Synopsis: "Stephen Fry stars as Napoleon's horse and Daniel Rigby stars as Wellington's horse in a love story of two horses sundered by war told through their letters to each other."
What more do you need to know?
Genius! I laughed like a gay horse.
Kiss Kiss Hoofprint.
BBC Radio 4 and on iPlayer.
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
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Gdn review by Elisabeth Mahoney...
ReplyDeleteWhat an odd delight Warhorses of Letters (Radio 4) is. An epistolary equine romance between Napoleon's horse, Marengo (Stephen Fry, below, complete with French accent and smooth manner), and Wellington's (Daniel Rigby, all flirty, youthful campness), it's like Ladies of Letters but with gay horses in love.
It's very funny, but also strange enough to have you staring at the radio in places, wondering how writers Robert Hudson and Marie Phillips came up with the idea. Rigby has the best lines, writing as a young horse with a crush. "I was like, oh my horsey god," he says of getting his first reply from Marengo. He loathes his stablemate, Thunderclap Out of Storm Front by Death to the French. "He's got a quiff in his mane which he doesn't have to do anything to to keep curly," he tells Marengo, signing his letter "kiss, hoof print, kiss kiss". The stablemate is soon abbreviated to Thunderclap Out of Etc.
Fry is spot on with the accent and it's not overdone. "I am not in fact a horse," he admits. "I am technically a pony, though I am taller with my mane fluffed up." His horse is all mature reserve ("yearningly, yes, yearningly", he signs off) in contrast to his admirer who replies: "I am not a size queen, smiley face."