Tumanbay by John Dryden

BBC Radio 4
Series – 10 episodes

In the Mamluk sultanate of Tumanbay, there is a sense of impending danger. The fearsome armies of Queen Maya are on the march, and her spies are believed to be everywhere in the walled city. There is constant suspicion in the city and the court.

Tumanbay is a society built by former slaves. The wise among them know their lives are contingent, that all they’ve achieved can be taken away. Their struggle is relentless, even – especially – if they are at the top. Nothing is as it seems and power is constantly shifting between competing factions. Torture and shame await those who fail.

This is wonderful drama, full of twists and moral ambiguity. There is a large cast, but the characters are vivid and distinctive so you soon know where you are, if not who to believe. There is Gregor, played by Rufus Wright, the Sultan’s head of security who combines ruthlessness and dry wit, and Shajar, the First Wife, who dominates the harem, along with others across the city and beyond it, whose significance only becomes apparent as the story develops. Theirs is a richly realised world but it is also a universal story, of what people will do for power – or to survive.

The sound is fantastic. It is almost a character in itself, lush and opulent and vital in situating you in the story – from the sultan’s court to the echoing dungeons to the crisp sound of waves on the shore.

Tumanbay shows what audio drama can do at its best, and why we love it. If you trust the listener you can conjure up palaces and walled cities and deserts and ships and armies. You can have a narrator who will confide in the listener while he deceives everyone else. You can have beauty and brutality, music and war. We don’t need pictures, just vision.

Tumanbay is available on BBC iPlayer or on iTunes.You can listen to BBC radio outside the UK at www.bbc.co.uk/radio