Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities on BBC Radio 4

By: FSWL team

Published:
2014-10-24

Ian fleming thrilling cities bbc radio 4

BBC Radio 4 broadcast the Pier production Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities, a three episode series based on Ian's book originally published in 1963.

Long In 1959, Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was commissioned by the Sunday Times to explore some of the world's most exotic cities. Travelling to the Far East and then to America, he left the bright main streets for the back alleys, abandoning tourist sites in favour of underground haunts, and mingling with celebrities, gangsters and geishas. The result is a series of vivid snapshots of a mysterious, vanished world.

Fleming wrote, 'On November 2nd, armed with a sheaf of visas...one suitcase...and my typewriter, I left humdrum London for the thrilling cities of the world. All my life I have been interested in adventure and abroad. I have enjoyed the frisson of leaving the wide, well-lit streets and venturing up back alleys in search of the hidden, authentic pulse of towns. It was perhaps this habit that turned me into a writer of thrillers.'

• Episode 1: Hong Kong (15 minutes)
Fleming flies to Hong Kong - the most vivid and exciting city he had ever experienced. He enjoys a massage at the hands of an expert, and his senses are enchanted by the smells of the streets at night - from the 'exciting dash of sandalwood' in a joss-stick factory to the scent of frying onions and 'sweet perspiration'.

• Episode 2: Tokyo (15 minutes)
Fleming flies to Tokyo where he witnesses an astonishing ju-jitsu demonstration, has his fortune told and is attended in a bath-house by one of the prettiest girls he has ever seen.

• Episode 3: Chicago and New York (15 minutes)
Fleming flies to the USA and visits the garage in Chicago where the St. Valentine's Day Massacre took place. In New York, he thrills at the sight of the traffic lights changing from red to green in unison all the way down Park Avenue.

Read by Simon Williams (abridged by Mark Burgess)
Produced by David Blount

Copyright © Ian Fleming Publications Ltd 1963

Editor's note:
For 'Bond on Radio' posts featured on From Sweden with Love, click here.

Photo above:
Ian Fleming in Jamaica. © BBC Radio 4. All rights reserved.

Listen to the Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities on BBC Radio 4:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lx1vq/episodes/guide

Tags:

#ian_fleming

All information, text and graphics (unless otherwise stated) on this website are protected by copyright law. Please contact us to use anything.

This website is not in any way endorsed by EON Productions Ltd, Danjaq, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sony Pictures, United Artists, Ian Fleming Publications, or any other James Bond copyright holders. It is an independently run non-profit website from a personal basis in spare time.

Founder & Managing Editor: Anders Frejdh

Tag Cloud

Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities on BBC Radio 4

Tag Cloud