- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Jane Anderson
“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there,” is one of the best-known lines in literature but, shockingly, few of us are able to attribute it to its source. Hopefully, this will be rectified after Frances Byrnes’s sympathetic dramatisation of LP Hartley’s novel has aired and listeners will be driven back to the original text.
On a superficial level it’s a tale of betrayal, in which a young boy loses his innocence when he realises he is being used to help a beautiful society wife conduct an affair with a local farmer. On a deeper level, though, it is a profoundly moving examination of the nature of identity. Young actor Oscar Kennedy gives an impressive performance as the boy, while Richard Griffiths plays him as an older, troubled man looking back on his past.
About this programme
The Go-Between, by LP Hartley. An adaptation of the story of a boy who is betrayed by a rich woman and her farmer lover, who use him to ferry letters back and forth in the summer of 1900. The 1970 film version focused on the main plot line, but this interpretation revolves around an old man who finds a boyhood diary and is forced to unlock the trauma inside. Another chance to hear the last radio drama performance of acclaimed actor Richard Griffiths, who died in March. With Harriet Walter, Amanda Root, Lydia Leonard, Joseph Arkley, Blake Ritson, Josef Lindsay, Oscar Kennedy and Crawford Logan. Featuring musicians Max Carsley, Duncan Ferguson and George Gillespie, under director Joe Acheson.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Lionel Colston
- Richard Griffiths
- Leo Colston
- Oscar Kennedy
- Mrs Maudsley
- Harriet Walter
- Marian Maudsley
- Lydia Leonard
- Mrs Colston (Mother)
- Amanda Root
- Ted Burgess
- Joseph Arkley
- Viscount Trimingham
- Blake Ritson
- Mr Maudsley
- Crawford Logan
- Marcus Maudsley
- Josef Lindsay
Crew
- Adapted By
- Frances Byrnes
- Director
- Matt Thompson
- Producer
- Matt Thompson
- Producer
- Frances Byrnes
- Writer
- LP Hartley
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