Glyn Hughes Radio Credits
Glyn Hughes: Novelist, radio writer, poet, artist, and expert on Turner, Lowry and the Brontes of Haworth....
This page starts with a review of his first radio play, followed by a list of radio credits and notes about the broadcasts. The Glyn Hughes website has information about his other work; web address is at the foot of this page.
So....let's begin with The Evening Courier for 9 September 1999....
..........Author Glyn Hughes has combined his twin passions of painting and writing in a new play for radio about the great 19th century artist Turner.
His play "Pursuit" focuses on a showdown between Turner as an old man and his illegitimate daughter Evelina.
"I've had a bee in my bonnet about Turner for years and did a lot of research on him for a novel I was planning to write", said Mr. Hughes.
"He was a revolutionary artist who attracted notoriety for the way he painted and a secretive and difficult man in his private life. He also worked fanatically - they found 20,000 pictures and sketches in his studio when he died in 1851."
Mr. Hughes traces his fascination with Turner, regarded as the greatest English painter, to his own training as an artist. For many years he was torn between a career as a writer and a career as an artist and swopped between the two.
He decided to concentrate on writing at the age of 30 and has produced 13 books, including six novels, and numerous poems. His last book "Bronte" was a fictionalised account of the lives of the Bronte family of Haworth. It was through his work on the Brontes that he was asked to write his first play for radio. He found writing and recording "Pursuit" a rewarding and enjoyable experience.
"I was learning as I went along but I do listen to radio plays a lot and knew what was needed. Unlike any other medium, radio gives you the unique chance to explore what a character is thinking or imagining. Three million listeners tune in regularly to the Radio 4 play so it is an exciting way of reaching a lot of people."
There was a dark side to the life of Turner. From humble origins as the son of a barber and wigmaker, he rose to become the youngest Royal Academician, yet he had his mother incarcerated in the Bedlam lunatic asylum, and he was unable to sustain relationships with women for much of his life. As an old man he led an extraordinary double life as "Captain Booth" with his mistress, a former Margate landlady.
"Turner became immensely wealthy through his painting and was very competitive. He was certainly eccentric and there is no doubt that he was way ahead of his time", said Mr. Hughes.
In "Pursuit", Peter Jeffrey takes the role of Turner, with Janet Dale as Evelina. Margaret Woods, Evening Courier, 9 Sept 99
BBC broadcasts
31.03.99 The Red Room
13.09.99 Pursuit
16.05.01 Mr. Lowry's Loves
08.09.01 Millstone Grit Revisited
27.06.02 Cover Stories - Wuthering Heights
08.08.02 Glorious John
21.02.03 Ramblings
06.07.04 Excursion to Blackpool: When Twilight Falls
10.01.05 The Long Causeway (Jan 10,11,12,13,14)
NOTES
PURSUIT....1999
Radio play about the painter JMW Turner and his relationship with
mother, mistress and daughter.Peter Jeffrey played Turner. It was
PJ's last performance. Produced by Peter Leslie Wild.
MR. LOWRY'S LOVES....2001
Play about Lowry's relationship with Carol Ann Lowry, the schoolgirl
whom he adopted, and its influence on his art. Lowry was played by Sir Tom
Courtenay and Carol by Rachel Atkins; Carol as a child was played
by Becky Simpson. Produced by Peter Leslie Wild.
When the artist L.S.Lowry died 25 years ago, he left nearly all his wealth and many paintings to a young unrelated woman who happened to share his surname. At the age of 14, Carol Ann Lowry wrote to Lowry, asking for advice on her own artistic career. Lowry responded by paying for her education and helping her through art school, and the two became lifelong friends. In this brilliant play we discover that Carol wasn't the only young woman with whom Lowry had a platonic relationship. Sophie Heath, Evening Standard
............This play attracted interest and favourable reviews in many national papers, including the Daily Express and the Sunday Times. Radio Times added the following: "Lowry had a strange inner world, full of secrets", says author Glyn Hughes. His drama opens with the discovery of disturbing puppet-like figures after Lowry's death 25 years ago. "Those very brutal pictures were never displayed. There was something unwholesome in Lowry's head".
"Lowry was a lonely man who had a succession of close friendships with young women. I have written about three - one invented, two real. I watched one woman I knew fall under his spell."
Hughes also knew Lowry by sight. "There was nothing sexual about his friendships", he says. "He was in love with a childhood image".
GLORIOUS JOHN....2002
An old man recalls the Halle Orchestra and Sir John Barbirolli.
David Hargreaves as "Glorious John". Produced by Peter Leslie Wild.
DOCUMENTARIES
THE RED ROOM....1999
Recreation of the circumstances of the creation of Jane Eyre.
Produced by Rosie Boulton.
MILLSTONE GRIT REVISITED....2001
Two 15-minute documentaries about the Calder Valley, Yorkshire,
based on Glyn Hughes' autobiography, "Millstone Grit". Produced by
Sera Lefoy Owen.
"COVER STORIES"- WUTHERING HEIGHTS....2002
Produced by Rosie Boulton.
RAMBLINGS....2003
A walk through the Calder Valley, Yorkshire. Produced by Karen
Gregor.
Jun 04 - new play by Glyn Hughes
"When Twilight Falls" goes out on radio 4 on 6 July 04, 2.15pm. It's a verse play
in which most characters express two different personalities. A father, mother and
teenage son make a week-long trip to Blackpool to hear Josef Locke sing, c.1950.
Their real relationship, in contrast to their dreams, emerges.
The play has humour and pathos.....
WHEN TWILIGHT FALLS-2004
-invokes a man's memories of a childhood holiday in fifties
Blackpool; written mainly in verse. (Patricia Wynne Davies, Daily Telegraph)
Glyn adds:....My set of 5 feature programmes following a journey along an ancient route from the Ribble Estuary to the Humber - "THE LONG CAUSEWAY" - goes from January 10th to 14th 2005, Monday to Friday, inclusive dates, at 3.45.p.m. to 4.00 p.m., Radio 4. Much puffing and panting and talking to lunatics ... some very sensible people, too.
Glyn's website can be found at:
http://www.glynhughes.co.uk/
Nigel Deacon, Diversity Website.
