A dark domestic comedy by one of English literature's most distinctive and idiosyncratic authors
Life in the Ponsonby household is an emotional battleground, where tyrannical grandmother Sabine and her equally despotic daughter Hetta struggle to control the fate of the family. Caught in the crossfire are Sabine's son John, a self-absorbed novelist; his five children, Clare, France, Chilton, Victor and Muriel; and Muriel's beleagured governesses.
When John's daughter, France, completes her first novel, she is persuaded by her father to publish it under a pseudonym to spare him the embarrassment of being overshadowed by his own flesh and blood. This act of selflessness sparks a series of deceptions, misunderstandings and manipulations: culminating in a family crisis which plays out across the dining-room table over the course of one hair-raising and hilarious dinner party...
First published in 1937, Ivy Compton-Burnett's deft dissection of a dysfunctional Victorian family was acclaimed by contemporary critics and admired by Virginia Woolf for its 'bitter truth and intense originality'. This sublime adaptation, featuring an ensemble cast including Patricia Lawrence and Ann Mitchell, breathes new life into her brilliant, blackly comic tale.
Production credits
Written by Ivy Compton-Burnett
Adapted by John Spurling
Directed by Liane Aukin
Piano: Martin Goldstein
Cast
Sabine Ponsonby - Patricia Lawrence
Hetta - Ann Mitchell
John - John Rowe
Clare - Tessa Worsley
France - Kathryn Hunter
Victor - Simon Hewitt
Chilton - Graham Blockey
Muriel: - Pamela Moiseiwitsch
Miss Bunyan - Merelina Kendall
Gertrude - Narissa Knights
Charity Marcon - Anne Jameson
Stephen - Bernard Brown
Alfred - Christopher Good
Sir Rowland Seymour - Arnold Diamond
Jane - Ellen McIntosh
Evelyn - Daniel Webb
Edith Hallam - Vivian Pickles
Dr Chaucer - Robert Lang
Miss Blake - Fidelis Morgan
Mr Russell - John Forbes-Robertson
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 10 May-9 June 1985
© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
