Just William: A BBC Radio Collection
Classic Readings from the BBC Archive
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Just William: A BBC Radio Collection
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Narrated by:
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Martin Jarvis
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By:
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Richmal Crompton
About this listen
A stunning collection of Just William stories, selected and read by Martin Jarvis.
Richmal Crompton’s stories featuring irrepressible schoolboy William Brown have been firm favourites with both young and old for decades. Perpetually scruffy, mud-stained and mischievous, he is a lovable scamp whose pranks usually end in disaster – for his harassed elders at least.
With friends Ginger, Douglas and Henry (the Outlaws) and the angelic thorn-in-his-side, the lisping Violet Elizabeth Bott, William has rightly joined the literary, and radio, immortals.
Martin Jarvis, who has been hailed as ‘the wizard of the talking book’ by The Daily Telegraph, has made the voice of William his own, and this collection of 54 laugh-out-loud stories will delight long-standing fans and first-time listeners alike.
Also included are two bonus interviews with Richmal Crompton, recorded in 1965 and 1968.
The stories included in this collection are:
'The Christmas Truce'
'Only Just in Time'
'The Midnight Adventure of Miss Montague'
'William and the Musician'
'William Leads a Better Life'
'William and the Twins'
'William’s Birthday'
'William and the Little Girl'
'The Outlaws and Cousin Percy'
'William and the Princess Goldilocks'
'The Sweet Little Girl in White'
'A Birthday Treat'
'The Outlaws and the Triplets'
'A Bit of Blackmail'
'William Makes a Night of It'
'William and the Lost Tourist'
'The Leopard Hunter'
'The New Neighbour'
'William the Philanthropist'
'William and the Prize Cat'
'William Holds the Stage'
'William and the School Report'
'All the News'
'Aunt Arabelle in Charge'
'William’s Goodbye Present'
'William the Salvage Collector'
'William’s Day Off'
'Entertainment Provided'
'William and the Brains Trust'
'William and the Bomb'
'William Goes Shopping'
'Violet Elizabeth Runs Away'
'William and the Real Laurence'
'The Outlaws and the Hidden Treasure'
'William and the Fairy Daffodil'
'The Best Laid Plans'
'Mrs Bott’s Hat'
'William Starts the Holidays'
'William Plays Santa Claus'
'William and the Snowman'
'Revenge is Sweet'
'William and the Black Cat'
'William and the Russian Prince'
'William’s Busy Day'
'William – The Great Actor'
'William and the White Elephants'
'Finding a School for William'
'William Clears the Slums'
'Parrots for Ethel'
'William’s Truthful Christmas'
'Boys will be Boys'
'William and the Ebony Hair-Brush'
'William and the Old Man in the Fog '
Musical Theme: 'Won't You Be My Ginger?' composed and performed by Richard Dworsky (piano) (c) 1995 Inner Vista Music (BMI)
©2017 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2017 BBC Studios Distribution LtdListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"There’s nothing to touch them." (Independent on Sunday)
What listeners say about Just William: A BBC Radio Collection
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Highlight
- 14-10-23
13 HOURS OF PURE PLEASURE
Bought this on a whim for I had never heard Just William, not my kind of thing so I thought. Once I started to listen I could not stop and before long I was halfway through the 13 hours! Martin Jarvis is perfect for the William stories and I think he did it for me, anyone else and it would not have had the same effect. Pure pleasure!
Well done all.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Waywardsister22
- 09-05-22
fantastic!
What joy! To listen to an excellent narrator do justice to excellent stories. There's humour throughout and it's an excellent little piece of village boyhood between the wars. There's a repeat of a story at chapter 48 but it's just a glitch in the Matrix so carry on. A couple of really interesting but brief interviews with the author at the end.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- k j williams
- 08-09-19
Purfection
Funniest audiobook you will listen to this year, it's brilliant!!!! It is so addictive, which is a good thing!!!!!!!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 30-03-20
Perfection
This is a sublime combination - Richmal Crompton's writing is full of wit and insight and Martin Jarvis seems able to give it life. I love it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- William Taggart
- 25-03-20
Perfect listening in troubling times
Perfect! Brilliant unfailing funny and inventive stories that always delight and are read with wonderful amusing characterisation by national treasure the peerless Martin Jarvis. And what a bargain! I recommend this collection without reserve apart from the minor caveat that the individual stories are not named but just given chapter numbers. But don’t let that put you off. I must go as I have Collection Two waiting for me
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- The Collector
- 05-01-23
A piece of social history
A piece of social history from an age a when children's fiction included tales of families with maids, servants and cooks! It's brilliant. The stories are set in the 1920s.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tara
- 11-06-23
It makes you feel good about yourself
Hilarious nothing more funny it never gets old it’s the best book I’ve ever read
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kilrymont
- 21-09-22
Martin Jarvis, the ultimate reader.
These period pieces need to be read sympathetically, and for them there's no better reader imaginable for me than Mr. J.
Crompton wrote these not for youngsters, but for adults. Which accounts for the advanced linguistic structures, phrasing and vocabulary. She was surprised to find herself with an appreciative readership of not only Mums and Dads, who no doubt saw aspects of William in their own little treasures, but their offspring also.. Fun is poked at adults more than youngsters, and much of it is, like most slapstick, overstated into completely farcical exaggerations of the actually-possible. Political aspects don't escape her wit, in the shape of the one where Jameson Jameson's Bolshevist group finds how redistribution of assets isn't entirely without its downside. These are set in a vague version of an English countryside that seems to reflect impressions of the old Home Counties, with confusion of what was was taught to kids at what age... How many of us were really cursed with French Verbs - or latin similar - at the age of - 11? Certainly my grammar school classes were where these things began, not a local primary.
There's nobody quite like William Brown, anywhere in Children's Fiction. The latter by absorption rather than otherwise, as above mentioned.
The extent of the slapstick does at times trespass into areas of psychopathy at times, where W. seems outrageously incapable of distinguishing between reality and imagination, at which times he trespasses into his internal version of Brown-reality, apparently unable to extricate himself from his imaginings. Would any real middle-class boy off 11 behave as does William? No, of course not. He'd have been conditioned into the social mores of his day, and that he is from a wildly unsuitable social background for such behaviours is the mainstay tool used by Crompton in these mini-entertainments.
And she does so with style, and with huge originality. Small wonder that her adult audience loved these pastiches of their childhoods, set in times they could key to, in and around the WW2 period of England's Heartland, a version of the Home Counties.
With any other reader than the matchless Martin J, these would not live in your imagination as they do under his masterful delivery. He's the best.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- sinbad4england
- 23-05-21
Full of subtle Humour....
Good fun for adults and children, some of the humour may be a little subtle for youngsters however. Martin Jarvis narrates brilliantly and makes the books 'come alive' !
Compton had the happy knack of not worrying about William and his friends growing up , she sensibly kept them the same age ,and so lots of 'adventures await the reader or listener !
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Aaron Chaim David
- 27-03-22
just William 1
this series of short William storys are hilariously hilarious. one of the best collections ever
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