1. Recalled to Life

Available for over a year

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". This novel by Charles Dickens, tells the story of the redemptive powers of love in the face of cruelty, violence and neglect. Written and published in weekly instalments in 1859, it's set in London and Paris before and during the violence of the French Revolution. The story follows several characters through these events, notably Charles Darnay, a French former aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution, and Sydney Carton, a dissipated English barrister who tries to redeem his ill-spent life out of love for Darnay's wife, Lucie Manette. Although the events in the novel span eight years, the plot develops and builds powerfully from the moment the story opens, with the coded rumours of Dr Manette being 'restored to life' and Dickens orchestrates the wider political picture behind the story of Lucie, Darnay and Carton, with his customary brilliance. Starring Robert Lindsay, Jonathan Coy and Alison Steadman. Dramatised in five parts by Mike Walker Charles Dickens ...... Robert Lindsay Jarvis Lorry ...... Jonathan Coy Miss Pross ...... Alison Steadman Lucie Manette ...... Lydia Wilson Dr Alexandre Manette ...... Karl Johnson Charles Darnay ...... Andrew Scott Ernest Defarge ...... James Lailey Therese Defarge ...... Tracy Wiles Gaspard ...... Simon Bubb Jerry Cruncher ...... Carl Prekopp Joe ...... Rikki Lawton With: Adam Billington Christopher Webster Music by Lennert Busch. Directors: Jessica Dromgoole & Jeremy Mortimer First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2011.