If you missed the broadcast of David Tennant in David Hare’s adaptation of Murder in Samarkand, or if you just want to hear it again, it is available for the next seven days here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qs5x7
You can buy the book, and my second book, via the links in the top left hand corner. I should frankly be grateful if you would!
Thank you so many kind comments. I thought the production was brilliant and the performances extremely moving. I found the emotional callouses hadn’t stemmed the tears, and so did Nadira. Mind you I confess I was dead chuffed when the very first person to phone congratulations as the credits were being read was Bianca Jagger.
I have to lead the rest of my life meeting people who will be disappointed because of their mental picture of me as David Tennant. 🙂
Fantastic show. Though I wept at the end because a) the buggers have won, are winning, are multi-millionaires or impregnably part of the establishment b) the big money men didn’t want to make a big money film of it c) Jerusalem postponed indefinitely. However hats off to you for being ordinarily human (as you say) in a venal & criminally corrupt world
I remember hearing you on the Today programme some years ago and being horrified at your treatment by the F.O. Thanks for letting us hear ‘Murder in Samarkhand’ on the radio yesterday – a timely reminder of this appalling government’s attitude before the election. Must get your books.
I hope you are ok.
Here’s a mirror
http://rapidshare.com/files/353721394/Murder_in_Samarkand.mp3.html
Craig, is the play a fair picture of the real story and characters, by and large?
Arresting stuff. Fills me with foreboding though: you know, the hopeless-seeming task of trying to defend anything that’s good and decent against the massed, perennial forces of darkness.
Not that I believe that. Just the first instinctual response, before reflex stiffening of the spine sets in.
Seems you don’t spare to accuse your own weaknesses, if the play script is a fair adaptation of the book. That’s good.
Anyway, thanks for it all, excellent stuff, congratulation on your nerve and determination, despite all the admitted warts, and power to your arm. And watch out constantly for the Kelly-men!
You’re going to have to adopt a more audible Scots accent now.
I enjoyed the play on R4, much more interesting than the usual fare they put in that spot, probably because of its’ topical nature and it was depicting real events. I will find time now to read the book.
I had assumed that only those esteemed brains from the University of Oxbridge got into the higher posts of the FCO or indeed any part of the senior civil service. To let someone in from a Scottish University must have been part of some equal opportunities programme brought in by the ruling Scottish Junta in Downing Street. It seems that one rose up and bit them on the backside. I wonder if that policy will now be reviewed and only the nice effete middle class English types will be the norm once more.
Watching some of the Chilcot broadcasts and being less than impresed by the poor standard of individuals recruitied into senior Government, I can say I am in no surprise as to the mess the country presently finds itself and presumably has no way of correcting with these self-serving fawning incumbents.
Now on youtube…
or at least, David Tennant’s rendition of “HMS Pinafore”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4e77qysDSA
I live in Europe and access BBC iPlayer and other UK TV via the internet with VPN Television (Strong VPN). http://www.vpntelevision.com
The subscription cost $55 for a year and has been worth every penny!
Hoep this helps!
Brass,
Helsinki, Finland
Hi Craig,
here’s a history of Sting’s manager, Miles Copeland, scion of a well know CIA family
http://www.milescopeland.biz/blog/?page_id=5
His various companies were Copeland International Arts (CIA),Frontier Booking International (FBI), etc
Of course it’s not the first time the powers that be (TM) have used popular music as a poltical tool see here
http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/nwsltr93.html
(birth of the hippes to destroy the anti-war movement)
or indeed the offshore pirates of the 60’s see here
http://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/free/lobster58/lobster58.pdf
Coincidentally in the above issue of lobster you get two mentions. Mr. Ramsey plows his own furrow, but two mentions, that’s like Lady Gaga winning three Brits awards!!!!
Thouroughly enjoyable. Covered the juicy bits quite well !
Just heard the play. This was a wonderfully moving and thought-provoking piece of drama. It stopped me in my tracks. To employ a Glaswegian iteration (even though you’re from Dundee): It was ‘pure deid brilliant’!
I cannot commend you enough, Craig, for what you did, and for what you do. It is not easy to jack-in a career you love and, at immense personal cost in all senses, to go against your own government, for whom you’ve worked all your life, for a principle, for humanity, for the essence of all that’s good about the British people.
On a faintly ridiculous note, one slightly freaky thing was my impression (I may have been wrong) that the ‘Jack Straw’ actor (Simon Chandler), I suspect still in-role, read out the credits at the end. I know that actors tend casually to pick one of themselves to do the credits in radio-plays, usually at the end of the last day’s recording, so it often depends simply on who’s around at the end. But was the choice of this ‘voice’ deliberate, I wonder… ?
Hare’s play was excellent – and how appropriate for the BBC to air it while the Chilcot Enquiry is sitting. It helps to place the excuses of Straw and Blair in context. Long may you prosper.
Hi Craig,
Loved the play and loving the book even more. I rang BBC Radio Scotland on the morning of the broadcast as they were doing a piece on the recent controversy surrounding torture of British rendition prisoners.I suggested they contact you for a comment as you had had first hand experience. I also thought they might flag up the play.
Needless to say they completely ignored me.
Never mind we will keep up the pressure so long as guys like you are around.
Hope to meet again soon.
Another copy of the mp3 here:
http://soundcloud.com/user9069612/a
Can you believe this story?
I had to share this with everyone.
(NewsCore)
A WOMAN’S breast implants have saved her life after she was caught in the line of fire and shot at point-blank range with a semi-automatic assault rifle.
The Sun reports Lydia Carranza’s silicone implants took the force of the blow and prevented bullet fragments from reaching her vital organs.
The dental receptionist was at work in Beverly Hills, Calif., when a gunman burst in and opened fire.
He first shot dead his wife before turning the gun on Carranza, who was sitting a few feet away.
Surgeon Dr. Ashkan Ghavami said: “She’s just one lucky woman.
“The bullet fragments were millimeters from her heart and her vital organs. Had she not had the implant, she might not be alive today.”
Carranza’s implants took her from a B to a D-cup.
Alleged gunman Jaime Paredes was charged with murder.
Not sure where to post this but I wanted to ask if anyone has heard of National Clicks?
Can someone help me find it?
Overheard some co-workers talking about it all week but didn’t have time to ask so I thought I would post it here to see if someone could help me out.
Seems to be getting alot of buzz right now.
Thanks