The Citadel: Series 1-6

By: A. J. Cronin

Narrated by: George Blagden, Richard Fleeshman

An epic BBC radio drama series set in the Welsh valleys, about medical life before the NHS

Based on AJ Cronin’s award-winning 1937 novel of the same name, which partly inspired Nye Bevan to create the NHS, this gripping dramatisation centres on Andrew Manson, a newly trained GP in 1920s Wales.

Young and idealistic, he is full of enthusiasm when he first arrives in the small mining village of Drineffy, where he is to work as assistant to the elderly Dr Page. But he soon encounters corruption, apathy and appalling medical practices, and becomes determined to storm the citadel of the medical establishment and make a difference.

In these six series, he befriends the cynical Dr Denny and helps him to deal with a typhoid epidemic; meets the love of his life, Christine; performs a remarkable doctoring feat in a crisis; takes a new job in a larger town; becomes caught up in the 1926 miners’ strike – and makes a desperate attempt to save the life of someone close to him…

Adapted by well-known scriptwriter Christopher Reason, this compelling drama about a dedicated doctor developing his career and family life against the backdrop of a country undergoing significant change stars Richard Fleeshman (Coronation Street, Call the Midwife) and George Blagden (Versailles, Vikings).

Written by AJ Cronin

Dramatised by Christopher Reason

Produced by Gary Brown and Pauline Harris

Directed by Gary Brown

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 October-3 November 2017 (Series 1) 5-9 March 2018 (Series 2), 9-13 July 2018 (Series 3), 17-21 September 2018 (Series 4), 15-19 April 2019 (Series 5), 7-11 October 2019 (Series 6)

©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Dramatic but horrible rewrite of a great book

Apparently the script writers desperately wanted to write a story with a libido-manic socialist doctor entangled with a night-lady and then a love-triangle, along with adding a pervert priest and what we now know were evil psychiatric hospitals. Creating a narrator gave them the perfect vehicle for ruining this story. Cronin's subtle characters and human dignity fade into the background. READ THE BOOK, PLEASE. This version was so bad that I just had to listen to the original one more time.

not all that great

Performance was great. Story was melodramatic and the characters not that well rounded. I think the main character's voice actor was replaced about 3/4's through the production and that wasn't a great effect either. Could have done without the immature libido of the other main male character.