JOSEPH CONRAD: A BBC RADIO DRAMA COLLECTION

HEART OF DARKNESS

In fading light on the Thames Estuary, as Charles Marlow and his companions relax on deck, he tells of the time he turned 'freshwater sailor' on the River Congo. His perilous journey upriver in a little steamboat with a band of white colonialists and a group of cannibals takes him closer to certain unspeakable rites and the heart of darkness.

NOSTROMO

This tale of capitalist exploitation and rebellion is set amid the exotic scenery of South America and uses flashback and glimpses of the future to depict the lure of silver and its effects on man.

A PERSONAL RECORD

Conrad, Polish by birth, who goes on to become one of the greatest novelists of the English language, describes his childhood and adolescence, discusses his forebears, one of whom fought on the side of Napoleon and ate a Lithuanian dog, the exile of his parents, the death of his mother and his relationship with his Uncle Tadeusz.

THE SECRET AGENT

Verloc, the secret agent, keeps a shop in Soho. When he is involved in an anarchist plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory things go badly wrong and politicians, diplomats and police become embroiled in the resulting chaos.

TYPHOON

Captain Macwhirr sails his ship, the Nan-Shan, into a typhoon because he is unable to envisage weather worse than he has ever seen. Will he find a way to hold his ship and crew together through this storm?

UNMADE MOVIES: HAROLD PINTER'S VICTORY

Harold Pinter's unproduced screenplay of Joseph Conrad's last great novel, specially adapted for radio by Sir Richard Eyre. One of seven of these 'unmade movies' available on audio, Victory is a dark, morally complex drama set in the Dutch East Indies in 1900. It tells the story of Baron Heyst, a mysterious Swedish recluse living alone on a deserted island whose life is changed forever when he visits a neighbouring island and falls in love with young English violinist Lena. Pursued by predatory older men, Lena is drawn to Heyst and escapes with him to his island retreat....