WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:
'It should not be missed.'
David Sexton,
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'Frederic Raphael's witty, fast-paced story... believe me this is brilliant'
Sue Arnold,
THE OBSERVER
Cancel all Sunday afternoon social engagements for the next month: this four part Classic Serial is too good to miss.'
Jane Anderson,
RADIO TIMES
'Fizzing new four-part adaptation... It's classy repartee all the way, with a cast to match'
David Sexton,
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'absorbing adaptation'
Stephanie Billen,
THE OBSERVER
'Provocative, great fun'
Paul Donovan,
THE SUNDAY TIMES
'Its TV version...established Raphael as a sharp-eyed, blisteringly funny and uncomfortably wise observer of British life. Wonderful cast.'
Gillian Reynolds,
THE TELEGRAPH
'Briliant dramatisation'
RADIO TIMES
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the glittering prizes4x60'
Frederic Raphael's 1977 masterwork, adapted for radio and narrated by the author, was broadcast as the Radio 4 Classic Serial. It follows the fortunes and misfortunes of a group of young people who were at Cambridge University together in the early 1950s. Their individual stories reflect the way British society changed over a quarter of a century -- sometimes predictably, but more often not. It's a story of interacting careers, but it's also a story of friendship, of the strength of connections forged under heat early in life.
Writer/Adapter/Narrator: Frederic Raphael Director: Pete Atkin Assistant Producer: Jo Wheeler Executive Producers: Helen Chattwell & Bruce Hyman
Broadcast: Sunday 20th and 27th November 4th and 11th December (rpt Saturday)
In Episode 1 Adam Morris (Jamie Glover) is accepted into Cambridge. His ambivalence towards his own Jewishness is reinforced as he makes new friends whose backgrounds are greatly different from his own, in particular Donald (Damian Lewis), his college room-mate. Donald's story results in an unforeseen, very grown-up shock for all of his friends.
In Episode 2 the friends reach the end of their Cambridge careers, and have to face up to life in the real world, where undergraduate promise guarantees nothing. Adam's apparent denial of his Jewishness, not least by moving in with Barbara (Jemma Redgrave), upsets his family, but it doesn't prevent him from confronting the 'fascistic brontosaurus', Stephen Taylor (Geoffrey Palmer).
In Episode 3 it is now the late 1960s, and Dan Bradley (Benedict Cumberbatch) has long given up all thoughts of acting and has committed himself almost puritanically to teaching. He married Joyce (Serena Evans), and has brought up her son as his own, but a visit from the mega-successful Alan Parks (Robert Bathurst) changes everything. Meanwhile, Bill Bourne (Anton Lesser) has returned from America with an American wife to take up a post at one of the new universities, where student politics seem to take precedence over everything -- or almost everything.
In Episode 4 the building of the new Media Complex at the University of Staunton brings political and private matters to a head for Bill and Joann. Meanwhile, although Adam has become an established literary figure by the 1970s, he is still capable of being surprised by his old friends, and by his own insecurities.
ADAM MORRIS...........Jamie Glover BARBARA MORRIS.... Jemma Redgrave DONALD DAVIDSON....Damian Lewis LADY FRANCES ..........Lynsey Baxter ALAN PARKS..............Robert Bathurst SHIRLEY....................Alison Pettitt DAN BRADLEY...........Benedict Cumberbatch JOYCE HADLEIGH...... Serena Evans MIKE CLODE..............Dominic Hawksley ANNA CUNNINGHAM...Poppy Miller STEPHEN TAYLOR.......Geoffrey Palmer GAVIN POPE...............Julian Firth BILL BOURNE ............Anton Lesser JOANN CASE...............Lachele Carl LIONEL MORRIS.........Henry Goodman ESTELLE MORRIS/URSULA DENNY/ MRS HERSH/CAROL....Elaine Claxton KENNETH....................Malcolm Sinclair DENISE/CHRISTINE...Tara Summers SHEILA/HELGA...........Flora Montgomery AUSTIN DENNY...........Malcolm Stoddard RONALD.....................Roger Hammond PROF/KEN/DENIS/ CADMAN/BRYAN/HENRY...Rupert Degas BRUNO/FRANK/DEREK/ SID/TIM/MICHAEL.....Simon Greenall PETER BRADLEY..........Leo Potter GRAHAM......................Isaac Freeth TOM MORRIS..............Alex Mansuroglu Broadcaster: |
