The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great by Henry Fielding.
Adapted by Nick Dear.
BBC Radio 4 - Monday Play - 25/03/1985
Length 1hr 30mins
A dramatisation of Fielding's 1743 satire of political opportunism and ruthless morality.
Plot[]
Jonathon Wild is a satire of Walpole that draws a parallel between Walpole and Jonathan Wild, the infamous gang leader and highwayman. He implicitly compares the Whig party in Parliament with a gang of thieves being run by Walpole, whose constant desire to be a "Great Man" (a common epithet for Walpole) should culminate only in the antithesis of greatness: being hanged.
Cast[]
- The Historian....................Timothy West
- Jonathan Wild....................Christopher Fairbank
- Tom Heartfree....................Geoffrey Beever
- Sarah Heartfree..................Melinda Walker
- Laetitia Snap....................Maureen O'Farrel