Best Actor Nomination for BBC Radio Copenhagen

Simon Russell Beale has been nominated for Best Actor in an Audio Drama for his portrayal of Neils Bohr in last year’s BBC Radio 3 adaption of Copenhagen. The winners of the BBC Audio Drama Awards will be announced at a ceremony in the BBC Radio Theatre in London on Sunday 26th January.

Copenhagen was adapted and directed by Emma Harding and was broadcast in January 2013. Benedict Cumberbatch played Werner Heisenberg and Greta Scacchi played Bohr’s wife Margrethe in the 90 minute audio version of Michael Frayn’s classic play.

Beale is up against Lee Ross and Joseph Millson in the Best Actor category, which is being judged by journalist and presenter Libby Purves, actor and writer Ruth Jones and gossip columnist Baz Bamigboye.

Humble Boy Radio Play Repeated

The BBC radio version of Charlotte Jones’ Humble Boy’ is available to listen to online until 28 July 2013. The 2001 play touches on ideas in string theory and cosmology. Although the science itself is not the main theme in Humble Boy, the play is nevertheless quirky and a little absurd in a similar fashion to Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Physicists.

The 2007 BBC radio version stars Diana Rigg and Adrian Scarborough and was adapted by Steven Canny.

‘The Physicists’ on BBC Radio 3

Just one week on from airing Michael Frayn’s ‘Copenhagen’, Radio 3 will be broadcasting another play featuring physicists – and this time they’re mad. Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s ‘The Physicists’ was first staged in 1962 and was revived at London’s Donmar Warehouse in 2012 to rather mixed reviews. Set in a lunatic asylum, ‘The Physicists’ is less intellectually demanding than ‘Copenhagen’ but the two plays are linked by the sense of a possible nuclear threat. The new BBC Radio 3 version will feature actors Samantha Bond and Geoffrey Whitehead and goes out at 8.30pm on Sunday 20th January 2013.

Turning the Page: Interpreting Copenhagen

Two new interviews are available in anticipation of Sunday’s broadcast of Michael Frayn’s ‘Copenhagen at 8.30pm on Radio 3, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Frayn was interviewed by Michael Sweet on Radio 3’s Night Waves earlier this week. The pair discussed the science behind ‘Copenhagen’ as well as the radio version of Frayn’s book ‘Skios’. Speculating on why Heisenberg may have visited Bohr in 1941, Frayn suggested that “one understands oneself through one’s relations with other people.” He commented that perhaps Heisenberg wanted to “see the reflection of himself in Bohr to understand himself better.”

In another interview, the Radio Times spoke with the cast of ‘Copenhagen’ during a break in the recording of of the play. Simon Russell Beale, who plays Bohr, revealed that he is ‘hopeless at the page-turning’. Beale is no stranger to radio scripts but it seems the lengthy speeches in ‘Copenhagen’ were enough to give even this highly accomplished actor a sleepless night.

BBC Radio 3 to Broadcast ‘Copenhagen’ in January

BBC Radio 3 will be broadcasting a new version of Michael Frayn ‘s ‘Copenhagen’ this January. Benedict Cumberbatch will play Werner Heisenberg and Simon Russell-Beale will play Niels Bohr in the new radio adaption, which is directed by Emma Harding. Greta Scacchi will play Bohr’s wife Margrethe.

Earlier in the year Prof. Jim Al-Khalili indicated on Twitter that he helped Cumberbatch prepare for the part with a special discussion on theoretical physics.

The new 90 minute ‘Copenhagen’ will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at 8.30pm on Sunday 13 January 2013.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2013/03/r3-wk3-drama-sun.html

Updated 10 January 2013:

Director Emma Harding has written a post at the Radio 3 Blog about inviting Jim Al-Khalili to the read-throughs of ‘Copenhagen’ and her interpretation of the play.