Shardlake: The Complete BBC Radio Collection

by C.J. Sansom, Mark Bonnar (Narrator), Sean Baker (Narrator)

The complete collected dramatisations of C. J. Sansom's historical mystery series

Set during the reign of Henry VIII, these six stunning dramas follow the adventures of hunchbacked lawyer-detective Matthew Shardlake as he navigates the dangerous world of Tudor England, solving crimes and seeking out murderers.
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Dissolution - Winter, 1537. When a King's Commissioner is brutally murdered at Scarnsea monastery, Thomas Cromwell sends Shardlake to investigate. Can he catch the killer before he strikes again?
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Dark Fire - Summer, 1540, and Shardlake is embroiled in two urgent cases: tracking down a batch of Greek Fire, an ancient weapon of mass destruction, and defending an orphan girl accused of murder. Accompanied by Cromwell's man, Barak, he must race against time to save Elizabeth's life - and Cromwell's skin.
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Sovereign - Autumn, 1541. As the King embarks on a Royal Progress to York, Shardlake and Barak arrive in the city on a secret mission for Archbishop Cranmer. But soon they are caught up in a murder investigation - and a daring plot to bring down the royal family...
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Revelation - Spring, 1543. With London rocked by religious turmoil, Shardlake must complete two vital assignments: help a teenage boy imprisoned in Bedlam for his heretical ravings, and prevent a serial killer from completing his unholy mission.
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Heartstone - Summer, 1545, and Shardlake and Barak are drawn into two murky mysteries: one involving 'monstrous wrongs' committed against a ward of the court, the other involving the troubled past of Bedlam inmate Ellen Fettiplace. Meanwhile, across the Channel, the French fleet is preparing to attack...
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Lamentation - 1546. Henry VIII lies dying, and his Protestant and Catholic factions are vying for power. As heretics are burned at the stake, the Queen rashly decides to write a compromising confessional book - and when it is stolen, she turns to Shardlake. His investigations lead him from London's backstreet print shops to the heart of the royal court...
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Jason Watkins and Justin Salinger star as Shardlake, with Bryan Dick as Barak, Mark Bonnar and Robert Glenister as Cromwell, Sam Dale and Sean Baker as Cranmer, and Emily Wachter and Jessica Hardwick as Queen Catherine Parr.

Genres: Audiobook, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Historical

Audiobook

Published March 17, 2022

About the author

Christopher John "C.J." Sansom was an English writer of crime novels.

Sansom was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he decided to retrain as a solicitor. He practised for a while in Sussex as a lawyer for the disadvantaged, before quitting in order to work full-time as a writer.

He came to prominence with his series set in the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century, whose main character is the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake. Shardlake works on commission, initially from Thomas Cromwell in Dissolution and Dark Fire and then Thomas Cranmer in Sovereign and Revelation.

He has also written Winter in Madrid, a thriller set in Spain in 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.

Dark Fire won the 2005 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA). Sansom himself was "Very Highly Commended" in the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library award, for the Shardlake series.

The television series "Shardlake" was adapted from the books and released by Disney+ on 1st May 2024, just 4 days after Samson's death.

(from Wikipedia®)

Reviews

[C.A. Simonsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

God's bones, these Tudor-era stories are mediocre!

I enjoy radio dramas. It's nice to see they are making a comeback through certain streaming services. While the sound effects and voice acting in these Shardlake mysteries are impressive, the writing is overplotted. It was difficult to connect with any of the characters.

The dialogue did not sound genuinely 1500s. Not sure if it was the tons of contractions or what.

[langana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buvo smagu prisiminti Shardlake nuotykius tokiu formatu. Bet mėgstantiems istorinius detektyvus labai rekomenduoju skaityti/klausyti romanus, nes radijo spektakliuose, žinoma, dingsta praktiškai visas istorinis fonas, puikiai aprašytas C. J. Sansom, ir lieka tik veiksmas

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay, but only that. Devotees of C J Sansom should venture to listen only for the sake of completeness, in terms of reproductions of Sanom's work. These radio dramas are limited in length so, since Sansom's books tend to be quite weighty tomes, these are perforce greatly abridged, sometimes to the extent (see 'Heartstone') that the books make no real sense and the plots are intelligible only to those who have read the physical book. These dramas by no means enhance Sansom's work, but at least they are a relatively quick and easy way of becoming acquainted with the stories. Better bite the bullet and read the real thing, however.

[Shane’s Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

"But if we never acted except when we were certain our motives were pure, we would never act at all."

I recently listened to the #audiobook of Shardlake: The Complete BBC Radio Collection, which is out now from @penguinukbooks.

Thanks so much to Georgie at PRH for arranging early access to the audiobook for me.
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Set during the reign of Henry VIII, these six stunning dramas follow the adventures of hunchbacked lawyer-detective Matthew Shardlake as he navigates the dangerous world of Tudor England, solving crimes and seeking out murderers.
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This audiobook collection features six of the Shardlake novels, but these are not your normal audiobooks, they are dramatisations of the novels, which means they aren’t the full novels but a full production cast performing the main plot of each of the books. I’ve never listened to an audiobook like this collection before but it was enjoyable from the second I pressed play.

The books covered in this collection are: Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone and Lamentation. The only book in the Shardlake series that hasn’t had the dramatization treatment is Tombland – which I really hope gets adapted in future.

The great thing about this collection is that there’s a different cast for each of the books, this is – in my opinion – such a good thing because it keeps it fresh throughout, the qualities each narrator can bring to their roles really helps add so much personality to each of the characters.

Before listening to the audiobook, I noted that Robert Glenister (who I absolutely love as a narrator) was involved and I thought no other narrator would live up to Glenister’s narration, but I’m pleasantly surprised to say my favourite narration in this came from Jason Watkins (as Shardlake).

The run time of the whole collection is just over 13 hours, so can easily be binged or you can take it as your own pace as each chapter is roughly around the 15-minute mark, so very manageable for squeezing a chapter in during break times!

Listened: 15-18 March 22

[Agirlandabook · Rating 3 out of 5]

REVIEW: The Complete Shardlake Collection by CJ Samson

3.5 Stars

Set during the reign of Henry VIII, these six BBC adapted dramas follow the adventures of hunchbacked lawyer-detective Matthew Shardlake as he navigates the dangerous world of Tudor England, solving crimes and seeking out murderers.

I have a number of interests and Tudor history combined with murder mysteries sounded like a match made in heaven so when @penguinukbooks contacted me and kindly sent a copy of the audiobooks I was very excited.

These were audiobooks unlike anything I have heard before, the full cast and sound effects created a much more dramatic and immersive listening experience. Hearing the swish of a sword as we discover someone is being attacked really did add to the drama and I gasped frequently!

Shardlake was everything a good investigator needs to be; fearless, intelligent yet not obviously so, belligerent when required, charming yet unlucky in love (aren’t all good detectives married to the job?) with incredible instincts. With the exception of a few misogynist tendencies I liked him a lot.

Now as may be expected when a 600 page plus book is distilled into just two and a half hours listening time some of the original details have to be lost. The focus was placed upon the mystery and a lot of the background historical information I understand within Sansom’s books is missing. This is no surprise it is a dramatisation not a Tudor documentary so of course the focus will be on the drama. As a history geek however this did leave me a little disappointed but if anything I would say it has wetted my appetite to read the full books!

[Timeout · Rating 5 out of 5]

These adaptations are superb.
I heard these before I listened to an abridged version of the first book - it's what made me want to do that.
They manage to condense huge books into 90 minute dramas and you don't feel short changed either. The actor who plays Shardlake does change, but you really don't notice - they are both excellent. The rest of the cast, whether returning, such as Cromwell, or one off character do such good jobs. Occasionally, you find that either one or two voices can deflect from the drama or some are too similar and you can't distinguish between them. It doesn't happen here. The sound effects make a huge difference as they really create the atmosphere so you can transport yourself there.

I won't go into detail for each story, but as for Shardlake himself, he is a great character. He is complex man who struggles with things that could - and does- endanger his life. Despite friends appearing throughout the stories, he seems quite lonely and you begin to feel for him. He gets dragged into things he doesn't want to but his sense of honour (and fear) make him agree to take cases.

If you know anything about the Tudor period, you'll be familiar with a lot of the historical figures here. It's historically accurate and can easily lead to a deep dive for more information on the various characters and time period.

There are audio versions of the full books or abridged options. I have the abridged versions as I don't think I could cope with all the information in the full option.

This is certainly a good way to get to know the characters and maybe lead you to the tomes that are the books!

[Shatterlings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed these, they are cleverly done, well acted and fast paced stories, if you don’t want to read a 500 page historical novel then these are a great alternative. I hadn’t read the last 2 and don’t feel inclined to after listening to these.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super production of well written books.

[Kabejja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know but the lamentation audiobook is not featured on GoodReads, this represents it. The Henry scene is so well done.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
I'm a huge fan of radio dramas so I thoroughly enjoyed these & they were a great way to spend an afternoon.