Lost Horizon & Goodbye Mr Chips: Two BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisations

Full-cast adaptations of James Hilton’s two most famous novels

English author and screenwriter James Hilton is best remembered for his hugely successful novels Lost Horizon – which gave the world the term ‘Shangri-La’ – and Goodbye, Mr Chips. The books made him a household name, and were both adapted as Oscar-winning films. Now, those two classic stories have been brought together on audio, dramatised with full casts including Derek Jacobi, Carol Marsh and John Church.

Lost Horizon – May, 1931. Evacuated from war-torn Baskul, four passengers are plunged into adventure when their plane is hijacked and subsequently crash-lands in the Himalayan mountains. Out of the Tibetan wilderness, a man approaches, and leads British consul Hugh Conway and his fellow travellers to the hidden lamasery of Shangri-La. There, they find an idyllic haven, lost to the outside world – but this mystical utopia is hiding an astonishing secret...

Goodbye Mr Chips – Ensconced in comfortable retirement at Mrs Wickett's, gentle old headmaster Mr Chipping has a thousand tangled memories of his long tenure at his beloved Brookfield School. Looking back, he recalls his arrival as a shy, nervous novice; how he won the respect and adoration of his pupils; and how he found – and lost – his one great love, the beautiful, kind-hearted Kathie. Spanning over 60 years, from the Franco-Prussian War to the rise of Hitler, this is a touching, nostalgic tale of a life well-lived.

Text copyright James Hilton 1933 (Lost Horizon), 1934 (Goodbye, Mr Chips)

Cast and credits Written by James Hilton Produced by Graham Gauld

Lost Horizon Hugh Conway – Derek Jacobi Mallinson – Andrew Branch Barnard – Alan Tilvern Miss Brinklow – Carol Marsh Rutherford – John Livesey Wyland – Sion Probert Hilton – Alaric Cotter Sanders – Gary Cady Doctor – John Bull Chang – Garard Green High Lama – Alan Wheatley Lo-Tsen – Pik-Sen Lim American – Crawford Logan Dramatised by Barry Campbell

Goodbye Mr Chips Mr Chipping – John Church Mrs Wickett – Katherine Parr Kathie – Lolly Cockerell Dr Merivale – Lewis Stringer Wetherby – Godfrey Kenton Lucy – Hilda Schroder Rowden – Alaric Cotter Barker – John Bott Whitby – John McAndrew Meldrum – John Forbes-Robertson Bryce – Haydn Wood Brookfield boys – Adrian Breeze, Matthew Emerson, Ian Land, Adam Bass & Adam Landor Mission boys – Paul Beardshaw, Colin McDonagh & Stuart Sampson Sutton – Gordon Reid Ralston – Nigel Anthony Chatteris – Walter Hall Staefel – Graham Faulkner Williams – Christopher Scott Wadham – Harold Reese Deakin – John Gray Midwife – Sonia Fraser Linford – Arthur Haycraft Dramatised by Margaret Simpson

© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

© 2025 BBC Digital Audio (Lydbog): 9781529951127

Udgivelsesdato

Lydbog: 2. januar 2025