Billy Ruffian

Original version

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Lisa Osborne

Adrian Scarborough

Arthur Darvill

Adam James

Emerald O'Hanrahan

Sam Alexander

Sam Dale

Hugh Ross

Karen Rose

Drama: Billy Ruffian

Drama on 4

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Billy Ruffian

The ship that captured Napoleon and the unlikely friendship he struck up with her crew.

By Lisa Osborne. The ship that captured Napoleon and the unlikely friendship the Corsican struck up with her crew.

Written by Lisa Osborne. The story of Napoleon’s last weeks before the long exile on St Helena.

In June 1815, HMS Bellerophon, captained by Frederick Maitland of the Royal Navy, was at anchor off the Atlantic coast of France waiting for news of Napoleon. The Emperor had fled the battlefield at Waterloo and made his way to Paris. As the royalists took control of the city, the Emperor fled to the coast hoping to escape to America.

Maitland’s job was to stop him.

On 10 July, Napoleon was reported to be holed up in the Prefecture Maritime in Rochefort. For a tense few days, the Royal Navy and Napoleon played cat and mouse until, on the morning of 15th, Napoleon accepted that he could not evade the British fleet and gave himself up to Bellerophon (known affectionately by her crew as the Billy Ruffian), intending to bargain for house arrest somewhere in the English countryside.

For the next three weeks, his hopes rose and fell as the powers in London decided his fate. He spent that time on Bellerophon with his entourage, hoping for the best, fearing the worst, and befriending the young Scottish captain and crew of one of the Navy’s most noble men of war.

Cast:
Napoleon.......................Adrian Scarborough
Maitland........................Arthur Darvill
Bertrand........................Adam James
Madame Bertrand..........Emerald O'Hanrahan
Mott...............................Sam Alexander
Baker Hawkins...............Sam Dale
Lord Liverpool...............Hugh Ross

Written and Directed by Lisa Osborne

Produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4

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