Harold Pinter: BBC Radio Drama Collection
from archive.org
Harold Pinter's career as a playwright began with a production of The Room in 1957. His second play, The Birthday Party, closed after eight performances but was enthusiastically reviewed by critics. His early works were described by critics as "comedies of menace". Later plays such as No Man's Land (1975) and Betrayal (1978) became known as "memory plays".
His writing career spanned over 50 years and he produced 29 original stage plays, 27 screenplays, many dramatic sketches, radio and TV plays, poetry, one novel, short fiction, essays, speeches, and letters. He appeared as an actor in productions of his own work on radio and film, and directed nearly 50 productions for stage, theatre and screen.
Despite frail health after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2001, Pinter continued to act on stage and screen. In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and, in the same year, the Wilfred Owen Award for Poetry and the Franz Kafka Award (Prague). Pinter's last performance was in October 2006, in the title role of Samuel Beckett's one-act monologue Krapp's Last Tape, for the 50th anniversary season of the Royal Court Theatre. In 2006 he was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize and, in 2007, the highest French honour, the L?gion d'Honneur. He died in December 2008.
Presented here is a selection of Pinter's best works, broadcast by BBC Radio across 6 decades.
A Kind of Alaska
A one-act play in which a middle-aged woman named Deborah, who has been in a comatose state for 29 years awakes with a mind still that of a sixteen-year-old. She must confront a body which has aged without her knowledge or consent, and a brother-in-law who has fallen in love with her.
Deborah ..... Harriet Walter
Hornby ..... Guy Paul
Pauline ..... Indira Varma
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Toby Swift
First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in November 2015
A Night Out
Why should Albert think of going out when his mother looks after him so well and has such a nice supper for him? It's something his mother will never understand to her dying day.
Albert Stokes ...... Barry Foster
Mrs Stokes ...... Mary O'Farrell
Seeley ...... David Baron
Kedge ...... John Rye
Barman ...... Walter Hall
Old man ...... Norman Wynne
Mr King ...... David Bird
Mr Ryan ...... Norman Wynne
Gidney ...... Nicholas Selby
Joyce ...... Jane Jordan Rogers
Eileen ...... Auriol Smith
Betty ...... Margaret Hotine
Horne ...... Hugh Dickson
Barrow ...... David Spenser
The girl ...... Vivien Merchant
Written by Harold Pinter
Produced by Donald McWhinnie.
First broadcast on BBC Third Programme in March 1960
A Slight Ache
In the week celebrating his 70th birthday, Harold Pinter starred in a new production of his classic radio play from 1959.
During a single day, the safety of the study, scullery and garden is endangered by the appearance of a match seller at the garden gate in this comedy of menace.
Edward ...... Harold Pinter
Flora ...... Jill Johnson
Match seller ...... Albert Stokes
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Ned Chaillet
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2000
Ashes to Ashes
A man interrogates a woman about her lover and involvement in wartime atrocities. The woman is haunted by appalling memories: genocide, deportation, and most disturbingly, a tenderly recalled masochistic-erotic relationship with a modern Herod-like infanticide.
Rebecca ..... Harriet Walter
Devlin ..... Nicholas Woodeson
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Harry Burton
Produced by Toby Swift
First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in November 2015
Betrayal
Harold Pinter's acclaimed drama about a love affair and the intricate nature of deceit which is told in reverse time from its poignant ending to its thrilling first kiss.
Emma ..... Olivia Colman
Jerry ..... Andrew Scott
Robert ..... Charles Edwards
Waiter ..... Gerard McDermott
Written by Harold Pinter
Produced and Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2012
The Birthday Party
Stanley Webber, a piano player, lives in a rundown boarding house run by Meg and Petey Boles, in an English seaside town, "probably on the south coast, not too far from London". Two sinister strangers, Goldberg and McCann, arrive on Stanley's birthday and appear to have come looking for him. They turn the innocuous birthday party organized by Meg into a nightmare.
Narrator ...... John Gabriel
Meg ...... Sylvia Coleridge
Petey ...... Cyril Shaps
Stanley ...... John Hollis
Lulu ...... Barbara Mitchell
Goldberg ...... Lee Montague
McCann ...... Norman Rodway
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Charles Lefeaux
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1970
The Caretaker
Two brothers shelter an elderly, homeless man after a fight in a caf?. But his problems are far from over.
Davies... David Warner
Aston... Tony Bell
Mick... Daniel Mays
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Peter Kavanagh
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2010
The Dreaming Child
It's Bristol in 1868 and Emily, married to wealthy Tom Carter, is haunted by her passionate first love affair with a young soldier who subsequently died at sea. Seven years later, and unable to have children, the couple decide to adopt a boy from the slum. Jack, however, is not an ordinary child and seems to already know everything about his new home and family.
Narrator ...... Anne Reid
Emily ...... Lydia Leonard
Tom ...... Bertie Carvel
Charlie ...... Joshua Silver
Mrs Jones ...... Joanna Scanlan
Miss Scott ...... Susan Wooldridge
Jack ...... Jack Hollington
Peggy ...... Rose Leslie
Bess ...... Bryony Hannah
Mr Rudd ...... Karl Johnson
Mr Carter ...... Malcolm Sinclair
with Flynn Allen, Esme Allen-Quarmby, Isabella Blake-Thomas and Joey Price as the children.
Original story by Karen Blixen
Written by Harold Pinter
Adapted and Directed by Joanna Hogg
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2015
The Examination
A chilling yet playful monologue in which a man about to be questioned summons up every mental resource to empower himself over his interrogator.
The man ...... Michael Gambon
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Peter Kavanagh
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2009
Family Voices
A series of parallel monologues between a mother and son in the form of letters written but probably never mailed, in which the facade of a happy family gradually disintegrates into a cauldron of recrimination.
The Mother ...... Peggy Ashcroft
The Son ...... Michael Kitchen
The Father ...... Mark Dignam
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Peter Hall
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1981
Landscape
A middle aged couple, housekeeper and chauffeur sit in the huge bare kitchen of a country house pursuing their own thoughts aloud in a ghastly semblance of conversation. While the man's thoughts are of his day in the park and a quarrel in the pub, the woman's are of an idyllic day spent many years ago on a beach with the man she loved.
Duff ...... Harold Pinter
Beth ...... Penelope Wilton
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Peter Kavanagh
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2009
Last to Go
At a coffee stall, the attendant and an old newspaper seller chat idly about a variety of pointless topics which probably mean little to either of them.
Newspaper Seller ...... Geoffrey Bayldon
Coffee Stall Owner ...... Harold Pinter
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Michael Bakewell
First broadcast on BBC Third Programme in May 1964
Moonlight
Andy is a man on his death bed - but where is his loving family?
Andy ...... Harold Pinter
Bel ...... Sara Kestelman
Ralph ...... John Shrapnel
Maria ...... Jill Johnson
Jake ...... Douglas Hodge
Fred ...... Harry Burton
Bridget ...... Indira Varma
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2009
Mountain Language
A prison is controlled by unnamed guards in an unnamed country. The guards ban the prisoners' native language as they incarcerate them for unnamed crimes against the State.
The Officer ...... Jeremy Irons
Sergeant ...... Nick Dunning
The Guard ...... Michael J. Ford
Young Woman ...... Amy Huberman
Elderly Woman ...... Deirdre Donnelly
Prisoner ...... Andrew Bennett
Hooded Man ...... Liam Cunningham
Second Guard ...... Al McKenna
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Aidan Matthews
First broadcast on BBC World Service in November 2007
Old Times
In a remote farmhouse, Deeley and Kate await a visitor. Anna is Kate's best friend, though Deeley has never met her. Is the past really as they remember it?
Kate ...... Ruth Gemmell
Deeley ...... Justin Salinger
Anna ...... Olivia Williams
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane
First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in January 2014
Victory
Baron Heyst is a mysterious Swedish recluse living alone on a deserted island in the Dutch East Indies in 1900. His life is changed forever when he visits a neighbouring island and falls in love with young English violinist, Lena. Pursued by predatory older men, Lena is drawn to Heyst and escapes with him to his island retreat.
Narrator ...... Simon Russell Beale
Heyst ...... Bjarne Henriksen
Lena ...... Vanessa Kirby
Ricardo ...... Mark Strong
Original story by Joseph Conrad
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane
First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in January 2014
- A Kind of Alaska (23.2Mb)
- A Night Out (46.1Mb)
- A Slight Ache (47Mb)
- Ashes to Ashes (21.5Mb)
- Betrayal (64.6Mb)
- The Birthday Party (102Mb)
- The Caretaker (79.6Mb)
- The Dreaming Child (79.9Mb)
- The Examination (16.4Mb)
- Family Voices (24.9Mb)
- The Homecoming (88.2Mb)
- Landscape (45.8Mb)
- Last to Go (4.7Mb)
- Moonlight (47Mb)
- Mountain Language (13Mb)
- Old Times (42.3Mb)
- Victory (77.3Mb)
MP3 files hosted by archive.org.