John Preston The Dig

SANWAL

(3.9 stars; 5 reviews)

The Dig By John Preston 1: Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, August 1939:   Peggy and her husband interrupt their honeymoon as they are called to take part in Britain's most significant archaeological excavation. Peggy Piggott ...... Anna Madeley Stuart Piggott ...... Bertie Carvel Rory Lomax ...... Alex Wyndham Charles Phillips ...... Stephen Critchlow Robert Pretty ...... Ryan Watson Edith Pretty ...... Joan Walker Basil Brown ...... Sam Dale Reid Moir ...... Nyasha Hatendi Will/Grately/Vuilamy ...... Dan Starkey 2: Peggy has found gold: Basil Brown explains how he first found traces of the Anglo-Saxon burial ship. Peggy Piggott ...... Anna Madeley Stuart Piggott ...... Bertie Carvel Rory Lomax ...... Alex Wyndham Charles Phillips ...... Stephen Critchlow Robert Pretty ...... Ryan Watson Edith Pretty ...... Joan Walker Basil Brown ...... Sam Dale Reid Moir ...... Nyasha Hatendi Will/Grately/Vuilamy ...... Dan Starkey 3: As Peggy's husband leaves the site to discuss finds with the British Museum, Rory Lomax arrives at Sutton Hoo and introduces her to the nightingale's song. Peggy Piggott ...... Anna Madeley Stuart Piggott ...... Bertie Carvel Rory Lomax ...... Alex Wyndham Charles Phillips ...... Stephen Critchlow Robert Pretty ...... Ryan Watson Edith Pretty ...... Joan Walker Basil Brown ...... Sam Dale Reid Moir ...... Nyasha Hatendi Will/Grately/Vuilamy ...... Dan Starkey 4:   As the public are invited to see the excavations, a row erupts over where the treasure is to be kept. Peggy Piggott ...... Anna Madeley Stuart Piggott ...... Bertie Carvel Rory Lomax ...... Alex Wyndham Charles Phillips ...... Stephen Critchlow Robert Pretty ...... Ryan Watson Edith Pretty ...... Joan Walker Basil Brown ...... Sam Dale Reid Moir ...... Nyasha Hatendi Will/Grately/Vuilamy ...... Dan Starkey 5: As war is declared, work stops on the dig. A major chapter in Peggy's life comes to an end. Peggy Piggott ...... Anna Madeley Stuart Piggott ...... Bertie Carvel Rory Lomax ...... Alex Wyndham Charles Phillips ...... Stephen Critchlow Robert Pretty ...... Ryan Watson Edith Pretty ...... Joan Walker Basil Brown ...... Sam Dale Reid Moir ...... Nyasha Hatendi Will/Grately/Vuilamy ...... Dan Starkey Directed by Jeremy Mortimer. First broadcast:  Fifteen Minute Drama Mon 15th Sep 2008 19:45 on BBC Radio 4 FM In the long hot summer of 1939 Britain is preparing for war.   But on a riverside farm in Suffolk there is excitement of another kind: Mrs Pretty, the widowed farmer, has had her hunch proved correct that the strange mounds on her land hold buried treasure. As the dig proceeds against a background of mounting national anxiety, it becomes clear though that this is no ordinary find ... and soon the discovery leads to all kinds of jealousies and tensions. John Preston's recreation of the Sutton Hoo dig - the greatest Anglo-Saxon discovery ever in Britain - brilliantly and comically dramatizes three months of intense activity when locals fought outsiders, professionals thwarted amateurs, and love and rivalry flourished in equal measure.  This is a wonderful, evocative book. From his simple tale of dirt, Preston has produced the finest gold ( Observer ) The drama of the excavation itself is described with care; Preston keeps us hooked on its painstaking progress, with neat and direct prose ( Spectator )

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.