Single Spies

Two classic Alan Bennett dramas, originally performed at the National Theatre and adapted for BBC Radio 4.

In An Englishman Abroad, it is 1958, and in a squalid flat in Moscow, double-agent Guy Burgess is hiding from the world. When he is visited by actress Coral Browne, he is overjoyed to see someone from his former life in England. Starved for information, Burgess interrogates her about English society gossip, and cajoles her into taking home measurements for a new pinstripe suit from his London tailor

A Question of Attribution is set in 1956, when Sir Anthony Blunt – pillar of the Establishment and respected Knight of the Realm – is working as Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures. Perfectly at home in the corridors of Buckingham Palace, he frequently encounters Her Majesty as he works on her paintings, and has a special fondness for one particular Titian. However, there is one small problem: the painting, like Blunt himself, is a fake. Is the Queen aware that her enigmatic servant might also be other than he seems?

Poignant and moving, these two brand new adaptations feature household names Simon Callow, Brigit Forsyth, Edward Petherbridge and Prunella Scales. They were first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 16 September 2006.