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BBC Radio 4 Extra

The Lives of Harry Lime

Drama: Crime

Orson Welles brings his infamous con artist character Harry Lime to radio.

Orson Welles stars as his infamous character Harry Lime, charting the con artist's adventures in the build-up to his demise seen by film audiences in The Third Man.

The Lives of Harry Lime: Series 1

The Lives of Harry Lime: Series 1: Episode 1: See Naples and Live

Episode 1

Episode 1: See Naples and Live

Series 1

See Naples and Live

BBC Radio 4 Extra - The Lives of Harry Lime, Series 1, See Naples and Live

Harry targets an item of jewellery, but is he overlooking something more precious?

4 Extra Debut. Con artist Harry targets an item of jewellery, but is he overlooking something more precious? Stars Orson Welles. From 1951.

Con-artist Harry targets an item of jewellery, but is he overlooking something more precious? 

Starring Orson Welles as Harry Lime. 

The films of Orson Welles, such as 'Citizen Kane', 'The Magnificent Ambersons' and 'Touch of Evil' guaranteed his place in the pantheon of silver-screen heroes. 

In the celebrated 1949 film adaptation of Graham Greene's novel 'The Third Man', Harry Lime is introduce as one of cinema's most notorious anti-heroes. Sought in post-war Vienna by pulp writer Holly Martins [Joseph Cotton] and British Army Major Calloway [Trevor Howard], Lime manages to steal the show despite being absent for much of it! 

This 1951-52 radio prequel to the film, 'The Lives of Harry Lime' earned Welles even more acclaim. His distinctive tones had already served him well as the radio voice of 'The Shadow' between 1937 and 1938, where he portrayed the crusader with distinctly questionable means of thwarting crime. 

Stripped of the film cameras, the character of Harry Lime is not ameliorated for this radio outing. He's an out and out rogue. Lime made it to the airwaves thanks to another Harry - Harry Alan Towers, with whom Welles collaborated on 'The Black Museum'. Like its eponymous anti-hero, this series travelled widely, being syndicated across the USA and on Radio Luxembourg. 

The music is by Anton Karas, the zither man. 

Produced by Towers of London. 

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in August 1951.

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Orson Welles brings his infamous con artist character Harry Lime to radio

Orson Welles stars as his infamous character Harry Lime, charting the con-artist's adventures in the build-up to his demise seen by film audiences in The Third Man

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