Life And Fate Press Release & Full Schedule

The BBC Press office have released the following:

VASILY GROSSMAN'S LIFE AND FATE Classic Serial – Life And Fate: Viktor And Lyuda Ep 1/13

Sunday 18 September
3.00-4.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Ellie McKendrick, Kenneth Branagh, Greta Scacchi; back row, Nigel Anthony and Harriet Walter
Kenneth Branagh, Janet Suzman, David Tennant, Greta Scacchi and Harriet Walter star in this eight-hour dramatisation of Life And Fate by Vasily Grossman. This epic saga takes over every drama strand on BBC Radio 4 this week.
Set against the ferocious Battle of Stalingrad, this huge novel charts the fate of both a nation and a family in the turmoil of war and is increasingly hailed as the most important Russian novel of the 20th century. Its comparison of Stalinism with Nazism was considered by Soviet authorities to be so dangerous that the manuscript itself was arrested. Grossman died in 1964, never knowing that his book would be smuggled to the West and eventually published in 1980.
In this first episode, dramatised for radio by Mike Walker, the Shaposhnikov family are about to feel the full impact of the war.
Viktor, a nuclear physicist, is evacuated with his family from Moscow eastwards to Kazan. It's October 1942 and the Russians are defending Stalingrad from the ferocious attack of the Germans. Viktor (Branagh) has a revelatory breakthrough in his research but his wife Lyuda (Scacchi) learns of the death of her son and her grief drives a wedge between the couple: Viktor is drawn to the kindness of Marya, the wife of his close colleague.
Original music is by John Hardy with Rob Whitehead and performed by Oliver Wilson-Dickson, Tom Jackson, Stacey Blythe and Max Pownall.
Producer and Director/Alison Hindell for the BBC



VASILY GROSSMAN'S LIFE AND FATEWoman's Hour Drama/Afternoon Play Eps 2 and 3/13
Monday 19th September
10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 4 2.15-3.00pm BBC RADIO 4
Vasily Grossman's epic tale of family and war in Soviet Russia continues in all the BBC Radio 4 drama slots (bar The Archers) throughout the week.
In today's Woman's Hour Drama – Life And Fate: Anna's Letter, dramatised for radio by Mike Walker, Viktor's mother, Anna, played by Janet Suzman, writes him a farewell letter in September 1941. As a Jew in Berdichev, in the Ukraine now occupied by the Nazis, she has been forced into a ghetto and understands what will come next. The letter somehow finds its way to Viktor and is to be a source of strength for him in days to come.
In today's Afternoon Play - Life And Fate: Krymov And Zhenya – Lovers Once, dramatised for radio by Jonathan Myerson, David Tennant and Raquel Cassidy star as Krymov and Zhenya who cannot forget each other despite being miles apart.
October 1942. Evacuated from Moscow to Kuibyshev before the invading German army, the beautiful Yevgenia Zhenya (Cassidy), Lyuda's sister, is alone. While she tackles Soviet bureaucracy for the residence permit she needs for food, her ex-husband, the Commissar Nikolai Krymov (Tennant), is posted into the heart of the battle for Stalingrad, hundreds of miles away.
Directors/Alison Hindell and Jonquil Panting, Producer/Alison Hindell for the BBC
BBC Radio 4 Publicity



VASILY GROSSMAN'S LIFE AND FATE Woman's Hour Drama/Afternoon Play Eps 4 and 5/13
Tuesday 20th September
10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 42.15-3.00pm BBC RADIO 4
Vasily Grossman's epic tale set against the Battle of Stalingrad in Soviet Russia continues. In today's Woman's Hour Drama, dramatised for radio by Mike Walker, Life And Fate: Vera And Her Pilot, two young lovers long to be together. Luke Treadaway stars as Lenya Viktorov; Morven Christie as Vera Spiridonov; and Kenneth Cranham as Stepan Spiridonov.
Sara Kestelman, Samuel West and John Sessions star in the Afternoon Play – Life And Fate: Journey, dramatised for radio by Jonathan Myerson. In Poland, Hitler's Final Solution is beginning.
Sofya, a Jewish doctor, is taken prisoner in Stalingrad and put on a cattle-truck going west to Poland. A German SS officer, Liss oversees the building of the gas chambers and entertains Eichmann on an inspection tour. Liss is convinced that the Nazi and Soviet systems are more similar than their followers like to think.
Producer and Director/Alison Hindell for the BBC


VASILY GROSSMAN'S LIFE AND FATE Woman's Hour Drama/Afternoon Play Eps 6 and 7/13
Wednesday 21st September
10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 42.15-3.00pm BBC RADIO 4
Vasily Grossman's epic tale set against the Battle of Stalingrad in Soviet Russia continues in today's Woman's Hour Drama – Life And Fate: Abarchuk, dramatised for radio by Mike Walker. Even faithful Communists were sent to the Gulag as Lyuda's ex-husband Abarchuk (played by Malcolm Storry) knows to his cost.
In today's Afternoon Play – Life And Fate: Building 6/1 – Those Who Were Still Alive, dramatised for radio by Jonathan Myerson, David Tennant and Joseph Millson star, as Commissar Krymov is sent to tackle dissent in the "rat-war" frontline battle, at the heart of Stalingrad.
Directors/Alison Hindell and Jonquil Panting, Producer/Alison Hindell for the BBC


VASILY GROSSMAN'S LIFE AND FATE Woman's Hour Drama/Afternoon Play Eps 8 and 9/13
Thursday 22nd September
10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 42.15-3.00pm BBC RADIO 4
Grossman's masterpiece paints vivid and surprising pictures of all sides of the battle for Stalingrad. Today's Woman's Hour Drama – Life And Fate: Novikov's Story, dramatised for radio by Mike Walker, is set in a German field hospital, as a young man, Peter Bach (played by Geoffrey Streatfeild), struggles to make sense of the war.
In today's Afternoon Play – Life And Fate: Novikov's Story, dramatised for radio by Jonathan Myerson, Novikov (Don Gilet), a tank commander, prepares his troops for Operation Uranus, the campaign which is to be the turning point in the Battle of Stalingrad. On his way to the front, he visits Zhenya (Raquel Cassidy), his lover, in Kuibyshev. He dreams of marrying her but she is still torn between him and Krymov. She tells an anecdote about Krymov and Trotsky – a slip of the tongue that leads to betrayal.
Directors/Alison Hindell and Jonquil Panting, Producer/Alison Hindell for the BBC


VASILY GROSSMAN'S LIFE AND FATE Woman's Hour Drama/Afternoon Play Eps 10 and 11/13
Friday 23rd September
10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 4 2.15-3.00pm BBC RADIO 4
Today's Woman's Hour Drama – Life And Fate: A Hero Of The Soviet Union, dramatised for radio by Mike Walker, stars David Tennant as Krymov, who is recovering from a head wound and questioning his own beliefs.
The Afternoon Play – Life And Fate: Krymov In Moscow, dramatised for radio by Jonathan Myerson, stars Kenneth Branagh, Greta Scacchi and David Tennant.
Moscow, Winter 1942. Commissar Nikolai Krymov (Tennant) has been denounced and arrested. He is taken to the dreaded Lubyanka prison in Moscow – a place where, in the past, he has denounced others. Meanwhile, his ex-wife Zhenya (Raquel Cassidy) arrives in Moscow to stay with Viktor (Branagh) and Lyuda (Scacchi), and to face the consequences of her actions.
Directors/Alison Hindell and Jonquil Panting, Producer/Alison Hindell for the BBC