Strangers and Brothers: An epic BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

The full-cast BBC Radio adaptation of C. P. Snow's epic series about the English establishment across the twentieth century

'A vivid portrait of British academic, political and public life' Guardian

'A very considerable achievement... It brings into the novel themes and locales never seen before (except perhaps in Trollope)' Anthony Burgess

In 1920s Leicester, Lewis Eliot must escape the drudgery of a council clerk's office and his provincial lower class background to begin his decades-long rise to power. As the years pass, and Lewis progresses to successful London lawyer, to Cambridge don, to wartime service in Whitehall, to senior civil servant and finally retirement, he faces in his own life and the lives of those around him collapsing marriages, terrible illness, the politics of academia, Nazism, nuclear weapons, the price of power, and the ever-present realities of war.

The New York Times praised the book series, saying, 'through [them] as in no other work in our time we have explored the inner life of the new classless class that is the 20th century Establishment'. John Betjeman claimed the books were 'as full of life as life itself'. The Strangers and Brothers series captures perfectly the ever-present battle between political and personal integrity Lewis must face, as well as all the upheaval and social change of the two world wars and the decades that followed.

This adaptation stars David Haig and Adam Godley as Lewis Eliot, Bill Wallis as George Passant, Juliet Aubrey as Margaret Davidson, Stephen Moore as Herbert Getliffe, and Danny Webb as Percy Hall, with a full cast including Jeremy Swift, David Tennant, Anne-Marie Duff, Iain Glen, Claire Skinner and Tim McInnerny.

Directed by Jeremy Howe and Sally Avens Dramatised by Jonathan Holloway

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, January-June 2003

Full cast: Narrator/Lewis Eliot - David Haig Young Lewis Eliot - Adam Godley George Passant - Bill Wallis Marion - Laura Doddington Sheila Knight - Anastasia Hille Herbert Getliffe - Stephen Moore Percy Hall - Danny Webb Charles March - Jamie Glover Leonard March - John Standing Katherine March - Carla Simpson Ann Simon - Emma Woolliams Mrs Getliffe - Suzanna Hamilton Revd Knight - Brett Usher Young Francis Getliffe - Andy Taylor Winslow - Clive Merrison Young Brown - Philip Franks Roy Calvert - Adam Levy Young Jago - David Calder Nightingale - Jeremy Child Chrystal - Matthew Marsh Crawford - Hugh Quarshie Mrs Jago - Joanna Monroe Sir Horace Timberlake - Ian Hogg Young Hector Rose - Rupert Vansittart Houston Eggar - Peter Marinker Willy Romantovski - Kenneth Collard Gilbert Cooke - Anthony Calf Margaret Davidson/Margaret Eliot - Juliet Aubrey Rosalind - Anne-Marie Duff Betty Vane - Carla Simpson Martin Eliot - Tim McInnerny Walter Luke - Jeremy Swift Irene - Claire Skinner David Rubin - Rolf Saxon Sawbridge - Adrian Scarborough Edgar - Andrew Wincott Captain Smith - Sean Baker Sir Hector Rose - John Carlisle Sir Thomas Beville - Robert Laing Austin Davidson - David Collings Jago - Sean Barrett Dawson Hill - Peter Blythe Skeffington - David Acton Francis Getliffe - Geoffrey Whitehead Brown - Jonathan Coy Donald Howard - David Tennant Roger Quaife - Iain Glen Lord Collingwood - Ronald Pickup Caro Quaife - Julia Watson Lord Gilbey - John Woodvine Diana Skidmore - Avril Clark Phillips - Richard Firth Osbaldiston - David Leonard Brodzinski - Christopher Rozycki Ellen Smith - Emma Bown Monteith - Paul Venables Trafford - Stephen Critchlow

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Lydbog: 7. juli 2022