Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in 1860 in Taganrog, a

port in southern Russia. His father was a former serf. In 1879, after

receiving a classical education at the Taganrog Gymnasium, he

moved to Moscow to study medicine. During his university years he

helped support his family by writing stories and sketches for

humorous magazines. By 1888 he was contributing to Russia's most

prestigious literary journals and regarded as a major writer. He also

started writing plays: his first full-length play, Ivanov, was produced

in 1887. After undertaking a journey to visit the penal colony on the

Siberian island of Sakhalin in 1890, he settled on a country estate

outside Moscow, where he continued to write and practise medicine.

His failing health forced him to move to Yalta in 1898, where he

wrote his most famous short story, 'The Lady with the Little Dog'

(1899), and two of his best-known plays: Three Sisters (1901) and

The Cherry Orchard (1904), written with Stanislavsky's Moscow Art

Theatre in mind. In 1901 he married the company's leading actress,

Olga Knipper. He died from tuberculosis in Badenweiler, Germany,

in July 1904 at the age of 44.

Sinead Cusack, Anna Massey, Patricia Routledge, Andrew Sachs and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies star in this 1974 BBC Radio full-cast production of Chekhov's classic play. Madame Ranyevskaya and her daughter Anya have returned home from Paris to discover that their family estate - which includes their beloved cherry orchard - has to be sold to cover the family's debts. They believe a miracle can save their orchard. But will their stubborn pride and fond, childhood memories be enough? Chekhov's tragic-comedy is about the passing of an era and is a timeless study of a Russian aristocratic family desperately clinging to the past. Among the star cast in this 1974 production are Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, Sinead Cusack, Anna Massey, Patricia Routledge and Andrew Sachs. The Classic Radio Theatre range presents notable radio productions of much-loved plays by some of the most renowned playwrights, and starring some of our finest actors.