麻豆约拍

'It was tempting to think, at times like this, that some bizarre hysteria had gripped the British people.'

Jonathan Coe's novel is a comic yet poignant look at Britain in the run up to Brexit.

2010, the eve of a general election when PM Gordon Brown makes a comment not realising his microphone is still on. Meanwhile, the Potters reconvene after their mother's funeral.

Ian and Sophie have recently married and are on opposing sides of the EU Referendum debate. Doug is a left-wing journalist who writes about austerity from his Chelsea townhouse and his radical teenage daughter will stop at nothing in her quest for social justice. Benjamin Trotter, embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age, and his father Colin's last wish is to vote to leave the EU.

Through these lives, Jonathan Coe tells the story of modern England: a story of nostalgia and delusion; of bewilderment and barely-suppressed rage.

Omnibus of the first five of ten parts abridged by Richard Hamilton.

Read by Jeff Rawle

Producer: Justine Willett

First broadcast on 麻豆约拍 Radio 4 in November 2018.

Show less