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Episode details

Radio 4 Extra,18 Aug 2018,57 mins

The Pillow Book

Available for over a year

The final ever mystery for Lady Shonagon and her Lieutenant Yukinari. The Pillow Book is a popular long-running thriller series set in 10th century Japan about an unlikely and compelling duo. Written by Robert Forrest, it captures a strange, magical world - simultaneously utterly remote and wonderfully familiar to our own - and it tells a cracking mystery at the same time. With the Empress Teishi dead, Lady Shonagon has been banished from the Imperial Palace and separated from her policeman. Under Imperial guard, she is sent back to her only remaining relative, her brother Takai. But there has been no love lost between Shonagon and her brother since they were children, and Shonagon must set out once more on her own in search of her friend Saisho. Meanwhile, the villain Ikiryo walks abroad, and no one is safe. Shonagon ...... Ruth Gemmell Yukinari ...... Cal MacAninch Takai/Ikiryo ...... Simon Donaldson Saisho ...... Victoria Liddelle Amaterasu ...... Joanna Tope Uke ...... Meg Fraser Landlord/Policeman ...... Antony Strachan Director: Lu Kemp A BBC Scotland production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in August 2018.

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