Woman's Hour Drama - Mrs Tolstoy - Vanichka

By Stephen Wakelam. Vanichka: Leo Tolstoy is cold and formal with his wife, Sofya. She is increasingly attracted to a portly pianist who has come to the country for the summer. In his fifties the great writer Leo Tolstoy has a spiritual crisis and converts to Christianity. He stops sleeping with his wife. They have ten children. Taking the vows of poverty and chastity literally Tolstoy wants to give everything away but Sofya has a large family to feed. This is the woman who transcribed 'War and Peace' six times and who fights off rivals on daily basis for a place at his side. For forty eight years, the Tolstoys tormented each other with love and hate. Ian McDiarmid and Haydn Gwynne star in this portrait of a tempestuous marriage. Sofya Tolstoy ... Haydn Gwynne Leo Tolstoy ... Ian McDiarmid Chertkov ... Paul Ritter Taneev ... Sam Dale Vanya Tolstoy ... James Warner Directed by Claire Grove.