The Serpent's Smile
by Olga Hesky [1966]
Dramatised by Neville Teller
With Steve Hodson, Susan Denaker and John Gabriel
Produced by John Cardy
Broadcast 16th February 1985, 8:30 p.m., Saturday Night Theatre
Re-broadcast 18th February 1985 (Afternoon Theatre)
A strange encounter on a plane, a murdered man suddenly appearing on Tel Aviv's busiest street, a stolen camera. Inspector Tami Shimoni finds that these disparate pieces fit together to form a picture that could imperil the future of Israel.
Cast:
Steve Hodson [Inspector Tami Shimoni of the Israeli Police, Tel Aviv Branch], Susan Denaker [Shelley Bernstein, an American Tourist], John Gabriel [Pappa Barzilai, Tami's Landlord], Gwen Cherrell [Freda Harrison, an American Tourist], Ed Bishop [Joe Harrison, an American Tourist, Freda's Husband], Barbara Atkinson [Betty Mannering, an English Tourist], Lydia Sherwood [Lucy Mannering, an English Tourist, Betty's Twin Sister], Mia Soteriou [Maisie Rice, an English Tourist], David Sinclair [Maurice Rice, an English Tourist, Maisie's Husband], Arnold Diamond [Max, a Tourist Guide], Ali Raffi [Hashi], David Garth [Superintendent Cohen], William Eedle [Sergeant Lieb], Adrian Egan [Uzi, a Member of Israel's Top Security Force, GUG], Harry Towb [Nahum Schwartz, Propietor of the Café Schwartz on Dizengoff Street], Cyril Shaps [Dr. Livni], Alan Thompson [Mr. Reuben, Tami's Neighbour], Colin Starkey [Yitzhak], Bernard Brown [The Police Surgeon], and Peter Acre [Yehoshua (Josh) Caleb, an Israeli GUG Agent].
Other parts were played by members of the cast.
128/44; 80.3 MB; sound quality very good
a section from 40:00 to 49:50 is from a different source
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An excerpt from Neville Teller's 2008 book, "One Man's Israel" on how 'The Serpent's Smile' came to be made:
"In 1984, I put to the BBC the idea of a dramatisation of 'The Serpent's Smile' for the popular radio drama spot, Saturday Night Theatre. At that time, there had been virtually no drama on BBC radio set in Israel, and the proposal was taken up. The producer was John Cardy, a friend and working colleague as editor of 'Book at Bedtime'.
'The Serpent's Smile' was, of course, published a year before the Six Day War, but we agreed to set the play in contemporary Israel. By that time, I 'd come to know the head of radio drama for Kol Yisrael, Eran Baniel, and we contacted him and asked if he would help our production by recording some genuine Israeli sound effects: Tel Aviv traffic, Israeli telephone tones and police sirens ... things like that. After a time the sound effect tapes arrived, and John Cardy fed them as appropriate into the production. ..."
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It is a complete copy. It ends with the credits and is the proper size and Length. I just downloaded it and it is all there. It matches completely the original I have on file in length and file size. Try downloading it again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rick
Many thanks for this. This is one of my favourite plays and my recording of it is a poor quality copy of a copy, I welcome the chance to hear it again in better quality.
Replies
Rick -- Thanks again for another fine posting. I really appreciate it.
Bob
Hi Robert,
It is a complete copy. It ends with the credits and is the proper size and Length. I just downloaded it and it is all there. It matches completely the original I have on file in length and file size. Try downloading it again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rick
The copy is not complete. It ends on the visit to the kibbutz.
Any chance of uploading a complete copy?
Robert