大象传媒

Our Mutual Friend is as relevant now as it was 160 years ago, when it was written. Charles Dickens's epic novel is all about
鈥溾��money, money, money, and what money can make of life!鈥� Bella Wilfer

Born and bred Londoner Dan Rebellato, award-winning audio dramatist, brings this huge, vivid novel to life for the 21st century, with a dynamic, ensemble cast, including Bukky Bakray (BAFTA winner for Rocks), Henry Goodman (multi Olivier Award winner and nominee), Mat Fraser (Kaos) and Sule Rimi (The Day of the Jackal 2024).

The third and final adaptation for the 大象传媒 Radio 4 Dickensian season, Our Mutual Friend is a coruscating picture of then-contemporary London with striking affinities to now - a world of huge inequalities and cruelties, where ignorance is held up as knowledge, vast wealth is built literally on dust and money is made fishing corpses from the Thames. It鈥檚 a world of fraud, deception, rapacity, dishonesty and cynicism - but it鈥檚 also a book that battles through all of that to affirm honesty, generosity, and love, a novel of great joy.

This comes from Dickens鈥檚 acute observation of the absurdities of life and his usual cast of intriguing characters - the wealthy illiterate Mr Boffin, the scheming fantasist Silas Wegg, the pompous philistine Mr Podsnap, the stylish fraudsters Sophronia and Alfred Lammle, the dandyish shark Fascination Fledgeby. And it's a book with heart - the stories of petulant but vulnerable Bella Wilfer, traumatised and gullible Georgiana Podsnap, and the resourceful survivor Lizzie Hexam are all powerful journeys of survival.

Throughout it flows the Thames, filthy and powerful, bobbing with boats and bodies, on and in which key scenes unfold, mixing class and culture to panoramic effect.

Episode 1: The Mouth of the River

Narrator and lawyer Mortimer Lightwood, introduces us to the highs and lows of London life, from the murky Thames, where Gaffer and his daughter Lizzie Hexam scrape a living dredging its dark waters, to the glittering well-heeled dining rooms and salons of the Podsnaps and Veneerings, and the squeezed middle of the Wilfers.

Into this heady brew comes the mystery of the Man from Somewhere, aka John Harmon, heir to a vast fortune 鈥� but only if he marries a woman he has never met, sulky Bella Wilfer. When Harmon goes missing, presumed dead, the mystery thickens, as romance, friendship, deceit and greed swirl through the city.

Cast:
Gaffer Hexam ..... Michael Garner
Silas Wegg and Rogue Riderhood ..... Mat Fraser
Lizzie Hexam ..... Bukky Bakray
Mortimer Lightwood ..... Sule Rimi
Eugene Wrayburn ..... Issam Al Ghussain
Mr Podsnap and Mr Boffin ..... Gordon Kennedy
Mr Veneering and Mr R Wilfer ..... Henry Goodman
Mrs Veneering and Mrs Wilfer ..... Liz Sutherland- Lim
John Rokesmith and Headstone ..... Jeremy Ang Jones
Mrs Podsnap and Mrs Boffin ..... Frances Grey
Bella Wilfer ..... Bettrys Jones
Jenny Wren and Lavinia Wilfer ..... Delilah Tahiri
Betty Higden..... Lucy Speed

Dramatist: Dan Rebellato.
Sound Designer: Jon Nicholls
Assistant Producer: Nicola Miles Wildin
Production Manager: Darren Spruce
Studio Assistant: Louis Blatherwick
Image: YanKi Darling
Executive Producer: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas

A Thomas Carter Projects production for 大象传媒 Radio 4

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