RF Delderfield - To Serve Them All My Days

(5 stars; 6 reviews)

Shaun McKenna's dramatisation of RF Delderfield's novel, dramatized in five episodes. Episode 1 of 5 1918: Soldier Davy Powlett-Jones, invalided out of the trenches, must face a new start in life. Davy:….Oliver Milburn Algy:….John Wood Howarth:….John Rowe Carter:….Anthony Calf Beth:….Alison Pettitt Guard:….Delroy Brown Conductor:….Delroy Brown Nipper/Youings:….Josh Freeborn Chad:….Steven Williams Briarley:….Steven Roberts Episode 2 of 5 1920: Despite his clashes with the science master, Carter. Davy has settled in well to school life at Bamfylde. And his wife Beth is expecting twins any day.  Julia:….Juliet Aubrey Keith:….John Cummins Spats:….Anthony Glennon Skidmore:….Josh Freeborn Dobson:….Steven Williams Dobson:….Steven Roberts Episode 3 of 5 1926: Davy has buried himself in school life to try to forget the death of his wife, Beth, and their eldest daughter Joan. What spare time he has is spent working on the book Beth urged him to write. Brigadier Cooper:…..Gerard McDermott Alderman Blunt:….John Cummins McNaughton:….John Cummins Stratton:….Delroy Brown Bristow:….Harry Francis Featherstone:….Josh Freeborn Episode 4 of 5 1927: having failed to become the new headmaster at Bamfylde, Davy is determined to give the new head, Alcock, his full support. But Alcock isn't about to make that so easy. Alcock:….Clive Merrison Christine:….Kate Buffery Barnaby:….Gerard McDermott Ewart:….Nick Sayce Hislop:….Anthony Glennon Stoker Monk:….Steven Williams Lowther:….Steven Roberts Episode 5 of 5 1929: Davy Powlett Jones is about to face his greatest challenge yet at Bamfylde School. He is at daggers drawn with Alcock, the new Headmaster, and it is clear the two men cannot work together. One of them will have to go. Grace:….Alison Pettlt Gage:….Delroy Brown Rigby:….Gerard McDermott Director: Marc Beeby Five episodes From: Afternoon Play: To Serve Them All My Days First broadcast: Monday 23rd January 2006, 14:15 on BBC Radio 4 FM Young David Powlett-Jones, a Welsh miner's son, is invalided home from France when he suffers severe shell shock on the Western Front. At a remote English public school in Devon the debilitated veteran, himself barely out of his teens, decides temporarily to try his hand at teaching while striving to awaken from the nightmare of World War I -- the national catastrophe that sweeps England out of the comfortable certainties of the Victorian Age into the moral perplexities and harsh economic realities of more modern times.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.