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F Scott Fitzgerald: BBC Radio Collection

BBC radio dramatisations
from archive.org

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age - a term he popularized. During his lifetime, he published four novels and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald only received critical acclaim after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.


This collection includes four BBC Radio dramatisations of his novels, as well as readings of five of his short stories.


The Great Gatsby
Nick Carraway arrives in Long Island and is reacquainted with his distant cousin, Daisy Buchanan. He falls in with her wealthy crowd. His neighbour, the self-made and self-invented millionaire, Gatsby, is the man who has everything - but one thing will always be out of his reach.
Nick ..... Bryan Dick
Gatsby ..... Andrew Scott
Tom ..... Andrew Buchan
Daisy ..... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Jordan ..... Melody Grove
Wolfsheim ..... Karl Johnson
Klipspringer ..... Sam Dale
Wilson ..... Gerard McDermott
Myrtle ..... Susie Riddell
Catherine ..... Tracy Wiles
Chester ..... Patrick Brennan
Lucille ..... Christine Absalom
Alice ..... Amaka Okafor
Dramatised by Robert Forrest
Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2012


Tender Is the Night
Between the First World War and the Wall Street Crash the French Riviera was the stylish place for wealthy Americans to visit. Among the most fashionable are psychoanalyst Dick Diver and his wife Nicole, who hold court at their villa. Into their circle comes Rosemary Hoyt, a young film star, who is instantly attracted to them, but understands little of the dark secrets that hold them together.
Dick Diver ..... Simon Harrison
Nicole Diver ..... Melody Grove
Rosemary ..... Kelly Burke
Tommy ..... Finn den Hertog
Abe North ..... Mark McDonnel
McKisco ...... Laurie Brown
Violet/Baby ..... Anita Vettesse
Mother ..... Anne Lacey
Franz/Warren ...... Nick Underwood
Collis/Buddy ..... Alasdair Hankinson
Swanson ...... Laurie Brown
Baby ..... Anita Vettesse
Kathe/Caroline ..... Anne Lacey
Franz/Warren ...... Nick Underwood
Collis ..... Alasdair Hankinson
Narrator ..... Sam Dale
Dramatised by Robin Brooks
Director: Gaynor Macfarlane
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2015


The Beautiful and Damned
Anthony Patch, presumptive heir to a vast fortune, marries renowned beauty, Gloria Gilbert.
True socialites, the pair are the essence of glamour: a golden couple, spoiled and selfish, who descend through the wild partying of the Jazz Age into despair and alcoholism.
Anthony Patch ..... Joel MacCormack
Gloria Gilbert ..... Jessica Hardwick
Fred Passmore ..... Rhashan Stone
Maury Noble ..... David Sturzaker
Joseph Bloeckman ..... Tom Mothersdale
Muriel Kane ..... Melody Grove
Adam Patch/Bounds ..... Ben Onwukwe
Haight/Percy ..... David Seddon
Adapted by Robin Brooks
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2021


The Last Tycoon
Haunted by the death of his wife, 1930s Studio Head Monroe Stahr works eighteen hour days, each one a collision of talent meetings, set visits, script brainstorms and preview screenings. He's the "last of the princes", is making the studio millions and seems bullet proof. But then he meets the mesmerising Kathleen. As their affair plays out, we follow the disintegration of the great Hollywood legend, and witness the darker heart of the Hollywood machine as a paranoid fear of communism comes to the fore.
Munro Stahr .... Aidan Gillen
Kathleen .... Charlotte Emmerson
Bremmer .... Jack Shepherd
Cecilia .... Hilary Connell
Brady .... Michael Feast
Tony Rodriquez .... Karl Johnson
Boxley .... Trevor Ray
Fleishacker .... John Guerrasio
Miss Doolan .... Angela Douglas
Adapted by Bill Bryden
Directed by Bill Bryden
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2013


"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" performed by Scott Brick; "The Lost Decade," performed by Paul Michael Garcia; "Three Hours between Planes," performed by Jeff Cummings; "The Bridal Party," performed by Grover Gardner; and "Babylon Revisited," performed by Ray Porter.
First broadcast May 2007

  1. The Great Gatsby (104.9Mb)
  2. Tender Is The Night (104.9Mb)
  3. The Beautiful and Damned (104.8Mb)
  4. The Last Tycoon (80.4Mb)
  5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (58.3Mb)
  6. The Lost Decade (9Mb)
  7. Three Hours between Planes (13Mb)
  8. The Bridal Party (38.2Mb)
  9. Babylon Revisited (44.5Mb)

MP3 files hosted by archive.org.