1/10

Penelope Wilton stars in Barbara Pym's wonderful story of love - requited and otherwise - in unfashionable north London in 1960. A terrace of newly done-up houses attracts a different kind of resident to Queens Park, and the Reverend Mark Ainger and his wife Sophia are keen to attract them to the church. But the arrival of anthropologist Rupert Stonebird and librarian Ianthe Broom in the congregation does more than swell the collection plate.

An Unsuitable Attachment was turned down by Barbara Pym's publishers, Faber, when she gave them the manuscript in 1963, with very little explanation. Her previous 6 books had met with some success, so she was very upset and according to her correspondence felt very badly treated. It wasn't until 1977, when the Times Literary Supplement published a symposium on the most over and under-rated writers of the century and two contributors named her in the second category - the only living writer to be so distinguished - and her next novel was published before the year was out. She was widely interviewed, appeared on Desert Island Discs, and was the subject of a tv film. She died in 1980. An Unsuitable Attachment was finally published in 1982.

Dramatised by Jennie Howarth.

Narrator ..... Penelope Wilton
Penelope ..... Sophie Thompson
Sophia ..... Lucy Akhurst
Ianthe ..... Raquel Cassidy
Mervyn ..... Stephen Critchlow
Mark ..... Martin Ball
Rupert ..... Ben Crowe
John ..... Tom Andrews
Sister Dew ..... Angela Curran
Lady Selvedge ..... Joanna Wake
Mrs Grandison ..... Frances Jeater
Edwin ..... Robin Bowerman
Basil ..... Joe Coen

The director is Chris Wallis, and this is an Autolycus production for BBC Radio 4. Show less