Episode 2

In the middle of an Ice Age on an alien world, two friends flee across endless snow plains on a journey that will take them to the edge of their physical and emotional endurance. The stakes are high – to save a world from war, and save their own lives.

The first radio dramatisation of Ursula Le Guin’s novel which is as groundbreaking in its approach to gender as when it was first published in 1969.

Genly Ai has arrived from Earth onto the planet Gethen, a world in which humans are ambigendered - everyone can be a mother and everyone can be a father. In coming to terms with their otherness - and also their sameness - Genly must let go of everything he understood about his own identity.

Adapted by Judith Adams

Estraven – Lesley Sharp
Genly Ai – Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Ashe – Ruth Gemmell
Gaum – Louise Brealey
Obsle – David Acton
Shusgis – Stephen Critchlow
Esvans and Asra – Sam Dale
Sorve – Ayesha Antoine
Doctor – Rhiannon Neads
Skipper – David Hounslow

Director: Allegra McIlroy

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2015.