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PODCAST

Opening Lines

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.

arts books

All Episodes

14:21

Mother Courage and Her Children - Episode 2

Opening Lines ·

2023/07/16

John Yorke takes a look at Mother Courage and her Children, Bertolt Brecht’s play written in 1939 on the eve of World War Two.Set in an earlier time when the Thirty Years War was raging across Europe, Mother Courage and her Children deals with some of the great themes of conflict and capitalism, looking at the way that one mother tries to survive with her family intact. Brecht grew up in Germany in the years after the First World War when the country was struggling with inflation running out of

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14:24

Mother Courage and Her Children - Episode 1

Opening Lines ·

2023/07/16

John Yorke takes a look at Mother Courage and her Children, Bertolt Brecht’s play written in 1939 on the eve of World War Two.Set in an earlier time when the Thirty Years War was raging across Europe, Mother Courage and her Children deals with some of the great themes of conflict and capitalism, looking at the way that one mother tries to survive with her family intact. Brecht grew up in Germany in the years after the First World War when the country was struggling with inflation running out of

en

14:36

Cloudstreet - Episode 2

Opening Lines ·

2023/06/11

John Yorke delves into Tim Winton’s beloved novel, Cloudstreet, published in 1991.Set in a suburb of Perth in Western Australia, the novel spans the period from the end of the Second World War until the mid 1960s and made the young Winton, who wrote the book in his 20s, both a literary and popular phenomenon in his own country. It tells the story of two large white working class families – the Pickles and the Lambs - who experience separate catastrophes, and end up moving to the city to share a

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14:25

Cloudstreet - Episode 1

Opening Lines ·

2023/06/11

John Yorke delves into Tim Winton’s beloved novel, Cloudstreet, published in 1991.Set in a suburb of Perth in Western Australia, the novel spans the period from the end of the second world war until the mid 1960s and made the young Winton, who wrote the book in his 20s, both a literary and popular phenomenon in his own country. It tells the story of two large white working class families – the Pickles and the Lambs - who experience separate catastrophes, and end up moving to the city to share a

en

15:58

One Moonlit Night

Opening Lines ·

2023/06/04

John Yorke takes a look at Caradog Prichard's ground-breaking novel, One Moonlit Night. First published in Welsh in 1961, it broke new ground for its portrayal of taboo subjects such as sexuality, suicide and mental illness. Thirty four years later it was translated into English by Philip Mitchell who described his first encounter with the material in the original Welsh as 'a mind-blowing, life-changing, world-shaking experience akin to being allowed for several hours to stare into the face of

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14:30

A Room With a View - Episode 2

Opening Lines ·

2023/05/21

John Yorke continues his examination of E M Forster’s best-loved novel A Room with a View, first published in 1908.Set in Florence and Surrey, A Room with a View is both a coming-of-age story and an intoxicating love story, as teenage Lucy Honeychurch has to choose between two very different men, and between following convention or following her heart. It is a book full of muddle and misunderstanding, as well as comedy and joy, as Lucy tries to make sense of her feelings and to work out how to be

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14:28

A Room With a View - Episode 1

Opening Lines ·

2023/05/21

John Yorke examines E M Forster’s best-loved novel A Room with a View, first published in 1908.Set in Florence and Surrey, A Room with a View is both a coming-of-age story and an intoxicating love story, as teenage Lucy Honeychurch has to choose between two very different men, and between following convention or following her heart. It's a book full of muddle and misunderstanding, as well as comedy and joy, as Lucy tries to make sense of her feelings and to work out how to be true to herself. The

en

14:33

Anna Karenina - Episode 1

Opening Lines ·

2023/04/30

The series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work. John Yorke examines what lies at the heart of Tolstoy’s great novel Anna Karenina.‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ It’s one of the most famous opening lines in world literature, and the book has been called the greatest novel ever written. First published in 1878, and translated into English in 1901, it’s been credited with perfecting the art of 19th century realism while

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14:19

Anna Karenina - Episode 2

Opening Lines ·

2023/04/30

The series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work. John Yorke explores the themes at the heart of Leo Tolstoy’s great nineteenth century novel, Anna Karenina.In the second of three episodes, John looks at the secondary great love story in the novel, that of Kitty and Levin, and how it is built into and reflects the structure of the story. As Anna and Vronksy’s affair plays out under the disapproving gaze of St Petersburg society, Levin and Kitty take a different path to

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14:43

Anna Karenina - Episode 3

Opening Lines ·

2023/04/30

The series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work. John Yorke explores Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, one of the world’s greatest novels.In this third and final part on Anna Karenina, John focuses on Tolstoy and his world, in order to come to an understanding of the true sense of his achievement in writing a novel that has been at the forefront of world literature since its publication nearly 150 years ago.The 1870s were a time of seismic social change in Russia and, in Anna

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14:23

Twelfth Night - Episode 2

Opening Lines ·

2023/04/22

John Yorke explores one of Shakespeare's best loved comedies, Twelfth Night. In the second of two episodes, he explores the setting of the play and how the whole plot turns on the ambiguities thrown up by a woman dressed as a man.We’re introduced to characters who fall in love with each other in a confusion of misplaced desire. Viola is shipwrecked in a strange land and has lost her twin brother Sebastian. She disguises herself as a man before she meets the Duke of Illyria, who is himself in love

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14:37

Twelfth Night - Episode 1

Opening Lines ·

2023/04/22

John Yorke explores one of Shakespeare's best loved comedies, Twelfth Night. In the first of two episodes, he untangles a complex plot and shows how we can still find it funny. But is it really a comedy?John finds sadness behind the laughter in a play that ends with a melancholic song as the rain begins to fall. We're introduced to characters who fall in love with each other in a confusion of misplaced desire. Viola is shipwrecked in a strange land and has lost her twin brother Sebastian. She

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15:03

Borstal Boy

Opening Lines ·

2023/04/16

Somewhere between autobiography, memoir and novel, the Irish writer and poet Brendan Behan’s Borstal Boy was published in 1958. It’s the story of the teenaged Behan’s three years in an English Borstal – the youth detention centres of their day. As an Irish Republican, Behan’s views of the English are challenged, relationships are formed, and his journey to becoming one of the most celebrated writers of his generation begins. Hearing from the bestselling Irish novelist Colm Tóibín, John Yorke

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14:32

Enduring Love

Opening Lines ·

2023/04/09

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.

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14:30

Kira Georgievna

Opening Lines ·

2023/04/02

John Yorke examines Victor Nekrasov’s novel Kira Georgievna, a bestseller in 1960s Russia. Set in Moscow, Kyiv and rural Ukraine, the eponymous Kira Georgievna is a successful middle-aged sculptor, originally from Kyiv, who must choose between three different lovers. She’s married to a much older painter while also enjoying a casual affair with a young man who’s working for her as a model. But Kira’s comfortable life is about to be turned upside down when her first love - Vadim - returns from two

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14:49

Antic Hay

Opening Lines ·

2023/03/26

John Yorke takes a look at Aldous Huxley’s 1923 satirical novel, Antic Hay. It's a comic novel, set in post-war London and a wicked satire on the glittering hedonism of the 1920s. It tells the story of a collection of upper middle-class characters desperately trying to find meaning in their lives after the catastrophe of the First World War.Aldous Huxley is most famous for his classic dystopian story Brave New World. To some he’s the inspiration for the cult of hallucinogenics, through his book

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14:16

Confessions of a Justified Sinner

Opening Lines ·

2023/03/19

John Yorke delves into James Hogg’s masterpiece of Gothic horror, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Presented as a ‘found document’, the confessions give a chilling insight into the mind of a murderer. This novel is a horror story, a mystery thriller, a psychological study of religious extremism, and at its heart lurks a serial killer. Despite being first published in 1824 it still has all the contemporary resonance, in the view of renowned crime writer Ian Rankin, to make a

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14:32

Porgy - Episode 2

Opening Lines ·

2023/03/11

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

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14:47

Porgy - Episode 1

Opening Lines ·

2023/03/11

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,

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14:55

Gaslight

Opening Lines ·

2023/03/08

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

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127 results

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