David Tennant Narrating The Pied Piper Of Hamelin

27 Dec

Today at 11.30am David Tennant narrated The Pied Piper Of Hamelin on BBC Radio Four.
This 30 minute programme was about Robert Browning’s poem The Pied Piper Of Hamelin and featured Bertie Gilbert as The Boy.
Music and songs were written and performed for this production by John Harle, with lyrics by Joyce Harle. They were sung by Thomas Platts who is the head chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and was accompanied by the choir of Wingham School Kent.
The Pied Piper Of Hamelin is the subject of a legend concerning the departure of a great many children from the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in pied (multicoloured) clothing, leading the children away from the town never to return. In the 16th century the story was expanded into a full story – that of the poem, in which the piper is a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service, the piper retaliates, turning his magic on the children, leading them away to the mountains. Only one boy remains behind …..
(Fans of David Tennant who saw him in The Pillowman will remember that one of the tales in that play is based around The Pied Piper Of Hamelin.)
The programme was directed by Susan Roberts and the sound producer was Steve Brooke.