The African Queen

Toby Jones and Samantha Bond star in a gripping dramatisation of CS Forester’s classic World War I novel set in 1915 in German Central Africa.

Rose Sayer’s work as a missionary comes to an abrupt end when the village she lives in with her brother Reverend Samuel Sayer is invaded by the German army. Samuel dies of fever and Rose blames the Germans for having ground him down and frightened off the entire village.

Naively, Rose conceives of blowing up a German warship, thus helping the war effort. She convinces cowardly cockney Charlie Allnut to lend his rickety steam-powered boat, The African Queen, to the cause. He offered to give Rose a lift in his boat to get away from the village and the Germans, so reluctantly goes along with her plan. If they manage to survive German attacks, rapids, malaria and mechanical mishaps, will they be able to survive each other?

With Stephen Critchlow as Samuel Sayer, Mark Edel-Hunt as German Sailor, and David Acton as German Sea Captain.

Music composed and played by Gary C Newman.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.

• Producer: David Ian Neville

Publicity contact: Radio 4 Publicity