Single Spies

Synopsis

A critically acclaimed double bill of Alan Bennett plays, adapted for BBC Radio.

An Englishman Abroad - It is 1958, and in a squalid flat in Moscow, double-agent Guy Burgess is hiding from the world.

When he is visited by actress Coral Browne, he is overjoyed to see someone from his former life in England.

Starved for information, Burgess interrogates her about English society gossip.

A Question of Attribution - In 1956, Sir Anthony Blunt - pillar of the Establishment and respected Knight of the Realm - is working as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures.

Perfectly at home in the corridors of Buckingham Palace, he frequently encounters Her Majesty as he works on her paintings, and has a special fondness for one particular Titian.

However, there is one small problem: the painting, like Blunt himself, is a fake.

Is the Queen aware that her enigmatic servant might also be other than he seems?

Poignant and moving, these two brand new adaptations feature Simon Callow, Brigit