The Read
Overview
Creative performance readings of iconic British novels.
Seasons
Season 1 (2022)
A series of four creative performance readings of iconic British novels. Each episode is directed by exciting emerging talent.
4 episodes
Episodes
Episode 1: The Lonely Londoners
2022-04-10A creative performance reading of The Lonely Londoners that juxtaposes modern imagery and fascinating archive footage to reflect on how Sam Selvon's novel shaped the London of today.
Runtime: 58 minEpisode 2: On the Black Hill
2022-06-05A performance reading of the abridged novel On the Black Hill, by Bruce Chatwin. Identical twin brothers grow up on a farm in rural Wales and never leave home.
Runtime: 59 minEpisode 3: The Day of the Sardine
2022-11-06A creative performance reading of a powerful novel of disaffection that charts a young man's uneasy passage into adulthood.
Runtime: 64 minEpisode 4: A Vision of Loveliness
2023-04-02Performance reading of A Vision of Loveliness by Louise Levene. A darkly comic novel that reveals the seedy underbelly of London in the 1960s, rich with period detail.
Runtime: 57 min
Season 2 (2023)
Outstanding performance readings of iconic British novels.
4 episodes
Episodes
Episode 1: A Kestrel for a Knave
2023-09-17Christopher Eccleston narrates Barry Hines’s heartbreaking coming-of-age tale in this fresh take on a classic British novel.
Runtime: 64 minEpisode 2: Shakespeare Sonnets: A Modern Love Story
2023-10-29Some of the best-known love poems are weaved together to create a fresh contemporary story told by four lovers.
Runtime: 43 minEpisode 3: Frankenstein
2024-03-03Alex Kingston breathes life into Mary Shelley’s timeless gothic horror story. Young, gifted scientist Victor Frankenstein unwittingly creates a monster. Written more than 200 years ago, the classic masterpiece still resonates today as a tragic romance that examines the battle between ambition and morality.
Runtime: 64 minEpisode 4: The Remains of the Day: The Read with Steve Pemberton
2024-05-12Heartbreak and longing are centre stage as BAFTA-winning actor Steve Pemberton narrates Kazuo Ishiguro’s contemporary classic.
Runtime: 61 min
Season 3 (2024)
Rediscover the books you thought you knew. Acclaimed actors combine with classic literature, breathing new life into iconic stories.
4 episodes
Episodes
Episode 1: 1984
2024-11-17A bleak dystopian future plays out before us as Royal Television Society award-winning actor Sacha Dhawan narrates George Orwell’s profoundly impactful and thought-provoking classic.
Runtime: 59 minEpisode 2: A Christmas Carol
2024-12-22Anne-Marie Duff performs an intimate reading of Charles Dickens’s timeless classic. Can the ghostly interventions salvage Scrooge’s soul?
Runtime: 73 minEpisode 3: Wuthering Heights
2025-01-05Emily Brontë’s timeless classic set against the haunting backdrop of the Yorkshire Moors and narrated by award-winning actor Vinette Robinson.
Runtime: 62 minEpisode 4: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with Reece Shearsmith
2025-02-02Who is the real monster? Robert Louis Stevenson’s defining gothic horror explores alter egos in this captivating narration that reimagines the 19th-century classic.
Runtime: 64 min