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The Dylan Thomas BBC Radio Collection
- Under Milk Wood, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Rebecca’s Daughters & more
- Narrated by: Richard Burton, Dylan Thomas, Matthew Rhys, Roger Allam, Sian Philips, Matthew Gravelle, Freddie Jones, Patrick Mower, Philip Madoc, full cast
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
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The Dylan Thomas BBC Radio Collection
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Summary
Matthew Rhys introduces this collection of plays, poems and prose by the great Welsh writer, featuring Dylan Thomas reading his own work plus bonus biographical plays based on his life
'A spellbinding homage' The Guardian
'Sure to satisfy every admirer of Dylan Thomas’ works from the most ardent aficionados to casual poetry lovers... Thomas demonstrates his gift for seeing the beauty in the ordinary and affectionately ribbing the frailties of the human condition.' Entertainment Focus
Dylan Thomas was the 20th Century's first rock star author, famed for his dazzling imaginative poetry and chaotic personal life. Best known for Under Milk Wood, he also wrote numerous poems, short stories and screenplays, and made regular BBC broadcasts. A legend in his own lifetime, he remained hugely popular after his death at the age of 39, influencing cultural icons from Bob Dylan to The Beatles.
This definitive collection is presented by Welsh actor Matthew Rhys (The Americans, Perry Mason), who played Dylan Thomas in the 2008 film The Edge of Love.
It begins with sunny, summery recollections in ‘Holiday Memory’, which sees Dylan Thomas recalling an evocative August Bank Holiday, followed by A Child's Christmas in Wales, dramatised with a full cast including Philip Madoc and Freddie Jones. Two Thomas masterpieces follow: ‘Quite Early One Morning’, in which Dylan Thomas reads the story that later became Under Milk Wood, and then Under Milk Wood itself, a masterpiece and a lyrical 'play for voices' focusing on one day in the life of a Welsh fishing village and starring Richard Burton as the Narrator.
Next, Dylan Thomas’s unfilmed screenplay The Beach of Falesá, adapted from a Robert Louis Stevenson short story. Narrated by Matthew Rhys and starring Matthew Gravelle and Nicky Henson, it tells the thrilling tale of the clash between good and evil on an unnamed Pacific Island. A less sinister seaside trip is recalled in ‘The Outing’, Thomas's story of a childhood excursion read by Matthew Rhys and interspersed with memories from Swansea residents and music from the 1920s and '30s.
We hear from Thomas in his own words in ‘A Return Journey to Swansea’, followed by four readings of his short stories narrated by Siân Philips, Geraint Morgan, Iestyn Jones and William Thomas. Rebecca's Daughters, a romantic adventure set in 19th Century Wales, stars Patrick Mower.
Dylan Thomas tells of a rollercoaster experience of a lecture tour across the US in ‘A Visit to America’, and in The Voice of Dylan Thomas, introduced by Douglas Cleverdon, we hear him reading a choice selection of his works.
Our final programmes are three original plays based on moments in Dylan Thomas’s life: Badgers in My Vest by John Fletcher, Investigating Mr Thomas by Rob Gittins and Chelsea Dreaming by D J Britton. We join Thomas in a Newquay pub during World War II, follow private detective Jimmy as he tries to dig the dirt on Thomas, and see the poet through the eyes of the Chelsea Hotel.
Contents
Holiday Memory
A Child's Christmas in Wales
Quite Early One Morning
Under Milk Wood
The Beach of Falesá
The Outing
A Return Journey to Swansea
Patricia, Edith and Arnold
A Visit to Grandpa’s
Extraordinary Little Cough
The Followers
Rebecca's Daughters
A Visit to America
The Voice of Dylan Thomas
Badgers in My Vest
Investigating Mr Thomas
Chelsea Dreaming
Text copyright © the estate of Dylan Thomas, 1940 (Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog), 1944 ('Quite Early One Morning'), 1945 ('A Child's Christmas in Wales'), 1946 ('Holiday Memory'), 1948 ('Rebecca's Daughters'), 1953 ('The Outing'), 1954 (Under Milk Wood), 1963 (The Beach of Falesá)
Badgers in My Vest copyright © John Fletcher 2003
Investigating Mr Thomas copyright © Rob Gittens 2008
Chelsea Dreaming copyright © D J Britton 2003
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What listeners say about The Dylan Thomas BBC Radio Collection
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rachel Redford
- 01-03-24
What a disappointment!
What a disappointment!
I first heard Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton’s narration on a vinyl LP in the late fifties and immediately and have forever loved it. Absolutely unique , nothing has come near it in the decades that have followed. All Dylan’s Swansea childhood memories are here in chapters such as A Child’s Christmas in Wales, and The Outing. A Visit to America recorded shortly before his death recounts the fatal lionising , and is the only successful piece in which Dylan strays away from Wales. In all these brilliant pieces there is Dylan’s musical, ancient-priest-like incantatory voice as well as his revelling and delving into words and sounds which seemed – and still seem - so vital and glorious. So far so good.
1) But, the editing is disgrace!
In Chapter 16 called The Voice of Dylan Thomas both A Visit to Grandpa’s and A Return journey to Swansea , (the 7th and 9th chapters) are repeated in their entirety. Unforgiveable!
2) The selection from the considerable library of Dylan’s work is at best perverse. The Beach of Falesa lasts well over 90 minutes and its inclusion seemed to me to be as misguided as Dylan’s decision to write it. It’s a re-write of a Robert Louis Stevenson short story of English traders on a South Sea island. Stevenson at least knew of what he was writing – Dylan does not. The story is a ridiculous one in which he is clearly far outside his competency.
It is not entirely the fault of this production, which I presume is intended to show the range of Dylan’s work, that a proportion of these pieces show him at his absolute worst: pretentious, over declamatory and tiresome. The pieces which were thought to be serious and avant garde at the time now are just infinitely tedious or even silly. The chapter called The Voice of Dylan Thomas illustrated Dylan’s apparent talents in plays which have quite rightly sunk into oblivion , and Rebecca’s Daughters would be better remaining unremembered .
3) And where is Dylan’s poetry?? Just 3 examples, the sympathetic Park keeper poem written when he was 17, one of his most impenetrable, self indulgent and least successful poems The Hand that signed the Paper, and Ceremony after an Air Raid. That’s it! Where was his splendid most enduring poetry ? Where is Fern Hill, A Poem in October, Do not Go Gently, Death will have no Dominion…. ? How can a collection ignore virtually half the subject’s oeuvre?
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