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Defoe

Factual: History

Defoe: Merchant, Writer, Convict, Spy

Through documentary and drama, Radio 4 put a spotlight on 18th-century writer Daniel Defoe

Through documentary and drama, Radio 4 put a spotlight on Daniel Defoe, the great 18th-century writer, chancer, pamphleteer, hack, spy, political meddler and merchant.

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Ben Miles

Niamh Cusack

Pip Torrens

Nick Underwood

Brian Protheroe

Sasha Yevtushenko

Philip Palmer

Defoe: Defoe: Merchant, Writer, Convict, Spy

Drama

08/07/2016

BBC Radio 4 - Defoe, Defoe: Merchant, Writer, Convict, Spy

Philip Palmer's mostly true story of Daniel Defoe, the great 18th-century writer.

Ben Miles is Daniel Defoe in Philip Palmer's drama about the great writer's earlier years, when he was a hack, political meddler, spy, as well as inmate at Newgate gaol.

Throughout his life Daniel Defoe was never far from trouble and died hiding from creditors. Philip Palmer's biographical drama tells the story of a man trying to survive in an extremely hard world; of how he wrote his way out of trouble in prison, came to the attention of one of the most powerful men in England, and became a spy for the government in the lead up to the Act of Union.

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko.

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Defoe: Merchant, Writer, Convict, Spy

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