Tenting & Travelling
Tales of Victorian circus life read by Tony Lidington. Frowde remembers performing as a contortionist known as the 'Duke of Limbs'.
James Frowde's memoirs - taken from the book 'The Victorian Clown' by Jacky Bratton and Ann Featherstone and adapted for radio and performed by Tony Lidington - represent the closest we have to a first-hand, vernacular description of the daily life of a British circus clown in the mid Nineteenth Century.
At that time, circus people and pantomime artists were on the lowest rung of the cultural ladder, just a step above vagrants and beggars; indeed they were viewed with suspicion and fear by those who aspired or achieved more stable, residential lives.
Frowde remembers performing as a contortionist known as the 'Duke of Limbs'.
Adapted and read by Tony Lidington.
Producer: David Blount
A Pier production for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4.
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- Wed 29 Dec 2010 15:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4