The Trainspotter's Guide to Dracula

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

BBC Radio 4 FM

Documentaries

Factual

miles jupp_mjupp_0609_b_em.jpg

BBC Radio 4 - The Trainspotter's Guide to Dracula

Miles Jupp boards the train to Transylvania on the trail of Count Dracula. 

Miles Jupp boards the 11.59 express to Transylvania, using Bram Stoker's Dracula  as his train timetable.

“3 May. Bistritz. Left Munich at 8:35 P. M, on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late.”
 
The first line of Bram Stoker’s Dracula makes it clear what the novel will be about: trains. As the book begins, the English solicitor Jonathan Harker is travelling across Europe by train, en route to meet his mysterious new Transylvanian client, complaining all the way about the late running of the service. “It seems to me that the further East you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?”
 
In the Trainspotter’s Guide to Dracula, Miles Jupp uses Bram Stoker's novel as it has never been used before, as a train timetable, following its references to plot a route across Europe by rail to Dracula’s castle in Transylvania.
 
Will Miles be able to reach Dracula’s castle more quickly than Harker did, or will his journey be dogged by discontinued services, closed lines and delays? 

Produced by David Stenhouse

Readings by David Jackson Young
 


BBC Radio 4

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

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Trainspotter's Guide to Dracula

Genres

Formats

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4