Is anyone else listening to this - what do you think about it?

Having enjoyed and been impressed by "The Winslow Boy" , I was looking forward to this, particularly as it is a play rather than a dramatisation.

However, I find I am having exactly the same problem that I find with many dramatisations. I have no idea who is speaking, apart from Lady Hamilton, where they are are why If it had been a theatre play there would be a programme with notes, eg. Scene in Lady H's boudoir at her house in .............., Lord X is talking to Sir Y. If it had been television (which I gather this was originally written for) there would at least have been some visual clues.

I have suggested before that the BBC could enhance listeners enjoyment by giving some notes on programmes, but it seems they still insist on distracting listeners attention by long extracts from other programmes.

Before giving up completely on it, I did the "if in doubt first follow the instructions" thing and did a google search, but there is remarkable little.

I haven't listened to this production yet, but in the other one I think the men had different accents each so you could tell one from the other. Also I heard the speakers address the other person by name, but again that was the production with Branagh/McTeer. Will be interesting to hear what they cut out of the older production (the one from Radio 4extra) since the one I listened to is a half hour longer.

Yes, I think this production did lack clarity on the "who's speaking" front, Lady P. The Do3 Branagh/McTeer was a lot better and punchier.

Russ

You make good points, Mars, addressing people by name does help a lot with radio plays as do different accents/types of voice. So it is partly adaptation and partly casting. I thought the acting in the Winslow Boy was much better than much I have heard on radio recently - particularly the Barrister - though there were shades of Rumpole.!

Is it Bequest to Nation that was cut by half an hour? That may well explain some of my confusion. Do let me know what you think when you hear it.

The Radio 4Extra Bequest to the Nation is the one that's 30 minutes shorter than the Do3 version from 2005. I still haven't had a chance to listen, but will try to do so tomorrow (Saturday) while I run my errands.

EDIT: Since no one has caught my mistake on the other thread, I will correct it here. I had mistakenly thought Anna Massey was playing Lady Hamilton when she played Lady Nelson. The comparison I made should have been McTeer/Sian Phillips.

Is there a year stated for this production? Lady Hamilton sounded a good age older than Lady Nelson.

Also I find with older plays, the performance is rather wooden, but this Bequest was every bit as lively as the 2005 version. At this point I can't really put one production over the other. The story really can't be told badly. The main characters are all strong and convey their message with no problem.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2116 Jul 16 2011 by lifeonmarsfan.