This is the second radio adaptation of Josephine Tey's classic detective novel. I have not been able to locate the first, which aired in 1952, one year after the novel was published. The novel was listed as number one in England's Crime Writers Association's 100 Crime Novels of All Time and number four in the Mystery Writers of America's Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time lists.
Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant, who was featured in five other novels by Tey, is hospitalized with a broken leg and confined to bed. To distract from his boredom, he begins looking into historical mysteries and becomes interested in King Richard III. Grant prides himself on being able to read faces and Richard appears to be a kind and gentle man. Why, then, has history accused of of being a murderer, the man who supposedly killed the Princes in the Tower?
The princes were the deposed King Edward V, age 12, and his brother Prince Richard, the Duke of York, age 9. They were lodge in the Tower of London by their uncle and England's regent, the Duke of Gloucester in preparation for Edward's coronation. BeforTe the coronation, both boys were declared illegitimate by Parliament and Gloucester assumed the throne as Richard III. Both boys were never heard of again and a common assumption was that they were murdered by Richard to strengthen his hold on the throne. The fate of the Princes in the Tower has never been known.
Grant spends weeks going over whatever information and historic documents exists to try to come up with an answer to the puzzle. Using his detective's logic, he finally comes up with an answer that satisfies him.
A blend of rational logic, and historic fact and fiction, The Daughter of Time is a fascinating twist on the traditional detective story and deserves all the accolades it has received.
Dramatized by Neville Keller, the program features Peter Gilmore as Alan Grant. Also featured are Frances Jester, Rosalind Shanks, Jill Lidstone, Simon Hewitt. Steve Hodson, Nigel Lambert, Lewis Stringer, Miranda Forbes, Graham Faulkner, Katherine Parr, Stuart Organ, Peter Tuddenham, Alex Jenkins, and James Thomason.
"Josephine Tey" was a pen name of Scottish author and playwright Elizabeth MacKintosh (1896-1952). She is often considered, with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, as one of the "Big Three" classic female mystery writers -- "Big Five," if you add Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham. Tey's other novels include The Franchise Affair, A Shilling for Candles, Brat Farrar, The Singing Sands, and Miss Pym Disposes.
Let's take a trip back in time to a British hospital room and further back in time to 1483 England. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJpUU2pwi0s
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