Archive for the ‘Audio work’ Category

Radio station BBC 6 Music are running a feature called a Month Of Sunday’s that features various celebrities playing their favourite tunes.

This Sunday, at 12pm, Michael Sheen is taking control of the airwaves for an hour. According to the BBC:

When he’s not playing Tony Blair or filming in LA, Michael is massive music fan. His playlist is as eclectic and surprising as his career, featuring tracks by Laurie Anderson, David Bowie and legendary Qwaali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

If you miss it and you are in the UK, you will be able to catch up, or listen again on the BBC iPlayer. For those outside the UK and unable to get BBC Radio 6, keep your eyes peeled for future posts.

Mindconnex Learning today confirmed the success of its ‘Shakespeare In Bits: Romeo & Juliet’ title for the iPad and iPhone, and announced the imminent availability of its next title, ‘Shakespeare In Bits: Macbeth’.

Released in May 2010 and featuring the voice talents of Michael Sheen and Kate Beckinsale as the tragic couple, ‘Romeo & Juliet’ has achieved over 10,000 downloads of its Full and Lite editions for iOS devices, and continues to prove popular with students and educators alike. It has been featured several times on App Store home pages worldwide, and was chosen by Apple as ‘App of the Week’ in September 2010 in the UK and Ireland.

“It’s no secret that Shakespeare can be challenging,” said Michael Cordner, director and lead technologist of Mindconnex Learning. “Many students struggle with the language, which makes it that much harder for teachers to engage them. By presenting the play in an interactive format that appeals to all styles of learner, we think ‘Shakespeare In Bits’ is a great example of how new technology can ease the burden on both teachers and students.”

‘Shakespeare In Bits’ is a new, integrated approach to Shakespeare Studies that promotes quicker learning, deeper understanding, and greater appreciation of Shakespeare’s plays. Leveraging the full capabilities of iOS devices, it presents an interactive, unabridged version of the play’s text alongside a fully animated presentation. It also includes a full range of innovative study features, including dynamic translations of difficult terms, full synopses and study notes for each section, and a character map highlighting the relationships between the characters.

The next title in the series, ‘Shakespeare In Bits: Macbeth’, will be available for the iPad and iPhone around the end of November/Early December 2010. It features Stephen Dillane (King Arthur, The Hours) as Macbeth and Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter) as Lady Macbeth. It will present two-and-a-half hours of full animation and audio, along with the complete play text and the same range of helpful learning features pioneered in ‘Romeo & Juliet’.

Romeo & Juliet Product Features:
* The unabridged original play text, broken into easily digested ‘bits’
* Three hours of animation with full audio, (Audio provided by Naxos Audiobooks)
* Complete notes, summaries, and analyses for each section
* A unique in-line translation system for obscure words and phrases
* Biographies for each character, accessed from the main play or through the cast browser
* A character relationship map, demonstrating key relationships in the play

iTunes.com Download

Back in June, Michael Sheen kicked off BBC Radio 2′s documentary season with “Hello, Good Evening and Welcome – The David Frost Story”.  It was reported back then that Michael would also be narrating a feature on the late great Richard Burton.

Here is what Radio 2 have to say about it:

Michael Sheen grew up in the shadow of the steel and coal industries of South Wales but there was another towering figure in his youth as he started showing signs of what was to become a glittering acting career. That figure was his fellow South Walian Richard Burton.

In this programme Michael looks back at the Burton legacy with the help of a selection of family, friends and colleagues including his last wife Sally, his nephew Guy Masterson, his close friend Robert Hardy, his biographer Melvyn Bragg and the film critic Barry Norman.

The broadcast will be aired Wednesday 18th August 2010 at 22:00

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Naxos Direct offer a large selection of Audio Books, many of which are read by our very own Michael Sheen, and they are currently offering 20% off the sale price. If you ever wanted to collect Michael’s audio work, now is the time!

Listed below are the titles which feature Michael Sheen as the artist narrating the book.

• The Great Poets: John Keats
• THOMAS: Under Milk Wood (1954) / Return Journey to Swansea / Selected poems and stories
• SHAKESPEARE: Romeo and Juliet
• Collection: Great Poets of the Romantic Age
• WILDE: The Picture of Dorian Gray
• DOSTOYEVSKY: Crime and Punishment
• SOPHOCLES: Oedipus the King
• DOSTOYEVSKY: The Idiot
• Collection: Poets of the Great War
• WILDE: Lady Windermere’ s Fan

Michael Sheen narrated the BBC Radio 2 documentary Hello, Good Evening and Welcome – The David Frost Story last night, and it is now available for download in our Downloads section.

Sir David Frost is famous the world over for his interviews with presidents and prime ministers but his journalistic side is just one part of his repertoire. Michael, who portrayed Frost on the big screen, celebrates his role at the centre of popular culture in 1960s Britain and America.

Contributors to this documentary include Sir David Frost, Sir Michael Parkinson, Robin Gibb, Ronnie Corbett, Kenneth Cope and Sheila Steafel.

BBC Radio 2 is kicking off its star-studded documentary season with Hello, Good Evening and Welcome – The David Frost Story.

Michael Sheen will be reading the documentary which will air Wednesday night at 10pm.  Later in the year, he will also present a programme on the journey of actor Richard Burton from the Welsh town of Port Talbot to the Hollywood high life.

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