A selection of classic English stories begins with a tale by Margery Allingham, one of the queens of the Golden Age of Detective fiction, featuring her much loved sleuth, Campion. This is the first of two parts.

Later in the series, Mackenzie Crook reads a comic tale from his favourite author Thomas Hardy, in which a group of villagers on their return from market, reminisce about Christmases past.

Then it’s back to the early 20th century with a couple of short pieces from Hector Hugh Munro, better known as Saki, whose skill for skewering the manners and pretensions of the upper classes is turned on the business of giving and receiving Christmas presents.

To conclude the series, another wintry mystery - The Lion’s Tooth by Edmund Crispin finds the author’s amateur detective, Fen, assisting a convent in finding a young victim of kidnap.

On Christmas Day in the Morning by Margery Allingham
Read by Celia Imrie
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4 Show less