December 5, 2012

A Taste for Death BBC Radio Play: All the News to Date


For those who haven’t read the previous posts, here is all the news to date on the Radio 4 production of A Taste for Death.
Note: all new information will be updated in this post; scroll to the bottom for updates. 

Scroll to the bottom for the episode guide.

The brand-new dramatisation of Peter O'Donnell's fourth Modesty Blaise novel will be broadcast on the Radio 4 "15 Minute Drama" slot over the five weekdays of the week before Christmas, 17–21 December. The episodes will be available online as they are broadcast, and for up to a week afterwards.

The script has been written by bestselling crime author Stef Penney (author of ‘The Tenderness of Wolves’). The music was composed specially for the programme by Will Gregory, and has been recorded by the National Orchestra of Wales.

Stef Penney's adaptation has to fit the time available for the broadcasts, which means that some things have had to be cut and others handled in a different way. However, the production is in good hands: Stef has been a devoted fan of Peter O’Donnell's work for many years, and Kate McAll, the BBC Executive Producer who is handling the production, is one of the most respected producers in radio drama.  They have worked together on other literary dramatisations.

CAST LIST
Modesty Blaise: Daphne Alexander
Willie Garvin: Carl Prekopp
Sir Gerald Tarrant:  Alun Armstrong
Steve Collier: Geoffrey Streatfeild
Dinah Pilgrim: Samantha Dakin
McWhirter: Alex Ferns
Delicata:  Sam Dale
Sir Harold Presteign: Nigel Anthony
Skeet: Jeff Mash

Daphne Alexander as Modesty Blaise Carl Prekopp as Willie Garvin Alun Armstrong as Sir Gerald Tarrant
Geoffrey Streatfield as Steven Collier Samantha Dakin as Dinah Pilgrim Alex Ferns as McWhirter
Sam Dale
as Delicata
Nigel Anthony
as Presteign
Jeff Mash
as Skeet

NEW: Daphne Alexander was on BBC Radio London today (December 11), on the Robert Elms show. You can listen to the program on the BBC iplayer (fast forward to 2:35.35 for the interview).

Also, the BBC website now has some promotional videos for the radio play:


Stef Penney will be doing a live interview on Woman's Hour on the first day of the broadcasts, 17 December. Woman's Hour is immediately before the 15 Minute Drama slot, 10 - 10.45am London time

EPISODES
Go to the Radio 4 iPlayer schedule, or follow the links below to access the episodes:
.
.

December 1, 2012

A Taste for Death: Press release from Souvenir Press

(which sounds a bit better than 'Souvenir Press Press Release')

Souvenir Press will be reprinting A Taste for Death to tie in with the radio play. You can view their press release here, and below is the Modesty Blaise page from their catalogue (click image to enlarge).

Unfortunately, it looks like not all of the Modesty Blaise books are being reprinted; two are still out of print.


Unbelievably, the 2001 paperback reprint of The Impossible Virgin is selling for as much as US$298 on Amazon.com! (I've paid less than that for first edition vintage paperbacks!) I'm not sure why Souvenir Press isn't reprinting the entire series.

But on the plus side... 16 days until the radio play airs!
.