May 17, 2024 – “We’ve given the Radio 4 weekend schedule over to these titans of literature to take a deep dive into two of their most important works, with an impressive array of acting talent taking some of the most important words Kafka and Orwell committed to paper and making them come alive for the Radio 4 audience.” — Mohit Bakaya, BBC Director of Speech and Controller of Radio 4

This June BBC Radio 4 will mark 100 years since the death of Franz Kafka and 75 years of the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell by dedicating more than 12 hours of original programming to their work.

Talent includes Martin Freeman, Adjoa Andoh, Tom Hollander, Iwan Rheon, Phil Davis, Nina Wadia and Adrian Scarborough.

Helen Lewis and Ian Hislop present a new documentary and podcast series – Orwell Vs Kafka – exploring the lives and ideas of these two major writers.

Listeners will be treated to a rich mix of abridged readings, dramatic adaptions, new work and insightful discussion and debate, with programming kicking off with a special weekend of coverage on 8 and 9 June and continuing into the following weeks.

Radio 4 will examine why both writers’ dark ideas about the individual and society – the Orwellian and the Kafkaesque – remain relevant and still resonate so powerfully with us today?

Mohit Bakaya, BBC Director of Speech and Controller of Radio 4, says: “We’ve given the Radio 4 weekend schedule over to these titans of literature to take a deep dive into two of their most important works, with an impressive array of acting talent taking some of the most important words Kafka and Orwell committed to paper and making them come alive for the Radio 4 audience.”

“I’m thrilled that Helen and Ian have agreed to take on the Orwell vs Kafka challenge, playfully exploring which writer best described the modern condition by interrogating how and where their ideas resonate in the world today.

“This should be a weekend to inform, entertain, disturb and delight.”

Radio 4 will bring listeners a day of readings from Nineteen Eighty-Four, abridged by Robin Brooks, and read by Martin Freeman, Rashan Stone, Juliet Stevenson, Adjoa Andoh, Samuel West and Tom Hollander. All six one-hour readings will be broadcast throughout the day on Saturday 8 June and be available on BBC Sounds thereafter.

Orwell Vs Kafka is a six part series, fronted by self-proclaimed enthusiasts, Helen Lewis and Ian Hislop. Airing throughout the weekend (and again at 0900 the following week) each programme will examine the legacy and influence of both writers and explore the trends predicted in their work.

In the first episode Ian and Helen start by exploring the two adjectives that have arisen from the work of both men. But what exactly do we mean by Orwellian or Kafkaesque? They’ll be joined by experts to wrestle with definitions, and hear from New Yorker cartoonist Evan Lian, who made fun of people who use the terms endlessly. They will draw parallels of the very particular dystopias conjured up by both Orwell and Kafka in the form of the Post Office horizon scandal, hearing from Alan Bates and his own nightmarish reality of striving against injustice in a system that seemed stacked against him.

Sunday’s afternoon drama (9 June) will be an adaption of Kafka’s The Trial, also by acclaimed playwright Ed Harris. The Trial, one of Kafka’s most famous works, is a disturbing psychological tale of an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he knows nothing about. Game of Thrones actor Iwan Rheon will star as Josef K, with a stellar cast including Phil Davis, Lee Ross, Nina Wadia, Celeste Dring, Rick Warden, Jason Barnett, Adrian Scarborough, Gwyneth Keyworth and Mark Heap.

Prior to the The Trial, John Yorke will be joined by playwright Ed Harris and co-Director of the Oxford Kafka Research Centre, Professor Carolin Duttlinger for Opening Lines. They will discover the enduring mystery & power of the novel, set in a nameless city, very like the twisting alleyways and cramped confines of Kafka’s Prague. Since then, it has become a world famous tale of unending, indefinable bureaucratic unease.

Other programmes airing on BBC Radio 4 include:

Tuesday 11 June

Franz and Felice
2.15pm-3pm

An intimate and mischievously punk telling of Kafka’s most significant romantic relationship. Franz & Felice follows the twists and turns of the writer’s relationship with Felice Bauer, how events in their relationship burst violently into Kafka’s stories and imagination, and how his stories responded. And how everything, real and invented, played out in the shadow of Hermann Kafka, the dark presence always ready to enter from the room next door. Cast to be announced.

Saturday 15 June

Restless Dreams
3pm-4pm

An inventive new drama from leading audio dramatist Dan Rebellato, capturing Max Brod’s urgent train departure in 1939 from Prague, fleeing the Nazis, as the world stood on the brink of WWII. In his suitcase are manuscripts, the unpublished works of Franz Kafka – of no contemporary value but inestimable treasures for the future. The drama, set entirely on the train, is a singular, mystifying journey, part thriller and part surreal dream, reflecting on the legacy of great literature, the battle between membership of a nation and citizenship of the world, and the dark heart of Europe. Cast includes Anton Lesser as Max Brod, Henry Goodman, Tracy Ann Oberman, Annie Cowan and Guy Rhys.

Sunday 16 June

Opening Lines
2.45pm-3pm

John Yorke will be joined by playwright Ed Harris and co-Director of the Oxford Kafka Research Centre, Professor Carolin Duttlinger. The trio will journey to the New York of Franz Kafka’s imagination in The Man Who Disappeared, also known as ‘Amerika’. The programme will examine Kafka’s re-imagining of an innocent’s arrival and adventures in the big city.

The Man Who Disappeared
3pm-4pm

1/2

Adapted by Ed Harris from Kafka’s novel of the same name. After a mysterious family scandal, the young immigrant Karl Rossman is expelled from his Bohemian home and dispatched to America by his parents. Adrift in this strange new world, Karl is soon swept up in an adventure in which he discovers an America that is by turns a land of endless promise and monstrous brutality. The cast includes Divian Ladwa, Fenella Woolgar, Karl Johnson, Ed Gaughan, Charlie Anson, Ian Dunnett Jnr, Jessica Turner, Jasmine Hyde, Ewan Bailey and Anna Spearpoint.

Sunday 23 June

The Man Who Disappeared
3pm-4pm

2/2

Adapted by Ed Harris from Kafka’s novel of the same name. After a mysterious family scandal, the young immigrant Karl Rossman is expelled from his Bohemian home and dispatched to America by his parents. Adrift in this strange new world, Karl is soon swept up in an adventure in which he discovers an America that is by turns a land of endless promise and monstrous brutality. The cast includes Divian Ladwa, Fenella Woolgar, Karl Johnson, Ed Gaughan, Charlie Anson, Ian Dunnett Jnr, Jessica Turner, Jasmine Hyde, Ewan Bailey and Anna Spearpoint.