Main content

5. Chaotic

Pandora Sykes navigates the media narratives around Britney, once she gets married and has kids

Pandora Sykes navigates the media narratives around Britney, once she gets married and has kids.

In this eight-part series for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4, Pandora traces Britney’s incredible life: from her hardscrabble childhood in rural Louisiana, to her coronation as the inaugural pop princess of the internet, navigating an insatiable celebrity gossip complex; through to a young mother on trial by the paparazzi.

Britney is a pop culture phenomenon. Pandora looks behind that mask - and beyond Britney herself - to explore how Britney became the most Googled person in the world, for almost 7 years, and what it says, both then and now, about the entertainment industry, politics, sex and how we see women in the public eye.

Britney’s public struggles saw her placed in a conservatorship, in which she lost the right to control her finances and day to day life. Thirteen years later, and she is in court, pleading for this controversial legal arrangement to end. We look at how Britney has been transformed from girl-next-door teen sensation to pop music’s Rapunzel, trapped in a supposedly rotten system.

Pieces of Britney mixes documentary, archive and interviews to tell Britney’s remarkable story. It also features drama, written by playwright Katie Hims, to bring Britney and her extraordinary world to life.

Pieces of Britney is a sympathetic portrayal of Britney, during a time of cultural reappraisal about how we treat women - famous, or otherwise.

Episode 5 Cast:

Britney . . . . . Samantha Dakin
Kevin . . . . . Joseph Ayre
Lynne . . . . . Laurel Lefkow
Other parts played by Paul Chahidi, Julianna Jennings and Elinor Coleman

Sound design by Peter Ringrose
Produced by Sasha Yevtushenko and Anne Isger

Available now

55 minutes

Last on

Sun 3 Oct 2021 01:00

Broadcasts

  • Tue 28 Sep 2021 11:00
  • Tue 28 Sep 2021 21:00
  • Sat 2 Oct 2021 13:00
  • Sun 3 Oct 2021 01:00

Podcast