BBC Radio drama adaptations of two action-packed adventures by James Fenimore Cooper.

A founding father of American literature, James Fenimore Cooper was one of America’s first professional novelists, and a pioneer of both the Western and the historical romance. Included here are his 1826 masterpiece The Last of the Mohicans and his 1821 classic The Spy, widely considered the world’s first espionage novel.

The Last of the Mohicans – 1757, and Britain and France are struggling for control of the New World. Caught between them are the tribes of the First Nations… Hawkeye is an American scout who lives with the American Indians and fights for the British. When the daughters of a British army officer are captured by a vengeful Huron chief while travelling to join their father, Hawkeye and his Mohican friends set out on a rescue mission… This gripping dramatisation of James Fenimore Cooper’s epic is narrated by Garrick Hagon, stars Michael Feast as Hawkeye and Helen McCrory as Cora.

The Spy – New York State, 1778. Henry Wharton, a young soldier for the British in the American Revolutionary War, sneaks into no-man’s land in disguise to spend an evening with his family. But their happy reunion is cut short when American troops surround the house. Can the mysterious peddler Harvey Birch provide Henry with a means of escape? Burn Gorman and Rose Leslie star in this thrilling tale of double agents and divided loyalties.

First published 1821 (The Spy) and 1826 (The Last of the Mohicans)