From Sunday 18th to Saturday 24th September BBC Radio Four will transmit an eight hour dramatisation of the book Life and Fate by the Russian writer Vasily Grossman. This drama will star Kenneth Branagh and will take over every drama strand on BBC Radio Four during the week except for The Archers slots.
Yesterday BBC Radio Promo Produceer MoyMcGowan tweeted "Making trails for an epic @BBCRadio4 drama production. Kenneth Branagh and David Tennant are outstanding #LifeAndFate" which is the first indication that it will involve David Tennant as part of the massive cast.
Life and Fate is described as "a powerful work which is set during the Battle of Stalingrad and charts the fate of both a nation and a family in the turmoil of war. It was completed in 1960 but its comparison of Stalinism with Nazism was considered so dangerous by Soviet authorities that the manuscript was placed under arrest by the KGB and Grossman was informed his book would not be published for at least 200 years.
Having been a household name as one of Russia's most distinguished war correspondents, Grossman died aged 58 - the arrest of his book hastening the end of his life. He would never know the fate of his masterpiece, smuggled out of the Soviet Union on microfilm, to freedom and eventual publication in the West. Today it is increasingly hailed as the most important Russian novel of the 20th Century."
The BBC are also holding a number of events about this epic drama both on and off air. See here for more details.
Yesterday BBC Radio Promo Produceer MoyMcGowan tweeted "Making trails for an epic @BBCRadio4 drama production. Kenneth Branagh and David Tennant are outstanding #LifeAndFate" which is the first indication that it will involve David Tennant as part of the massive cast.
Life and Fate is described as "a powerful work which is set during the Battle of Stalingrad and charts the fate of both a nation and a family in the turmoil of war. It was completed in 1960 but its comparison of Stalinism with Nazism was considered so dangerous by Soviet authorities that the manuscript was placed under arrest by the KGB and Grossman was informed his book would not be published for at least 200 years.
Having been a household name as one of Russia's most distinguished war correspondents, Grossman died aged 58 - the arrest of his book hastening the end of his life. He would never know the fate of his masterpiece, smuggled out of the Soviet Union on microfilm, to freedom and eventual publication in the West. Today it is increasingly hailed as the most important Russian novel of the 20th Century."
The BBC are also holding a number of events about this epic drama both on and off air. See here for more details.
