In 'surveying' Shakespeare's plays, Professor Fallon aims to enhance the theatregoer's enjoyment by demystifying the language, poetry and allusion of the text and sketching the essential shape of each play.

Following the success of Essential Shakespeare Live, Gregory Doran has selected another 21 scenes and speeches from live RSC productions, all published for the first time. The pieces begin with Paul Robeson playing Othello in 1959, include performances by Elizabeth Spriggs, Ian Richardson, Harriet Walter and Ian Holm, and end with David Tennant's Hamlet (2008) and 'What a piece of work is man'. Includes a booklet with scripts. Two audio CDs, running time 147 minutes.

Barry Cryer has been a stalwart of British comedy since the 1950s. Cutting his teeth at the famous Windmill Theatre in Soho, he has since written for, worked with and often become friends with most of the greats of the post-war era, among them Tommy Cooper and Eric Morecambe. This memoir is presented as a scrapbook of his personal photographs, illuminated by Cryer's observations about his life and the stars he has worked with, and by their comments about him.

Beginning with a time chart from 1600 to 1970, this handy guide manages to be full of anecdote and little-known facts as well as offering a broad introduction to opera. After synopses of 50 favourite operas, arranged chronologically from Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea to A Midsummer Night's Dream by Britten, Anna Selby profiles opera's greatest composers, its finest singers and legendary figures among conductors, librettists and directors.

Edited by Nicholas Grene, this is the definitive text of Shaw's famous drama of the conversion contest between the arms manufacturer Andrew Undershaft and his daughter, a Salvation Army Major. New Mermaids series.

Everybody remembers Romeo and Juliet's love story and Hamlet's famous laments, but do you know who was the first character to be deemed 'dead as a doornail'? Or who Shakespeare's sonnets were written for? With a brief life of the playwright, bite-sized synopses of all his plays and chapters on his legacy to language, his poetry and common misquotations, this is an ideal refresher course on the Bard.

The first 'Super-Man' created by comic strip authors Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1932 was a megalomaniac scientist, but they later reassigned the name to a hero character and published the first Superman story in 1938. This history of the 'Man of Steel' is also the story of the creators, designers and performers who have shaped the character, and an analysis of how Superman has reflected the mood of America over more than 70 years. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

For more than a century, the Redgraves have defined theatre and film. Drawing on personal knowledge and many interviews, this biography charts the private and professional lives of the dynasty, from the brilliant, troubled Michael Redgrave and his wife Rachel Kempson, through their offspring Lynn, Vanessa and Corin, to the triumphs and tragedies of the latest generation. The result is an epic study of a talented, volatile, passionate and controversial family.

Published to mark the 90th anniversary of the BBC's first ever broadcast and the beginning of the British love affair with radio, this book presents a radio history, from the first tentative programmes in 1922, up to the present. Above all, it celebrates the famous voices of radio, including the pioneering radio gardener, Marion Cran; Churchill during wartime; the Goons and Kenneth Horne in the 1950s; the pirates of Radio Caroline; and the stars of BBC radio today.

A former Radio 4 'Book of the Week', Ziegler's life of Laurence Olivier draws on over 50 hours of unpublished interviews to offer the fullest portrait yet of the great actor, both on and off stage.

Among the inspirations for Star Trek, first aired in 1966, were the classic 1956 film Forbidden Planet and a Czech film entitled Ikarie XB-1, which includes storylines similar to early episodes of the TV series. This guide to the enormously successful franchise traces its origins and development through multiple films and TV incarnations up to the re-invented Star Trek movie of 2009.

Even before the foundation of the BBC in 1922, the radio had made an unlikely star of Peter Eckersley, the engineer of the first licensed station. This history of British radio broadcasting recalls the best loved voices of the following 90 years of radio, from the clipped tones of the dinner-jacketed pre-war newsreaders to the pirate radio disc jockeys of the 1960s and the familiar voices of today.

Iconic costumes from the golden era of Hollywood are indelibly associated with particular stars and films. With over 150 photographs, and featuring screen stars such as Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe, this book explores how cinema's most glamorous costumes were created and how you can get the look today. Focusing on 34 classic films, including Casablanca, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Bonnie and Clyde, the book also tells the stories of the designers, including some who became stars themselves.

The story of the Redgrave family is a febrile mix of ambition, scandal, dazzling success and appalling unhappiness. For more than a century, the acting dynasty has dominated British theatre and film. Drawing on many interviews, this biography charts their private and professional lives, from the brilliant, troubled Michael Redgrave and his wife Rachel Kempson, through their children Lynn, Vanessa and Corin, to the triumphs and tragedies of the latest generation.

When Ian Carmichael died in 2010, a golden age of British film comedy came to an end. One of a unique generation of actors who fought in the Second World War, he flourished alongside stars such as Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. This delightful biography charts the life and career of the self-deprecating Yorkshireman who, with his innate good manners and sense of fair play, was born to play Bertie Wooster and Lord Peter Wimsey.

When 'Les Schtroumpfs' appeared in a Belgian comic in 1958, no one could anticipate that a few decades later the world would fall in love with the Smurfs. The perfect companion for Smurf fans young and old, this compendium of the Smurfs' world and its inhabitants - Papa, Brainy, Clumsy and Smurfette - tells the story of their creation and includes pull-outs and mini-comics, a poster and a sticker sheet.

Derided by Dr Johnson as 'an exotic and irrational entertainment', opera has captivated audiences for four centuries. This handsome volume charts the historical development of the art form, with features on composers from Monteverdi to Britten, key works from The Magic Flute to Wozzeck, and legendary singers such as Maria Callas. The reference section includes a timeline, discography, biographies and a guide to further reading, and over 100 colour illustrations show the magnificence of many operatic productions.

This official companion to the hugely successful period drama delves deeply into the lives of all the main characters, exploring the intrigue, rivalry and romance both above and below stairs. There are chapters on the Earl and Countess of Grantham and their servants, lovers, friends and guests, with photographs of the characters in the opulent surroundings of the Downton estate and illustrations of contemporary artefacts and publications. Plus a final 'behind the scenes' chapter on the making of the programmes. Slightly off-mint.

A matinee idol in his twenties, John Gielgud went on to become the greatest classical actor of the 20th century. This entertaining but critical biography charts the ups and downs of his life, his stage roles, his rivalry with Olivier, his personal relationships - and the arrest that nearly wrecked his career. Drawing on Gielgud's own frank correspondence and on interviews with colleagues and friends, Croall draws an intimate, often startling portrait of this great and much-loved actor.

From a new production Holcroft's The Road to Ruin on 3 January 1880, to the 1899 pantomime season, when the audience cheered a snub to the Boer leader in Jack and the Beanstalk, this year-by-year record of notable theatrical events of the 19th century covers legendary performances by great actors, Shakespeare revivals and premieres of works by, among others, Wilde, Ibsen, Chekhov and Gilbert and Sullivan, with quotations from contemporary reviews and over 220 illustrations.

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'The Scottish play' is presented here in a visually striking new Signature Shakespeare edition. The modernized, yet conservative text is accompanied by essays and commentary discussing Shakespeare's language, the play and its performance history and later works it inspired. The volume is edited by Jesse M Lander and illustrated with laser-cut and layered pictures by Kevin Stanton.

Shakespeare's great romantic tragedy is presented here in a visually striking new Signature edition. The modernized, yet conservative text is accompanied by essays and commentary discussing Shakespeare's language, the play and its performance history and later works it inspired. The volume is edited by Mario DiGangi and illustrated with laser-cut and layered pictures by Kevin Stanton.

'See,' says Buckingham in Richard III, 'a book of prayer in his hand.' From its appearance in 1549, the Book of Common Prayer was known by heart by every literate person in England, including William Shakespeare. This engaging, elegantly written study traces the influence of its rhythms and metres, its ambiguities and controversies, on plays such as Measure for Measure, As You Like It, Hamlet and - above all - Macbeth, to create a dazzlingly original portrait of the playwright at work.

From the most recognizable theme in movie history to a catalogue of hit songs by the world's best singers, music has played an important role in the unparalleled success of the Bond films. Dissecting the score and songs of each film up to Quantum of Solace this book reveals how the musical style of Bond was created and developed and how the songs and singers were chosen for the iconic title numbers.

Ron Moody was studying at the London School of Economics in the early 1950s when he got the theatrical bug, writing and starring in student revues. His comic talent was soon spotted by a leading agent who encouraged him to take the stage seriously as a profession. In this eccentric and thoughtful memoir, Moody looks back on his early theatrical experiences and his career leading up to the part that made his name - Fagin in Oliver!.

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George Cole was adopted as a baby by a South London couple, and then again at 15 when the comic actor Alastair Sim took him in as an evacuee. This autobiography reflects on Cole's childhood and relationships as well as the long career during which he worked with many legends of the stage and screen and created such memorable characters as Flash Harry in the St Trinian's films and Arthur Daley in Minder.

Terry Nation began his career as a comedy writer in the mid 1950s but went on to create some of the most memorable television drama of the 1960s and 1970s. In this book Alwyn Turner explores the writer's career and his influential output, which includes many great series, among them Blake's 7, Dr Who, The Persuaders, The Saint and The Avengers.

Three plays, 'all written for live theatre - with the emphasis on live', and all first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough: The Revengers' Comedies (1989); Things We Do for Love (1997); and House & Garden (1999).

This last volume contains five plays, all first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough: Snake in the Grass (2002); If I Were You (2006); Life and Beth (2008); My Wonderful Day (2009) and Ayckbourn's 74th play, Life of Riley (2010).

This finely produced set of three volumes, each bound in black linen, is a celebratory collection of four plays to mark Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. The chosen plays are The Birthday Party, first performed in 1958; No Man's Land (1975); Mountain Language (1988); and Celebration, first performed (in a double bill with The Room) at the Almeida Theatre in 2000. Slip-cased.

This fourth volume of Tom Stoppard's work for the stage brings together five of his most celebrated translations and adaptations of plays by Arthur Schnitzler (Dalliance and Undiscovered Country), Ferenc Molnar (Rough Crossing), Johann Nestroy (On the Razzle), and Chekhov's masterpiece, The Seagull. These originals provide the perfect springboard for Stoppard's imagination, and the results are imbued with all his characteristic wit and exuberance.

A leading British actor of the 1940s and 1950s, Richard Attenborough's work as a director - of movies such as Oh! What A Lovely War, Gandhi and Cry Freedom - is probably his outstanding contribution to film history. In this autobiography, he describes the struggles and triumphs of his long career in show business as well as his private life, including the tragic deaths of his daughter and granddaughter in the tsunami of 2004.

Brenda Blethyn is one of Britain's best-loved actresses. In this autobiography she tells the story of her early life and career, from 1940s Ramsgate where she was the youngest of nine children, to the National Theatre, television, Hollywood and stardom. She tells her tale with characteristic warmth and humour; the story of how she forced herself to run the London Marathon, three times, is a typical example.

This volume presents critical editions of two morality plays - Mankind (1470s) and Everyman (c.1518-1519) - that are among the best surviving examples of the genre. Arden Early Modern Drama series. No jacket.

With eight essays on topics including the influence of Marlowe's play on The Merchant of Venice, and its performance history, this reader provides fresh, varied approaches to the many enigmatic elements of the play. Arden Early Modern Drama Guides

John Gielgud was both a consummate Shakespearean and a much-loved film star. Drawing on interviews with family, colleagues and friends, along with hundreds of unpublished letters, this authoritative, hugely entertaining biography charts his glittering career in full. It explores Gielgud's volatile relationship with Laurence Olivier, his tribulations as a gay man in an era of prejudice, and his extraordinary late flowering in the plays of Harold Pinter, to provide a rounded portrait of a brilliant, complex and mercurial man.

Philaster is the tragicomic rewrite of Hamlet that made Beaumont and Fletcher famous. Suzanne Gossett's critical, annotated edition offers fresh assessments of the play's politics and its presentation of deviant sex and gender. Arden Early Modern Drama series. No jacket.

This authoritative A-Z of contemporary theatre contains more than 500 entries on playwrights and plays, from Aristophanes to Ravenhill, from The Alchemist to The Talking Cure. Unlike other works of theatrical reference, it focuses on works performed today, whether ancient or modern. Its unique cross-referencing system directs the reader to other authors and dramas that tackle similar subjects. Stimulating, informative and up-to-date, this is an essential reference for anyone interested in drama.