Murder in Samarkand
by David Hare / Craig Murray
David Hare / Craig Murray - Murder in Samarkand
BBC Radio 4: Saturday Play
Broadcast: Saturday 20th February 2010 @ 2:30 p.m.
Craig is a high-flyer in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office who loves his job and is proud to be appointed Ambassador for the first time, to Tashkent. It's before the Iraq war and Uzbekistan is newly in focus as a useful ally in the "War on Terror".
Craig is a man who, when he works, likes to work really hard, and when he has fun, he really enjoys himself - and he immediately starts to do both. He visits the local British businesses, he finds the girls, the night clubs and the drinking friends. And he discovers he is Ambassador to a dire regime that imprisons dissidents and routinely uses torture on its citizens. He realises the Uzbeks are supplying the Americans with intelligence derived from torture, and he cannot get his head around the fact that UK complicity in this doesn't seem to concern his superiors - though they are shocked by the girls and the night clubs. The consequences for him couldn't be greater.
David Hare's radio adaptation based on Craig Murray's 2006 memoir, "Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror"
With David Tennant [Craig Murray], Jonathan Coy [Bax / Safayev], Richard Cordery [Egbert Dill / The French Ambassador], Simon Chandler [The Foreign Secretary / Uzbek Judge], Ian Gelder [Uzbek Prosecutor / Fazilov], John Hollingworth [Roy Skinner / Avazov], Paul Jesson [The US Ambassador / Karimov], Bruce Myers [Dr. Ableman / The Uzbek Uncle], Flora Montgomery [Angela / Mary], Nadira Murray [Dilobar], Clara Neather [Emily], Jemima Rooper [Nadira], Lucy Robinson [Serena / Kristina], Malcolm Sinclair [Ivo Sanderson / Quest], Lia Williams [Fiona], and Sirojiddin Tolibov [Procurator / Bully].
Piano played by Michael Webborn
Produced by Ann Scott
Directed by Clive Brill
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4
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