Mutual Network
Orson Welles Presents Les Misérables
E1 The Bishop (7/23/37)
Staring:
Orson Welles (Jean Valjean),
Alan Devitt (Judge)
Agnes Moorehead (Old Woman, Madame Magloire)
Frank Readick (Bishop of Digne), others
Les Misérables is a seven-part radio series broadcast July 23 - September 3, 1937 (Fridays at 10 p.m. ET), on the Mutual Network. Orson Welles adapted Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, directed the series, and starred as Jean Valjean. The 22-year-old Welles developed the idea of telling stories with first-person narration on the series, which was his first job as a writer-director for radio.
Marking the radio debut of the Mercury Theatre, Welles's Les Misérables was described by biographer Simon Callow as "one of his earliest, finest and most serious achievements on radio".