1546, and the great heretic hunt is underway across England. The radical Protestant preacher Anne Askew has been arrested and condemned to death and Shardlake is ordered to attend the burning. It's a grisly, cruel spectacle that leaves him feeling disturbed. Rumours are circulating that Anne had connections to his protector, Queen Catherine Parr - and if she falls, he could be next....
His unease deepens when a messenger arrives from Whitehall Palace: the queen is in trouble and asking for his help. Unwilling to put himself in danger again, he almost declines - but his loyalty to her permits no refusal.
The palace is in turmoil - King Henry VIII is dying, and his Protestant and Catholic councillors are engaged in a desperate power struggle to control his eight-year-old heir, Prince Edward. In this climate of fear and uncertainty, the queen has committed a dangerous indiscretion. She has written a compromising confessional tract, so incendiary it could see her accused of treason - and someone has stolen it from her private chamber. Only one page has resurfaced, clenched in the fist of a murdered printer.
Shardlake's search for the missing manuscript takes him from London's seedy backstreets to the heart of the Tudor court, where he becomes enmeshed in a web of intrigue, deception and dark political machinations - and finds himself facing a fateful audience with King Henry himself....
A thick smog has fallen over London. Mycroft comes to visit his brother Sherlock Holmes, asking for his help. A ten-page secret document has gone missing and three pages have just been found... in the pocket of Arthur Cadogan West’s lifeless body. He was discovered near Aldgate tube station with his head smashed in and with only a little money, the confidential pages, and theatre tickets on him. Strangely, he had no Underground ticket. The document is a construction plan for the Bruce-Partington submarine and it is feared that the document may fall into enemy hands.
When newspaper proprietor Marcus Gwill is found dead under an electricity pylon, shortly after the death of his neighbour, Harold Carobleat, Inspector Purbright investigates. He soon discovers that something very odd is going on in the seemingly respectable town of Flaxborough.
Hopeless young peasant Mort is hired as an apprentice to Death, and taken to his home beyond time and space to begin his training.
The fourth of Terry's Pratchett's comic fantasy stories set on Discworld.
Dramatised in four parts by Robin Brooks.
Narrated by Anton Lesser.
Mort ...... Carl Prekopp
Death ...... Geoffrey Whitehead
Lezek ...... Philip Fox
Albert ...... Phillip Jackson
Hames ...... Jon Glover
Ysabell ...... Clare Corbett
Princess Keli ...... Alice Hart
Director: Claire Grove
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2004.
Dick Simnel, a young self-taught engineer from Sto Lat (and whose father, Ned Simnel, appeared in Reaper Man), has invented a steam locomotive. He brings his invention to Ankh-Morpork where it catches the interest of Sir Harry King, a millionaire businessman who has made his fortune in the waste and sanitation industry, as he wishes to create a legacy disassociated from the source of his wealth. Harry promises Dick sufficient investment to make the railway a success.
The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari, wishing to ensure that the City has appropriate influence over the new enterprise, appoints the reformed fraudster turned civil servant Moist von Lipwig to represent the government in the management of the railway. His skills soon come in useful in negotiations with landowners along the route of the new line.