A great 13 part, 8 hour podcast - GET IT NOW!

Capodecina
Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2006
Posts
12,130
Kenneth Branagh (Wallander, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, etc.), David Tennant (Dr. Who) , Greta Scacchi and Harriet Walter star in an eight-hour dramatisation of Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. Thirteen episodes were broadcast from September 18th to 25th, 2011 on BBC Radio 4.

This epic masterpiece, centred around the bloody battle of World War II Stalingrad, charts the fate of both a nation and a family in the turmoil of war. Completed in 1960, the KGB deemed the novel so dangerous that the book itself was arrested.

A podcast of all 13 episodes will be available HERE for about another three weeks.

N.B. - The BBC Podcasts are for your personal non-commercial use only.

All title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the BBC Podcasts shall remain the property of the BBC or third parties. You may not edit, alter, adapt or add to the BBC Podcast in any way. The BBC Podcasts are made available by the BBC on an "as is" and "as available" basis and the BBC gives no warranty of any kind in relation to the BBC Podcast. To the maximum extent permitted by law the BBC will not be liable for any loss or damage which you may suffer as a result of, or connected to, the download or use of the BBC Podcasts.


SPOILER - SPOILER- SPOILER - Basic details of all 13 episodes:
Viktor and Lyuda: 58 mins

Kenneth Branagh plays Viktor, a nuclear physicist, evacuated with his family and members of his research institute eastwards from Moscow to Kazan. It's October 1942 and other members of his family are fighting the Germans in Stalingrad; still others are in Russian labour camps or Jewish ghettos. Viktor's wife Lyuda 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.


Anna's Letter: 15 mins

Viktor's mother, Anna, writes him a farewell letter. As a Jew in Berdichev, in the Ukraine now occupied by the Germans, she has been forced into a ghetto and understands what will come next. Janet Suzman plays Anna.


Krymov and Zhenya - Lovers Once: 45 mins

David Tennant plays Nikolai Krymov, a commissar, posted to Stalingrad. Angered by the ordinary soldiers' response to his political position, he volunteers for dangerous missions. He misses his estranged partner, Zhenya (Lyuda's sister). Meanwhile, Zhenya is evacuated to Kuibyshev. Humiliated by Soviet bureaucracy and red tape, she longs to see her lover, Novikov, a tank corps commander.


Vera and her Pilot: 15 mins

In a forest in northern Russia, Lenya, a pilot, longs to see his pregnant girlfriend, Vera. She is stranded in Stalingrad with her father, Stepan. Her mother (another sister of Lyuda) has drowned in the Volga. She watches the planes hoping to catch sight of Lenya.


Journey: 45 mins

Sofya, a Jewish doctor, is taken prisoner 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.


Abarchuk: 15 mins

Lyuda's ex-husband, Abarchuk, is still a staunch believer in the Party even though he was arrested and sent to a Russian labour camp some years ago. He assumes his son, Tolya, is fighting for the Motherland and composes a letter to him about his beliefs; beliefs that may have been shaken by a recent encounter with his former mentor, Magar.


Building 6/1 - Those who were still alive: 45 mins

Building 6/1 is a former apartment block in Stalingrad that hides a clutch of Russian soldiers defending the frontline. Their leader is Grekov but they call him 'The Manager', an informality that worries party apparatchiks. Krymov, played by David Tennant, is sent to the building to investigate while the radio operator, Katya, falls in love with his nephew, Seryozha.


Lieutenant Peter Bach: 15 mins

Peter Bach, a German officer, is wounded and treated at a military field hospital. The brief respite from the fighting gives him time to contemplate his secret affair with a Russian girl, Zina, an affair that he roughly denies when confronted with it.


Novikov's Story: 45 mins

Novikov, a tank commander, prepares his troops for Operation Uranus, the campaign which becomes the turning point in the Battle of Stalingrad. On his way to the front, he visits Zhenya, 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.


A Hero of the Soviet Union: 14 mins

Krymov denounces Grekov as an enemy of the state. After a session of speeches marking the 25th anniversary of the Revolution at which he is cold-shouldered by his colleagues, he slips out to find Stepan Spiridonov at the Central Power Station. He recalls the heady days of 1917 and then attending Lenin's funeral and compares those ideals with the days of the show-trials. Krymov is played by David Tennant.


Krymov in Moscow: 45 mins

Krymov is arrested and sent to the KGB headquarters in the Lubyanka. Zhenya returns to Moscow to support him; she stays with Viktor and Lyuda and begins the process of daily queuing for information about Krymov: will she be allowed to deliver a parcel for him? While he undergoes interrogation and refuses to sign a confession, he wonders if it was she who betrayed him. Featuring Kenneth Branagh and David Tennant.


Fortress Stalingrad: 57 mins

As the Russian tanks encircle Stalingrad, the commanders of the German 6th Army realise that the end is in sight but Hitler will not permit a surrender. Spiridonov abandons the power station to join his daughter, Vera, and her new baby on a barge frozen into the Volga. As the Germans are rounded up and the citizens of Stalingrad start to reclaim their wrecked city, the family begin to make plans for the future.


Viktor and the Academy: 58 mins

Viktor's scientific breakthrough has not brought him the success he expected and instead he is gradually ostracised for his 'anti-Soviet' science. He starts to dread the knock at the door. Zhenya's visit to Moscow brings some distraction but it is Marya in whom he longs to confide. An unexpected phone call means he can return to work but his moral triumph is soon compromised. Kenneth Branagh stars as Viktor.
 
Last edited:
I have collected all the files, renamed them to make more sense and uploaded them into a Rar (split into 200Mb chunks, no password) to Mediafire. Hope it helps someone.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/gkmdnjd14mrhesm/LifeAndFate.part1.rar
http://www.mediafire.com/file/30mbka96423280j/LifeAndFate.part2.rar
http://www.mediafire.com/file/be1g54l5h1ffyjy/LifeAndFate.part3.rar
Good idea, with the added advantage that the files will presumably continue to be available after the BBC have stopped offering them :)

There used in the past to be a web-site (called RadioArchive.com as I recall) that made BBC radio plays and documentaries available for download - I think that it has now disappeared.
 
Back
Top Bottom