Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Drama on 3

Drama

Series of drama performances, ranging from experimental works to the Classics

Gerard Murphy

Monica Dolan

Robert Portal

David Westhead

Mark Quartley

Caitlin Welch

Simon Greenall

Nathan Osgood

Pip Donaghy

Robert Hastie

John Tams

Frank Stirling

Keith Dewhurst

Herman Melville

Drama on 3: Britten 100: Billy Budd - These Buttons We Wear

Britten 100: Billy Budd - These Buttons We Wear

27/01/2013

BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3, Britten 100: Billy Budd - These Buttons We WearClose menu

The story of Billy Budd and the mutinous author who wrote this controversial novella.

For Radio 3's Britten centenary celebration, Keith Dewhurst's retelling of the story of Billy Budd, interwoven with the story of the author who came to write it: Herman Melville.

The playwright Keith Dewhurst adapts Herman Melville's powerful story of persecution and retribution in the aftermath of the Naval Mutinies at Nore and Spithead in 1797. He also tells the story of the man who wrote it. Herman Melville was a man who himself had more than a passing acquaintance with mutiny. There was a history of it amongst his forebears and his own escapades as a sailor in the South Pacific involved him in a mutiny of his own. 

The play stars the late Gerard Murphy, who died in August several months after the recording of this play.

Sounds effects specially recorded off the Cornish coast, this is a story steeped in the naval history of two nations. It is also a touching account of creative aspiration, failed adventuring and a family haunted by misfortune.

Keith Dewhurst is one of our most eminent writers for both stage and screen. As a writer for the stage, he is a master of the epic: one of the major dramatists with Bill Bryden's companies at the Royal Court and the Cottesloe in the seventies and eighties. His plays ranged from the Napoleonic 'Corunna!' to the definitive promenade adaptations of 'Lark Rise' and 'Candleford'. As a writer for both large and small screen, his many credits include The Land Girls, The Man In The Iron Mask, The Three Musketeers, Joe Wilson, The Empty Beach, Juliet Bravo and 'Z- Cars'.

Songs arranged by John Tams.

A Unique production for BBC Radio 3.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Drama on 3

Britten 100: Billy Budd - These Buttons We Wear

Contributors

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3