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BBC Radio 4

Producer and writer John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact behind the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.

Opening Lines

In this series John Yorke shares a lifetime of experience as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that have made a mark.

John Yorke has been working in television and radio for nearly 30 years. From EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy, John has trained a generation of screenwriters (his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone).

Welcome to Opening Lines

John Yorke looks into Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence. In this first of two episodes about the book, he outlines the simple story at the heart of this most controversial of novels. 

Although it’s chiefly known for its graphic descriptions of sex and its liberal use of four letter words, John asks if the book is actually much more than a titillating tale about a passion that crosses the class divide. He looks at how the horrors of the Great War affected Lawrence and drove him to write what was for him a manifesto that would allow a traumatised nation to heal.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 30 years, and he 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 BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series.

From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters (his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone).
 
Contributors: 
Alison MacLeod, author of Tenderness 
Geoff Dyer author of Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of DH Lawrence. 
Reading by Ian Hogg

Credits:
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence, BBC Radio 4 January 1990
Abridged for radio by Alan England
Read by Ian Hogg
Producer Philip Martin, BBC Pebble Mill.

Sons and Lovers, BBC Radio on the Third Programme 1955
Produced by Christopher Sykes 

Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Sound by Sean Kerwin
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Lady Chatterley's Lover - Episode 1

John Yorke looks into Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D H Lawrence. In this second of two episodes about the book, he looks at what drove Lawrence to use the language that got him into so much trouble and made the novel infamous. He outlines the book's other transgressions and what happened at that famous, ground-breaking trial in 1960.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series.

From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters (his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone).
 
Contributors: 
Alison MacLeod, author of Tenderness 
Geoff Dyer author of Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of DH Lawrence
Bill Goldstein author of The World Broke in Two
Reading by Ian Hogg

Credits:
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence, BBC Radio 4 January 1990
Abridged for radio by Alan England
Read by Ian Hogg
Producer: Philip Martin, BBC Pebble Mill.

Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Sound by Sean Kerwin
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Lady Chatterley's Lover - Episode 2

John Yorke explores the themes and impact of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story Yentl. Written in the 1950s but set in the orthodox Jewish community of late nineteenth century Poland, the story was made into a successful Hollywood film starring Barbara Streisand. 

Yentl, a young orthodox woman, rebels against the constraints of a woman’s life and disguises herself as a young man in order to be able to study at a Yeshiva, or religious college. In describing the complications and misunderstandings that ensue Singer offers insights into religious, social and gender politics not only of the late nineteenth century but of his own, and our, times. 

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 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 dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday/Saturday Drama series. 

From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters (his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone).

Contributors:
Kerry Shale, actor, broadcaster and writer
Evelyn Torton Beck, translator of Singer’s work
Rebecca Abrams, author, teacher and critic

Clip from film: 
From Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Nightmare and Mrs Pupko’s Beard, directed by Bruce Davidson for BBC Arena, 1973

Produced by Penny Boreham
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound by Sean Kerwin
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Yentl the Yeshiva Boy

John Yorke explores the way the celebrated 19th century writer Alexander Pushkin’s 400-line narrative poem, The Bronze Horseman, gives us an astonishing image of the unequal relationship between ruler and ruled.

This ground breaking poem, which is one of the great landmarks of Russian literature, shows us how the empire building passion of one ruler, the tsar Peter the Great, with his grand design to create the city of St Petersburg in spite of its situation on marshy and inhospitable land, can be seen to lead to tragic consequences for one particular individual, a hundred years later.

We learn how the story becomes mythic when this man, a lowly clerk, descends into madness after losing his beloved to the flood that descends on the city, and then confronts the statue of the tsar. The statue then comes to life and chases the clerk to his death.

Pushkin’s poem changed literature and narrative forever by introducing the idea of this ‘little man’ who embodies us all, and who Is single handedly taking on the legacy of history.

It's also clear to see that the poem speaks to us as forcefully now as it did to its contemporary readers.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly thirty years, and shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact behind the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday/Saturday Drama Series. From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy, John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green lights in the last two years alone.

Contributors:
Masha Karp, translator, author and broadcaster.
Alexandra Smith, reader in Russian studies, University of Edinburgh
Andrew Kahn, professor of Russian literature, St Edmund Hall, the University of Oxford.

Credits:
A Poet’s Library – Biblioteka Poeta (Set of 3 Volumes)
Alexander Pushkin Poems – Volume 2 (Leningrad: Sovetsky Pisatel 1954)
Selected Poetry by Alexander Pushkin, Translated by Antony Wood, Penguin Classics, 2020 

Producer: Penny Boreham
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Researcher: Nina Semple
Sound: Iain Hunter from Iain Hunter Sound Design.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

The Bronze Horseman

In the series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work, John Yorke examines Alexander Dumas’ forgotten classic; Georges. 

Georges was one of Dumas' earliest novels and in this first of two episodes about the book, John shows us how it set the template for many of those that followed. It's a swashbuckling, page-turner full of plot twists, cliff hangers and larger-than-life characters. 

Dumas was a mixed race man and Georges is unique in that it's the only one of his novels that directly addresses race. The book is set in one of France's colonies, Île de France, where slavery is still flourishing and where racial hierarchies are strictly observed. The main theme of the book is revenge for a racially motivated insult. Immensely famous around the world, Dumas' life echoed the drama of his novels and John hears about the lifestyle and politics of this great writer. 

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 30 years, and he 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 BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series.

From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.

Contributors:
David Coward, Emeritus Professor of Literature at Leeds University 
Tina Kover, Translator of the first English translation of Georges for more than a century

Reading by Sam Dale

Credits:
Georges by Alexandre Dumas 
Publisher Modern Library Inc; Reprint edition (1 Sept. 2008)
Translator - Tina Kover

Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Sound by Sean Kerwin
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Georges - Episode 1

In the second of two episodes about Georges by Alexander Dumas, John Yorke looks at the central theme of the book - race.

Although a mixed race man, Alexandre Dumas very seldom addressed the issue of race in his work. Georges is the only novel in which it plays any part. Published after the abolition of slavery in France but before France banned slavery in its colonies, the central themes of Georges are revenge, for a racial insult, and race. John Yorke looks at how the book approaches these issues and Dumas' attitude towards his own heritage. 

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series.

From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.

Contributors:
David Coward, Emeritus Professor of Literature at Leeds University 
Tina Kover, Translator of the first English translation of Georges for more than a century
Dr Mike Phillips, Writer

Reading by Sam Dale

Credits:
Georges by Alexandre Dumas. 
Publisher Modern Library Inc; Reprint edition (1 Sept. 2008)
Translator: Tina Kover

Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Sound by Sean Kerwin
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Georges - Episode 2

John Yorke looks at Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 stage play Gaslight. A big hit on London’s Shaftesbury Avenue and an even bigger success on Broadway, Patrick Hamilton’s drama of the mental abuse of Bella Manningham by her husband Jack lives on, sometimes unacknowledged, as the source of the term Gaslighting - one person’s attempt to make another doubt their sanity. 
 
Best known for his novels such as Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude, Hamilton drew on his own miserable childhood memories of being terrified of his own abusive father for this taut, chilling thriller. 
 
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised on BBC Radio 4.

From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters (his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone).
 
 
Contributors: 
Brigid Larmour, Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Watford Palace Theatre
Sean French, author of Patrick Hamilton: A Life and one half of the writing duo Nicci French
Readings by Sam Dale
 
Credits:
Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton. Acting Edition published by Constable, 1970
Angel Street by Patrick Hamilton, Acting Edition published by Samuel French, 1942
Clip from Angel Street (1952), The NBC Presents Best Plays radio adaptation starring Vincent Price and Judith Evelyn
 
Produced by Caroline Raphael
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound by Matt Bainbridge, Redlight Studios and Sean Kerwin
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Gaslight

The series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work. John Yorke examines Porgy by Edwin DuBose Heyward. 

Published in 1925, Porgy was an immediate hit and was later adapted both for the stage and the blockbuster musical Porgy and Bess. 

In this first of two episodes about Porgy, John looks at the story at the heart of the original novel and the background of the remarkable man who wrote it. How and why did Edwin DuBose Heyward, the epitome of the intellectual, Southern, white, gentleman write this best-selling classic about a love story set within a poor, African American community in the deep South?

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 30 years, and he 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 BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series.

From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.

Contributors:
Dr Kendra Hamilton, Professor of American Literature at Presbyterian College
James M. Hutchisson , biographer of Dubose Heyward. 

Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Porgy - Episode 1

The series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work. John Yorke examines Porgy by Edwin DuBose Heyward. 

Porgy was published in 1925 and concerns the love affair between Porgy and Bess. Set within the poor black community of Charleston, South Carolina, the book was later adapted into the blockbuster musical Porgy and Bess. The writer Du Bose Heyward was white and, ever since it was published, the book has raised questions about authenticity and cultural appropriation.

In this second of two episodes about the book, John Yorke looks at the controversy that has surrounded the book , how it divided the critics and how the success of Porgy and Bess, the musical, complicated matters still further. 

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series.

From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.

Contributors:
Dr Kendra Hamilton, Professor of American Literature at Presbyterian College
James M. Hutchisson , biographer of Dubose Heyward
Michael Buffong, Director.

Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Porgy - Episode 2

John Yorke takes a look at Ian McEwan’s 1997 complex thriller Enduring Love. It's a bold novel, set in the aftermath of a tragic accident, but the substance of the story is formed from a beautifully simple yet complex premise – everyone sees that accident in a totally different way. 

The central character, Joe Rose, is stalked by a stranger, Jed Parry, whom he meets purely by chance at the scene of the accident. As Joe continues to reject Jed, their confrontation spirals from fear into violence. We hear the events described by different characters throughout the book which makes it very hard to understand the world they are describing. Whose version is right? Who should we believe? This is a novel about the perception of reality itself.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised on BBC Radio 4.

From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.

Contributors:
Dr Emma Short, Psychologist at London Metropolitan University, specialising in stalking and its impact.
Ian McEwan, author, discussing writing in archive interviews.

Credits:
Enduring Love, Ian McEwan, 1997
Book Club - Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, Radio 4, 2000
Open Book - Ian McEwan, Radio 4, 2022

Producer: Laura Grimshaw
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Readings: Sam Dale
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
Sound: Sean Kerwin

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Enduring Love

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