Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Home Front: The Complete BBC Radio Collection, Volume 1

By: Lucy Catherine, Katie Hims, Sebastian Baczkiewicz, Richard Monks, Sarah Daniels, Shaun McKenna
Narrated by: full cast, Toby Jones, Ami Metcalf, Keely Beresford, Mark Stobbart, Michael Bertenshaw, Freddie Fox, Harriet Walters
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Series 1-5 of the groundbreaking BBC Radio 4 drama charting life on the home front during World War One

First heard on radio between 4 August 2014 and 9 November 2018, each episode of Home Front is set exactly one hundred years before the broadcast date, and each follows one character’s day. Together they create a mosaic of experience from a wide cross-section of society, mixing historical fact with enthralling fiction to explore how ordinary people coped with daily life in wartime Britain.

The story begins in Folkestone, as the first troops march off to the front lines. Soon, families such as the Grahams and the Wilsons begins to feel the impact of war, as the wounded return and first Belgian refugees, then Canadian troops, arrive in the seaside resort. In addition, the White Feather and suffragette movements grow in popularity, and a tide of grief increasingly leads people to thoughts of the hereafter.

Industrial Tynemouth, meanwhile, is experiencing a quite different war. The factories and shipyards are at peak production, and more women are joining the workforce. At the munitions factory, owner Geoffrey Marshall and his family must adapt to the changing times – as must workers like Fraser and Edie Chadwick.

Tackling themes including the outbreak of war, recruitment, industry, profiteering and spiritualism are some of radio’s foremost dramatists including Katie Hims, Sebastian Baczkiewicz and Shaun McKenna. Among the extensive cast are Michael Bertenshaw, Keely Beresford, Freddie Fox, Ami Metcalf, Edmund Wiseman, Barbara Flynn, Mark Stobbart and Toby Jones, with Dame Harriet Walter making a cameo appearance as Emmeline Pankhurst.

©2018 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2018 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Home Front: The Complete BBC Radio Collection, Volume 2 cover art
Detective cover art
The Noel Coward BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
British Woodland cover art
Cider with Rosie cover art
The Catherine Howard Conspiracy cover art
The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas cover art
The Wintringham Mystery cover art
Warrior: The Epic Story of Caratacus, Warrior Briton and Enemy of the Roman Empire cover art
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue cover art
Father Paolo Baldi Mysteries cover art
Brother Cadfael cover art
Paul Temple: The Complete Radio Collection: Volume One cover art
Sherlock Holmes: The Complete BBC Collection cover art
Legacy cover art
Lancaster cover art

What listeners say about Home Front: The Complete BBC Radio Collection, Volume 1

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    64
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    63
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    59
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding - addictive listening

Really immersive listening. What is so striking is so many people were killed - where every family, friendship group experienced loss and listening to the impact, how people coped and were changed by this was moving.

Listening to this drama at this time has a strange resonance to the current news of wars as some small reminder of the real impact of suffering.

Full credit to the BBC for this quality of drama.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

WW1 Soap, well worth a listen

I only heard bits of this when it was originally transmitted, so I took a chance and downloaded the whole series. I have been gripped by it, Some of the story is a little incredulous, however great characters and fantastic research make this a must listen to series, A World War 1 soap, perfect!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent, but seems to be a chunk missing

I've started listening to this epic quite recently and I'm enjoying it. However, I had got to October 3rd 1914 when it suddenly jumped to December 1st 1914. Unless I'm mistaken I thought it was supposed to be every consecutive day mirroring the actual days of WWI. Can Audible confirm this is the case, and if there is a chunk missing please could a complete recording be made available?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable

I'm enjoying this very much love the detail great cast
Love all these bbc programmes on the radio am looking forward to listening volumes2 and 3

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just brilliant

I love this series. Very well acted, fabulous characters. Can’t wait to start volume 2. Highly highly recommend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Home Front

I did enjoy these WW1 dramas but I wish they had run without the breaks every 15 minutes or so. Lots of detail and characters to follow. I listened in chunks while dog walking.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Sublime performance

Really good in site into ww1. Excellent characters and stories.

If you like dramatisation... This is def worth it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable but disjointed

An enjoyable listen that is well narrated but a little difficult to follow as the story jumps from one characters point of view to another.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Listen

This is 39 hours long, yet a completed it all in two weeks and have already downloaded the next volume, keen for the next installment.

Each of the chapters is only 10mins long which makes it so easy to listen when doing any type of task....even if only 10mins. I think that is the reason I have got though it so quick.

Great performances and very interesting to see the perspectives of World War I from the perspectives of the different aspects of society. I feel I have learnt so much about the culture and way of thinking of people at that time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A thoroughly enjoyable listen

What a wonderful story, giving an insight into World War 1 through this dramatisation . I feel sure that the reality was far worse than the stories portray but I really enjoyed the way that the story was told through the various characters view points. Very well written and good performances by all. I would thoroughly recommend to any who enjoys the Archers or similar radio broadcasts.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!