Woman's Hour Drama - David Golder - Episode 2

2/5 Irene Nemirovsky's classic novel of ruthlessness and ambition, love and money, translated by Sandra Smith and adapted for radio by Ellen Dryden. David Golder is a remarkable portrait of a man who is something like a monster, but whose killer instinct in business is based not in self-interest but in the almost pathological desire to provide for a family he knows does not care for him. Episode Two: Following the shattering conclusion of the Marcus affair, Golder travels to Biarritz to recuperate. But with his wife and daughter entertaining a seemingly endless parade of charming hangers-on and gigolos, Golder finds himself far from relaxed. David Suchet stars as Golder, with Anna Francolini (recently winner of the TMA/Stage award for the best stage performance of 2009) as Irene Nemirovsky. Elizabeth Bell plays Golder's rapacious wife Gloria, and Francesca Dymond his indulged daughter Joyce. Nemirovsky was 26 when David Golder was published in 1929, and had made the same journey from a Ukrainian/Jewish background to France and wealth as her protagonist. The novel was a huge and immediate success .A film followed in 1930 but this is the first adaptation of the novel the Nemirovsky estate have allowed since. Irene Nemirovsky died in Auschwitz in 1942. She was 39. David Golder...........................David Suchet Irene Nemirovsky....................Anna Francolini Gloria Golder..........................Elizabeth Bell Joyce Golder..........................Francesca Dymond Hoyos....................................Vernon Dobtcheff Fischl.....................................Stewart Permutt Directed by Peter Farago.