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Livin’ la vida lockdown can feel stressful, claustrophobic and monotonous. But a bit of good old-fashioned distraction can really help matters. Thankfully, if it’s escapism you’re after, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds has got you covered. Pop your headphones in and immerse yourself in a rainforest soundscape, a magical clifftop pub or the bustling court of King Henry VIII with our selection of top audio dramas.

In Curious Under the Stars, Gareth (Elis James) and Diane (Emma Sidi) are pub landlords in Glan Don, a mysterious village perched on the wild Welsh coast. With many an enchanted and mysterious occurrence, the mystical comedy drama takes us deep into a landscape of myth, magic and mayhem. A new series airs this week, which sees disaster strike as the village’s peculiar pub, the Druid's Rest Inn, collapses into a sinkhole… And with nine more series in the back catalogue, this one is sure to keep you tied up until lockdown lifts.

Forest 404 is an immersive sci-fi thriller set in the 24th century, in a world where forests have been erased from history. Pan, played by Pearl Mackie (Dr Who, Greed), is a young woman with a boring job, sorting and deleting old sound files that survived a data crash called The Cataclysm. She uncovers a set of sound recordings from the early 21st century that haunt her – recordings of rainforests. Pan feels compelled to hunt down the truth about how these forests of the old world died, whilst being pursued by the agents of the new world’s ruling powers. This eco-thriller, with original music by Bonobo, raises the question: can you feel loss for something you’ve never known? And what if the world’s verdant ecosystem was a thing of the past, and all we had left were a few audio files?

The chart-topping, electronic duo KLF provided many of the dance floor-fillers of the early 90s. Then in August 1994 the pop-producing pair, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, travelled to a remote Scottish island where, in a disused boathouse, they burnt two suitcases of cash amounting to one million pounds – all in the name of art. But why? How to Burn a Million Quid is a comic, surreal, fast-moving account of this true story. It follows the agents of chaos as they blaze a trail to Sweden, the North Pole and the Sierra Nevada, via Northampton, before arriving finally on Jura. This sonic roller coaster features Paul Higgins (The Thick of It, Line of Duty) as Bill, and Nicholas Burns (Nathan Barley, The World’s End) as Jimmy. Oh, and a talking salmon.

The Corrupted is a criminal family saga, starring Toby Jones (Detectorists, Dad's Army) as Joseph Olinska, gangster turned MP. Joey, an uneducated Jewish child immigrant from Russia, has a natural instinct for business and a love of money – coupled with a knack for acquiring it. He built his empire with the help of a corrupt bank manager in the 1950s, starting with small greengrocer shops before moving into tertiary banking and property development (dealing with many corrupt policemen on the way) and befriending both Lord Goodman and Margaret Thatcher. Now ennobled and on the board of Lehman Brothers, Joseph intends to extend his business interests into Russia with the help of Boris Yeltsin and his cronies… GF Newman's epic saga weaves fiction with real characters from history as it follows the fortunes of the Olinska family – from small-time business and opportunistic petty crime, through gang rivalries, to their entanglement in the highest echelons of society.

Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy tells the story of Henry VIII’s humbly-born fixer and his rapid rise to power and prominence in the royal court. The first two novels, Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, earned Mantel the Booker Prize – twice – something no other British writer has achieved. Fans have been clamouring for the third instalment ever since – and now the wait is over. The Mirror and the Light, which begins with the aftermath of the beheading of Anne Boleyn and climaxes with Cromwell’s fall from grace four years later, is abridged in 15 episodes and read by Anton Lesser (who starred as Thomas More in the TV adaptation of Wolf Hall). Henry’s right-hand man has climbed to the top of the tree. But it isn’t long before Cromwell’s relationship with the King begins to sour, and he starts to fear for his future...

Rebellions, plagues and mysterious forces hide behind every corner of Tumanbay, a world inspired by the Mamluks – the great civilisation and slave dynasty that ruled Egypt from the 13th to the 16th century. In Series 3, Tumanbay is recovering from a brutal occupation by the followers of Maya. Manel, daughter of Tumanbay’s greatest commander, now sits on the throne. Her chief adviser and lover is the mysterious traveller Alkin, who she once tried to kill. The city has been plundered for much of its wealth and, desperate for allies, a marriage has been arranged between Manel and Herod, the feckless son of a powerful provincial governor. But Gregor, Manel’s uncle and commander of the Palace Guard, is convinced that Maya and her followers are still a threat to Tumanbay… In this epic saga, slaves, warriors and spies live side-by-side.

Dr Helen Ash is an unlikely heroine – cold, defensive, and seemingly heartless. But then aren’t all the best protagonists flawed? When a plane crashes in West Wales, the otherwise brittle doctor finds herself pulling bodies from the wreckage and tending compassionately to the wounded. And as it becomes clear that there is more to this than a mere accident, a dark conspiracy begins to unfold. Romola Garai stars in this multi-award-winning thriller, written by Matthew Broughton. The good news is, if you’re a fan of series one, there are three more to get your teeth into. In Series 2, a dark secret lies hidden in the mountains of Snowdonia.

This long-running drama tracks the fortunes of a wealth of colourful characters on the home front as they try to maintain normality while Britain navigates the First World War. Set in Folkstone, Tyneside and Devon, it showcases the stories of those left behind – in the factories and shipyards of North East England, to the farming communities of the rural South West. Each twelve-minute episode follows one character’s day, with the fictional story set against a background of real historical events: from a factory explosion, to the first aerial bombing raid, to the launch of the Women’s Institute. Over a whopping 15 series, the show explores experiences from a huge cross-section of society.