King Lear

Synopsis: Radio adaptation of the play produced by John Tydeman. With Alec Guinness as Lear; Jill Bennett, Eileen Atkins, Sarah Badel, star as his daughters, and Ronald Pickup as the Fool. The music is composed by Christopher Whelen. Special effects by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Series: World Drama
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Audio; Radio
Recording date: 14 Oct 1974
Transmission details: 15 Dec 1974 at 17:45 (Channel: BBC Radio 3)
Duration: 195 mins

Notes: According to Tydeman, less than 30 lines of the play were cut in this production.
Recording took about 8 days.
General: Alec Guinness plays Lear for the first time. An interview with the actor can be found in Peter Martin’s article on the production in Radio Times, 14-20 December 1974. The article is entitled "Sir Alec Guinness talking ... but so discreetly he’s hardly there" (p.17; 19).
History: With this production, producer/directorTydeman completed his quartet of major Shakespearean tragedies (see separate entries for HAMLET, OTHELLO and MACBETH ). There was a 10-minute interval at 19:05.
Stills: Still of Guinness reading his part in the studio in Radio Times, 14-10 December 1974, p. 10.
Reviews: Sheridan Morley, ‘John Tydeman: Lear for the ear’, The Times, 14 December 1974, p. 9.
The radio performance is analysed in detail in Dermott Rattigan’s production analysis of four King Lear broadcasts in Theatre of Sound: Radio and the Dramatic Imagination (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2002), pp. 223 ff.

Alec Guinness	Lear
Sarah Badel	Cordelia
Cyril Cusack	Earl of Gloucester
Ronald Pickup	Fool
Robert Powell	Edgar, later disguised as Tom o’Bedlam
David Ericsson
David Timson	Duke of Burgundy
Donald Douglas	Duke of Cornwall
Eileen Atkins	Regan
Jill Bennett	Goneril
Julian Curry	Duke of Albany
Michael Deacon	King of France
Norman Rodway	Edmund
Paul Gaymon
Peter Pacey
Peter Williams	Gentleman
Rolf Lefebvre	Old Man
Rolf Lefebvre	Doctor
Trevor Martin	Earl of Kent

British Universities Film & Video Council