A brilliant exploration of the corrosive impact of tabloid journalism on one young woman. The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum is dissects the power of the press and it's impact on individual freedom. Told in the form of an unofficial report, this intelligent and pacy story from the 1970s tackles issues of press freedom, responsibility and police tactics.

It's based on a real incident in the author's own life, when he was publicly accused of being a terrorist sympathiser and hounded by the German press. The subtitle of the book is "how violence develops and where it can lead."

Recorded on location in Berlin, The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum also features a soundtrack of 1970s Krautrock from bands such as Can, Neu, La Dusseldorf and Ash Ra Tempel.

Episode 1:
The narrator sets the scene - Katharina Blum was taken in four days ago for questioning about her relationship with a young man she met at a party, who is in fact a suspected criminal on the run. A chain of chaotic and ever more pressurised events builds up, culminating in Katharina shooting Totges, a tabloid press journalist. We meet the police interrogation team and Katharina herself, whose resolute refusal to confess sends Inspector Beizmenne out of the interview room in a fury.

Sound design ..... Eloise Whitmore
Broadcast assistant ..... Kath Willgress
Executive producer ..... Joby Waldman

Abridged by Helen Meller
Produced and directed by Polly Thomas
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4. Show less