Golden Touch: Goldfinger on BBC Radio-4

James Bond fans are being given a golden egg for Easter in the UK, with a new BBC Radio version of Ian Fleming’s classic 1959 Bond novel ‘Goldfinger’.

It’s a welcome return. In 2008, BBC Radio-4 broadcast a special radio production of ‘Dr. No’ to tie in with the Ian Fleming centenary year celebrations. Made by an independent production company owned by actor Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres, who now specialise in radio dramas and ‘talking book’ adaptations, it starred former ‘Die Another Day’ Bond villain Toby Stephens in the role of 007, with David ‘Poirot’ Suchet as the evil Dr. Julius No.

BBC Radio recently announced that a brand new radio production of ‘Goldfinger’, also made by the same company and starring Toby Stephens as Bond, will be broadcast on BBC Radio-4 over the 2010 Easter Weekend. Auric Goldfinger will be played by actor Ian McKellen (of ‘X-Men’ fame) and Pussy Galore will be played by none other than Rosamund Pike, also from ‘Die Another Day’.

Additional important roles include John Standing as ‘M’, and Tom Hollander, Tim Pigott-Smith (from ‘Quantum of Solace’) and Hector Elizondo as New York gangsters. Former comedian and impressionist Alistair McGowan will be the canny golf caddie, Hawker, who aids Bond during the key golf match between Bond and Goldfinger. The new adaptation, which is directed by Martin Jarvis and produced by Jarvis and Ayres, will also have Jarvis as the voice of Bond author Ian Fleming. A cast photograph can be seen at: http://www.IanFleming.com

Martin Jarvis, speaking to the May, 2010, edition of the UK’s ‘SFX’ magazine, said: ‘One of the remits is we’re not making a version of the movie. We go back to the novel and keep great faith with it. We’re very keen, as are the Fleming Estate, to celebrate the book. I think because of the time the film was made, certain things were altered, but we’ve gone back to Fleming’s original thinking with the characters’. Jarvis also commented: ‘Radio gives us a chance to get right inside Bond’s head’.

The play will be transmitted on BBC Radio-4 on Saturday, 3 rd April, 2010, at 2.30pm.