Tolstoy epic in 10-hour broadcast

Literary epic War And Peace is to be brought to life in a 10-hour dramatisation to be broadcast in a single day as Radio 4 clears its New Year’s Day schedule.

Stars such as John Hurt and Simon Russell Beale will appear in the production which will run from 9am, with short breaks for news bulletins, editions of The Archers and a comedy programme.

Leo Tolstoy’s saga is famously one of the longest works of fiction ever published and many readers have tried and failed to work their way through its entirety, and are often baffled by the Russian tradition of using multiple names for the characters.

The station will offer online support to listeners with family trees and historical details to heighten their understanding, and in a further effort to bring the 1869 publication to the digital generation, there will be tweets throughout to accompany it.

The story – following the fortunes of several aristocratic families around the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in 1812 – has been dramatised by acclaimed stage writer Timberlake Wertenbaker, who has been a lifelong fan of the book.

It will feature the sounds of conflict recorded at a re-enactment of the battle of Austerlitz which is staged in the Czech Republic each year.

The audio version comes ahead of a six-part TV version, scripted by Andrew Davies, which is due to be screened next year.

Radio 4 has previously handed over the airwaves to a broadcast of James Joyce’s Ulysses in 2012 and an eight-hour reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by Stephen Fry 14 years ago.

But this is said to be the first time the station has devoted its schedule to a drama on such a scale.

It will also be divided into 10 hour-long episodes which will go on to be broadcast as a series.

Radio 4 controller Gwyneth Williams said: “This is a book that lots of Radio 4 listeners will be keen to enjoy on New Years’ Day. They can dip in and out of it. I think lots of people will have read but not finished it and might like to know more about it.”

She joked that she assumed listeners would “get themselves set up with vodka and blinis” for the experience.

Tolstoy epic in 10-hour broadcast