Ben Hur - BBC Radio Drama - Lew Wallace

Category: Adults, Full Cast, Historical Fiction, Spiritual & Religious
Language: English
Keywords: Romans The Bible The Life Of Brian

Written by Lew Wallace
Read by Michael Gambon, Samuel West, Full Cast
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 160 Kbps
Dramatization

A thrilling adaptation of Lew Wallace’s epic biblical tale of betrayal, destiny and redemption.

Judea, AD 26. Two men’s lives run almost in parallel. One is a prince of Jerusalem. The other is known as ‘He that is born King of the Jews’…

When Judah Ben Hur visits his childhood playmate Messala, now a Roman tribune, he hopes to rekindle an old friendship. But their meeting has devastating consequences.

Betrayed and falsely accused of attempted murder, Judah’s property is confiscated and his family arrested—and he himself is sent to the galleys. En route to the sea, he meets a carpenter’s son, who gives him water—and looking into the man’s eyes, he almost loses his desire for vengeance.

Freed from slavery years later, Judah travels to Antioch, where he hears of a King who will lead the Jewish people, and vows to go and fight for him. He also encounters his former friend Messala once more, and seizes the opportunity to crush him in a high-stakes chariot race. Emerging victorious, he journeys back to Jerusalem to find his lost mother and sister, and raise a resistance force against Rome.

But as his life intersects with that of the King he champions, he comes to realise that Jesus of Nazareth is not a warrior, but a saviour—and that the path to his kingdom lies through forgiveness.

Lew Wallace’s epic tale, first published in 1880.

Dramatised in four parts by Catherine Czerkawska.

Ben Hur - Jamie Glover
Messala - Samuel West
Simonides - Bernard Hepton
Ilderim - Freddie Jones
Balthasar - Michael Hordern
Drusus - Ian Masters
Angel/Esther - Deborah Berlin
Amrah - Phyllis Calvert
Mother - Margaret John
Arrius/Man 4 - Derek Waring
Tirzah - Natasha Pyne
Iras - Becky Hindley
Chief of Rowers/Man 3 - Don McCorkindale
Man 1/Servant/Roman/Man at Inn - Joshua Towb
Man 2/Passenger/Servant - Michael Tudor Barnes
Man in Boat/Malluch - Gavin Muir
Gesius/Man 5 - Peter Yapp
Pilate/Guide - Neville Jason
Assassin - Oliver Senton
Man 6 - Peter Whitman

Michael Gambon reads from the Bible.

Music by Wilfredo Acosta.

Director: Glyn Dearman

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1995.

My recordings from BBC Sounds 146kbps VBR