Autumn 1913. Sir Randolph Nettleby has invited guests to the biggest shoot of the season on his Oxfordshire country estate.

It's the eve of the shooting party...

An army of servants and gamekeepers has rehearsed the intricate age-old ritual of the hunt. Everything about it would seem a perfect affirmation of the certainties of Edwardian country life. Yet, their social and moral code is under siege from within and without.

Follow the action from one evening to the next, a dinner, a morning's shoot, a lunch, the fatal afternoon, and the fallout.

It was an error of judgement that resulted in tragedy. It took place before the outbreak of what used to be known as the Great War.

Isabel Colegate's novel dramatised in five parts by DJ Britton.

A whole English society is under the microscope - soon to be destroyed in the trenches of the Western Front.

Funny, compassionate, sobering and dispassionate, the last throes of feudal England are recorded in perfect detail, together with the germ of its destruction. The book is an exquisitely written hymn to the passing of an age.

Narrator ..... Olivia Colman
Cicely Nettleby ..... Ellie Kendrick
Sir Randolph Nettleby ..... Sam Dale
Olivia Lilburn ..... Jaimi Barbakoff
Lionel Stephens ..... Michael Shelford
Minnie Nettleby ..... Christine Kavanagh
Osbert Nettleby ..... Joshua Swinney
Lord Gilbert Hartlip ..... Sean Baker
Aline Hartlip ..... Sally Orrock

Director: Jessica Dromgoole

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2010. Show less