The Streets of Pompeii by Henry Reed


Produced by Douglas Cleverdon
BBC Radio 3 1970

with Flora Robson and Marius Goring.

First broadcast in 1952, The Streets of Pompeii was awarded the Italia Prize the following year.

This stereo version was first broadcast in 1970.


In The Streets of Pompeii, ideas of fecundity and sterility, imagination and pedantry, love and death are woven together through the patterning of the experiences of a dozen Pompeian natives and visitors. Several modes of speech are used; which include, along with colloquial and heightened prose, a formal verse for the elegies of the Cumaean Sibyl and a more relaxed pentameter for the young lovers, Attilio and Francesca. The lovers are  given a full-dress sonnet each as a
soliloquy at their moment of most intense feeling. These langourous wanderings through the ruins are interrupted by flashbacks to an erupting Vesuvius, bringing to dust the plans and aspirations of the innocent and guilty alike.

Like The Lizard in this play, basking in the glowing sun, you should relish this perfect incarnation of radio drama. Its an echo of a golden past.

Reed wrote nearly 40 plays for radio, most were broadcast in the 1950s and 1960's on the Third Programme, including the wonderful Hilda Tablet plays. Some of these were re-broadcast in the 1970s, so its possible that someone has recordings 
of them, please consider uploading and sharing if you have any.



The Cast:

The Cumaen Sibyl....Flora Robson
The Traveller.......Marius Goring
Attilio.............Carlo Cura
Francesca...........Rosalind Shanks
The Lizard..........Carlton Hobbs
MacFarlane..........John Laurie
MacBride............Frank Duncan
Judy................Hilda Kreiseman
Walter..............David Spencer
Bill................Derek Seaton
Margery.............Deborah Dallas
The Guide...........Hector Ross
The Merchant........Godfrey Kenton
his Wife............Kathleen Helm
An Old Man..........Malcolm Hayes
The Silent Old Gentleman..Carlton Hobbs
The Silent Old Lady.......Kathleen Helm

Music by Anthony Smith-Masters

Producer Douglas Cleverdon.


source: tape recording of broadcast material


Type                : mpeg 1 layer III
Bitrate             : 128
Mode                : stereo
Frequency           : 44100 Hz
Frames              : 223035
Length              : 01:37:06
Encoder             : Gogo (before 3.0)




Enjoy and Seed!!