MP3 Audios - Arts and Drama

Alison Steadman, Richard Griffiths and Nigel Anthony star in this BBC radio 4 version of Alan Bennett's acclaimed comedy drama

'Pure joy' Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph

On his deathbed, Franz Kafka makes his faithful friend Max Brod promise to destroy his writings, so that future biographers can never pick over the secrets of his life. Flash forward to the present day, where Kafka aficionado Sydney Cunliffe is writing an article on the great man, and events begin to take a distinctly Kafkaesque turn. First a mysterious stranger appears on Sydney's doorstep, claiming to be Max Brod (who has been dead since 1968). Then the Cunliffes' tortoise metamorphoses into Kafka himself.

Max is desperate to prevent his old friend from discovering that he didn't burn all his books, for it soon becomes clear that all Kafka ever wanted was anonymity, and to get his own back on his bullying father But when Kafka Senior turns up, he insists that his son buries the hatchet. If not, he will reveal Kafka's secret - the real truth about him and his 'old man'...
Set in Prague, 27 Batcliffe Drive and Heaven, Bennett's brilliantly clever, fast-moving comedy not only examines the relationship between life and art, but also asks a rather more fundamental question: what exactly was Kafka's embarrassing little problem!