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Our Mutual Friend is as relevant now as it was 160 years ago, when it was written. Charles Dickens's epic novel is all about “…money, money, money, and what money can make of life!” Bella Wilfer Born and bred Londoner Dan Rebellato, award-winning audio dramatist, brings this huge, vivid novel to life for the 21st century, with a dynamic, ensemble cast, including Bukky Bakray (BAFTA winner for Rocks), Henry Goodman (multi Olivier Award winner and nominee), Mat Fraser (Kaos) and Sule Rimi (The Day of the Jackal 2024). The third and final adaptation for the ��ѿ��ý Radio 4 Dickensian season, Our Mutual Friend is a coruscating picture of then-contemporary London with striking affinities to now - a world of huge inequalities and cruelties, where ignorance is held up as knowledge, vast wealth is built literally on dust and money is made fishing corpses from the Thames. It’s a world of fraud, deception, rapacity, dishonesty and cynicism - but it’s also a book that battles through all of that to affirm honesty, generosity, and love, a novel of great joy. This comes from Dickens’s acute observation of the absurdities of life and his usual cast of intriguing characters - the wealthy illiterate Mr Boffin, the scheming fantasist Silas Wegg, the pompous philistine Mr Podsnap, the stylish fraudsters Sophronia and Alfred Lammle, the dandyish shark Fascination Fledgeby. And it's a book with heart - the stories of petulant but vulnerable Bella Wilfer, traumatised and gullible Georgiana Podsnap, and the resourceful survivor Lizzie Hexam are all powerful journeys of survival. Throughout it flows the Thames, filthy and powerful, bobbing with boats and bodies, on and in which key scenes unfold, mixing class and culture to panoramic effect. Episode 1: The Mouth of the River Narrator and lawyer Mortimer Lightwood, introduces us to the highs and lows of London life, from the murky Thames, where Gaffer and his daughter Lizzie Hexam scrape a living dredging its dark waters, to the glittering well-heeled dining rooms and salons of the Podsnaps and Veneerings, and the squeezed middle of the Wilfers. Into this heady brew comes the mystery of the Man from Somewhere, aka John Harmon, heir to a vast fortune – but only if he marries a woman he has never met, sulky Bella Wilfer. When Harmon goes missing, presumed dead, the mystery thickens, as romance, friendship, deceit and greed swirl through the city. Cast: Gaffer Hexam ..... Michael Garner Silas Wegg and Rogue Riderhood ..... Mat Fraser Lizzie Hexam ..... Bukky Bakray Mortimer Lightwood ..... Sule Rimi Eugene Wrayburn ..... Issam Al Ghussain Mr Podsnap and Mr Boffin ..... Gordon Kennedy Mr Veneering and Mr R Wilfer ..... Henry Goodman Mrs Veneering and Mrs Wilfer ..... Liz Sutherland- Lim John Rokesmith and Headstone ..... Jeremy Ang Jones Mrs Podsnap and Mrs Boffin ..... Frances Grey Bella Wilfer ..... Bettrys Jones Jenny Wren and Lavinia Wilfer ..... Delilah Tahiri Betty Higden..... Lucy Speed Dramatist: Dan Rebellato. Sound Designer: Jon Nicholls Assistant Producer: Nicola Miles Wildin Production Manager: Darren Spruce Studio Assistant: Louis Blatherwick Image: YanKi Darling Executive Producer: Eloise Whitmore Producer: Polly Thomas A Thomas Carter Projects production for ��ѿ��ý Radio 4