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The Woman in White
Toby Stephens and Juliet Aubrey star in a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Wilkie Collins’ chilling Gothic drama.
A lonely stretch of road on Hampstead Heath is the venue for Walter Hartright’s midnight first encounter with a mysteriously distressed figure in white. As he helps the woman to escape from unnamed pursuers, he has little understanding of the way she will affect his future.
At Limmeridge House in Cumberland, Walter meets and falls in love with Laura, who strangely resembles the woman in white. She, however, is soon to marry the financially embarrassed Sir Percival Glyde. Events at Limmeridge take a surprising turn when Anne Catherick arrives, and Walter recognises her as the mystery figure. It appears that Anne’s recent incarceration in a mental asylum was at the behest of Sir Percival, who is all too aware of the secret she holds. More than one life will be lost before Walter’s mystery of the woman in white can be fully explained.
A strong cast brings Wilkie Collins’ tale to life in this BBC Radio 4 production, recorded on location at Beacon Hill, London, in 2001.
A lonely stretch of road on Hampstead Heath is the venue for Walter Hartright’s midnight first encounter with a mysteriously distressed figure in white. As he helps the woman to escape from unnamed pursuers, he has little understanding of the way she will affect his future.
At Limmeridge House in Cumberland, Walter meets and falls in love with Laura, who strangely resembles the woman in white. She, however, is soon to marry the financially embarrassed Sir Percival Glyde. Events at Limmeridge take a surprising turn when Anne Catherick arrives, and Walter recognises her as the mystery figure. It appears that Anne’s recent incarceration in a mental asylum was at the behest of Sir Percival, who is all too aware of the secret she holds. More than one life will be lost before Walter’s mystery of the woman in white can be fully explained.
A strong cast brings Wilkie Collins’ tale to life in this BBC Radio 4 production, recorded on location at Beacon Hill, London, in 2001.
4 pages, Audio Cassette
Published November 5, 2001
About the author
Martyn Wade
31 books4 followersDramatist Martyn Wade has written many plays and adaptations for radio. Martyn's original play for radio SINGLES AND DOUBLETS was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and won David Troughton a Best Supporting Actor Award in the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2013. A fourth series of THE LITTLE OTTLEYS is commissioned, and recent credits include THE HEALING OF SERGEI RACHMANINOV, MOERAN’S LAST SYMPHONY (both Goldhawk Essential for the BBC) and THE WELLS WAY. Upcoming radio play HOLBEIN'S SKULL for BBC Radio 4 is due to be broadcast in May 2018..
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 18, 2024
This review is of a full-cast dramatisation of Wilkie Collins’s Gothic “sensation novel” The Woman in White: a Victorian mystery which was also one of the first detective novels. It was originally published in 1860, although it was set from 1849 to 1850. This adaptation is by Martyn Wade for Radio 4, and was first broadcast in 2001. There are 4 episodes each lasting for an hour, and it was advertised thus:
“Toby Stephens and Juliet Aubrey star in a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Wilkie Collins's chilling Gothic drama. A lonely stretch of road on Hampstead Heath is the venue for Walter Hartright's midnight first encounter with a mysteriously distressed figure in white.”
As well as Toby Stephens playing the young teacher of drawing, Walter Hartright, other stand-out parts are Juliet Aubrey as Marian Halcombe, Laura's elder intelligent and resourceful half-sister, Emily Bruni as Laura herself, and Edward Petherbridge as her uncle and guardian Frederick Fairlie, a selfish and wealthy hypochondriac land-owner. Jeremy Clyde plays Laura's fiancé the charming and gracious baronet, Sir Percival Glyde, and Philip Voss plays Sir Percival's closest friend Count Fosco, whose full name is Isidor Ottavio Baldassare Fosco (and it suits him). This part is a gift to any actor; Count Fosco is a grossly fat, bombastic and eccentric Italian, with a mysterious past. He is urbane, but intelligent and menacing, keeping canaries and mice as pets, on whom he lavishes much tender care and affection.
These parts are particularly well cast although all the acting is superb. I was also impressed by the writing in this adaptation. The Woman in White is a novel told from the point of view of multiple narrators through letters and diaries, and has a complicated time frame which is not linear. It does not lend itself easily to adapting, but this one is well balanced, with some narration mostly by Walter Hartright.
The only other radio dramatisation I know of was a serial in 12 parts, by Howard Agg in December 1969.
Here is the blurb for the 2001 dramatisation:
“Toby Stephens stars as Walter Hartright, who tells of his strange encounter with a mysterious woman on London’s Hampstead Heath. Moving on to the north country, we meet heroine Laura Fairlie in Limmeridge House, where master of drawing, Walter, is engaged as an art master to Laura and her half-sister Marian.
Laura bears an astonishing resemblance to the woman in white and Walter falls in love with her. But she is promised to Sir Percival Glyde, thus sparking a chain of sinister events.”
There have been quite a few film and TV adaptations: the 5 part miniseries from 2018 is a good one, and like this one, reasonably faithful to the book. It stars Ben Hardy as Walter Hartright, Olivia Vinall as Laura Fairlie, Jessie Buckley as Marian Halcombe, and Charles Dance as Frederick Fairlie. However I do prefer the radio dramatisation. Oddly, at the same time as listening to this I was also watching a TV miniseries of “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” - another Victorian novel which is partly in an epistolary format - and that also starred Toby Stephens as its heroic young male protagonist! He is obviously making a name for himself as an “everyman” character, who is distinguished by a strong sense of justice.
I listened to this on DAISY audio disc, which contains several more BBC dramatisations of Wilkie Collins's works, some of which are familiar, and some new to me.
Enjoyable as adaptations are, they can only convey a sense of this extraordinary book.
For my review of the text of this 5 star classic novel, please LINK HERE.
“Toby Stephens and Juliet Aubrey star in a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Wilkie Collins's chilling Gothic drama. A lonely stretch of road on Hampstead Heath is the venue for Walter Hartright's midnight first encounter with a mysteriously distressed figure in white.”
As well as Toby Stephens playing the young teacher of drawing, Walter Hartright, other stand-out parts are Juliet Aubrey as Marian Halcombe, Laura's elder intelligent and resourceful half-sister, Emily Bruni as Laura herself, and Edward Petherbridge as her uncle and guardian Frederick Fairlie, a selfish and wealthy hypochondriac land-owner. Jeremy Clyde plays Laura's fiancé the charming and gracious baronet, Sir Percival Glyde, and Philip Voss plays Sir Percival's closest friend Count Fosco, whose full name is Isidor Ottavio Baldassare Fosco (and it suits him). This part is a gift to any actor; Count Fosco is a grossly fat, bombastic and eccentric Italian, with a mysterious past. He is urbane, but intelligent and menacing, keeping canaries and mice as pets, on whom he lavishes much tender care and affection.
These parts are particularly well cast although all the acting is superb. I was also impressed by the writing in this adaptation. The Woman in White is a novel told from the point of view of multiple narrators through letters and diaries, and has a complicated time frame which is not linear. It does not lend itself easily to adapting, but this one is well balanced, with some narration mostly by Walter Hartright.
The only other radio dramatisation I know of was a serial in 12 parts, by Howard Agg in December 1969.
Here is the blurb for the 2001 dramatisation:
“Toby Stephens stars as Walter Hartright, who tells of his strange encounter with a mysterious woman on London’s Hampstead Heath. Moving on to the north country, we meet heroine Laura Fairlie in Limmeridge House, where master of drawing, Walter, is engaged as an art master to Laura and her half-sister Marian.
Laura bears an astonishing resemblance to the woman in white and Walter falls in love with her. But she is promised to Sir Percival Glyde, thus sparking a chain of sinister events.”
There have been quite a few film and TV adaptations: the 5 part miniseries from 2018 is a good one, and like this one, reasonably faithful to the book. It stars Ben Hardy as Walter Hartright, Olivia Vinall as Laura Fairlie, Jessie Buckley as Marian Halcombe, and Charles Dance as Frederick Fairlie. However I do prefer the radio dramatisation. Oddly, at the same time as listening to this I was also watching a TV miniseries of “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” - another Victorian novel which is partly in an epistolary format - and that also starred Toby Stephens as its heroic young male protagonist! He is obviously making a name for himself as an “everyman” character, who is distinguished by a strong sense of justice.
I listened to this on DAISY audio disc, which contains several more BBC dramatisations of Wilkie Collins's works, some of which are familiar, and some new to me.
Enjoyable as adaptations are, they can only convey a sense of this extraordinary book.
For my review of the text of this 5 star classic novel, please LINK HERE.
January 1, 2023
This abridged full-cast radio dramatization of The Woman in White was really fun to listen to. I love this story so much and really enjoyed listening to this dramatization.
August 18, 2016
Wilkie Collins story is five stars, and this dramatized audio book performance is four stars, but the editing and the scene changes after the halfway point lost me a bit.
That said, Count Fosco and Anne Catherick are so well played it almost made up for the confusion for me.
That said, Count Fosco and Anne Catherick are so well played it almost made up for the confusion for me.
September 22, 2020
I've read this book four times now over more than 2.5 decades (eep, don't try and calculate my age). It never fails to engage, entertain and make me emotionally invested. Despite the fact that I know how it's going to end! It helps to leave at least ten years between each reading.
After this latest reading, I am struck (anew?) at how pedantic upper British class were (are?). That they can take someone "at his word" just because he is titled, is beyond our modern distrustful belief. However, that was how it was in more "innocent" times and before our lives were laid bare on the internet.
After this latest reading, I am struck (anew?) at how pedantic upper British class were (are?). That they can take someone "at his word" just because he is titled, is beyond our modern distrustful belief. However, that was how it was in more "innocent" times and before our lives were laid bare on the internet.
March 26, 2025
'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins' (Audible: BBC adaptation), ensemble cast of various narrators.
Though I read the book a long time ago, I had forgotten how it all played out, so this was an interesting radio-play to listen to, with excellent actors narrating the parts, and with moody music written especially for this production, plus cool sound effects.
Good mysterious and eerie feel to it...you can almost see the fog drifting in across the moors in the haunting moonlight as the woman in white seems to appear suddenly, touching the elbow of the Victorian gentleman, whispering "Sir...Sir, can you help me?"
The original book was something like 500 (?) pages, so this was a credible adaptation, even with a few gaps in storyline between scene changes.
I liked this adaptation; not sure I'd now have the patience to read such a long, drawn-out storyline in it's entirety. But it's a well-done tale, supposedly the forerunner of the Victorian gothic detective novels, and to Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allen Poe.
(I need to fact-check that, lol, BBL)
Though I read the book a long time ago, I had forgotten how it all played out, so this was an interesting radio-play to listen to, with excellent actors narrating the parts, and with moody music written especially for this production, plus cool sound effects.
Good mysterious and eerie feel to it...you can almost see the fog drifting in across the moors in the haunting moonlight as the woman in white seems to appear suddenly, touching the elbow of the Victorian gentleman, whispering "Sir...Sir, can you help me?"
The original book was something like 500 (?) pages, so this was a credible adaptation, even with a few gaps in storyline between scene changes.
I liked this adaptation; not sure I'd now have the patience to read such a long, drawn-out storyline in it's entirety. But it's a well-done tale, supposedly the forerunner of the Victorian gothic detective novels, and to Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allen Poe.
(I need to fact-check that, lol, BBL)
February 29, 2024
Loved. Nora Ephron mentioned this book in I Feel Bad About My Neck and other…. And I can’t believe I’ve never read this.
1. This version of the audiobook is like slightly cheating but it had an AMAZING cast including Toby Stephens (this condensed version was only 3 hrs and 48 minutes.
2. I was listening to the proper audiobook on Libby but I ran out of time and it has to be returned. (It is normally 25 long. I got through 25% but lemme tell you I was RIVETED.)
3. How have I not read this?!
4. Gothic novel set in mid 19th C England. (Yaaaasss, please)
1. This version of the audiobook is like slightly cheating but it had an AMAZING cast including Toby Stephens (this condensed version was only 3 hrs and 48 minutes.
2. I was listening to the proper audiobook on Libby but I ran out of time and it has to be returned. (It is normally 25 long. I got through 25% but lemme tell you I was RIVETED.)
3. How have I not read this?!
4. Gothic novel set in mid 19th C England. (Yaaaasss, please)
May 20, 2023
A difficult work to condense and adapt, but a competent effort. After a somewhat confusing first part, suspense builds throughout parts 2 and 3. A bit of Deus ex Machina at the end. Jeremy Clyde is especially evil!
March 23, 2022
This felt bit flat.
October 20, 2023
Great acting and soundscape. Intriguing plot.
October 27, 2020
I was so happy to run across this abridged version. I didn’t have the desire to read the 500 page novel or listen to 24 hours of this story. This audiobook is a radio production, very entertaining with various readers, background music and sound effects. Very fun story to listen to all the way through. I’m glad I now know the storyline of this classic.
September 26, 2020
I'm glad I read this book, since it is truely one of the first thrillers ever written. It was an interesting story, but VERY long winded.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews