routledge); The Hands of God (Eileen Atkins); Playing Sandwiches (David Haig); THE EXTERIOR Puppy (Julie Walters); Nights in the Landscapes of Spain (Penelope Wilton) and Waiting for the Telegram (Thora Hird).

Intensely moving, deeply engrossing and highly entertaining, these spellbinding soliloquies are essential listening.