Opening Lines

Tom Stoppard was of course best known for his work writing for stage and screen - but the dramas he created for radio were also an extremely important part of his career and his development as a writer. Across five decades he continued to return to a medium that suited him so well; without the constraints of visuals, his deft structural turns, linguistic pyrotechnics and imaginative leaps could flourish. In this special episode of Opening Lines for Radio 4’s Celebrating Stoppard season, John Yorke examines how Stoppard benefitted from and contributed to a golden age in BBC Radio drama.
The programme features extracts from ‘The Dissolution of Dominic Boot’, ‘Albert’s Bridge’ and ‘The Dog It Was That Died’, as well as contributions from Stoppard’s biographer Professor Hermione Lee and archive of Stoppard himself.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.
Producer: Geoff Bird
Contributor: Professor Hermione Lee
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Reader: Daniel Weyman
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

Flight by Walter White, published in 1926, asks questions about race and identity when its central character chooses to ‘pass’ as a white woman. In this second episode about the book, John Yorke asks if this is why the book has largely been forgotten even though it was written by one of the most influential figures in 20th century America.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.
Written and presented by John Yorke.
Contributors:
Kenneth Janken, Professsor of African American history at the University of North Carolina and author of White: The Biography of Walter White, Mr. Naacp.
Gayle Wald, Professor of English and American studies at George Washington University and author of Crossing the Line; Racial Passing in TwentiethCentury U.S Literature and Culture. .
Reading by Eric Stroud
Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
Production Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Flight was the second novel by one of twentieth century’s America’s most influential figures, Walter White. Published in 1926, it asks questions about race and identity when its central character chooses to ‘pass’ as a white woman. A prime mover in the Harlem Renaissance, White was a celebrated writer and activist but his book has largely been forgotten. John Yorke looks at the man and his work.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.
Written and presented by John Yorke.
Contributors:
Kenneth Janken, Professsor of African American history at the University of North Carolina and author of White: The Biography of Walter White, Mr. Naacp.
Gayle Wald, Professor of English and American studies at George Washington University and author of Crossing the Line; Racial Passing in TwentiethCentury U.S Literature and Culture. .
Reading by Eric Stroud
Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
Production Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4

John Yorke explores themes of loss, longing and the founding of America, in Willa Cather’s innovative novel, My Ántonia. A milestone in American literature, the novel’s heroine is - unusually for the time - a Czech immigrant, Ántonia Shimerda, seen through the eyes of her childhood friend, lawyer Jim Burden. Ántonia survives poverty, tragedy and betrayal through her hard work, energy and optimism.
The novel shows ‘the other side of the rug, the pattern that is not supposed to count in a story. There is no love affair, no courtship, no marriage, no broken heart, no struggle for success’. Deceptively easy to read, Cather communicates feeling in a strikingly modern, cinematic way, with a mastery of visual storytelling, using language to capture the soul of a nation.
With contributions from Melissa Homestead, Professor of English and Director of the Cather Project at the University of Lincoln-Nebraska.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain, from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters, now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for Radio 4.
Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery
Reader: Riley Neldam
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Sound: Iain Hunter
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Owen Wister’s 1902 novel The Virginian did more than any other single piece of art in establishing the parameters of the Western as a genre. Telling the tale of a charismatic tight-lipped cowboy whose actions always speak louder than his words, it was wildly popular with readers and viewers of its many screen adaptations. The book is a celebration of rugged individualism and frontier spirit that spoke profoundly to its audience at the beginning of the twentieth-century - but does it offer any insights into the state of America today?
The programme features James Annesley, Professor of American literature at Newcastle University.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. As creator of the BBC Writers Academy he's trained a generation of screenwriters - now with over 70 green lights and thousands of hours of television to their names. He is the author of Into the Woods, the bestselling book on narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of narrative, including many podcasts for Radio 4.

Contributors: James Annesley, Professor of American literature at Newcastle University. Sound: Sean Kerwin
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Producer: Geoff Bird
Reader: Eric Stroud
Executive Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4