Audio plays starring Peth (in no particular order)
The central characters are clergyman James Morell, his wife Candida and a youthful poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who tries to win Candida's affections. The play questions Victorian notions of love and marriage, asking what a woman really desires from her husband. In February 2009 BBC Radio 7 broadcast a radio adaptation of the play. Starring Edward Petherbridge, with Hannah Gordon as "Candida". Others in the cast: Christopher Guard,
Ray Smith, Neville Jason, Irene Sutcliffe. Directed by Ronald Mason
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White, Andrew Lloyd Webber's first musical in four years, debuted in London in September 2004. A young art teacher, Walter Hartright (Martin Crewes), encounters a mysterious woman dressed in white desperate to tell a secret. But she disappears, and Walter continues on to his assignment teaching a pair of sisters, Marian Holcombe (Maria Friedman) and Laura Fairlie (Jill Paice). Romance develops, but is threatened by the arrival of some shady characters, Sir Percival Glyde (Oliver Darley) and Count Fosco (Michael Crawford). - Amazon
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
'Here, at the age of thirty nine, I began to be old. ' In 1944 Captain Charles Ryder travels with a company of soldiers to Brideshead. It's a place he's been to before, and one which serves as a potent reminder of the decadent and stylish lifestyle now destroyed by the austerity of the Second World War. - Summary
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
The novel, based on her recollections of family holidays in Cornwall, is split into three sections. Mrs. Ramsay prepare for a dinner party, where the guests include a philosopher, a young couple and painter Lily Briscoe. The story moves on to after the war and we discover that Mrs. Ramsay, her son and one of the guests have died. In the last section Lily finally achieves what she has been trying to do with her painting and Mr. Ramsay and the children reach the Lighthouse - FlipKart
BBC R3 - David Pownall's 'Dreams and Censorship'
Produced by Eoin O'Callaghan, Broadcast February 7, 1993
Summary: 1610. The King James Authorised Version of the Bible is near complete. Shakespeare warns The King [James] that inclusion of the Dream of St John will lead to blood. The King and Shakespeare travel to Oxford to discuss the matter with the Authorised Version's editorial team. Hugh Ross as King James and Edward Petherbridge as Shakespeare.
Review:
The action happens in Oxford in the summer of 1610: Shakespeare (Edward Petherbridge) invades the committee of churchmen just finishing the translation of the Bible to relay his good friend the King's anxiety about the Revelation of St John, which has some nasty lines about eating kings. When the King himself arrives, it comes out that Shakespeare is the author of his worries: he thinks Revelation will feed a popular hunger for apocalyptic imagery - 'Thirty years in the theatre have given me a sense of what is about to become fashionable' - and sedition will come of it. - Robert Hanks, The Independent
Let Me
At the height of the Barbarian invasions, a Roman land owner finds his home surrounded by the invaders. The elderly patrician was never a warrior, but can he bring himself to surrender and betray centuries of tradition and culture? - BBC
Music Matters
The book focuses on Sir Michael Tippett's relationships with publishers, promoters, friends and lovers. Of particular interest are letters to his contemporary, Benjamin Britten, and his closest female friend, Francesca Allinson. Tom asks the critic Michael Kennedy what picture of Tippett emerges from the letters. Excerpts are read by Edward Petherbridge. - BBC
John Bull's Other Island - Bernard Shaw
Through the eyes of two friends, one English and the other Irish, this play explores the misunderstandings and misconceptions that have characterized relations between England and Ireland for centuries. Performed by Edward Petherbridge, Christopher Benjamin, Patrick Duggan & Cast. - Amazon
The Cases Of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
NPR Playhouse, Produced by Independent Radio Drama Productions. Edward Petherbridge (Holmes) & David Peart (Watson)
09/29/91 A Study In Scarlet, Part 1
10/06/91 A Study In Scarlet, Part 2
10/13/91 A Study In Scarlet, Part 3
10/20/91 A Study In Scarlet, Part 4
10/27/91 A Study In Scarlet, Part 5
11/03/91 A Study In Scarlet, Part 6
11/10/91 A Scandal In Bohemia, Part 1
11/17/91 A Scandal In Bohemia, Part 2
11/24/91 The Speckled Band, Part 1
11/30/91 The Speckled Band, Part 2
03/07/93 The Valley Of Fear, Part 1
03/14/93 The Valley Of Fear, Part 2
03/21/93 The Valley Of Fear, Part 3
03/28/93 The Valley Of Fear, Part 4
04/04/93 The Valley Of Fear, Part 5
04/11/93 The Valley Of Fear, Part 6
04/18/93 The Valley Of Fear, Part 7
04/25/93 The Valley Of Fear, Part 8
05/02/93 The Valley Of Fear, Part 9
05/09/93 The Five Orange Pips, Part 1
05/16/93 The Five Orange Pips, Part 2
05/23/93 The Man With The Twisted Lip, Part 1
05/30/93 The Man With The Twisted Lip, Part 2
Series: Sherlock Holmes: His Last Bow. Episode: The Dying Detective. Dramatised by Bert Coules. Produced & directed by Patrick Rayner. First broadcast 5th January 1994
BBC R4 - Oscar Wilde's 'The Canterville Ghost'
Broadcast December 31, 1992
Humorous morality tale about an unhappy ghost who comes up against a family of Americans, a stranger species than he has ever seen. Cast: Edward Petherbridge, Angus Mcinness, Gwyneth Guthrie, Mary Riggins Rose Mcbain, Ann Marie Zola, Anthony Cochrane, Raymond Ross, John Buick, Paul Birchyard, Ally Walton
Review:
Irony was used with more restraint, and to greater effect, in Nick McCarty's dramatisation of The Canterville Ghost (Radio 4, Thursday), Oscar Wilde's shortish story about an English ghost upset by the new American inhabitants of the stately home that he haunts. The temptation with Wilde (and writers can resist everything but temptation) is to shove in a stray epigram whenever you're stuck for a line - or when, as in this case, you need to pad out an insubstantial tale to fit a 90-minute slot. McCarty barely succumbed: 'We really have everything in common with America nowadays - except, of course, our language,' said Lord Canterville; otherwise, the time was used wisely in fleshing out Wilde's wraith, adding credible detail about his life and afterlife. Edward Petherbridge played the spectre surprisingly straight, which was doubly effective: the central joke, that the Americans refuse to take him seriously, worked well when it seemed that he deserved better; and the glum persona made it easier to make the transition from mild farce into spiritual drama. The pure young American girl, Virginia, finds redemption for the ghost through her tears, in a sentimental-religious denouement that can be rather jarring. This version, produced by Hamish Wilson, managed the switch more easily than Wilde did, with the concentration on sin and forgiveness making it less Wilde than Greene. - Roberts Hanks, The Independent
The Wide-Brimmed Hat, by Michael Wall
The Wide-Brimmed Hat told of the wooing by minor pre-Raphaelite Charles Catchpole of the revolutionary Italian Nationalist Princess Melvezzi in Austrian-occupied Venice, a wooing interrupted by the Princess's attempt to assasinate Marshal Radetsky. Convincing background details was slipped in (Ruskin and his Effie are minor characters) and Jeremy Mortimer's production, rich in well-chosen sound and well-varied acoustic, painted a fine Venetian picture. Edward Petherbridge and Eleanor Bron played Catchpole and the Princess. Edward Petherbridge received a Sony Award for his portrayal of Charles Catchpole, a Victorian landscape artist who falls for an anarchist Italian princess. - web.ukonline.co.uk
Alvaro’s Balcony by Sebastian Michael. Music & Lyrics by Jonathan Kaldor. Enacted at The Dome Room, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Thursday 29th November 2007
Constance Neilsen, an American debutante, is chosen as the bride of Crown Prince Cedric to restore Centoluci’s monarchy and reinvent itself as the world's most glamorous destination. Struggling with the starchy formality of life in the castle and her unrequited love for her husband, Constance asks royal aide Gualtieri to arrange music lessons for her with the local struggling musical genius Alvaro. The joy that Princess Constance gains from her lessons is sharply at right angles to her failing royal duties. SebastianMichael.com
Concept recording and extracts here
On This Shaven Green....2003
R4. 16 Sep 03. An idyllic summer's day in a perfect garden. Hot sun, good food, fine wine, and nothing to do but enjoy it. But there is something lurking beneath this untroubled surface. With John Wood, Barbara Jefford, Edward Petherbridge; dir. Ellen Dryden.
Kill the Cameraman First 2002, New to BBC7
Another offering written and directed by the late Don Taylor, a man finds himself in a strange city, where he is quickly projected into a series of bizarre situations over which he has no control. Starring Anton Lesser, Michael Pennington and Edward Petherbridge, Kill The Cameraman First was first broadcast in 2002 on Radio 4.
The Ladykillers by William Rose: First broadcast in 1996. The classic 1955 Ealing comedy movie, adapted for radio by Bruce Bedford. Stars Edward Petherbridge, Donald Sinden, Gary Waldhorn, Martin Hyder, Daniel Peacock, Margot Boyd, Johnny Morris and Stratford Johns. Professor Marcus rents a room from an eccentric old lady, Mrs. Wilberforce. The Professor, with his gang are plotting an armoured car robbery, while convincing Mrs Wilberforce that they are musicians using the room for rehearsal space. The masquerade triggers a macabre comedy of manners as the gang's machinations are unwittingly foiled by the widow.
Review:
The story is all bizarre logic and gentle humour: Mrs Wilberforce, old and widowed, has settled in the doubtful purlieus of King's Cross with her parrot, General Gordon. Unwittingly, she helps a gang of thieves to rob a van: when she realises what they've done, she insists that they own up. In their increasingly desperate attempts to bump her off they all perish, and she is left explaining to a sceptical policeman that she possesses pounds 60,000 of someone else's money, handily concealed in a cello case. Indulgently, he tells her to toddle off and spend it; in a moment of sublime recklessness, she decides to abandon her nasty old umbrella. The desperadoes were led by an urbane Edward Petherbridge as the Professor, while Mrs W herself was the utterly delightful Margot Boyd (whose day- job, as Marjorie Antrobus, is keeping members of The Archers in order). Her unfailing trust in the good nature of the villains leads to an enchanting scene when they find themselves attending a tea party for her friends Lettice and Constance. "You pedal the pianola beautifully, Professor," she coos, as the parrot, played with cackling gusto by Johnny Morris, squawks malevolently: "Swab the decks! Man the guns!" - Sue Gaisford, The Independent
Wild Ride To Dublin....2003
Conscience, decency and politics compel Spike Oldroyd to undertake a crazy journey to save his love affair, his honour and an almost innocent villain. Wed 9 July 2003, 14:15, Afternoon Play, 45m. Cast: Edward Petherbridge, Sara Kestelman, John Quinn, Peter Gowen, Lloyd Hutchinson, Marcella Riordan. Director: Roland Jaquarello.
Old Acquaintance: John van Druten, Radio 4, 23.11.1968/2030, Coral Browne/Dulcie Gray/Jane Asher/Edward Petherbridge. - http://web.ukonline.co.uk
Arthur's Knight Kevin Crossley-Holland 6 R3 21.12.1993 30.12.1993 Richard Griffiths/Peter Meakin/Norman Rodway/Edward Petherbridge - http://web.ukonline.co.uk
