Erno Goldfinger's Last Architectural Assistant

Andrew McGibbon analyses great artists at a significant time in their careers, but from the perspective of someone who worked for them, inspired them, employed them or even did their job for them while no one was looking.

Anyone driving along London's A40 Westway cannot fail to notice Trellick Tower, architect Erno Goldfinger's brutalist monument to the ideals of 20th century, urban residential living.

James Dunnett was the last architectural assistant to Erno Goldfinger, the great evangelist of the brutalist school of residential architecture, towards the end of his career in 1973 when public opinion turned against tower blocks as a form of social housing.

The great émigré architect now found that he had to don his best suit, swallow his astonishing pride and start looking for work.

A moving and fascinating account of the last days of Goldfinger whose iconic and now listed Trellick Tower, controversially fell out of fashion when it opened in 1972.

Yet it has not only become a listed building but spurred the imagination of writer JG Ballard in his novel High Rise. It's also been the visual backdrop to many futuristic urban dystopias.

Written and presented by Andrew McGibbon.

Producers: Nick Romero and Louise Morris

A Curtains For Radio production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in February 2017.