BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of three of Eric Ambler’s best-selling spy thrillers, plus Nick Perry’s play The Battle of San Pietro and a bonus documentary, Ambler at 80.
Eric Ambler has been hailed as ‘the father of the modern spy story’. His tense, gritty thrillers introduced a new realism to the classic espionage mystery, and influenced novelists from Graham Greene to John le Carré. This collection brings together three of his best-known novels, adapted for radio with a full cast.
'Epitaph for a Spy'
When Hungarian language teacher Josef Vadassy goes to collect his photographs from the chemist, he is arrested on suspicion of espionage. The roll of film contained pictures of military installations – but Vadassy knows he didn’t take them. Can he find the real spy and prove his innocence?
'Journey into Fear'
Istanbul, 1940. Amiable engineer and munitions expert Alec Graham has just concluded high-level arms talks with the Turkish government when someone tries to kill him. Escaping by steamer, he realises that his would-be assassin is also on board....
'The Levanter'
Michael Howell has kept his family's firm from nationalisation by co-operating with the new Syrian regime. But other political forces are at work in the Middle East – and Howell soon finds himself caught up in a deadly plot. This gripping tale of intrigue and double-dealing won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award.
Among the casts of these fast-paced adaptations are Edward Hogg, Daniel Rigby and Raad Rawi. Also included in this collection are The Battle of San Pietro by Nick Perry, a 45-minute play exploring Eric Ambler’s experiences shooting a wartime propaganda movie alongside John Huston, and the celebratory Radio 4 profile Ambler at 80, in which presenter Michael Barber discusses the author’s life and work.
Suspense novels of noted English writer Eric Ambler include Passage of Arms (1959).
Eric Ambler began his career in the early 1930s and quickly established a reputation as a thriller of extraordinary depth and originality. People often credit him as the inventor of the modern political thriller, and John Le Carré once described him as "the source on which we all draw."
Ambler began his working life at an engineering firm and then at an advertising agency and meanwhile in his spare time worked on his ambition, plays. He first published in 1936 and turned full-time as his reputation. During the war, people seconded him to the film unit of the Army, where he among other projects authored The Way Ahead with Peter Ustinov.
He moved to Hollywood in 1957 and during eleven years to 1968 scripted some memorable films, A Night to Remember and The Cruel Sea, which won him an Oscar nomination.
In a career, spanning more than six decades, Eric Ambler authored 19 books, the crime writers' association awarded him its gold dagger award in 1960. Joan Harrison married him and co-wrote many screenplays of Alfred Hitchcock, who in fact organized their wedding.