Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Afternoon Reading

Audiobooks

Drama

Short stories or abridged books, often from new writers

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 LW

Afternoon Reading: Malachi Whitaker - The Crystal Fountain

Imelda Staunton

Martin Jarvis

Malachi Whitaker

Afternoon Reading: Malachi Whitaker - The Crystal Fountain: Episode 1: Landlord of the Crystal Fountain

The Crystal Fountain

Episode 1

Episode 1: Landlord of the Crystal Fountain

Malachi Whitaker - The Crystal Fountain

Landlord of the Crystal Fountain

BBC Radio 4 - Afternoon Reading, Malachi Whitaker - The Crystal Fountain, Landlord of the Crystal FountainSearch BBC

An attractive red-headed teacher meets five jolly men on a train going north.

1930s story in which an attractive red-headed teacher meets five jolly men on a train going north. Read by Imelda Staunton.

Martin Jarvis directs Imelda Staunton in Malachi Whitaker's moving story, written in the 1930s. Attractive red-headed teacher, Brenda Millgate, meets five jolly men on a train from King's Cross going north. What happens to her on the journey is a life-changing experience. They're very friendly and helpful. All northerners. Where have they been? Who are they? Eventually it's revealed that they're all landlords. 

Brenda, unhappy in London away from her northern roots, is beguiled by their talk, their humour and their courtesy. Then one of them says something which changes her whole life.

Malachi Whitaker was a prolific writer in the 1920s and '30s, writing with great perception and care about ordinary folk, invariably setting the stories in her native Yorkshire. She became known as 'the Chekhov of the north' because of her sympathetic observation of the minutiae of human beings and their (often comic and surprising) behaviour. 

Imelda Staunton biography: Oscar nominated and Bafta award-winning for her title role performance in 'Vera Drake'. She has had a long and distinguished career in the theatre, RNT and West End, performing A Man for all Seasons, Mack & Mabel, Side by Side, and Elektra. Also BBC TV Series: Cranford.

Producer/Director: Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

A selection of short stories by Malachi Whitaker

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Afternoon Reading

Malachi Whitaker - The Crystal Fountain

Episode 1: Landlord of the Crystal Fountain

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4