Radio 4 celebrates Fright Night with Rosemary’s Baby

Set over two hours, this is the first time a long reading has been broadcast on Radio 4 since the station’s eight-hour Harry Potter special on Boxing Day 2000.

In the lead up to the one-off broadcast of Rosemary’s Baby, Radio 4 presents new short stories of the supernatural by Stephen King, Kate Mosse and John Connolly, airing every weeknight from 24 - 28 October at 10.45pm. 

Kim Cattrall returns to BBC Radio 4 this Halloween with a darkly brilliant tale of modern devilry: Ira Levin’s 1967 best-selling novel Rosemary’s Baby. Set over two hours, this is the first time a long reading has been broadcast on Radio 4 since the station’s eight-hour Harry Potter special on Boxing Day 2000.

Jeremy Howe, Commissioning Editor for Drama and Fiction, says: “One of life’s great pleasures is curling up on the sofa with an unputdownable book and reading it from cover to cover in one go. This Halloween, Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime is doing something unexpected and will give listeners the chance to do just that.

"For two spine-tingling hours on Saturday night from 10 to midnight, Hollywood actor Kim Cattrall will read Ira Levin’s classic horror story. Be prepared for a night of uneasy dreams after Radio 4’s Fright Night: Rosemary’s Baby.”

Levin’s novel is a horror story of modern-day occultism, set in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The book centres on Rosemary Woodhouse and her husband Guy, who move into an apartment building with a disturbing history of witchcraft and murder. Levin’s book was later adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1968 film starring Mia Farrow and directed by Roman Polanski. Cattrall worked with Polanski on the film The Ghost Writer.

Described by author Stephen King as “the Swiss watchmaker of suspense novels”, Levin is also the author of The Stepford Wives, another psychological thriller which places women as victims of seemingly ordinary environments that belie dark, sinister truths.

Rosemary’s Baby is a special one-off abridgement that forms the centrepiece of Fright Night on BBC Radio 4.

In the lead up to the one-off broadcast of Rosemary’s Baby, Radio 4 presents new short stories of the supernatural by Stephen King, Kate Mosse and John Connolly, airing every weeknight from 24-28 October at 10.45pm. The first of these is Cookie Jar, a new Stephen King short story about what lurks at the bottom of a cookie jar, adapted for radio in three parts.

This is followed by The Mirror, a chilling, atmospheric story by Kate Mosse set in a remote village in the Pyrenees on Toussaint - the eve of All Saints Day, written specially for Radio 4 and read by the author herself. The week closes with The Rat King, a macabre retelling of the Pied Piper story by John Connolly, read by Peter Marinker.

Rosemary’s Baby is broadcast on 29 October 2016 at 10pm. It is produced by Karen Rose of Sweet Talk Productions.

Fright Night Shorts are broadcast between 24-28 October 2016 at 10:45pm. They are produced by Mair Bosworth.

IP