Wolf-Alice is more wolf than girl.

Brought up by wolves and taken in by nuns, she is sent to work for the Duke in his ancient castle.

But he has no reflection, and a nasty habit of robbing graves. Stars Lily Lesser, Jonathan Tafler and Fiona Shaw.

Another of Angela Carter's iconic collection of fairy stories - dramatised by Olivia Hetreed.

Angela Carter ...... Fiona Shaw
Wolf-Alice ...... Lily Lesser
The Duke ...... Jonathan Tafler
First Nun ...... Phoebe Fildes
Second Nun ...... Susan Wooldridge
Mother Superior ...... Adjoa Andoh
Main Hunter ...... Nigel Pilkington
Hunter ...... Tre Gordon
Hunter ...... Tom Clegg
Novice ...... Grace Englert
Novice ...... Jalleh Alizadeh

At the time of writing The Bloody Chamber in the late 1970s, Angela Carter was disaffected by both sides of the feminist debate. She re-worked traditional fairy tales from her own unique, literary outsider’s point of view, putting women at the centre of the stories.

With their feisty heroines and orgiastic mash-up of beasts, shape-shifters and ghouls, her extraordinary tales are the most perfect example of her style, not just for her incomparable prose, but also in the dizzying twists and turns of perception, fantasy and myth.

Controversially influenced by De Sade, she embraced the erotic, explored our deepest and darkest urges, and subverted the roles of hunter and prey, master and mistress so that, instead of male sexuality, it is the female that becomes transgressive and powerful.

Director: Fiona McAlpine

An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2018. Show less