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Love, Loss and Scandal

Andrew Marr talks to theatre director Carrie Cracknell, poet Michel Faber, and biographers Peter Parker and John Preston.

On Start the Week Andrew discusses love, loss and scandal. Carrie Cracknell is directing Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea, the story of an overpowering, self-destructive love affair set in post-war Britain. Michel Faber's collection of poetry explores the loss and grief at the death of his beloved wife, Eva. AE Housman wrote a series of poems at the end of the 19th century - A Shropshire Lad - which were hugely popular and came to encapsulate the nostalgia for an unspoilt pastoral idyll, but the writer Peter Parker says they're also shot through with unfulfilled longing for a young man. Homosexuality only became legal in the late 1960s and John Preston retells the story of the MP Jeremy Thorpe - a tale of sex, lies, murder and scandal at the heart of the establishment.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

Available now

43 minutes

Carrie Cracknell

is a director.

The Deep Blue Sea is on at the in London and runs until 21 September.聽

There will be a live cinema relay on 1 September.

Peter Parker

Peter Parker is a writer.

Housman Country: Into the Heart of England is published by Little, Brown.

Michel Faber

is an author.

Undying: A Love Story is published by Canongate.

John Preston

is a writer.

A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment is published by Viking.

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Andrew Marr
Interviewed Guest Carrie Cracknell
Interviewed Guest Michel Faber
Interviewed Guest Peter Parker
Interviewed Guest John Preston
Producer Katy Hickman

Broadcasts

  • Mon 4 Jul 2016 09:00
  • Mon 4 Jul 2016 21:30

Podcast