Gulliver's Travels - Episode One
The series that looks at books, plays and stories and how they work. John Yorke explores the enduring appeal and satirical bite of Jonathan Swift’s 1726 novel.
John Yorke looks at the first two parts of Jonathan’s Swift’s 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels.
Gulliver’s voyages to Lilliput and to Brobdingnag are the ones that will be familiar to many through countless adaptations for children and pop culture references. The first island is populated by tiny people who tether Gulliver to the ground when they first discover him, while the second is a land of giants. John explores how Swift’s satire, targeted at the political and religious hypocrisies that he observed in 18th century Britain, still have the power to sting today, and makes the case for this being one of the pre-eminent literary works of all time.
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.
Contributors:
Valerie Rumbold is Professor Emeritus of English Literature at the University of Birmingham. She is one of the editors of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jonathan Swift and is currently working on the forthcoming Oxford Edition of the Writings of Alexander Pope.
David Quantick is a novelist and satirist. His many TV and radio writing credits include Veep, The Thick of It, Blue Jam and Harry Hill’s TV Burp. His most recent novel is The Hyena.
Reader: Ewan Bailey
Music: Torquil MacLeod
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Producer: Torquil MacLeod
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
On radio
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Broadcasts
- Sun 25 Oct 202614:45BBC Radio 4
- Mon 26 Oct 202614:45BBC Radio 4
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Opening Lines
John Yorke unpacks the themes behind the stories in Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.
