Earthsea: A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

Ursula Le Guin's enduring fantasy saga set on the magical archipelago rich with wizards and dragons. Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Based on the novels A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin. Adapted by Judith Adams.

Hungry for power and knowledge, the young wizard Ged tampers with long-held secrets and releases a terrible shadow into the world. Meanwhile, Tenar is taken away from her home and family to become Arha, the guardian of the ominous Tombs of Atuan.

Published between 1968 and 1972, the first three books of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea cycle (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore) are re-told across six intertwined episodes. Set on a vast archipelago of islands, where magic is a central part of life, they tell the stories of Ged and Tenar. Ged is a boy from the island of Gont, born with innate magical talent and a reckless nature, who releases a terrible shadow into the world and must risk everything in order to restore the balance. Tenar, a girl from the island of Atuan, is taken from her home and family to become Arha, the Priestess Ever Reborn, guardian of the ominous Tombs of Atuan. Deep within the Tombs, Ged and Tenar encounter one another and seek a way of bringing peace to the troubled archipelago.

Ged ..... James McArdle
Tenar ..... Aysha Kala
Young Ged ..... Kasper Hilton-Hille
Young Tenar ..... Nishi Malde
Ogion ..... Paul Hilton
Manan ..... Zubin Varla
Thar ..... Souad Faress
Father ..... David Hounslow
Boy ..... Adam Thomas-Wright
Oarsman ..... Mark Edel-Hunt
Witch ..... Jessica Turner
Serret ..... Lucy Hutchinson
Shipmaster ..... Stephen Critchlow

Original music by Jon Nicholls.
Sound design by Caleb Knightley.

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.