Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Classic Serial

Drama: Classic & Period

Adaptations of works which have achieved classic status

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 LW

Classic Serial: Evelyn Waugh - Sword of Honour

Tim McInnerny

Paul Ready

Lydia Leonard

Robert Daws

Oliver Chris

Polly Frame

Sean Murray

Carl Prekopp

David Seddon

Nicholas Boulton

Christine Kavanagh

Harry Jardine

Michael Bertenshaw

Arthur Hughes

John Norton

Carolyn Pickles

Carys Eleri

Sally Avens

Jeremy Front

Evelyn Waugh

Classic Serial: Evelyn Waugh - Sword of Honour: Episode 5: Unconditional Surrender

Sword of Honour

Episode 5

Episode 5: Unconditional Surrender

Evelyn Waugh - Sword of Honour

Unconditional Surrender

BBC Radio 4 - Classic Serial, Evelyn Waugh - Sword of Honour, Unconditional Surrender

Guy is beginning to lose his idealism about the war.

Guy Crouchback starts to lose his idealism about the war. Waugh's satirical masterpiece stars Paul Ready and Tim Pigott-Smith.

by Evelyn Waugh
Dramatised by Jeremy Front
Evelyn Waugh's satirical WW2 masterpiece: Guy is beginning to lose his idealism about the War.

Directed by Sally Avens

Waugh's trilogy of WWII novels mark a high point in his literary career. Originally published as three volumes: Officers and Gentlemen, Men at Arms and Unconditional Surrender they were extensively revised by Waugh, and published as the one-volume Sword of Honour in 1965, in the form in which Waugh himself wished them to be read. They are dramatised for the Classic Serial in seven episodes.
This is a story that continues to delight as we follow the comic and often bathetic adventures of Guy Crouchback. Witty and tragic, engaging and insightful, this work must be counted next to 'Brideshead Revisited' as Waugh's most enduring novel. Like Brideshead, Waugh drew heavily upon his own experiences during WWII. Sword of Honour effortlessly treads the line between the personal and the political - it is at once an indictment of the incompetence of the Allied war effort, and a moving study of one man's journey from isolation to self fulfilment. His adventures are peopled by colourful characters: the eccentric, Apthorpe, one-eyed, Ritchie-Hook, promiscuous, Virginia Troy. At the centre of the novel is Guy for whom we never lose our sympathy as he emerges from his adventures bowed but not broken. From Dakar to Egypt, the Isle of Mugg to the evacuation of Crete, tragedy is leavened by Waugh's acerbic and farcical comedy.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Evelyn Waugh's satire on the futility of war and one man's quest for spiritual fulfilment

Evelyn Waugh's WWII satirical masterpiece on the futility of war and one man's quest for spiritual fulfilment. Dramatised by Jeremy Front

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Classic Serial

Evelyn Waugh - Sword of Honour

Episode 5: Unconditional Surrender

Contributors

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4