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"Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life."

Louisa and Tom have grown up in the rigid, utilitarian system of their father, Thomas Gradgrind. Hoping to help her brother, Louisa has entered into a loveless marriage with Coketown banker and mill-owner, Bounderby. But when a millworker is suspected of robbing the bank, Louisa starts to fear that her brother may have had a hand in the plot. And she also encounters temptations of her own.

Charles Dickens's novel - subtitled 'For These Times' - is a vivid story for our own age - a short, sharp satire of target-driven education, business, and the denial of the imagination.

Dramatised by Graham White

Thomas Gradgrind ….. David Morrissey
Louisa Gradgrind ….. Rachel Harper
Tom Gradgrind ….. Ike Bennett
Josiah Bounderby ….. Shaun Dooley
Sissy Jupe ….. Janey Orchard
Mrs Sparsit ….. Jan Ravens
James Harthouse ….. Will Close
Stephen Blackpool ….. Arthur Hughes
Rachael ….. Claire Cage
Josephine ….. Julie Barclay
Slackbridge/Collins ….. Richard Elfyn
Bitzer ….. Aaron Anthony
Sleary ….. Patrick Robinson

Production co-ordinators Lindsay Rees and Eleri Sydney McAuliffe
Sound by Rhys Morris, Nigel Lewis and Catherine Robinson
Directed by Emma Harding, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Audio Wales