Betsy and Napoleon

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Betsy and Napoleon: Episode 5

Episode 5

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Betsy and Napoleon, Episode 5

1815, St Helena: how will Betsy fair when Napoleon has to leave the Balcombe’s Pavilion?

1815, St Helena: how will Betsy fair when Napoleon has to leave the Balcombe’s Pavilion? Stars Alex Jennings.

*    This programme was to have been broadcast on Friday 9th September but was postponed following the death of Her Majesty The Queen.    *

The move to Longwood looms like a premonition of death. 

Napoleon and Betsy play Blind Man's Buff but their frivolity must end soon...

Betsy Balcombe was 13 when Napoleon Bonaparte came to live in her garden on St Helena. The two forged an extraordinary relationship. 

Drawn from contemporary accounts, this drama by Julia Blackburn recreates the meeting of innocence and a great burden of experience. 

Napoleon ... Alex Jennings
Betsy ... Michelle Tate
Balcombe ... Ian McNeice
Las Cases ... Rupert Wickham

Director: Mary Ward Lowery

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2005.

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Drama: Historical

The story of the relationship between Napoleon and Betsy Balcombe

The story of the relationship between Napoleon and Betsy Balcombe, the daughter of his jailer, on St Helena.

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