BBC Radio 4 Extra

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

15 Minute Drama

Drama

Classic and contemporary original drama and book dramatisations

15 Minute Drama: Heinrich Boll - The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum

Nicola Schossler

Andre Kaczmarczyk

Matthias Horn

Elias Arens

Leslie Malton

Daniel Hoevels

Polly Thomas

Heinrich Boll

Helen Meller

15 Minute Drama: Heinrich Boll - The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum: Episode 1

The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum

Episode 1

Heinrich Boll - The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum

BBC Radio 4 - 15 Minute Drama, Heinrich Boll - The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Episode 1

A forensic insight into the corrosive impact of tabloid press journalism on one woman.

A forensic insight into the corrosive impact of tabloid press journalism on one young woman. Stars Nicola Schossler.

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.

BBC Radio 4

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

Radio 4

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

By Heinrich Boll. Story exploring what can happen when press intrusion goes too far

Adaptation of the 1974 novel by Heinrich Boll which explores what can happen when press intrusion goes too far. Stars Nicola Schossler.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

15 Minute Drama

Heinrich Boll - The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum

Episode 1

Contributors

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra