Books: Spoken word

Dramatizations can be endowed with a liveliness that straightforward readings find it hard to sustain. But every element needs to be perfect. Dame Hilda Bracket is splendid as Graham Greene's elderly reprobate Augusta in Travels With My Aunt (BBC, 2hrs, pounds 8.99), and Charles Kay is perfect as the ponderous and puddingish Pulling. They are good enough to compensate for an arch and unconvincing Wordsworth who bears about as much relation to the novel's roguish West Indian as a comice pear to an avocado.

Jaunty 1920s music and enthusiastic sound effects allied to Simon Callow's cracked, worldly-wise voice give The Mysteries of Max Carrados (BBC/Mr Punch, c 1hr 30mins, pounds 8.99) real zing and brio. Lionel Jeffries makes a lugubrious and dignified Parkinson, the blind super-sleuth's ex-underworld butler-cum-henchman, and a lively cast of extras helps to create an exceptionally vivid aural world.