Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

A BC Radio 4 dramatization of the powerful novel set during the First World War, from the author of War Horse

This is the story of Thomas Tommo Peaceful, a young soldier who finds himself in Belgium, in the trenches of the First World War, with his brother Charlie. It is also the story of Tommo s life, growing up in Devon with his brothers, and of his love for Molly, the beautiful girl he met on his first day at school.

As the story unfolds, from past to present, so approaches the hour when Tommo and Charlie will be separated forever. The horrors of the First World War, and the injustice meted out to the soldiers who fought in it, are movingly described.

Recorded on location in Iddesleigh, the Devon village where the book is set, this radio dramatization features among its cast Paul Chequer, Nicholas Lyndhurst, and author Michael Morpurgo himself.

Simon Reade has adapted Michael Morpurgo's Toro! Toro! and The Mozart Question as well as the phenomenally successful stage and screen versions of Private Peaceful. His other plays include Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp, Not the End of the World, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, Pride and Prejudice, and for the RSC, Ted Hughes' Tales From Ovid, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and Epitaph for the Official Secrets Act.

Michael Morpurgo is an English author, poet, playwright and librettist, best known for his work in children's literature. He was the third Children's Laureate. His children's novel War Horse has been adapted for stage where it became a smash hit success in the UK, before transferring to Broadway and Toronto. War Horse has also been adapted for the screen, directed by Steven Spielberg, and was released in 2012.