Tumanbay Review: Tumanbay may be a fantasy drama for historical radio. The plot, set in a fictional empire’s capital Tumanbay, involves political intrigue. The town is challenged both by supernatural forces and political instability. The world was based on Egypt’s Mamluk slave dynasty.
Between December 2015 and February 2016, the first 10 episodes of Tumanbay were the first broadcast in the UK on BBC Radio 4. Between April and June 2017, a second version consisted of eight episodes. In September 2017, during a deal between BBC and Panoply Media, the primary two series were made available to international audiences on the Panoply network.
Transmission of a 3rd series, another time of eight episodes, began on 4 February 2019 on BBC Radio 4. the primary of eight episodes within the fourth series is due for broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 25 May 2020.
Tumanbay, a 10-part story of upheaval, revolution, and romance set in a corrupt fictional city, starts on Radio 4 on Wednesday. Most radio dramas are broadcast over the course of every week or, like last Christmas’s War and Peace, in a day. against this, Tumanbay – loosely supported by the Mamluk sultanate that controlled Egypt, the Levant, and Hejaz until 1517 – will ask its audience to return for 10 weeks to seek out whether the inhabitants of its fictional city thrive or die.
Tumanbay: peace is an illusion. Catch a glimpse of the ten-part Egyptian Mamluk dynasty-influenced drama. The show may be a risk, admits series director, Dryden, who co-wrote the show with Mike Walker. “We haven’t done something on this type of scale before,” he said. “There’s a reason there’s never been a show just like the Wire on radio,” said Walker.
“Because when a story is extremely complex the audience needs visual cues. We were really aware that you simply had to form the various storylines clear and contribute narration when that was needed because the last item you would like is for the audience to be going: ‘Wait, who? What? What’s happening?.’” But radio does have its benefits, he says. “The great point about radio is that it allows the audience to participate to a greater extent because they’re more active in using their imaginations.”
For all the comparisons with Game of Thrones, Walker says that Tumanbay draws its main inspiration from a really different source. “I’m an enormous admirer of Arabian Nights’ Entertainment. I really like those stories, they’re one among the most founts of storytelling. John and that I wanted to inform a tale that had that kind of sweep.”