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Anarchy Looms Over Staplehurst

Episode 1 of 6

With a general strike looming, the Foxes visit Sizzlinghurst to see how aristocrats live, terrified that the oppressed people of Staplehurst will rise up and storm the castle.

Talk of a General Strike is in the air as Lionel and Ginny Fox pay a visit to Sizzlinghurst Castle to see Vera Sackcloth-Vest and Henry Mickleton.

Green-fingered Sapphist Vera Sackcloth-Vest shares a bijou castle in Kent with her devoted husband Henry, but longs for exotic adventures with nervy novelist Ginny Fox and wilful beauty Venus Traduces. It's 1921, the dawn of modern love, life and lingerie, but Vera still hasn't learnt how to boil a kettle.

Ginny is writing a new book and wants to pick Vera's brains about her aristocratic childhood. But all is not well. Henry thinks that Ginny is a bad influence on Vera because Ginny is so highly strung and Lionel thinks that Vera is too aristocratic and not socialist enough for Ginny.

Terrified that the oppressed people of Staplehurst will rise up and storm the castle, they flirt with a posh kind of socialism until the working class DH Lollipop pops in with his demi-mondaine Venus Traduces and tells them that he likes them just the way they are.

Producer: Jamie Rix
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 23 Jul 201722:30

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Credits

RoleContributor
Vera Sackcloth-VestMiriam Margolyes
GoslingRoger Lloyd Pack
Henry MickletonJonathan Coy
Mrs GoslingAlison Steadman
Lionel FoxRoger Lloyd Pack
Ginny FoxAlison Steadman
Venus TraducesMorwenna Banks
DH LollipopJohn Sessions
ProducerJamie Rix
WriterSue Limb

Broadcasts

  • Wed 2 Apr 201411:30
  • Tue 10 Nov 201518:30
  • Tue 17 Nov 201507:30
  • Tue 17 Nov 201517:30
  • Tue 17 Nov 201522:00
  • Wed 18 Nov 201505:30
  • Sun 23 Jul 201722:30