A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation features a star cast including Leo McKern, Simon Russell Beale, Emily Mortimer and Nicola Pagett and over two hours of specially composed music.

 

Leo Tolstoy's epic War and Peace chronicles one of the most turbulent eras in Russian history, encompassing the drama and intensity of life during and after the Napoleonic Wars.
This unique, full-cast dramatisation contains over two hours of specially composed music and captures the full atmosphere of Tolstoy's masterpiece.

A star cast of thirty-five includes Leo McKern as General Kutuzov, Emily Mortimer as Natasha Rostov, Simon Russell Beale as Pierre Bezuhov, Jonathan Firth as Nikolai Rostov, Nicola Pagett as Nathalie Rostov and Amanda Redman as Helens Kuragin.

This recording also features extra behind-the-scenes material: episode synopses, character listings. The Making of War and Peace and War and Peace Today by former BBC Moscow Correspondent Angus Roxburgh .

Tolstoy's insights into human nature and reflections on the concepts of history and war give the novel a breadth and scope that are brought vividly to life in this major Radio 4 Classic Serial which was recorded on location.