Alan Rickman in Patrick Hamilton's play Rope — BBC radio drama, 1983

Two young undergraduates think they've committed the perfect murder. To add piquancy to their crime they invite the victim's father and other guests to a macabre dinner party.

English playwright Patrick Hamilton (1904-62) once explained, "In Rope, I have gone all out to write a horror play and make your flesh creep. It is a thriller. A thriller all the time, and nothing but a thriller". The play was first staged in 1929 and was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1948.

The cast of the 1983 BBC radio adaptation: Alan Rickman as Rupert Cadell, Adam Bareham as Wyndham Brandon, Andrew Branch as Charles Granillo, Cyril Luckham as Sir Johnstone Kentley, Moir Leslie as Leila Arden, Christopher Good as Kenneth Raglan and Olivier Pierre as Sabot. Producer: John Tydeman.

Stage, screen, and radio actor and director Alan Rickman was born on 21st February 1946 and died on 14th January 2016 aged 69.

First broadcast in 1983 on BBC Radio 4 in the series Saturday Night Theatre: Murder for Pleasure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071c7rb