The Sound of Fury

The Sound Of Fury by Mike Walker
Directed by [ ]
BBC Radio 4 - 02.03.1996

Summary

The life of Billy Fury.
A dramatized reconstruction about the 'British Elvis'.

Cast

Billy Fury	………	Anton Lesser
Larry Parnes	………	Peter Whitman
Russell Hartey	………	Rory Bremner
Stuart Coleman	………	Robert Glenister
Dickie Pride	………	Andy Serkis
Marty Wilde	………	Ian Target
Joe Brown	………	Alistair McGowan
Jack Good	………	Nicholas Boulton
Hugh	………	Jeremy Clyde
Terry	………	Peter Watts
The Nurse / Donna	………	Siriol Jenkins
The Doctor	………	Richard Tate
The Producer	………	Tom Bevan
The Interviewer	………	James Taylor
Woman in the Street	………	Rachel Atkins
The Stage Door Man	………	Ken Sherack

Critical Reception

“The writing is seductive.. and the cast (with Rory Bremner as Russell Harty) play it with such conviction that come midnight tonight there’ll be many an old rocker with tears on the pillow for poor dead Billy”. (Laurie Taylor, The Times)

The thesis behind Mike Walker's story was that Billy Fury was a creative genius, perhaps the first artist of rock 'n' roll this century produced; but that he was betrayed by money men, particularly Larry Parnes, and forced to sell out to MOR. Even the sense of lurking doom about Fury, forever working in the shadow of death because of his weak heart, couldn't convince you that he was a man of destiny; and lines like 'The rest of your life is waiting for you' and 'You don't do rock 'n' roll, it's inside you or nowhere' didn't help. Still, even if it didn't work as history, it was splendid melodrama, thanks to Andy Jordan's straight-faced direction and excellent central performances by Peter Whitman, playing Parnes as Fagin, and Anton Lesser as Fury, full of a memorable fragility and intensity. (The Independent Tuesday 1^st March 1994)

References

• http://www.radiolistings.co.uk
• http://www.suttonelms.org.uk