or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
11 used & new from £2.24
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
An Englishman Abroad: Starring Michael Gambon and Penelope Wilton (BBC Radio Collection)
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

An Englishman Abroad: Starring Michael Gambon and Penelope Wilton (BBC Radio Collection) [Audiobook] (Audio CD)

by Alan Bennett (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £5.00
Price: £4.50 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £0.50 (10%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, November 10? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
9 new from £2.24 2 used from £12.80
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Audio Cassette (Audiobook) 4 used & new from £8.99

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Save up to 80% on more than 30,000 downloadable audiobooks at Audible.co.uk. Listen on your ipod or MP3 player for £3.99.


Frequently Bought Together

An Englishman Abroad: Starring Michael Gambon and Penelope Wilton (BBC Radio Collection) + The Laying on of Hands (BBC Radio Collection) + Alan Bennett, Triple Bill
Price For All Three: £15.84

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Laying on of Hands (BBC Radio Collection)

The Laying on of Hands (BBC Radio Collection)

by Alan Bennett
4.7 out of 5 stars (7)  £5.20
Alan Bennett, Triple Bill

Alan Bennett, Triple Bill

by Alan Bennett
5.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £6.14
The Clothes They Stood Up in (BBC Radio Collection)

The Clothes They Stood Up in (BBC Radio Collection)

by Alan Bennett
4.3 out of 5 stars (6)  £6.15
Forty Years on: BBC Radio 4 Full Cast Dramatisation (BBC Radio Collection)

Forty Years on: BBC Radio 4 Full Cast Dramatisation (BBC Radio Collection)

by Alan Bennett
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £9.93
Alan Bennett, Single Spies (BBC Audio)

Alan Bennett, Single Spies (BBC Audio)

by Alan Bennett
£8.48
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Audio CD
  • Publisher: BBC Audiobooks Ltd (6 Aug 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0563535792
  • ISBN-13: 978-0563535799
  • Product Dimensions: 13.6 x 12.4 x 1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 21,178 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #8 in  Books > Audio CDs > Authors A-Z > B > Bennett, Alan
    #12 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Bennett, Alan
    #20 in  Books > Audio CDs > Poetry & Drama

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description

Michael Gambon is Guy Burgess and Penelope Wilton the actress Coral Browne in Bennett's re-telling of a real-life incident. Whilst touring 'Hamlet' Moscow with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1958, Browne is astonished to have Burgess appear in her dressing room. Having disappeared from England in 1951 together with fellow diplomat Donald Maclean, spy Burgess is a wanted man. Bennett's take on the encounter is both poignant and comic, and the play examines his life in exile, his love of England and his even greater love of Russia. This full-cast dramatisation was originally broadcast on BBC World Service.

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
(1)
(1)
See all 4 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

An Englishman Abroad: Starring Michael Gambon and Penelope Wilton (BBC Radio Collection)
46% buy the item featured on this page:
An Englishman Abroad: Starring Michael Gambon and Penelope Wilton (BBC Radio Collection) 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£4.50
Alan Bennett, Triple Bill
22% buy
Alan Bennett, Triple Bill 5.0 out of 5 stars (4)
£6.14
The Laying on of Hands (BBC Radio Collection)
13% buy
The Laying on of Hands (BBC Radio Collection) 4.7 out of 5 stars (7)
£5.20
The Clothes They Stood Up in (BBC Radio Collection)
11% buy
The Clothes They Stood Up in (BBC Radio Collection) 4.3 out of 5 stars (6)
£6.15
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "The English never liked unconcealed appetites, and I had no restraint.", 15 Dec 2008
By Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
Author Alan Bennett's fascinating introduction to this play explains how he learned about a meeting between Guy Burgess, one of the Cambridge Five spy ring, who escaped to Moscow in 1956, and Coral Browne, an Australian actress touring Moscow with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre's production of Hamlet. One evening, Burgess, a disheveled alcoholic, burst, unannounced, into her dressing room where he was violently ill in her sink. When he finally left, he also absconded with her soap, cigarettes, makeup, and her own drink. Despite this less than auspicious meeting, she agreed to meet him for lunch the next day at his apartment. It is this real-life meeting, lunch, and its aftermath that provide the action for this play.

Though Burgess has been in Moscow for two years, he has nothing to do, has never learned Russian, and has discovered that the gay scene, of which he was a part in England, does not exist in Moscow. His only "friend" is a state-assigned young lover who plays the balalaika. As Burgess and Coral converse over lunch, they listen to an old recording by Jack Buchanan, again and again, he thinking of the past, while she remembering Jack Buchanan as the man she thought she would marry. Neither has much interest in politics. Burgess is starved for "gossip" from home, and both find Moscow dull. Burgess is particularly anxious to have Coral Browne take his measurements for his former Savile Row tailor so he can have him some new suits made. The suits in Moscow lack "style.

The plight of the exile, be it political or social, has always been a main theme for Bennett, and though he does not write this 1983 play to drum up sympathy for Burgess, who died in Moscow in 1963, just seven years after defecting, he succeeds in raising questions about one's sense of identification with one's country--where does it originate and why, and, ultimately, does such identification with this concept of "country" make sense if the country's positions are alien to whatever else one believes?

In this BBC production, Michael Gambon makes Burgess a plausible, understandable character, while Penelope Wilton, as Coral Browne, is an excellent foil. Coral is no intellectual, nor is she political, so her role here is to bring out Burgess so that he becomes more understandable to the audience. In this she succeeds admirably. This play, now twenty-five years old, brings to life that period in which people looked for spies behind every corner and looked toward the Soviet Union as "the enemy." Those days are gone forever. The production is now a bit dated, as a result of more recent terror, but Bennett's look at what inspires citizens to betray their country is pertinent and important. n Mary Whipple

The Uncommon Reader
The Lady in the Van: Play (Faber plays)
Bed Among the Lentils (Acting Edition), one of my favorite short plays
The History Boys (A Play), better than the film
The History Boys: The Film
Talking Heads


Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject










i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.