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Kingsley Amis: A BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisation Collection [electronic resource]

Amis, Kingsley2024

Summary

Adaptations of Kingley Amis’s great novels and acclaimed short storiesNovelist, poet and critic Kingsley Amis was one of Britain’s greatest post-war writers. A master of comic fiction, he came to fame in 1954, and won the 1986 Booker Prize for The Old Devils. Included in this collection are dramatisations of seven of his short stories and two novels, all imbued with his characteristic wit and social satire.We begin with ‘To See the Sun’, a tantalising tale of vampires, a mad Scots librarian, a handsome Englishman and a Countess, set in 1920s Dacia. In ‘Moral Fibre’, a Welsh librarian tangles with a social worker determined to save a young girl from sin, while in ‘All the Blood Within Me’, Alec attends the funeral of the only woman he has ever loved: and faces some uncomfortable truths. Tensions run high in ‘I Spy Strangers’ as a group of soldiers in 1945 hold a mock parliament; poet A E Potter questions the value of his art in ‘Dear Illusions’ and in ‘Affairs of Death’, the confessions of the Scottish King Macbeth trouble the conscience of Pope Leo X.Set in the late ’60s, I Want It Now centres around ambitious TV personality Ronnie Appleyard, who pursues wealthy Simona Quick for her money, only to fall in love. And recently recovered in the BBC’s Treasure Hunt, ‘Something Strange’ features four inhabitants of a space capsule, who have unusual experiences to report.Based on Amis’s classic novel Girl, 20 and written by Tony Bilbow, All Free Now is a hilarious observation of the Sixties’ permissive society.Please note: I Want It Now is an archive dramatisation from 1977, and the language used reflects some of the attitudes of that time. Due to the archive nature of some of the pieces, the sound quality may vary.