The Secret Guests

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)

BBC Radio 4 LW

The Secret Guests, by BW Black: Episode 2

Episode 2

The Secret Guests, by BW Black

BBC Radio 4 - The Secret Guests, by BW Black, Episode 2

MI5 agent Miss Celia Nashe escorts “Ellen” and “Mary” to Ireland.

Strafford and Celia arrive at Clonmillis Hall only to discover their charges’ new home to be not at all what they expected. BW Black's imagined adventure is read by Sorcha Cusack.

In 1940, at the height of Blitz, the two young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret are secretly evacuated from Buckingham Palace for their own safety and sent to an isolated rural estate in neutral Ireland. However Clonmillis Hall may prove to be even more dangerous than wartime London…

Irish police detective Strafford has been assigned to watch over the girls during their stay and so must form an uneasy alliance with their governess Miss Celia Nashe, an undercover MI5 officer charged with the princesses’ safety. However, with a contingent of soldiers patrolling the woods and rumours of IRA terrorists in the vicinity, they soon find their task even more treacherous than expected. But is the real threat from outside, or from within Clonmillis Hall itself?

An imagined historical adventure and enthralling mystery, as read by Sorcha Cusack (BBC’s Father Brown).

Writer
B.W. Black is the pen name of acclaimed Irish author John Banville. He is the author of several novels, including The Sea, which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize. In 2013 he was awarded the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature. He has published a number of crime novels, most featuring Quirke (an Irish pathologist based in Dublin) which were adapted into a TV series starring Gabriel Byrne.

Author, B.W. Black
Abridger, Neville Teller
Reader, Sorcha Cusack
Producer, Michael Shannon

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

Audiobooks

Podcasts

Drama: Action & Adventure

Drama: Historical

As bombs fall on London, plans are made for the safety of the two young princesses.

As bombs fall on London, plans are made for the safety of the two young princesses. BW Black's imagined historical adventure, abridged by Neville Teller, is read by Sorcha Cusack.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Secret Guests, by BW Black

Episode 2

Genres

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4