The Chrysalids (radio drama)

The Chrysalids is an adaptation of the John Wyndham 1955 novel of the same name, produced as a radio play by the BBC in March 1981. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the 25 April 1981 with an audience of 150,000 listeners. The play was edited into three half hour episodes and broadcast in Canada by CBC Radio from 10 June to 24 June 1983. (There was a new adaptation of the book by Jane Rogers in 2012, broadcast in two one-hour episodes on BBC Radio 4.)

CD release

BBC Classic Radio Sci-Fi Audio CD Cover 2007

The Radio Play was released on CD as an Audiobook in 2007. It was entitled The Chrysalids & Survival and contained the original 1981 version of the Chrysalids and the 1989 BBC radio 4 adaptation of John Wyndham's Survival.

Back cover synopsis

"Ten-year-old David is a happy, ordinary boy, untroubled except for occasional strange dreams about a mysterious city - until he befriends Sophie, who is unlike anybody he has met before: she has six toes. But in the ultra-religious village of Waknut, all abnormality is abhorred as an offense against God, and he must keep her secret to himself. When he learns that he, too, is 'deviant', he realises that differences can be very dangerous indeed..."

Radio Times billing for The Chrysalids BBC Radio 4 Play 25 April 1981. Illustration by BBC artist John Geary.

Cast and credits

• David.......................Stephen Garlick
• Rosalind....................Amanda Murray
• Petra.......................Judy Bennett
• Michael.....................Spencer Banks
• Katherine...................Phillipa Ritchie
• Rachel......................Jennifer Lee
• Anne........................Kathryn Hurlbutt
• David as a child............Susan Sheridan
• Sofie as a child............Elissa Derwent
• Mrs Wender/Sealander........Jennifer Piercey
• Mr Wender/Spiderman.........Robin Browne
• Mary........................Elizabeth Rider
• Father......................Peter Baldwin
• Mother......................Sonia Fraser
• Uncle Axel..................Michael Spice
• Inspector...................John Rye
• Jacob.......................William Eedle
• Skinner.....................Martyn Read
• Sopie.......................Jane Knoles

Dramatized by Barbara Clegg

Produced by Michael Bartlett

External links

• The Chrysalids title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• BBC H2G2 Synopsis/Analysis of The Chrysalids
• Quotes From The Chrysalids
• Lyrics of "Crown of Creation"