From Russia With Love - BBC Radio 4

[mrs_emma_peel]

From Russia With Love ...
Saturday Drama
BBC Radio 4 ... Saturday 21st July 2012 ... 2.30-4.00pm

Death warrant – made out in the name of James Bond - Angliski Spion (English Spy) ...
To be killed WITH IGNOMINY ...



Martin Jarvis is the director of an absolutely superb, outstanding all-star cast in Ian Fleming's classic espionage thriller – From Russia With Love. This new full-cast production is broadcast to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond films.

SMERSH want James Bond dead ... the MGB/KGB have selected a particularly beautiful Russian - an English Language Records Clerk named Corporal Tatiana (Tania) Romanova as a devastatingly sexual allure to trap James Bond - will this gorgeous girl cloud Bond's judgement ?

Klebb ... 'You are a fine looking girl, Comrade Corporal, walk across the room and back ... take your jacket off ... raise your hands above your head ... higher, my dear ... now bend over and touch your toes ... Are you a virgin, Corporal Romanova ?'

Tatiana ... 'What is the purpose of such an intimate question ?'
Klebb ... 'You are not here to ask questions ... you forget to whom you are speaking!'
You will be equipped with beautiful clothes and instructed in all the arts of allurement ... your body belongs to the State ... now your body must work for the State. Is that understood ?
Tatiana ... 'Yes Comrade Colonel.'

She is ordered by the infamous lesbian sadist Colonel Rosa Klebb to seduce and make love to English secret agent James Bond ... her labour of love - for SMERSH and Russia ...

The Beautiful Lure ...
Bond whirled around ... he crossed the room and turned on the pink-shaded lamp by the bed. There was a long body under a single sheet ... brown hair spread out on the pillow ... finger-tips showed holding the sheet up over the face ... lower down the breasts stood up like hills under snow.
'My name’s Bond, James Bond.'
'Mine's Tatiana Romanova ... my friends call me Tania.'
'What have you got on ?'
She pulled the sheet a fraction lower ... to show a quarter-inch black velvet ribbon round her neck ... 'This ...'

Corporal Tatiana Romanova, 24, was a very beautiful girl. Apart from her face, (which had been likened to a young Greta Garbo) the tall, firm body moved particularly well. Her arms and breasts were faultless. She looked wonderfully healthy thanks to her passion for ballet and ice skating.

Kronsteen and Klebb of the KGB devise an inspired perfect plan to lure Bond into their lethal honey-trap, using the shapely and sensual Corporal Tatiana Romanova as licentious bait - and to give Bond and MI6 the chance to obtain a Spektor decoder, (the machine was called a Lektor in the film) the latest Russian decoding device. MI6 learns that Tatiana wants to defect ... so 'M' orders Bond to Istanbul.

When Tatiana makes contact she seems to be in love with him - but is she ?'

Either way, he soon falls for her and they leave Istanbul together, accompanied by larger-than-life Darko Kerim, Head of British Intelligence in Turkey. The climax of the drama includes ferocious fight sequence on board the Istanbul-Venezia-Beograd-Paris Orient Express ... and a surprising confrontation between Bond and the murderous Rosa Klebb.

In writer Archie Scottney's brilliantly evocative 'radio screenplay', we see another side to 007. Unsure of his judgement, can he bring the lovely Tatiana safely to England, along with the precious Spektor ?

The Chief Executioner for SMERSH - a particularly brutal and vicious, ruthless and sadistic assassin - is ordered to humiliate and murder of James Bond, and Tatiana, and smear the reputation of both Bond and MI6 in a shocking sex-scandal.

This is Jarvis and Ayres' third James Bond dramatization.

Cast ...
General/Rene Mathis ... John Sessions
Kronsteen ... Mark Gatiss
Major/KGB director/Barman ... Jon Glover
Colonel Rosa Klebb ... Eileen Atkins
James Bond ... Toby Stephens
May ... Aileen Mowat
'M' ... John Standing
Miss Moneypenny ... Janie Dee
'Q' ... Julian Sands
Darko Kerim ... Tim Pigott-Smith
Manager/Conductor ... Matthew Wolf
Corporal Tatiana (Tania) Romanova ... Olga Fedori
Announcer ... Micky Stratford
Donovan (Red) Grant/Captain Norman Nash ... Nathaniel Parker
Ian Fleming ... Martin Jarvis

Specially composed music by Mark Holden and Michael Lopez
Director: Martin Jarvis
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.

From Russia With Love was one of John F Kennedy's favourite books.

From Russia With Love is my second favourite Ian Fleming - James Bond novel - On Her Majesty's Secret Service is my favourite. I hope OHMSS is Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres' next James Bond full-cast production for BBC Radio 4. Very much looking forward to this full-cast adaptation of From Russia With Love - what an amazingly fine cast!
Emma

Sources: BBC Radio 4/From Russia With Love - Ian Fleming/DigiGuide/Wikipedia/IMDb

[Nimuae]

Wow - that is a glowing cast list - will make sure I catch that one - Thanks for the heads up !!

[Edward G]

Another hot tip, Mrs Peel!
Didn't realise Martin Jarvis had moved into production but his name alone adds even more interest to this.
I have a few of the talking books that he enlivened, so looking forward to the work of his hands here.
FRWL was one of my favourite Bonds and was also memorable for Matt Monro's fabulous title theme (though only used as the end of the movie, I think) as they used the instrumental for the main title sequence.

[Nick Dando]

There have been a number of Jarvis & Ayres productions on Radio 4, and those I've listened to have been very good.

Nick