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The Odyssey
The Odyssey
Nov 10, 2025 10:04 AM

Author:Homer,Tim McInnerny,Amanda Redman,Full Cast

The Odyssey

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast production of Homer’s epic seafaring adventure, dramatised by award-winning poet Simon Armitage and starring Tim McInnerny and Amanda Redman. ‘My fame is written in the heavens, and my fate too...’ So speaks Odysseus as he starts to recount his struggles to sail home to Ithaca, in one of the greatest pieces of storytelling in Western literature. 'The Odyssey' is his incredible traveller’s tale – and also the story of his faithful wife Penelope who waits for him, besieged by suitors, and their son Telemachus who has a quest of his own. In a twenty-year journey, fabulous fantasy mixes with extraordinary reality as Odysseus encounters enchantresses, nymphs, monsters, prophets and ghosts. From the temptations of the lotus flowers and the Sirens’ song to the horrors of the Cyclops’ cave and the Land of the Dead, the story of his encounters is riveting. We hear of Circe, who turned his men into swine; Calypso, who held Odysseus prisoner for seven years; and the dreadful six-headed monster Scylla who devoured some of his crew. And we hear of the Gods, who have a vital role to play... Dramatised by major contemporary poet Simon Armitage to celebrate the return of the Olympics to Athens, this full cast production brings Odysseus’s adventures to vivid life, conveying all the excitement, suspense and poetry of the original. A stunning aural rollercoaster ride, 'The Odyssey' will have your heart in your mouth and stir your soul. ' As irresistible as gravity ... a production so thrilling that it rapidly becomes unthinkable to press the stop - or even the pause - button' - Independent on Sunday

Reviews

This novel is one of the finest attempts in English to convey something of two very strange places which no longer appear on the map of Europe... Shakespeare has told a very skilful story

—— Evening Standard

Offers more than high romance: it is a portrait, and a good one, of the East Germany of the Stasi, with its bleakly beautiful landscapes, its casual betrayals, and its subtle capacity to dehumanise

—— Daily Telegraph

His finest book yet. Beautifully written, rich in character, it displays all the courage for which its hero so desperately wants to be recognised

—— Economist

A heart-warming tale of rich, enabling coincidence and conquering love; love without frontiers

—— Guardian

Elegant metaphors, striking insights, eidetic settings and sensitive renditions of character - Shakespeare's writing is of a high order. Impressive

—— Time Out

McEwan's exploration of his characters' lives and secret emotions is a virtuoso display of fictional subtlety and intelligence

—— Observer

A virtuoso display

—— Observer

[An] exquisite and suspenseful novel

—— Week

A page-turner, with a plot so engrossing that it seems reckless to pick the book up in the evening if you plan to get any sleep that night

—— Alain de Botton , Daily Mail

Taut with narrative excitement and suspense...a novel of rich diversity that triumphantly integrates imagination and intelligence, rationality and emotional alertness

—— Sunday Times

He is the maestro at creating suspense: the particular, sickening, see-sawing kind that demands a kind of physical courage from the reader to continue reading

—— New Statesman

A novel of rich diversity

—— Sunday Times

From the first page to the last, The Time Traveler's Wife works its unique magic... A beautiful, lyrical book

—— Tony Parsons , The Times

After I read it I wanted to share it with everybody, and even gave a copy to Madonna when she co-presented my show

—— Jo Whiley , Easy Living

Dark, unpredictable, incredibly clever and a modern romance

—— Cecelia Ahern , Grazia

A delight

—— Bookseller

A love affair that will totally capture your heart

—— Glamour Magazine

An irrestible romance

—— InStyle

A beautifully written, compulsive look at a couple trying to live an ordinary life in extraordinary circumstances

—— Image

An intriguing, often funny love story

—— Eve
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