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MERVYN PEAKE - GORMENGHAST (320kbs-m4a/205mb/1hr29mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 1st December 2018
As young Titus approaches his destiny in Gormenghast, he faces the rise of the ruthlessly ambitious Steerpike.
The second of two plays based on the Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake - dramatised by Brian Sibley.
Stars Sting as Steerpike
Freddie Jones as The Artist
Bernard Hepton as Dr Prunesquallor
Judy Parfitt as Irma Prunesquallor
Eleanor Bron as Gertrude
Sheila Hancock as Clarice and Cora
Jill Lidstone as Fuchsia
Cyril Shaps as Flay
Maurice Denham as Barquentine
Michael Aldridge as Bellgrove
Hilda Schroder as Nannie Slagg
Vicky Ireland as Titus aged 7
Julian Firth as Titus aged 17
Schoolmasters:-
Mulefire .... Arnold Diamond
Cutflower ... David Garth
Shrivell ... Alan Thompson
Shred ... David Sinclair
Opus Fluke ... John Forbes Robertston
Perch-Prism ... David Gooderson
Director: Glyn Dearman.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1984.
MERVYN PEAKE - TITUS GROAN (320kbs-m4a/205mb/1hr29mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 24th November 2018
The arrival of baby Titus, the 77th Earl of Groan, causes consternation in the crumbling citadel of Gormenghast
The first of two plays based on the Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake - dramatised by Brian Sibley.
Starring Sting as Steerpike
Freddie Jones as The Artist
Bernard Hepton as Dr Prunesquallor
Judy Parfitt as Irma Prunesquallor
David Warner as Sepulchrave
Eleanor Bron as Gertrude
Sheila Hancock as Clarice and Cora
Jill Lidstone as Fuchsia
Cyril Shaps as Flay
Robert Eddison as Sourdust
Maurice Denham as Barquentine
Stratford Johns as Swelter
Hilda Schroder as Nannie Slagg
Melinda Walker as Keda
Graham Blockey as Rantel
and Peter Acre as Braigon
Director: Glyn Dearman.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1984.
A HUNDRED YEARS OF MERVYN PEAKE (320kbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 27th November 2018
"The intense love for my parents, with its resultant anguish, lives on for me". Sebastian Peake, eldest son of Mervyn Peake, the remarkable author and artist, takes a return trip to the Island of Sark where he spent his childhood.
Peake, whose centenary is being celebrated this week, is best known for his 'Titus Groan' series of novels, and to a lesser degree his art and illustrations; but he was also a passionate husband, married to artist Maeve Gilmore, and family man. Never too busy to indulge his children, he enriched their lives with his fantastical imagination as much as those who read his novels or relished his art.
Here, Sebastian revisits the family home in the Channel Islands, walks the traffic free byways, recalling his remarkable father; the day he sketched 50 of the islanders at the annual fair; the acts of derring-do, climbing down to dangerous coves to gather semi-precious stones for Maeve; his time as one of the Sark Group of painters; and finally the days spent writing his most famous novel, 'Gormenghast'.
With his brother Fabian, he pours over diaries, paintings and sketches to talk about their father's artistic legacy, from the best loved "Treasure Island" illustrations to poignant sketches of the last inhabitants of Belsen. With his sister Clare, he mourns his fathers struggles in later life, the onset of Parkinson's and the difficult final years for the family, and their mother in particular.
This is the life of Mervyn Peake, from his youth as an artist, to his untimely death in 1957, having become one of the most truly imaginative and haunting writers in the world, talking to those who knew him best.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall.