Narrative tenses are used to describe events that happened in the past, and for telling stories.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/intermediate/unit-20/session-2/activity-3

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/upper-intermediate/unit-26/session-1

The past perfect, had + past participle, describes something that happened before an action described using past simple.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/intermediate/unit-7/session-2/activity-3