BBC Radio 4 Extra

The Tin Drum

Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum: Episode 1

Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum, Episode 1

As Hitler rises to power, three-year-old Oskar decides he doesn't want to grow up.

As Hitler rises to power, three-year-old Oskar decides he doesn't want to grow up. Stars Phil Daniels and Kenneth Cranham.

It's 1930 and Hitler's rise to power has begun. Three year old Oskar decides to stop growing and stop talking. Instead he plays his tin drum.

Phil Daniels stars as Oskar alongside Kenneth Cranham and Lesley Manville in Mike Walker's two-part dramatisation of Gunter Grass's dark and intriguing story.

Written in 1959, The Tin Drum is a modern classic of post-Second World War literature, telling the story of the Third Reich's decline and fall from a most particular perspective - that of a dwarf. It was published at a time when a generation of Germans was seeking to understand the war for the first time.

Oskar    ......    Phil Daniels
Matzerath    ......    Kenneth Cranham
Agnes    ......    Lesley Manville 
Bebra    ......    David Collings 
Jan    ......    Stephen Critchlow 
Greff    ......    Paul Jenkins 
Gretchen    ......    Kristin Milward
Roswitha    ......    Jane Whittenshaw 
Marcus    ......    John Turner
Fisherman    ......    John Hartley
Midwife    ......    Tessa Worsley 

Gunter Grass was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999 and the Swedish Academy praised him as a writer 'whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history'.

Mike Walker's efforts won him the Writer's Award for Best Dramatisation.

Producer: Peter Kavanagh 

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1996.

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.

Drama: Historical

Dramatisation of the famous novel charting the strange story of Oskar Matzerath

Dramatisation of the famous novel charting the strange story of Oskar Matzerath. Stars Phil Daniels

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum

Episode 1

Genres

Series

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra