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The Dark Tower

4 Extra Debut. Can Roland follow in his brother's footsteps and face the terror that lurks in the dark tower? Stars Richard Burton. From May 1956.

Poetic drama starring Richard Burton as Roland, tasked with following in his brother's fatal footsteps and seeking out a terror that looms in the Dark Tower.

Written and produced by Louis MacNiece (1907-1963), the poet who worked for the ±«Óãtv from 1940, creating a series of remarkable radio features. The Dark Tower was his most famous work, first heard on the ±«Óãtv Service in 1946 and produced again in 1956. The music for this programme was specially composed by Benjamin Britten.

The work was an allegory concerning fate and free will - the title taken from the Robert Browning poem, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came (which itself was taken from Shakespeare's King Lear, where Edgar proclaims 'Child Rowland to the dark tower came; / His word was still Fie, foh, and fum! / I smell the blood of a British man.')

First broadcast on the ±«Óãtv ±«Óãtv Service 14th May 1956.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Mon 11 Aug 2014 03:30

Broadcasts

  • Sun 10 Aug 2014 13:30
  • Mon 11 Aug 2014 03:30

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