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  • Published: 15 December 2016
  • ISBN: 9781785293290
  • Imprint: BBC CD
  • Format: Audio CD
  • Length: 1 hr 15 min
  • Narrators: Kris Marshall, Katherine Jakeways
  • RRP: $30.00
Categories:

Samuel Pepys - After the Fire

BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation




A further BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the famous diarist's writings, starring Kris Marshall and Katherine Jakeways.

Kris Marshall (My Family) stars in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the famous diarist's account of the aftermath of the Great Fire of London.

Following on from the acclaimed radio dramatisation of Pepys' complete diaries, this further instalment of his chronicles focuses on events following the cataclysmic inferno that destroyed much of the capital four hundred years ago.

When the Great Fire of 1666 was finally extinguished, little remained of London but smouldering rubble. Samuel Pepys witnessed firsthand the impact it had on the city and its people, and would be haunted by what he had seen for the rest of his life. Thousands of homes and many key buildings had been destroyed or damaged, including St Paul's Cathedral.

Now aged 70, in poor health, and living with his servant Will in Clapham, Pepys remembers the devastation. He recalls burying his prize Parmesan to keep it safe, standing in Moorfield among the homeless as London burned, going out in his carriage to look at the ruins, and viewing the plans for the new city that would rise from the ashes – its centrepiece a magnificent cathedral that would be hailed as a masterpiece.

Starring Kris Marshall as Samuel Pepys, this entertaining and enlightening adaptation by Hattie Naylor vividly conjures up the sights and sounds of Pepys' world. Duration: 1 hour 15 mins approx.

  • Published: 15 December 2016
  • ISBN: 9781785293290
  • Imprint: BBC CD
  • Format: Audio CD
  • Length: 1 hr 15 min
  • Narrators: Kris Marshall, Katherine Jakeways
  • RRP: $30.00
Categories:

About the authors

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys was born in London in 1633, the son of a tailor. He was educated at St. Paul's School, London, and Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1655 he married and in the following year entered the household of his cousin Admiral Edward Montagu. In 1660 he became the Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board (the same year in which he began his diary). In 1669, the year in which he closed his diary, his wife died. In 1672 he was appointed Secretary to the Admiralty, an appointment he held with one interruption of four years at the end of Charles II's reign until the Glorious Revolution when he retired from public life.

As well as being one of the most important civil servants of his age, he was a widely cultivated man, taking a learned interest in books, music, the theatre, and science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1684 and later served as President. He died childless in 1703. His contemporary John Evelyn remembered him as 'universally beloved, hospitable, generous, learned in many things'.