Jason Watkins, David Morrissey and more join BBC Radio 4's Dickensian season
The new season of audio dramas kicks off later this month.
A cast of familiar faces are assembling to bring us brand new audio drama versions of some beloved Dickensian classics for the BBC, it has now been announced.
For BBC Radio 4's upcoming season of Dickensian dramas, three versions of some of Charles Dickens's tales will be released in order to celebrate one of history's most recognised writers.
Launching later this month, the audio dramas will include Hard Times, Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend, and all three boast some very recognisable names.
Hard Times is described as a "satire of a target-driven society that stifles art, wonder and imagination" and will star Sherwood's David Morrissey and Changing Ends's Shaun Dooley, as well as Rachel Harper, Jan Ravens, Ike Bennett and more.
Based on Dickens's 11th novel, Little Dorrit, the new audio drama "satirises the institutions of government and society, in particular the Circumlocution Office, a department run purely for the benefit of its incompetent officials, and the prisons where debtors were incarcerated, unable to work, until they had repaid their debts," according to its synopsis.
Jason Watkins (McDonald & Dodds) will be leading the cast of Little Dorrit as Charles Dickens/Rigaud, also being joined by Samuel Barnett, Kitty Archer and Paul Bradley.
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The final audio drama, Our Mutual Friend, is also based on the final novel of Dickens, which has been described as "a brilliantly funny, sharp depiction of Londoners aspiring to and managing without money, featuring multiple deaths, economic ruins, money and filth, fraud and deception, honesty and survival, and a happy ending".
This new production of the tale marks the 160th year since it was written and it features the likes of Bukky Bakray (The Strays), Sule Rimi (Andor) and Gordon Kennedy (Robin Hood), to name a few.
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On the announcement of the new dramas, director of speech and Radio 4 controller, Mohit Bakaya, said: “As the world’s biggest commissioner of original audio drama, the BBC is delighted to breathe new life into these much-loved works for Radio 4 listeners.
"Alongside his fiction and journalism, Dickens was also a keen actor who regularly performed his works for fans on hugely popular public reading tours – his novels are written as much for the ear as for the eye.
"That may help explain why these stories are so well suited to the medium of audio drama, a format which we at the BBC know is immensely popular with our listeners, and which we are committed to continuing to invest in, so that everyone can enjoy brilliant works of classic literature like Dickens – as well as the very best new writing.”
Hard Times will be released on BBC Radio 4 on 29th September.
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Authors
Morgan Cormack is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering everything drama-related on TV and streaming. She previously worked at Stylist as an Entertainment Writer. Alongside her past work in content marketing and as a freelancer, she possesses a BA in English Literature.
