The Riddle of the Sands: The Spy Novel That Saw a World War Coming
Two English sailors. A secret in the North Sea. And an author whose extraordinary life would end before an Irish firing squad.
In 1903, Erskine Childers published what would become one of the founding works of modern espionage fiction. The Riddle of the Sands appeared more than a decade before the First World War, warning of a growing German naval threat through a seemingly innocent sailing adventure.
Tonight’s Saturday Night Theatre Companion takes us into the fogbound channels of the North Sea, where two amateur sailors stumble upon a mystery with potentially enormous consequences for Britain.
We’ll explore the BBC radio dramatization, the real naval rivalry that inspired the novel, and the remarkable life of Erskine Childers—a British patriot, soldier, accomplished sailor, and eventually an Irish revolutionary executed in 1922.
It’s a story about espionage before James Bond, patriotism before the Great War, and the unsettling question of what happens when a man’s loyalty to his country collides with his conscience.
Saturday Night Theatre Companion brings classic radio drama to life through history, literature, and the fascinating stories behind the microphone.
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