Up and Down the Fire Escape

Written by John Peacock.

In his teens, Gerard O' Shea, lived innocently, through the tempestuous affair of his mother, Katie O' Shea and Parnell 'the uncrowned King of Ireland'. 50 years later Myrna Loy and Clark Gable, unwittingly, help him to reach an understanding of those days.

These are three short stories narrated by characters involved in notorious scandals that originated in Sussex: Uppark (Lady Hamilton), Crawley (John George Haigh's girl friend) and Brighton (Katie O' Shea's son, Gerard), ranging from 1815 to 1953. The fall of a woman who revelled in her scandals; another who was forced to face the truth that her lover was a murderer; and the son of Katie O' Shea, defending his father during his mother's notorious affair with Charles Stewart Parnell.

Director: Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.