Gulliver's Travels

Directed by Ronald Mason
Writers: by Jonathan Swift, dramatised in four parts by Michael Bakewell

First broadcast: Sun 4th Oct 1981, 7:25pm on BBC Radio 3





  • Gulliver's Travels:

    1: A Voyage to Lilliput

    Lemuel Gulliver, ship's surgeon, is shipwrecked in 1699 in the South Seas and finds himself in a land peopled by human creatures not above six inches high.

    Gulliver: Frank Finlay
    Marsi: Andrew Sachs
    Clefrin: Anthony Daniels
    Reldresal: Peter Woodthorpe
    The Emperor of Lilliput: Stephen Thorne
    A Considerable Person: William Fox
    The Hurgo: Michael Spice
    The Empress: Pauline Letts
    Bolgolam: Patrick Barr
    Emperor of Blefuscu: Godfrey Kenton
    Flimnap: Gordon Reid
    Capt Biddel: Sean Arnold
    Lilliputian: Leonard Fenton
    Lilliputian: John McAndrew
    Jonathan Swift: Denys Hawthorne

    2: A Voyage to Brobdingnag

    Gulliver is marooned in Brobdingnag, where the people are as tall as church steeples. He battles physically and philosophically to survive and try to find a means of escape.

    Gulliver: Frank Finlay
    King of Brobdingnag: William Rushton
    Glumdalclitch: Miriam Margolyes
    the Cat,the Rat and the Monkey: Percy Edwards
    the Queen: Margot Boyd
    Farmer: Michael Spice
    Farmer's son: John McAndrew
    Farmer's wife: Pauline Letts
    Nurse: Kathryn Hurlbutt
    Town Crier: Leonard Fenton
    Usher: Sean Arnold
    Scholar: Godfrey Kenton
    Dwarf: Gordon Reid
    Maid: Amanda Murray
    Capt Wilcocks: Patrick Barr
    Jonathan Swift: Denys Hawthorne

    Gulliver's Travels: 3: A Voyage to Laputa, Balntbarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Lnggnagg and Japan

    Alone on a deserted island, Gulliver sees a "vast opake body approaching". It is the flying island of Laputa, peopled by a ruling class of theorists which is gradually destroying the order of life in the lands below with their impractical, quite extraordinary ideas.

    Jonathan Swift: Denys Hawthorne
    Lemuel Gulliver: Frank Finlay
    Warden of the Academy: Spike Milligan
    Munodi: Nigel Stock
    Chief Astronomer: Norman Rodway
    Tutor: John Rye
    Courtier: Anthony Daniels
    Physician: Douglas Storm
    Professor: Martin Friend
    Dutch pirate: Sean Arnold
    Emperor of Japan: Gordon Reid
    King of Luggnagg: Godfrey Kenton
    Governor of Glubbdubdrib: Patrick Barr
    Homer: Leonard Fenton
    Projector: Michael Spice
    Woman: Pauline Letts
    Pupil: John McAndrew

    4: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms

    Gulliver's crew mutiny, seize the ship and put him ashore in a strange land where he finds the most disagreeable human creatures, Yahoos. The land he discovers is ruled by highly intelligent and articulate horses, Houyhnhnms, who make the humans their slaves.

    Gulliver: Frank Finlay
    The Master: Robert Stephens
    The Sorrel Nag: Bryan Pringle
    The Mare: Jill Balcon
    Welch: John McAndrew
    Old Steed: Godfrey Kenton
    Captain Don Pedro: Michael Spice
    Yahoos: Sean Arnold
    Yahoos: Kathryn Hurlbutt
    Houyhnhnms: Amanda Murray
    Houyhnhnms: Patrick Barr
    Houyhnhnms: Leonard Fenton
    Houyhnhnms: Gordon Reid
    Jonathan Swift: Denys Hawthorne