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Crime and Comedy Theatre Company

The Lion and the Unicorn

A radio play live on stage

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Starring Brian Capron (Coronation Street, Grange Hill), Frazer Hines (Emmerdale, Doctor Who), Corrinne Wicks (Doctors, Emmerdale), Tim Hudson (Churchill in the film 'De Gaulle, Father Brown).

"Winston, this is our problem - I would pacify Hitler, you would provoke him."

"Yes Neville, that is our problem. A wolf in a cage you may pacify. A wolf on the prowl you must shoot!"

On the evening of 13th October 1939, six weeks after war has been declared on Hitler's Germany, Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain, opponents for years, meet together with their wives, Clementine and Anne, for a private dinner.

Prime Minister Chamberlain has seen all his efforts to negotiate peace with Hitler shattered. Churchill has been recalled to the cabinet after ten years, his dire warnings of the Nazi threat vindicated.

History tells us this was the only time the four ever met alone together socially. There is no official record as to what transpired during that unique evening…

"We are on the brink of the greatest tempest in history… and history often turns on one man's decision."

From the pen of Robin Hawdon (God and Stephen Hawking, A Night In Provence), this compelling new play is by turns epic and intimate, dramatic and moving, and never less than enthralling throughout. The play also has a striking relevance to the modern day and as it asks the question, how far should one go to pacify a threatening dictator?

Presented as a radio-play-live-on-stage - the setting is a radio studio, the actors ready as if for a radio broadcast, and the sound effects created live on stage, all combining to transport the audience to wartime London, as Crime And Comedy Theatre Company bring to life the first ever production of this fascinating new drama.