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Book at Bedtime

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Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and world literature

Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and literature from around the world

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Book at Bedtime: Curtain Call

Nancy Carroll

Quinn Anthony

Jill Waters

Book at Bedtime: Curtain Call: Episode 3

Curtain Call

Episode 3

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Curtain Call, Episode 3

We meet a renowned theatre critic and learn more about failed shop girl Madeleine Farewell

In this instalment of the story, we meet a renowned theatre critic and learn more of the life of failed shop girl Madeleine Farewell.

On a sultry afternoon in the summer of 1936, a woman accidentally interrupts an attempted murder in a London hotel room. Nina Land, a West End actress, faces a dilemma. She's not supposed to be at the hotel in the first place, and certainly not with a married man - the celebrated portrait artist, Stephen Wyley - but once it becomes apparent that she may have seen the face of the man dubbed 'the Tie-Pin Killer' she realises that another woman's life could be at stake.

Jimmy Erskine is the raffish doyen of theatre critics who fears that his star is fading. Age and drink are catching up with him and, in his late-night escapades with young men, he walks a tightrope that may snap at any moment. He has depended for years on his loyal and longsuffering secretary Tom, who has a secret of his own to protect. Tom's chance encounter with Madeleine Farewell, a lonely young woman haunted by premonitions of catastrophe, closes the circle - it was Madeleine who narrowly escaped the killer's stranglehold that afternoon and now she walks the streets in terror of him finding her again.

Curtain Call is a poignant comedy of manners, and a tragedy of mistaken intentions. From the glittering murk of Soho's demi-monde to the grease paint and ghost-lights of theatreland, the story plunges on through smoky clubrooms, street corners where thuggish Blackshirts linger and tawdry rooming houses.

Episode 3:
We meet a renowned theatre critic, and learn more of the life of failed shopgirl, Madeleine Farewell.

Read by Nancy Carroll

Abridged, directed and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.

BBC 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 Anthony Quinn. A story of love, murder and a society dancing towards the abyss.

By Anthony Quinn. Soho in 1936. A story of love, murder and a society dancing towards the abyss. Read by Nancy Carroll.

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