Adapted from the short story by Anton Chekhov
Translated by Constance Garnett
The scene is Olga Semyonovna's house in a provincial town in Russia at the end of the last century
Adapted and produced by Mary Allen

Anton Chekhov, the son of a tradesman whose father was a serf, was born in 1860. In his young days he studied medicine, and took his degree when he was twenty-four. As with many other doctors, however, literature attracted him more than patients, and he abandoned the sick-room for the pen.

His short story 'The Darling', to be broadcast as a play tonight, is characteristic of his skill in observing the commonplaces of human nature and recognising their dramatic significance.