A father loses his daughter to the Beast in a game of cards.

In his ruined palazzo, her new master asks her to disrobe.

When she refuses, he reveals his own true nature - the beast beneath the mask. But she discovers he is far more frightened of her than she is of him.

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

Beauty …. Hannah Genesius
Valet …. Jonathan Tafler
Father …. Ariyon Bakare
Clockwork Doll …. Jasmine Jones

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, Carter’s 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