Word Scrubs

Available for over a year

Mitch and Meg, siblings in their 30s, are the great great nephew and niece, and literary executors, of Peggy Stanhope (1889-1959), a prolific and profitable writer of books for children and young adults from a very different era. Beloved by generations of children around the world, White Star (1943), winner of the Carnegie Medal, is the story of a snowy horse, owned by a young woman, who frightens away the evil stallion Black Boy from a village. Because of its time of publication, White Star was seen by some teachers and preachers as a patriotic allegory of Allied superiority to the Nazis, although Stanhope, denied this. In 2023, a Hollywood streamer wants to adapt the book as movie, but, as a condition, wishes to change the title and some of the plot and language. The meetings between the siblings and the publishers are intercut with Home Service readings from Stanhope’s work, and interviews with their author on Desert Island Discs, in a drama that takes its inspiration from the current debate over whether classic texts should be rewritten for contemporary re-publication. Written by Mark Lawson CAST DAME JESS ELLIOTT - Jane Slavin MITCH - Damian Lynch MEG - Tracy-Anne Green PEGGY STANHOPE - Barbara Flynn SKIPPY LEAVESDEN-SMART - Tom Glenister LORD JUSTICE SHARP - Clive Hayward Producer/Director: Eoin O'Callaghan A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4