 Widmerpool has twice been portrayed in BBC radio broadcasts of the Dance to the Music of Time sequence . The first was a 26 @-@ part serial , transmitted on Radio Four between summer 1979 and autumn 1982 , in four batches . The novels were dramatised by Frederick Bradnum and the series was produced by Graham Gauld . The part of Widmerpool was played — with , according to one listener " audible pomposity " — by Brian Hewlett , more generally known as a longstanding cast member of the BBC radio serial The Archers . A later radio adaptation was broadcast in six episodes , in Radio Four 's " Classic Serial " of April and May 2008 . The dramatisation was by Michael Butt ; the youthful Widmerpool was played by Anthony Hoskyns and the adult character by Mark Heap . 
