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 Evie Killip is Annie in The Soldier’s Return, BBC Radio 4 


  

Listen on BBC Sounds

EVIE KILLIP plays Annie in The Soldier’s Return, Melvyn Bragg’s award-winning novel adapted for BBC Radio 4.

Part 1 will be released on September 27th and Part 2 on 4th October.

It’s 1946, and Sam Richardson finally returns to the small, working-class town of Wigton in Cumbria after years of brutal jungle warfare in Burma. His wife, Ellen, has found a new independence during the war, and he is an intimidating stranger to his six-year-old son, Joe. As Sam struggles to return to the quiet rhythms of civilian life, the memories of the frontline refuse to stay buried….

Adapted for radio by Robin Brooks, the drama draws on the novel that won the 2000 WH Smith Literary Award, which in turn draws on Bragg’s own memories of growing up in post-war Cumbria. It moves between the close atmosphere of a northern market town and the unseen scars carried by those who survived what became known as the “Forgotten War”. Evie joins the cast as Annie.

The production also stars Billy Postlethwaite as Sam, Emily Stott as Ellen and Isaac Nelson as Joe, with James Atherton, Helen Longworth, Bryan Dick, Isaac Farnhill and Nathan Lawrence completing the company. Melvyn Bragg himself appears as the Author. The sound design is by Leon Chambers, and the drama is directed by Jessica Dromgoole and produced by Catherine Bailey, with Richard Johns and Jules Williamson as executive producers. It is a Catherine Bailey production in association with So Many Stories for BBC Radio 4.

Evie is no strangers to BBC Radio, having won the BBC’s Carleton Hobbs Bursary Award in 2015.

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