Ulysses By James Joyce

BBC Radio Dramatisation of the great modernist novel.

Singer: Daire Halpin
Pianist: Colin Guthrie
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer. Specially re-edited for Radio 4 Extra.
Producer: Jeremy Mortimer
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2012.

CAST
Narrator ...... Stephen Rea
Stephen Dedalus ...... Andrew Scott
Malachi 'Buck' Mulligan ...... Kevin Trainor
Haines ............ Harry Livingstone
Mary Dedalus ...... Janet Moran
Young Man/Private Carr/Alf Bergan ... Ronan Raftery
Mr Deasy .......... Jim Norton
Sargent ........... Joshua Ellershaw
Usher/Tommy ............. Aidan Dunlop
Leopold Bloom ...... Henry Goodman
Molly Bloom ........ Niamh Cusack
Milly Bloom ........ Grainne Keenan
Terry O'Ryan, Martin Cunningham...Stephen Hogan
Simon Dedalus ...... Des McAleer
Martha Clifford ...... Christine Absalom
Miles Crawford ...... Jonathan Forbes
Dilly Dedalus/Miss Douce ...... Bronagh Taggart
Cissy Caffrey, Nurse Callan ... Bronagh Taggart
Hugh 'Blazes' Boylan ... Sean Campion
Josie Breen/Edy Boardman ...... Grainne Keenan
Bantam Lyons/Richerd Best/Joe Hynes .... John Rogan
John Eglinton/Private Compton .. Peter Hamilton Dyer
Malachi Mulligan ...... Kevin Trainor
Patrick Dignam ...... Joshua Ellershaw
Hugh 'Blazes' Boylan ...... Sean Campion
Lenehan ............ Lorcan Cranitch
Benjamin Dollard ...... Gerard McDermott
Miss Kennedy/Gerty MacDowell ...Denise Gough
Miss Douce ......... Bronagh Taggart
Citizen/Sindbad.............Pip Donaghy
Unnamed Narrator...Jim Norton
Bella Cohen ...... Frances Barber
Rudolph Bloom ...... Pip Donaghy
Zoe ............... Susie Riddell

With Christine Absalom, Pip Donaghy, Aidan Dunlop, Peter Hamilton Dyer, Stephen Hogan, Gerard McDermott.

EPISODES

Episode 1
16th June 1904: Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom's Dublin days unwind. With Henry Goodman, Andrew Scott and Stephen Rea.

8.00 am:
'Stately plump' Buck Mulligan calls Stephen Dedalus to the top of the Martello tower overlooking Dublin Bay - and so begins James Joyce's celebrated account of the 16th June 1904. The combined stories of Stephen and Leopold Bloom as they meander through the city. Dramatised by Robin Brooks.

8.15 am:
Stephen Dedalus breakfasts with Mulligan and the Englishman Haines before walking out along the strand to the swimming place at Forty Foot Hole.

10.00 am:
Stephen Dedalus collects his wages from Headmaster Deasy, who wants Stephen to deliver a letter about the recent outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease to the editor of the Evening Telegraph.

8.00 am:
7 Eccles Street, Dublin. The home of Leopold and Marion (Molly) Bloom. Bloom, we are told, 'eats with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls' and cooks himself a pork kidney for breakfast. While Molly receives a letter from concert promoter Hugh 'Blazes' Boylan who has arranged to visit her later in the day, Bloom prepares to attend Paddy Dignam's funeral at Glasnevin cemetery.

11.00 am
Stephen walks on Sandymount Strand before visiting the offices of the Evening Telegraph, where he catches a glimpse of advertising salesman Leopold Bloom. Stephen takes the Editor out for a drink, while Bloom slips into Davy Byrne's pub for a cheese sandwich.

Episode 2
16th June 1904: Stephen explains his theory of Hamlet, then Bloom argues with the bigoted 'Citizen'. With Henry Goodman and Andrew Scott.

2.00 pm:
Stephen tries to get commissioned for an article at the National Library, while Leopold Bloom takes lunch at the Ormond Hotel and listens to Simon Dedalus and Benjamin Dollard sing at the piano. Mid-afternoon: Hugh 'Blazes' Boylan is on his way to his adulterous assignation with Molly Bloom in Eccles Street.

5.00 pm:
Bloom gets into an argument with the 'Citizen' which climaxes in mock-heroic battle. Bloom makes a dignified retreat and his opponent flings a biscuit tin after him. This episode is narrated by an anonymous crony of the 'Citizen', an anti-semitic Nationalist bigot. Repulsive as he is, he provides an opportunity for Bloom to show his true heroism by arguing against prejudice and preaching a doctrine of love and understanding.

Episode 3
8pm, 16th June 1904:
Bloom spies on Gerty, then rescues Stephen from a brawl outside a brothel. With Henry Goodman and Frances Barber.

Bloom cannot go home, for he knows that Molly has an adulterous appointment with Hugh 'Blazes' Boylan. So he stands on the beach at nightfall watching Gerty MacDowell enjoy the fireworks. Meanwhile, at the maternity hospital in Holles Street, Mina Purefoy is still struggling - after three days - to give birth.

Nearby, Stephen Dedalus joins a raucous group of medical students and Bloom also joins the party, which then moves off to Bella Cohen's brothel.

Episode 4
After midnight:

Bloom takes Stephen home, and gives him a cup of cocoa. They talk, relieve themselves in the garden and go their separate ways. Bloom thinks on Molly's sexual encounter with Blazes Boylan. He joins her in bed. He sleeps.

Then Molly also muses on Boylan, re-living the afternoon's activity and winding up all the threads and themes of the day.