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Episode details

Radio 4,31 May 2026,57 mins

Moon Tiger

Drama on 4

Available for 29 days

‘In the middle of my life, in the war, I was in a room in Luxor. On the bedside table was a Moon Tiger, a green coil that slowly burns all night, repelling mosquitoes, dropping away into lengths of grey ash.’ Penelope Lively’s much-loved Booker Prize-winning novel is dramatised by Kate Clanchy. Starring Geraldine James. This adaptation – the first for the BBC – is a moving drama about love, loss, the senselessness of war and the importance of memory. Claudia Hampton – celebrated historian, brave journalist and bad mother – is dying in hospital. Even now she begins writing in her head ‘a history of the world and my place in it’, while her resentful daughter, Lisa, interrogates her about the past. But ‘It is feeling that survives’ Claudia finds, ‘feeling and place’ – above all, some weeks in Egypt in 1942 with her lover, Tom, a tank commander. Claudia ….. Geraldine James Lisa ….. Lydia Wilson Tom ….. Toby Regbo The composer is Katharine Seaton and the music is performed by John Haslam (piano) and George Balmont (bass). Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling Sound Designer: David Thomas Director / Producer: Amber Barnfather A Flare Path production for BBC Radio 4

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