Our Mutual Friend - Episode 2
The second of two episodes in which John Yorke considers Charles Dickensβ last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend.
βI have made up my mind that Iβ―must have money,β says the character Bella Wilfer in Charles Dickensβ last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend β and she is one of many characters in the book for whom βmoney, money, money, and what money can make of lifeβ is an overriding concern.
Dickens was deeply concerned with the increasing levels of inequality he saw around him in 1860s London, a city at the heart of the largest and richest empire in the world. In Our Mutual Friend he presents characters trapped by their pursuit of money, and who reveal just what they are prepared to give up of their better selves in order to achieve financial gain.
John Yorke is joined by Dickensβ own great-great-great grand-daughter Lucinda Hawksley, novelist and critic Philip Hensher, and Dr Emily Bell from the University of Leeds.
John has worked in television and radio for 30 years and shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4βs Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. As creator of the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Writers Academy, he's trained a generation of screenwriters - now with over 70 green lights and thousands of hours of television to their names. He is the author of Into the Woods, the bestselling book on narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of narrative - including many podcasts for R4.
Contributors:
Philip Hensher, novelist and critic
Dr Emily Bell, from the University of Leeds
Lucinda Hawksley, author
Reader: Paul Dodgson
Researcher/Broadcast Assistant: Nina Sempleβ¨
Sound: Sean Kerwinβ¨
Producer: Geoff Birdβ¨
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
A Pier production for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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Opening Lines
John Yorke unpacks the themes behind the stories in Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.