Lines in the Sand - The Journeys of Gertrude Bell

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Drama on 4: Lines in the Sand: The Journeys of Gertrude Bell (Part 2)

Lines in The Sand: The Journeys of Gertrude Bell (Part One)

Lines in the Sand: The Journeys of Gertrude Bell (Part 2)

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Lines in the Sand: The Journeys of Gertrude Bell (Part 2)

A compelling portrait of the extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell, starring Fenella Woolgar

Absorbing drama about the life of explorer, writer, archaeologist and colonial diplomat Gertrude Bell. Adapted and dramatised by Mary Cooper, starring Fenella Woolgar.

Adapted and dramatised by Mary Cooper
Based on the book, 'Queen of the Desert' by Georgina Howell

Part Two:

It is 1917 and Gertrude has taken a posting in Baghdad as Oriental Secretary. Her dream of Arab self determination hangs in the balance. 

Gertrude Bell was the daughter of one of Britain’s richest industrialists. She became the first woman to be commissioned in British Military Intelligence, and the only woman to join British occupying forces in Baghdad in April, 1917. She defied family ambitions of an aristocratic marriage to become a linguist, explorer, writer, diplomat and ally to Arab leaders. 

This compelling portrait draws on letters to her family in Yorkshire, and her lost lover to reveal the human struggles of her pioneering life.

Cast: 

Gertrude ..... Fenella Woolgar
A.T Wilson/Brown ..... Ian Bartholomew
Haji Naji ..... Ali Gadema
Faisal/Sheikh Jabir ..... Raad Rawi
Hugh ..... Malcolm Raeburn
Florence ..... Alexandra Mathie
T.E Lawrence ..... Rupert Hill
Percy Cox ..... Jonathan Keeble
Mikhail/Gardener/Porter ..... Naithan Ariane
Marie ..... Emma Gregory

Sound design by Sharon Hughes
Produced and directed by Jessica Mitic

A BBC Audio Drama North production

With thanks to Ali Refaie, Basheer Al-Zaidi and the Gertrude Bell Archive at Newcastle University 
Image copyright: Gertrude Bell Archive

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