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BBC Radio 4, 18-20 August 2010
Another rip-roaring tale from the director (Bruce Young) and leading
actor (David Robb), who were responsible for Greenmantle. Patrick O'Brian's 1973 novel is set in the Napoleonic era,
and revolves around the idea of money and preferment, set against a perpetual rivalry between Jack (Robb) and Stephen (Richard
Dillane) spanning the four continents of the world - India, the East Indies, Antarctica. The plot is very reminiscent of C.
S. Forester's Hornblower novels, with the ebb and flow of the action set against high and low tides, the thrill of
battles against various enemies, and the perpetual inability of men to talk to women.
Young's production was very reminiscent of Greenmantle, comprising a series
of dramatic set-pieces involving two- or three-person exchanges of dialogue, with little time spent on reflection. But perhaps
this is superfluous in a plot which moves headlong from battle to shipwreck, from raid to abortive love-affair. The production
was a good example of derring-do, emphasizing the capacity of sound to suggest action and incident with comparatively few
effects - a clap of thunder, the clash of steel, the endless whishing of the waves.
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