The Amateur Gentleman

A vintage 13-part dramatisation of Jeffery Farnol’s historical romance

When 22-year-old Barnabas Barty, the son of a landlord and ex-prize fighter, unexpectedly inherits £700,000 from his uncle in Jamaica, he decides to fulfil his dream of becoming a gentleman. Leaving his father’s country inn in Kent, he sets off to London determined to enter the beau monde.

En route, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful woman, and engages in fisticuffs with an arrogant aristocrat in a green coat. Though the lady vanishes before Barnabas can ask for her name, he later learns that she is Lady Cleone Meredith… and that he has several rivals for her affections. He also learns that he has made a powerful enemy – for the man he knocked down was Sir Mortimer Carnaby, a member of the Ton and a close friend of the Prince Regent…

Has Barnabas blighted his chances of becoming a person of quality? Can he ever win the heart of the fair Cleone? And what will fashionable London make of this amateur gentleman?

Alongside Georgette Heyer, Jeffery Farnol largely originated the ‘Regency romance’ genre, and in his 50-year career he wrote over 40 bestselling tales of love and adventure. The Amateur Gentleman was among his most popular novels, and was adapted as a film three times in the 1920s and 1930s. First broadcast in 1966, this classic BBC Radio dramatisation stars Brian Hewlett as Barnabas, with Anthony Jackson as the Storyteller and Eva Haddon as Cleone.

Cast
Barnabas Barty – Brian Hewlett
Storyteller – Anthony Jackson
John Barty/Captain Slingsby – John Dearth
Mr Crabtree – Stephen Jack
Nathaniel Bell/Jack Truelove/Jaspar Gaunt – Wilfred Babbage
A Chapman/Pufton, a Gentleman-in-Powder/Quinly – Michael McClain
Sir Mortimer Carnaby/Jerry Tucker, the Bosun/Coachman/Waiter//Mr Tressider/Bow Street Runner – Ronald Herdman
Cleone – Eva Haddon
John Chumley/Gamekeeper/Jaspar Shrig – Basil Jones
Viscount Devenham – Henry Stamper
Milo – Nigel Anthony
Mr Chichester/Guard – Anthony Hall
John Peterby/A landlord – Kevin McHugh
Clemency Dare – Carol Marsh
Billy Button/Corporal Richard Roe/Nick, the Cobbler – Michael Kilgarriff
A Fussy Gentleman/Sir George Annersley/Mr Bimby – Walter Fitzgerald
Gabriel Martin/Major Piper – Alan Dudley
Digby Smivvle – Harold Kasket
The Marquis of Jerningham – John Justin
Ronald Barrymaine – Allan McClelland
A woman debtor/Mrs Smummitt – Anna Burden
Duchess of Camberhurst – Noel Hood
Countess of Orme – Joan Matheson
Marquis of Jerningham – John Justin
Ralph Darville – Noel Howlett

Adapted by Felix Felton and Susan Ashman
Produced by John Powell
First broadcast BBC Home Service, 29 July-21 October 1966

Episode list
1. The Road to London
2. The Lace Handkerchief
3. At Oakshott’s Barn
4. The Duties of a Valet
5. The Misfortunes of Ronald Barrymaine
6. Annersley Revisited
7. Barnaby Bright
8. Wagers and Warnings
9. The Great Steeplechase
10. The Gathering Shadows
11. Account Settled
12. The Harder Way
13. The Duchess Decides

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