Category: Media

Sections: Information | Description | Covers

Information

• Two-part BBC Radio 4 dramatisation
• Originally aired on July 3 and July 10, 2016
• What Dahl Did: wrote the original book Going Solo
• Dramatised by Lucy Catherine
• Directed by Helen Perry
• BBC Cymru/Wales Production
• Cast:
  • Roald Dahl – Patrick Malahide
  • Young Dahl – John Heffernan
  • Mother – Joanna Van Kampen
  • Mdisho – Eric Abrefa
  • Major Griffiths – Brian Protheroe
  • Mrs Griffiths – Clare Perkins
  • Miss Trefusis – Elizabeth Bennett
  • Sandford – Nick Underwood
  • Savory – James Lailey
  • Parkinson – Tom Forrister
  • Mackintosh – Sam Rix
  • Snakeman – Sean Baker
  • Sergeant – Jason Barnett
  • David – Stuart McLoughlin
  • Sister – Kirsty Oswald
  • Squadron Leader – James Lailey
  • Fitter – Nick Underwood
  • Medical Examiner – Tom Forrister
  • Commodore – Sean Baker
  • Carter – Jason Barnett
  • Pat Pattle – Brian Protheroe
  • Operator – Clare Perkins

• Based on:
  • Going Solo

Description

To celebrate the centenary year of his birth, a full dramatisation of Roald Dahl’s gripping autobiographical overseas adventure.

Beginning aboard the SS Mantola, Dahl sets sail for Africa at the tender age of 22. He experiences the remnants of colonial British life, filled with eccentric characters, and is thrown into a world as bizarre and surprising as any you will find in his fiction.

“Life is made up of a great number of small incidents and a small number of great ones.”

Stationed in Tanzania, Dahl is faced with the excitement of the wild; lions carrying off women in their mouths; fatal green mambas captured by snake men. But his savannah-sun-drenched life is interrupted when World War II erupts. Dahl is ordered to round up the German inhabitants of Dar es Salaam and experiences first-hand the horror of war.

Covers

Sections: Information | Description | Covers

Information

• BBC Radio 4 dramatisation
• Originally aired on July 2, 2016
• What Dahl Did: wrote the original book Boy – Tales of Childhood
• Dramatised by Lucy Catherine
• Directed by Helen Perry
• BBC Cymru/Wales Production
• Cast:
  • Roald Dahl – Patrick Malahide
  • Young Dahl – Tarkan Uzun
  • Teenage Dahl – Isaac Rouse
  • Mother – Joanna Van Kampen
  • Bressington – Daniel Noel
  • Thwaites – Devon Ruckley
  • Matron – Adie Allen
  • Dr Dunbar – Richard Nichols
  • Mrs Pratchett – Elizabeth Bennett
  • Corkers – Jason Barnett
  • Carleton – Tom Forrister
  • Williamson – Sam Rix
  • Ellen – Kirsty Oswald
  • Captain Hardcastle – Nick Underwood
  • Mr Cadbury – James Lailey
  • Grandfather – Sean Baker

• Based on:
  • Boy – Tales of Childhood

Description

To celebrate the centenary year of Roald Dahl’s birth, a full dramatisation of tales from his own childhood. Sometimes magical, sometimes grotesque but always true, Dahl’s boyhood stories are as remarkable as the acclaimed fiction he would go on to write as an adult.

“An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life. It is usually full of all sorts of boring details. This is not an autobiography.”

The story of Roald Dahl’s childhood is filled with excitement and wonder but also terror and great sadness. We learn of his experiences at cruel boarding schools, his daring Great Mouse Plot, the dangers of Boazers, the pleasure/pain of the local sweetshop and his time as a chocolate taster. Just some of the marvellous, extraordinary events that no doubt went on to inspire his best-selling books.

Covers

Sections: Information | Description | Fun Stuff

Information

• BBC Radio 4 program that aims “to provide a mixture of classic and contemporary drama, adaptations of books and original writing”
• What Dahl Did: wrote five stories that were adapted as part of “Roald Dahl: Served With a Twist”
• All Program Information
  • General details 
  • Crew
  • Episode 1: “The Bookseller”
    • Originally aired on July 4, 2016
    • Episode Information
  • Episode 2: “Poison”
    • Originally aired on July 5, 2016
    • Episode Information
  • Episode 3: “My Lady Love, My Dove”
    • Originally aired on July 6, 2016
    • Episode Information
  • Episode 4: “The Surgeon”
    • Originally aired on July 7, 2016
    • Episode Information
  • Episode 5: “The Butler”
    • Originally aired on July 8, 2016
    • Episode Information

Description

In July 2016, BBC Radio 4 dramatised five of Roald Dahl’s short stories on 15 Minute Drama in honour of Dahl’s 100th birthday celebrations. The series was entitled “Roald Dahl: Served With a Twist”.

Charles Dance leads the cast as the urbane Storyteller in dramatisations of five classic tales by Roald Dahl. Bizarre and amusing by turns, these dark comedies are justly famous for their surprise endings, and for their rogues gallery of crooks, cheats and schemers.

The stories show Dahl at the height of his powers as a writer of adult fiction, combining black comedy with sly social satire. They are stylishly plotted, vividly characterised and made unforgettable by their breezy cynicism, presenting a hilariously bleak view of human nature.

Fun Stuff

• Listen online – BBC Radio 4 (Note: episodes will expire within one month and are geo-blocked to UK listeners.)