Joan Of Arc, And How She Became A Saint. Joan of Arc (Dawn French). Copyright: BBC
Joan Of Arc, And How She Became A Saint

Joan Of Arc, And How She Became A Saint

  • Radio comedy drama
  • BBC Radio 4
  • 2009
  • 1 episode

Dawn French stars in The National Theatre of Brent's comic interpretation of the story of Joan of Arc. Stars Dawn French, Anne Reid, Maggie Steed, Nell Barlow, John Ramm and more.

Press clippings

Joan Of Arc really loves the cows she looks after for a living, so when those b*****d English put them to death by fire she's on the warpath. And she's going to save the whole of France as well. Dawn French plays the Maid of Orleans with a Jam and Jerusalem West Country accent and there are constant references to her large girth. She's in her comfort zone, but so are we.

Written by Patrick Barlow and co-starring Anne Reid, Maggie Steed and Jim Broadbent, this play's comedy credentials are impeccable. But when events turn more serious, the sound effects conflict, trial and fire are full-on and genuinely moving. As Joan trips towards her famous fate, she loves and loses not just cows.

Jane Anderson, Radio Times, 14th February 2009

Patrick Barlow and Jim Broadbent were the original National Theatre of Brent, with an approach to the great themes of drama somewhat akin to that of the painter LS Lowry's to the industrial north: apparently naive but actually perceptive. Barlow and Broadbent, on their own, tackling everything from the nativity to Shakespeare, were very funny. This is Barlow's take on the story of St Joan, maiden warrior and martyr, played here by Dawn French. Broadbent appears in the unexpectedly large cast list which includes Cheryl Campbell and John Ramm, with Anne Reid and Maggie Steed as Joan's guardian angels.

Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph, 13th February 2009

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