Memories of a Cad

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Martin Jarvis

Alistair McGowan

Laura Shavin

Lewis Macleod

Liz Anstee

Roy Smiles

Drama on 4: Roy Smiles - Memories of a Cad

Roy Smiles - Memories of a Cad

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Roy Smiles - Memories of a Cad

Comedy drama about the relationship between Terry-Thomas and Richard Briers, by Roy Smiles

4 Extra Debut. In 1984, Richard Briers visited actor Terry-Thomas in Majorca. Affectionate comedy starring Martin Jarvis and Alistair McGowan.

Affectionate comedy drama about the relationship between Terry-Thomas and Richard Briers, starring Martin Jarvis and Alistair McGowan.

While holidaying on the island of Majorca in 1984, the infinitely charming actor Richard Briers - then 50 and at the height of his TV sitcom fame - decides to visit the comic movie actor Terry-Thomas in his home on the other side of the island.

The 73 year old Terry-Thomas has been suffering from Parkinson's disease for the past ten years. His memory is fading, his body deteriorating and the work has dried up. He lives in quiet seclusion with his adoring wife Belinda.

He's delighted by the visit of 'young' Richard Briers, who he recognises from the telly. Briers cheers him up by telling him facts about his life Terry has long forgotten - from his cabaret years in the 1930s and his success in the Armed Forces as a Stars In Battledress entertainer, to his work in the movies of the Boulting Brothers peaking with I'm Alright Jack and his glory days in American movies such as Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines and It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which brought him worldwide fame as a 'bounder.'

Terry-Thomas has forgotten he came from Finchley, that his father worked at Smithfields Market and that it was his fate to be a clerk at the same market until he decided to re-invent himself, aged 17, as the raffish cad the world came to love.

Written by Roy Smiles.

Terry-Thomas ..... Martin Jarvis
Richard Briers ..... Alistair McGowan
Belinda ..... Laura Shavin
Spencer Tracy ..... Lewis Macleod

Producer: Liz Anstee

A CPL production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in December 2014

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