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DH Lawrence: Tainted Love

The Rainbow

Duration: 1 hour

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for years

'DH Lawrence: Tainted Love’ dynamically puts centre stage Lawrence's daring writing on the complexity of love. The Rainbow dramatised by Linda Marshall Griffiths

Ursula Brangwen wants to know about passion and desire. Delving into her own family history she defiantly questions the choices open to women.

Ursula ..... Cassie Bradley
Tom ..... Karl Collins
Lydia ..... Aneta Piotrowska
Young Ursula ..... Florence Hunt
Anna ..... Rosalie Craig
Young Anna ..... Lauren Tanner
Will ..... Lee Ingleby

Directed by Nadia Molinari

‘DH Lawrence: Tainted Love’ is a pairing of two novels 'The Rainbow' and 'Women in Love' linked by Ursula Brangwen. Sexual awakening, transgression and repression are explored as his characters try to find happiness and fulfilment in uncertain times. Set in a mining town in Nottinghamshire, 'Tainted Love' is a celebration of Lawrence at his most daring, pushing the boundaries of sexuality in the dawning of the Twentieth Century.

Seen through the eyes of Ursula, ‘The Rainbow’ spans three generations of the Brangwen family from 1840s to 1905 exploring the complexity of desire, sexuality and liberty. As Ursula reflects on her family history, she defiantly questions the choices open to women, rejecting the path taken by her mother Anna who found fulfilment in childrearing and finding inspiration in the advice of her grandmother Lydia, a Polish refugee, who tells her to seek someone who will love her for what she is, not for what he wants. Upon publication in 1915 the novel was suppressed on the grounds of obscenity, all copies were destroyed and it remained banned in Britain for 11 years under the Obscene Publications Act 1857.

With thanks to the Estate of Frieda Lawrence Ravagli. Show less

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