The Angela Carter BBC Radio Drama Col..., Angela Carter
The Angela Carter BBC Radio Drama Col..., Angela Carter
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The Angela Carter BBC Radio Drama Collection

Author: Angela Carter

Narrator: Anton Lesser, Full Cast, Fiona Shaw, Andrew Sachs, Jessica Raine, Susannah Clapp, Roisin Conaty, Lewis Fiander, Ariyon Bakare, James Anthony Rose

Unabridged: 9 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/17/2021


Synopsis

Angela Carter was one of the most important writers of the 20th Century. A pioneer of British magical realism, her work was described by Salman Rushdie as 'without rival and without equal'. Her radical, inventive novels influenced countless writers, while her dark, sensual short fiction turned traditional fables inside out, giving women the power over their desires and fates.

Susannah Clapp, Angela Carter's literary executor and friend, introduces the productions and offers fascinating insights into Angela Carter's life and work.

This landmark collection includes five new dramatisation of stories from her iconic collection of fairytales retold, The Bloody Chamber. Alongside the title story are 'The Erl-King', 'Wolf-Alice', 'The Tiger's Bride' and 'The Company of Wolves', with casts including Sophie Cookson, Ariyon Bakare, Lily Lesser, Hannah Genesius and Adjoa Andoh. A sixth tale from The Bloody Chamber, 'Puss in Boots', is adapted by Carter herself and stars Andrew Sachs as Puss.

Also included is an adaptation of Carter's award-winning Nights at the Circus, starring Roisin Conaty as Cockney trapeze artist Sophie Fevvers, and the world premiere of her unproduced screenplay The Christchurch Murder. Based on the real-life story of two New Zealand schoolgirls who killed for love, it was an inspiration for the Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures, and stars Fiona Shaw, Nancy Carroll and James Wilby.

Accompanying these are three thrilling radio plays: the Gothic Vampirella (starring Jessica Raine and Anton Lesser); the hallucinatory drama-documentary Come Unto These Yellow Sands (featuring James Anthony Rose as patricidal painter Richard Dadd); and an exploration of the life of Ronald Firbank, A Self-Made Man (with Lewis Fiander as Firbank).

Finally, Liza Ross reads the short story 'Lizzie's Tiger', originally commissioned for radio, in which the four-year-old Lizzie Borden has an extraordinary encounter at the circus.

A bonus documentary, Third Ear: Angela Carter, comprises Paul Bailey's lively interview with the author, recorded shortly before her death in 1992. In it, she discusses her novel Wise Children, and examines the impact of Britishness, politics, and the oral tradition on her subversive writing.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 The Bloody Chamber
3 The Erl-King
4 Wolf-Alice
5 The Tiger's Bride
6 The Company of Wolves
7 The Christchurch Murder
8-9 Nights at the Circus (in two parts)
10 Vampirella
11 Come Unto These Yellow Sands
12 Puss in Boots
13 A Self-Made Man
14 Lizzie's Tiger
15 Third Ear: An Interview with Angela Carter

Credits
Linking material by Susannah Clapp was produced by Caroline Raphael at Dora Productions.

The Bloody Chamber stories, The Christchurch Murder, Vampirella and Come Unto These Yellow Sands were produced by Fiona McAlpine at Allegra Productions.

All other programmes produced by the BBC.

© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Reviews

Goodreads review by Vivienne on June 22, 2021

My thanks to Penguin Random House U.K. Audio for a review copy via NetGalley of ‘The Angela Carter BBC Radio Drama Collection’ by Angela Carter. It contains 12 dramas, an introduction, and a concluding interview with Angela Carter. The dramas are individually cast. This collection was beyond wonderf......more

Goodreads review by Amanda on May 24, 2021

A magical anthology of Angela Carter’s work dramatized by the BBC. Included are adaptations of five of Carter’s folktale re-imaginings, of which 'The Bloody Chamber', 'The Tiger's Bride', and ‘Puss in Boots’ standout. Further adaptations include Nights at the Circus, while the Gothic Vampirella is a......more

Goodreads review by Kate on July 23, 2021

Rating 3.5/5 This book is somewhat of an unusual pick for me, I haven’t ever read any Angela Carter before and only recently heard about her through an author discussion but I was very intrigued to delve into some of her work and then I found this audiobook and thought it might be a good way to exper......more

Goodreads review by Meredith on January 20, 2023

I always love radio plays, and this collection was excellent. The introductions by the author's personal agent added so much insight into Angela Carter's life, and the stories themselves were so very strange but also so intriguing. THe plays made me hunt up a copy of The Bloody Chamber, which I am n......more

Goodreads review by Joyce on October 06, 2022

this collection suffers from showing off just how good carter was (one of the best ever). her work was precisely tuned to its form, so the stories adapted to audio by others are pale imitations, the screenplay of the christchurch murder makes an ok substitute for seeing it onscreen, and the narrator......more