A Dance To The Music Of Time
April 13th, 2008 by Russell DaviesAnthony Powell’s Dance To The Music Of Time seemed to be being dramatised on Radio 4 for most of the 70s and 80s. Only interrupted by Fame Is The Spur. And, now it’s back again, 6 hour long episodes broadcast on Sunday afternoon and repeated on Saturday evening. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, on the surface it’s another tale of posh people having tragic and lethargic lives as publishers, writers, successes and failures, with occasional sex and soldiering. But it’s slyer than that, it roams over the twentieth century with jokes, telling phrases, and characters who you end up really liking. You want to know what happens next. Basically, it’s a superior soap opera. But very superior. You can hear programme one here.
