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Samantha Bond

Toby Jones

Stephen Critchlow

Mark Edel-Hunt

David Acton

David Neville

CS Forester

Paul Mendelson

Drama on 4: CS Forester - The African Queen

The African Queen

21/02/2015

CS Forester - The African Queen

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, CS Forester - The African Queen

Samantha Bond and Toby Jones star in CS Forester’s classic WW1 adventure set in Africa.

To boost the First World War effort, Rose convinces cowardly Charlie to lend his rickety steam-powered boat. With Samantha Bond.

Set in 1915, Rose Sayer’s work as a missionary comes to an abrupt end when the village she and her brother, Reverend Samuel Sayer, live in is invaded by the German army.  Samuel dies of fever and Rose blames the ungodly Germans for having ground him down and frightened off the entire village. 

Samantha Bond and Toby Jones star in a fresh dramatisation of CS Forester’s classic.  

Patriotically, but naively, Rose conceives of blowing up a German warship thus helping the war effort. She convinces cowardly Cockney Charlie Allnut to lend his rickety steam-powered boat, The African Queen, for the cause. He has offered to give Rose a lift in his boat to get away from the village and the Germans, so reluctantly goes along with her plan. If they manage to survive German attacks, rapids, malaria and mechanical mishaps will they be able to survive each other? 

CS Forester's novel, The African Queen, was of course the basis for the highly popular Hollywood movie of the same name. Paul Mendelson's dramatisation goes back to the novel re-instating Forester's original ending and giving Charlie his Cockney identity back! 

Rose………………………SAMANTHA BOND
Charlie…………………………..TOBY JONES 
Samuel Sayer .…….STEPHEN CRITCHLOW
German Sailor……....…..MARK EDEL-HUNT
German Sea Captain…………DAVID ACTON

Music composed and played by Gary C. Newman
Producer/director: David Ian Neville

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