Graham Greene: The Third Man

RADIO 4, 10.45PM

Samuel West reads the novella, genesis of the great 1949 Carol Reed film, about a writer in wintry, post-war, bombed-out Vienna to see an old friend and schoolboy hero, Harry Lime. He arrives in time for Lime’s funeral. The military policeman who’s our narrator, Colonel Callaway, buys him a drink, takes him to a hotel. Then the mystery of who is who and what is what starts evolving. It’s gripping and, even if you’ve seen the movie, creates its own world, characters and atmosphere. The adaptation is by Richard Hamilton.