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Strangers and Brothers cover art

Strangers and Brothers

By: C. P. Snow
Narrated by: Adam Godley,David Haig,Bill Wallis,Juliet Aubrey,full cast,David Tennant,Anne-Marie Duff,Stephen Moore,Danny Webb
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Summary

The full-cast BBC Radio adaptation of C. P. Snow's epic series about the English establishment across the 20th century.

In 1920s Leicester, Lewis Eliot must escape the drudgery of a council clerk's office and his provincial lower class background to begin his decades-long rise to power. As the years pass, and Lewis progresses to successful London lawyer, to Cambridge don, to wartime service in Whitehall, to senior civil servant and finally retirement, he faces in his own life and the lives of those around him collapsing marriages, terrible illness, the politics of academia, Nazism, nuclear weapons, the price of power and the ever-present realities of war.

The New York Times praised the book series, saying, 'through [them] as in no other work in our time we have explored the inner life of the new classless class that is the 20th century Establishment.' John Betjeman claimed the books were 'as full of life as life itself'. The Strangers and Brothers series captures perfectly the ever-present battle between political and personal integrity Lewis must face, as well as all the upheaval and social change of the two world wars and the decades that followed.

This adaptation stars David Haig and Adam Godley as Lewis Eliot, Bill Wallis as George Passant, Juliet Aubrey as Margaret Davidson, Stephen Moore as Herbert Getliffe, and Danny Webb as Percy Hall, with a full cast including Jeremy Swift, David Tennant, Anne-Marie Duff, Iain Glen, Claire Skinner and Tim McInnerny.

Directed by Jeremy Howe and Sally Avens.

Dramatised by Jonathan Holloway.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, January - June 2003

Full cast:

Narrator/Lewis Eliot - David Haig

Young Lewis Eliot - Adam Godley

George Passant - Bill Wallis

Marion - Laura Doddington

Sheila Knight - Anastasia Hille

Herbert Getliffe - Stephen Moore

Percy Hall - Danny Webb

Charles March - Jamie Glover

Leonard March - John Standing

Katherine March - Carla Simpson

Ann Simon - Emma Woolliams

Mrs Getliffe - Suzanna Hamilton

Revd Knight - Brett Usher

Young Francis Getliffe -Andy Taylor

Winslow - Clive Merrison

Young Brown - Philip Franks

Roy Calvert - Adam Levy

Young Jago - David Calder

Nightingale - Jeremy Child

Chrystal - Matthew Marsh

Crawford - Hugh Quarshie

Mrs Jago - Joanna Monroe

Sir Horace Timberlake - Ian Hogg

Young Hector Rose - Rupert Vansittart

Houston Eggar - Peter Marinker

Willy Romantovski - Kenneth Collard

Gilbert Cooke - Anthony Calf

Margaret Davidson/Margaret Eliot - Juliet Aubrey

Rosalind - Anne-Marie Duff

Betty Vane - Carla Simpson

Martin Eliot - Tim McInnerny

Walter Luke - Jeremy Swift

Irene - Claire Skinner

David Rubin - Rolf Saxon

Sawbridge - Adrian Scarborough

Edgar - Andrew Wincott

Captain Smith - Sean Baker

Sir Hector Rose - John Carlisle

Sir Thomas Beville - Robert Laing

Austin Davidson - David Collings

Jago - Sean Barrett

Dawson Hill - Peter Blythe

Skeffington - David Acton

Francis Getliffe - Geoffrey Whitehead

Brown - Jonathan Coy

Donald Howard - David Tennant

Roger Quaife - Iain Glen

Lord Collingwood - Ronald Pickup

Caro Quaife - Julia Watson

Lord Gilbey - John Woodvine

Diana Skidmore - Avril Clark

Phillips - Richard Firth

Osbaldiston - David Leonard

Brodzinski - Christopher Rozycki

Ellen Smith - Emma Bown

Monteith - Paul Venables

Trafford - Stephen Critchlow

©2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Critic reviews

"A vivid portrait of British academic, political and public life." (Guardian)

"A very considerable achievement.... It brings into the novel themes and locales never seen before (except perhaps in Trollope)." (Anthony Burgess)

What listeners say about Strangers and Brothers

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My favourite BBC dramatisation

Strangers and Brothers covers 11 novels by the UK author, senior civil servant, and scientist CP Snow (Baron Snow).
"They deal with – among other things – questions of political and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power." for the period 1914 to 1968.
There are some autobiographical and historical elements.

Snow's was among the 2,300 names of prominent persons listed on the Nazis' Special Search List, of those who were to be arrested on the invasion of Great Britain and turned over to the Gestapo.

The music is an extract of the early-twentieth-century British composer Gerald Finzi's Cello Concerto.

The books were previously adapted by the BBC, into a 13-episode television series, which began airing in January 1984.

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3 people found this helpful

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One of my all time favourites

I love these books. Read/hear them at least every 3 years Brilliant stuff beautifully written

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Superb

A brilliant production. Fine performances and a compelling story. I just wish there was more of it.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliantly done.

I have really enjoyed this wonderful audiobook. Really great stories and brilliantly produced. Highly recommend.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A stellar cast and an epic saga.

If, like me, you like trying to put a face to voices, this gripping tale is performed by a magnificent cast of very well known actors. If it sounds like a well known face, then it is! I heard this many years ago when it was first broadcast on the radio, and was very happy to add it to my library. It's one of those things that bear hearing over and over. And how many writers, apart from Shakespeare, have created an expression that has entered the English language; Corridors of Power started here.

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Brilliant and fascinating

This is a brilliant and fascinating book, beautifully narrated by David Haig snd acted by a stellar cast. iwas sorry when it finished.

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    3 out of 5 stars

A superb performance by all concerned

The books are very long, and this was a good effort at condensing the whole thing. At times it felt a little rushed. It will never happen, but a cover to cover reading by David Haig would be an interesting challenge. Haig is excellent as the intellectually honest and forthright Lewis Eliot. I will always remember the way he say he ‘strode out into Whitehall under a gunmetal sky’ . The music is quite haunting, the Andante Quieto from Gerard Finzi’s Cello Concerto.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not bad but not very good either

Easy listening and with good performances. Not worth the credit or the time it took to listen to it though. A regretful purchase.

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Wonderful

I really liked this. It was great company while doing some mundane clearing out.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Complicated listen

Guess I was looking for a bit of nostalgia or a reprise of House of Cards but somehow this book was a struggle. Parts of it were interesting and believable but I seemed to lose the plot in many chapters. Perhaps I was just not in the right mood and that cannot be blamed on the author and the cast were excellent ...... however, I seemed to plod my way through and was happy to reach the end. Not a keeper for this listener but might suit others who enjoy political shinanigans! Good luck.

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