The Spy

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James Fenimore Cooper - The Spy: 1. Trapped

1. Trapped

James Fenimore Cooper - The Spy

BBC Radio 4 - James Fenimore Cooper - The Spy, 1. Trapped

Henry Wharton creeps into no-man's land to spend an evening with his family.

New York State, 1778: Espionage and divided loyalties during the American War of Independence. Stars Burn Gorman and Rose Leslie.

New York State, 1778. 

Henry Wharton, a young soldier for the British in the American War of Independence, creeps into no-man's land to spend an evening with his family. 

But the happy reunion is cut short when American troops surround the house. Can the mysterious peddler Harvey Birch provide Henry with a means of escape?

Starring Burn Gorman, Rose Leslie and Alex Waldmann.

Published in 1821, James Fenimore Cooper's tale of espionage and divided loyalties during the American War of Independence

The first commercially successful American work of popular fiction, The Spy is also generally regarded as the world's first espionage novel. 

Fennimore’s double agent Harvey Birch, began the tradition of spy-as-hero, leading to the great genre novels of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Dramatised in two parts by DJ Britton.

Harvey Birch . . . . . Burn Gorman
Frances . . . . . Rose Leslie
Henry . . . . . Alex Waldmann
Mr Wharton . . . . . James Lailey
Sarah . . . . . Francine Chamberlain
Mr Harper . . . . . Timothy Watson
Caesar . . . . . Richard Pepple
Peyton Dunwoodie . . . . . Simon Bubb
Captain Lawton . . . . . Gerard McDermott
Colonel Wellmere . . . . . Adam Billington
Isabella Singleton . . . . . Victoria Inez Hardy

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko 

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2012.

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By James Fenimore Cooper. A family are torn apart by the American War of Independence

James Fenimore Cooper's tale of espionage and divided loyalties during the American War of Independence

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