Dr David Audley: The Labyrinth Makers & Other Paths to Glory: Two BBC Radio Full-Cast Spy Thrillers

Two award-winning spy novels featuring intelligence agent Dr David Audley by Anthony Price, dramatised with full casts

Crime novelist and journalist Anthony Price was highly regarded for his 19 espionage thrillers featuring intelligence agents Dr David Audley and Colonel Jack Butler. Here are two of the best books in the series, adapted for radio: the CWA Silver Dagger Award-winning The Labyrinth Makers, and Other Paths to Glory, which won the Gold Dagger and was shortlisted for the 2005 Dagger of Daggers Award for the best crime novel of the past 50 years.

The Labyrinth Makers – The accidental draining of a lake reveals a crashed RAF Dakota, the body of a World War II airman and a cargo of builder’s rubble. A few days later, MOD backroom man David Audley receives an early morning summons to London, where he is instructed to abandon his Middle East research and investigate a Russian agent named Panin. Aided by the dead pilot’s daughter, Audley attempts to find out why the KGB are so interested in the downed plane – and soon uncovers a deadly plot involving smuggling, a ruined Berlin flak tower and the legendary Schliemann Treasure… John Stride stars as Dr David Audley and Paula Wilcox as Faith in this thrilling tale of intrigue, treachery and unexpected romance.

Other Paths to Glory – Writing a book on World War I, Paul Mitchell is surprised to be called away from his studies by Audley and his colleague Jack Butler, asking questions about a German trench map. Returning home from the library, he is attacked and almost drowned – and when his supervisor is killed in a house fire and a Somme veteran dies in a hit-and-run ‘accident’, it becomes clear that anyone with a connection to the fatal 1916 assault on Bouillet Wood and the Prussian Redoubt is being murdered. Can the two MOD men keep Mitchell alive, and discover why the past has returned to take revenge on the present? Starring Martin Jarvis as Paul Mitchell, with Tony Britton as Dr Audley and Ronald Baddiley as Col. Butler.

Cast and credits Written by Anthony Price

The Labyrinth Makers Dr David Audley – John Stride Faith – Paula Wilcox Tierney – Alan Manson Sir Frederick – Peter D’Souza Morrison – Neil Packham Mr Jones – Ian Sexon Mrs Harlin – Pat Williams Jenkins – Mark Coleman Roskill – Michael MacKenzie Butler – Raymond Ross Jake/Panin – Laurance Rudic Maclean – Sandy Neilson

Dramatised by Nick McCarty Directed by Hamish Wilson First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 18 January 1992

Other Paths to Glory Dr Audley – Tony Britton Paul Mitchell – Martin Jarvis Col Butler – Ronald Baddiley Mrs Mitchell – Lorna Rosslyn Constable Bell/Marcel Jarras – David Graham Mr Hutchinson/Capt Faversham – Douglas Blackwell General Leigh-Woodhouse – Jeffrey Segal Nicole MacMahon – Silvie Dattas Gatekeeper/Sorel – Steve Hodson Edouard Olivier – Andre Maranne

Adapted by Alison Plowden Produced and directed by Harry Catlin First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 15 May 1976

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© 2026 BBC Digital Audio (Lydbog): 9781529961676

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Lydbog: 16. juli 2026