Nikolai Gogol Diary Of A Madman 1991

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iary of a Madman Sun 3rd Feb 1991, 20:00 on BBC Radio 4 FM In 1963 Kenneth Williams recorded Nikolai Gogol 's story for an animated film by Richard Williams which was never completed. This is the first broadcast. Originally recorded as narration for a proposed animated version of the story for filmmaker Richard Williams, the recording session supposedly lasted for more than six hours without a break, and according to reports Kenneth Williams' brilliant interpretation upset him so badly that at one point he actually ran out of the recording studio and left the building. Dramatization by James Burke Music by Peter Shade Directed by Richard William "The Diary of a Madman" was written in 1834, when Gogol was twenty-four. Clinical self-observation has gone into the weird imaginings of the downtrodden government clerk.   The story is written in the first person in the form of the diary of an office clerk, who becomes obsessed with the Office Manager’s Daughter, Sophie. He begins the story as a slightly distracted daydreamer with delusions of superiority over his fellow workers and gradually descends into madness by the end of the story, the Spanish succession troubles in 1833, believing himself to be the King of Spain.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.