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Independence Day is the second episode in Frank Bascombe: An American Life, a series adapted from the novels of Richard Ford, who won the Pulitzer prize for this novel in 1996.

Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe books are a remarkable literary phenomenon, following the fortunes of the hapless but ever-hopeful hero Frank, and giving us a unique portrait of contemporary American life.

Over the year, we will check in on Frank for four weekends of his life, over four decades, stretching from the early 1980s to the present day, in dramatisations by Robin Brooks of four Frank Bascombe books - The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land, and Let Me Be Frank With You.

Episode Two – Independence Day
Six years after we first met him, Frank has ditched the world of sports writing, and is now an estate agent. He still has contact with his divorced wife Ann, and is trying to get to grips with his troubled son Paul. He’s taking Paul on a road-trip, for what is supposed to be a bit of father-son bonding. But, as is usually the case in Frank’s roller-coaster life, nothing goes according to plan.

Cast
FRANK BASCOMBE: Kyle Soller
ANN : Lydia Wilson
SALLY: Jennifer Armour
PAUL: Christopher Buckley
CHARLEY: William Hope
CLARISSA: Karolina Ezrow
CHARLANE : Isaura Barbé-Brown
DR TISARIS: Angelique Fernandez

Dramatised by Robin Brooks from the Bascombe novels by Richard Ford

Sound Design: Joseff Harris and Alisdair McGregor
Broadcast Assistant: Hermione Sylvester

Directed and Produced by Fiona McAlpine
An Allegra production for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4

Picture credit: ‘In the Car’ by Roy Lichtenstein
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2024.
Photo: National Galleries of Scotland

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