Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Book at Bedtime

Audiobooks

Podcasts

Drama

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

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 LW

Peter Firth

Simon Mawer

Jeremy Osborne

Rosalynd Ward

Book at Bedtime: Simon Mawer - Tightrope: Episode Ten

Tightrope

Episode Ten

Simon Mawer - Tightrope

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Simon Mawer - Tightrope, Episode Ten

Sam, now a young man, helps Marian put her final plan into action.

Sam helps Marian action her final plan. Back to the present, she tells him about the rest of her life. Concluded by Peter Firth.

A tale of love, betrayal and espionage as the political alliances forged during the Second World War give way to the moral uncertainties of the Cold War.
 
Marian Sutro is a highly successful British SOE operative working with the French Resistance. Then she is betrayed and imprisoned in Ravensbrück by the Nazis.
 
Returning to England a broken woman, she attempts to immerse herself in a normal life with a mundane job in London. However, the lure of the secret service and her desire to work for the greater good is never far away.
 
As the Americans test ever more deadly atomic weapons and the Russians join the frantic race to match them, Marian finds herself in demand by all sides with no moral compass to guide her.
 
She must walk an increasingly precarious tightrope between her beliefs, her profession and her desires.
 
Episode Ten.
By Simon Mawer. Sam, now a young man, helps Marian put her final plan into action. Back to the present and she tells him what happened with the rest of her life.
 
 
Reader: Peter Firth
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.

Book at Bedtime: Simon Mawer - Tightrope

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Simon Mawer's tale of love, betrayal and espionage. Read by Peter Firth.

Simon Mawer's tale of love, betrayal and espionage. Read by Peter Firth. Abridged by Jeremy Osborne.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Book at Bedtime

Simon Mawer - Tightrope

Episode Ten

Contributors

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4