The Mysteries of Udolpho by Mrs Radcliffe
Dramatized by Catherine Czerkawska
Directed by David Blount
BBC Radio 4 1997
Length: 2 x 1 hour long episodes
Coded from tape at 128/44.1
A two part adaptation of Ann Radcliffe's 1794 gothic novel.
The Mysteries of Udolpho follows the fortunes of Emily St. Aubert who suffers, among other misadventures, the death of her father, supernatural terrors in a gloomy castle, and the machinations of an Italian brigand. Often cited as the archetypal Gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho plays a prominent role in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey, in which an impressionable young woman, after reading Radcliffe's novel, comes to see her friends and acquaintances as Gothic villains and victims with amusing results.
Cast:
Emily.................................Deborah Berlin
St. Aubert............................Ioan Meredith
valancourt............................Robert Glenister
Madam Montoni.........................Tina Grey
Montoni...............................Keith Drinkel
Annette...............................Rachel Atkins
Cavigni...............................Christopher Scott
The Old Peasant/Carlo.................Stephen Thorne
Terresa...............................Anne Beach
Sister Agnes..........................Shirley Dickson
The Abbess............................Jill Graham
Count de Villfore.....................Denys Hawthorne
DuPont................................Julian Parkin
Blanche...............................Corrine Prendergast
Ludovico..............................Chris Pavlow
Guard.................................Mark Bonner
Directed by David Blount
Part 1 of 2
Replies
Missed THIS one ! Thank you - looks fantastic !
A bit more data:
Part 1 of 2 (Sunday 13th October 1996)
In the year 1584 on the pleasant banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony, stood La Vallee, the chateau of her father, Monsieur St. Aubert, where young Emily lived. She was the sole child of her parents to survive infancy but her story begins at a time of intense sadness for herself and her father. Her beloved mother, after a short and virulent illness, had passed away. She and her father mourned her most acutely. Emily was young and strong and soon recovered her health and spirits but it seemed to her that her father was pining away before her eyes.
To remedy the situation, they decide to take a journey, a journey that would lead to a series of startling adventures that takes her from her idyllic home in Gascony, France to the terrible Castle of Udolpho in Italy.
With Deborah Berlin [Emily St. Aubert], Ioan Meredith [Monsieur St. Aubert], Robert Glenister [Chevalier Valancourt], Tina Gray [Emily's Aunt, Madame Cheron], Keith Drinkel [Count Montoni], Rachel Atkins [Annette, Madame Cheron's maid], Christopher Scott [Michael, the Coachman / Signor Cavigni], Stephen Thorne [The Old Peasant / Old Carlo, a servant in the Castle Udolpho], Ann Beach [Theresa, the Housekeeper in La Vallee / The Villager], and Shirley Dixon [Sister Agnes]
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Part 2 of 2 (Sunday 20th October 1996 @ 2:30 p.m.)
Emily St. Aubert had found herself, after the death of her father, in the care of her aunt, Madame Cheron. For a while she had hoped, indeed she had believed, that she would be allowed to marry her dear Valancourt, who, she was sure, would have been her father's choice for her. But now the mysterious Count Montoni had married her aunt and had forbidden her own marriage carrying both her aunt and herself with him to his native Italy. She did not trust him and yet, there they were, her aunt and herself, imprisoned behind the walls of the dreadful Castle of Udolpho to which he had brought them.
On their first night in the castle, her aunt's maid, Annette, and she had become lost in a labyrinth of stairs and corridors while searching for her room. In a long, deserted chamber they had come across a dreadful black veil concealing who knew what abomination but her courage had deserted her. She could not look at whatever terrible secret it had covered. And so they set off again trying to find their way through the castle...
Will Emily escape the clutches of the sinister Montoni?
With Deborah Berlin [Emily St. Aubert], Robert Glenister [Chevalier Valancourt], Keith Drinkel [Count Montoni], Tina Gray [Madame Montoni], Rachel Atkins [Annette, Madame Cheron's Maid], Jill Graham [The Abbess],Shirley Dixon [Sister Agnes], Denys Hawthorne [The Count De Villefort], Ann Beach [Dorothee / Caterina, Old Carlo's Wife], Julian Parkin [Monsieur Du Pont, a soldier from Gascony], Collen Prendergast [Lady Blanche De Villefort], Chris Pavlo [Ludovico], Mark Bonnar [The Castle Guard], and Stephen Thorne [Old Carlo, a servant in the Castle Udolpho].
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