Episodes
| Series | Episode | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 20101003 | 20101009 (R4) | Isherwood's dramatic eyewitness account of Berlin in the early 30s, the book that inspired Cabaret.
Living in Berlin as a young man, Isherwood encountered a range of vibrant characters both ordinary and extraordinary whose daily lives reflect a city and its people at a very particular time in history. He observed at first hand how ordinary people, at every level of society, became sucked into the new era of Hitler and his kind.
Recorded on location in East Berlin, this new dramatisation by Tina Pepler has a documentary feel that vividly evokes the feel of the city and the lives of its inhabitants as the Nazi party slowly gains credence and ultimate power in the early 1930s.
Christopher Isherwood is played by UK up and coming leading man James Norton in his first radio, and the Berlin inhabitants by an ensemble of excellent German actors - Leslie Malton (award winning German/American actress), Nicola Schoessler, Matthias Horn, Tilmar Kuhn and exciting newcomers Julia Reznik and Andre Kaczmarczyk.
Isherwood arrives in Berlin, and takes lodgings with Fraulein Schroder, a once well off widow, now forced to take in a motley crew of lodgers. He's enthralled by Berlin's chaotic, hedonist nightlife and the rich variety of characters he meets: Jewish department store heiress Natalia Landauer, her cousin the serious and troubled Bernhard, fantastical night club singer Sally Bowles and the freeloading Otto Nowak. But as Christopher Isherwood grows to love the city and its people he cannot ignore the growing influence of the Nazi party even in his own carefree circles.
Cast:
Sound design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer/Director: Polly Thomas
Isherwood arrives in Berlin and joins a motley crew of lodgers. Adaptations of works which have achieved classic status | |
| 02 | 20101010 | 1931 and Berlin is changing fast. Isherwood finds his old friends struggling with the hardships of poverty and the new restrictions that the Nazis impose on society.
The poignancy of those who are able to flee and those who have no choice but to stay is reinforced by Isherwood's dilemma: can he remain in the city he once loved as it falls totally under Hitler's power?
Cast:
Christopher Isherwood ..... James Norton
Sound design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer/Director: Polly Thomas
The Nazis begin to impact more and more on life in Berlin. Adaptations of works which have achieved classic status | ||
| 02 | 20101010 | 20101016 (R4) | 1931 and Berlin is changing fast. Isherwood finds his old friends struggling with the hardships of poverty and the new restrictions that the Nazis impose on society.
The poignancy of those who are able to flee and those who have no choice but to stay is reinforced by Isherwood's dilemma: can he remain in the city he once loved as it falls totally under Hitler's power?
Cast:
Christopher Isherwood ..... James Norton
Sound design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer/Director: Polly Thomas
The Nazis begin to impact more and more on life in Berlin. Adaptations of works which have achieved classic status | |
| CS | 01 | 20101003 | Isherwood's dramatic eyewitness account of Berlin in the early 30s, the book that inspired Cabaret.
Living in Berlin as a young man, Isherwood encountered a range of vibrant characters both ordinary and extraordinary whose daily lives reflect a city and its people at a very particular time in history. He observed at first hand how ordinary people, at every level of society, became sucked into the new era of Hitler and his kind.
Recorded on location in East Berlin, this new dramatisation by Tina Pepler has a documentary feel that vividly evokes the feel of the city and the lives of its inhabitants as the Nazi party slowly gains credence and ultimate power in the early 1930s.
Christopher Isherwood is played by UK up and coming leading man James Norton in his first radio, and the Berlin inhabitants by an ensemble of excellent German actors - Leslie Malton (award winning German/American actress), Nicola Schoessler, Matthias Horn, Tilmar Kuhn and exciting newcomers Julia Reznik and Andre Kaczmarczyk.
Isherwood arrives in Berlin, and takes lodgings with Fraulein Schroder, a once well off widow, now forced to take in a motley crew of lodgers. He's enthralled by Berlin's chaotic, hedonist nightlife and the rich variety of characters he meets: Jewish department store heiress Natalia Landauer, her cousin the serious and troubled Bernhard, fantastical night club singer Sally Bowles and the freeloading Otto Nowak. But as Christopher Isherwood grows to love the city and its people he cannot ignore the growing influence of the Nazi party even in his own carefree circles.
Cast:
Sound design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer/Director: Polly Thomas
Isherwood arrives in Berlin and joins a motley crew of lodgers. Adaptations of works which have achieved classic status |