Episodes

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01What Feeds Me Destroys Me20220514It's London, 1593. Christopher Marlowe, a young writer, is fatally stabbed in a Deptford lodging house because of a disagreement over the bill. There's an investigation, the witnesses are interrogated, and the suspect walks free. The authorities find that Marlowe was the aggressor and was killed in self-defence.

History says it was just a drunken quarrel, nothing more. But Charles Nicholl thinks it was murder, and an unsolved murder never grows old.

In this series, Nicholl traces Marlowe's political and intelligence dealings, explores the shadowy underworld of Elizabethan crime and espionage, and penetrates a complex and chilling story of entrapment and betrayal.

Christopher Marlowe was a playwright and in 1593 his star was at its height. More than any, he was the writer who influenced Shakespeare and had he lived there would have been two stars in that constellation. But he died at the age of 29 and how and why he died - thereby hangs a tale.

This is a true story. The people in it are real people, the events are documented, the words were spoken, though we have invented some of them, and set them in a modern idiom for the sake of clarity. But this true story is also a mystery, a jigsaw with many pieces missing, and the spaces have to be filled with what historians call speculation and detectives call hunches. Using drama, we show what might have happened - what could have happened - maybe even what did happen.

Charles Nicholl's book The Reckoning is the winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Non-Fiction and the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Non-Fiction.

Christopher Marlowe . . . . . Chris Lew Kum Hoi

Robert Poley . . . . . Burn Gorman

Ingram Frizer . . . . . Carl Prekopp

Nicholas Skeres . . . . . Matthew Durkan

Thomas Heneage . . . . . Neil McCaul

Coroner Danby . . . . . Michael Begley

Drew Woodleff . . . . . Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong

Mrs Bull . . . . . Ruth Everett

Maid . . . . . Alexandra Hannant

Dramatised by Mike Walker, based on The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl

Sound by Peter Ringrose

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko

True crime. Charles Nicholl investigates the death of playwright Christopher Marlowe.

022. Secret Servants20220515

It's London, 1593. Christopher Marlowe, a young writer, is fatally stabbed in a Deptford lodging house because of a disagreement over the bill. There's an investigation, the witnesses are interrogated, and the suspect walks free. The authorities find that Marlowe was the aggressor and was killed in self-defence.

History says it was just a drunken quarrel, nothing more. But Charles Nicholl thinks it was murder, and an unsolved murder never grows old.

In Episode 2, Nicholl explores the shadow world of the Elizabethan Secret Service - its masters, servants and victims - in his search to discover what happened in that little room in Deptford.

Christopher Marlowe . . . . . Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Robert Poley . . . . . Burn Gorman
Thomas Phelippes . . . . . Carl Prekopp
Francis Walsingham . . . . . Emilio Doorgasingh
Robert Cecil . . . . . John Heffernan
Thomas Watson . . . . . Matthew Durkan
Anthony Babington . . . . . Gavi Singh Chera
Thomas Hariot . . . . . Neil McCaul
Richard Topcliffe . . . . . Michael Begley
William Bradley . . . . . Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Mary Queen of Scots . . . . . Ruth Everett
Maid . . . . . Alexandra Hannant

Dramatised by Mike Walker, based on The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl
Sound by Peter Ringrose
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko

True crime. Charles Nicholl investigates the death of playwright Christopher Marlowe.

033. The Price of Silence20220516

It's London, 1593. Christopher Marlowe, a young writer, is fatally stabbed in a Deptford lodging house because of a disagreement over the bill. There's an investigation, the witnesses are interrogated, and the suspect walks free. The authorities find that Marlowe was the aggressor and was killed in self-defence.

History says it was just a drunken quarrel, nothing more. But Charles Nicholl thinks it was murder, and an unsolved murder never grows old.

The storm clouds are gathering. In Episode 3, we enter the last few weeks of Marlowe's life, the weeks that end with his violent death in Deptford.

Christopher Marlowe . . . . . Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Robert Poley . . . . . Burn Gorman
Robert Cecil . . . . . John Heffernan
Thomas Phelippes . . . . . Carl Prekopp
Richard Baines . . . . . Michael Begley
Thomas Kyd . . . . . Matthew Durkan
John Puckering . . . . . Neil McCaul
Official . . . . . Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Mrs Bull . . . . . Ruth Everett

Dramatised by Mike Walker, based on The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl
Sound by Peter Ringrose
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko

True crime. Charles Nicholl investigates the death of playwright Christopher Marlowe.