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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Drama on 3

Drama

Series of drama performances, ranging from experimental works to the Classics

John Osborne

Bette Bourne

Peter Egan

Joshua Elliott

Richard Goulding

Martin Hutson

Peter Moreton

Michael Pennington

Alana Ramsey

Amanda Root

Simon Shackleton

Daniel Weyman

Matt Whitchurch

Philip Osment

Philip Franks

David Morley

Drama on 3: Breaking Free: A Patriot for Me

A Patriot for Me

07/06/2015

Breaking Free: A Patriot for Me

BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3, Breaking Free: A Patriot for Me

An adaptation of John Osborne's landmark play, which was originally banned in 1965.

Philip Franks directs a radio adaptation of John Osborne's play, banned by the censor in 1965. With Michael Pennington, Amanda Root, Richard Goulding and Peter Egan.

2015 marks the 50th anniversary of John Osborne's sensational and ground-breaking epic play about Alfred Redl, "A Patriot for Me". Redl was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian intelligence service in the 1890s. His homosexuality made him a target for blackmail and persecution. Perhaps surprisingly, Osborne's play is not only a sweeping epic but also an angry plea for tolerance and a condemnation of hypocrisy that is as relevant now as it was to him in 1965.

The play has been credited with helping to bring an end to official censorship in the UK.

A Patriot for Me centres on an ambitious rising star in the army, in the decadent society of turn-of-the-century Austria, whose journey of self-discovery leads to blackmail, betrayal and murder. Redl is compromised by his newly realised sexual freedom and is compelled by the Russian army to spy on the country and countrymen he cares for. 

THE HISTORY OF THE PLAY

Produced at the Royal Court with Maximilian Schell as Redl, the great famous set piece is an upper-class drag ball, which put the nail in the coffin of the play's licensing by the Lord Chamberlain, though it was a huge success when performed in a private members' club and revived brilliantly many years later at Chichester by Ronald Eyre, starring Alan Bates.


Part of Radio 3's season of programmes exploring the era of the Second Viennese School: "Breaking Free - the minds that changed music".

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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