Broadcast on Boxing Day and Friday 27 December at 2.15 pm on BBC Radio 4
Mr Betjeman’s Class: The first of two plays celebrating one of Britain’s best-loved poets by Jonathan Smith.
It’s 1928, and John Betjeman, aged 23, has left Magdalen College – sent down without a degree. He’s spent three years at Oxford being a class-conscious social climber, clowning his suburban way into the country house weekend set. With his ambitions in ruins, he’s reduced to acting as cricket master in a prep school. He knows nothing of cricket.
Older Betjeman ….. Ben Whitrow
Younger Betjeman ….. Philippe Edwards
Bessie ….. Sophie Thompson
Ernest ….. Nicky Henson
Headmaster ….. Gerard McDermott
Boy 1 ….. Adam Thomas Wright
Boy 2 ….. Kedar Williams-Stirling
Boy 3 ….. Tom Cawte
Producer/director: Bruce Young
Mr Betjeman Regrets: Towards the end of his career, Sir John Betjeman is a national treasure. He’s become an immensely popular tv and radio performer, selling over two million copies of his Collected Poems in his lifetime. But he continues to worry about his chequered career and complex personal life. Stars Benjamin Whitrow who died shortly before he could finish recording this play. His role was completed by Robert Bathurst, a friend and fellow Betjeman enthusiast.
Betjeman ….. BENJAMIN WHITROW/ROBERT BATHURST
Lady Elizabeth ….. JOANNA DAVID
Lady Penelope …… SARAH CROWDEN
Cornish Woman. ….. SANDRA DUNCAN
Young Paul ….. ADAM THOMAS WRIGHT
includes voices of Gerard McDermott, Isabella Inchbald and
Neil McCaul.
Producer/director: Bruce Young.