Eric Ambler

A BBC Radio Collection

By: Eric Ambler

Narrated by: Edward Hogg, Clare Corbett, Daniel Rigby, Simon Scardifield, Raad Rawi, full cast

BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of three of Eric Ambler’s bestselling spy thrillers, plus Nick Perry’s play The Battle of San Pietro and a bonus documentary, Ambler at 80

Eric Ambler has been hailed as ‘the father of the modern spy story’. His tense, gritty thrillers introduced a new realism to the classic espionage mystery, and influenced novelists from Graham Greene to John le Carré. This collection brings together three of his best-known novels, adapted for radio with a full cast.

Epitaph for a Spy

When Hungarian language teacher Josef Vadassy goes to collect his photographs from the chemist, he is arrested on suspicion of espionage. The roll of film contained pictures of military installations – but Vadassy knows he didn’t take them. Can he find the real spy and prove his innocence?

Journey into Fear

Istanbul, 1940. Amiable engineer and munitions expert Alec Graham has just concluded high-level arms talks with the Turkish government when someone tries to kill him. Escaping by steamer, he realises that his would-be assassin is also on board…

The Levanter

Michael Howell has kept his family's firm from nationalisation by co-operating with the new Syrian regime. But other political forces are at work in the Middle East – and Howell soon finds himself caught up in a deadly plot. This gripping tale of intrigue and double-dealing won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award.

Among the casts of these fast-paced adaptations are Edward Hogg, Daniel Rigby and Raad Rawi. Also included in this collection are The Battle of San Pietro by Nick Perry, a 45-minute play exploring Eric Ambler’s experiences shooting a wartime propaganda movie alongside John Huston, and the celebratory Radio 4 profile Ambler at 80, in which presenter Michael Barber discusses the author’s life and work.

©2019 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2019 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Eric Ambler is one of our best

Here are some geat stories beautifully dramatized with style and understanding. I can not reccomed it enough.

Very fine dramatizations with two excellent bonuses

Eric Ambler is woefully underrepresented in Audible’s library, which makes this a very welcome collection indeed. Good adaptations of three of his best-known books — well paced and well acted. Worth the price alone. The bonus features are great as well: there’s a very interesting radio play about Ambler’s involvement with John Houston’s famous World War II documentary (or was it?) “The Battle of San Pietro”. I would love to know
how much of the narrative given here was true and how much was poetic license, but in any case it’s fascinating and quite well done. And to round out the set, there’s a nice retrospective of Ambler’s career. It’s too brief, but it’s quite nice as far as it goes, and gives a good sense of what Ambler is like as a writer.

Highly recommended, but what we really need are more unabridged readings of Ambler’s books!