A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines

**** This programme was suggested by John A Smith as part of BBC Radio 4 Extra’s All Request Weekend ****

In a raw, mean town a boy turns to the one thing he can trust. A kestrel. Her name is Kes.

He is part of the limbo generation of school leavers too old for lessons and too young to know anything about the outside world. He hates and he is hated. His family and friends are mean and tough and they're sure he's going to end up in big trouble. But Billy knows two things about his own world.

He'll never work down the mines and he does know about animals. His only companion is his kestrel hawk, trained from the nest and, like himself, with the will to destroy or be destroyed.

Dramatised by Barry Hines from his 1968 novel.

Narrated by David Brierley.

With:

John Wheatley
Freddie Fletcher
Lorraine Peters
Graham Roberts
John Linstrum
Carole Turner
Paul Copley
Geoffrey Banks
Paul Dalzell
Andrew Barons
John A Smith
David Smith
Jack Carr

A Kestrel for a Knave was adapted for film as Kes in 1969, directed by Ken Loach.

Director: Dickon Reed

A BBC Schools programme first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1973.

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