Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Cazalets

Drama: Relationships & Romance

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Elizabeth Jane Howard's saga follows the lives and loves of the Cazalet family

Elizabeth Jane Howard's saga follows the lives and loves of three generations of the Cazalet family over ten years

BBC Radio 4 FM

The Cazalets: Casting Off

Penelope Wilton

Raymond Coulthard

Shirley Dixon

Zoe Tapper

Verity Firth

Joseph Millson

Georgia Groome

Aurelie Amblard

Pip Torrens

Rick Warden

Sally Avens

Marion Nancarrow

Lin Coghlan

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Cazalets: Casting Off: Episode 1

Drama

Episode 1

Casting Off

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Cazalets, Casting Off, Episode 1

The war has ended, and Rupert finally returns home but finds much has changed.

The war has ended, and Rupert finally returns home but finds much has changed for the Cazalet family.

by Elizabeth Jane Howard
dramatised by Lin Coghlan


The war has ended and Rupert finally returns home but he finds much has changed for the Cazalet family.

'Casting Off' is the final book in the Cazalet novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard, which together give a vivid insight into the lives, hopes and loves of three generations during the Second World War and beyond.

As Elizabeth Jane Howard enters her 90th Birthday year, Radio 4 are broadcasting dramatisations of all four novels between January and July 2013.
You can catch up with series three, The Cazalets: Confusion, on iPlayer.

This fourth series is set between the summer of 1945 and 1947.

With Rupert missing in France since Dunkirk, his beautiful young wife Zoe has had an affair with the American photographer, Jack, who has subsequently killed himself. Zoe has found solace in her daughter, Juliet and in Rupert's friend Archie, who is also a great source of support to her step-daughter, Clary. Should Rupert return, Archie is hoping for something more than friendship with Clary, but has kept this to himself. Meanwhile, Clary's cousin Polly has told Archie that she loves him and he has had to turn her down as gently as he can. Louise's marriage teeters on the brink, since her husband Michael destroyed a letter sent by her lover, Hugo whilst Edward's affair with Diana continues: she's almost certainly had two of his children. Sid, however, has finished her affair with her student, Thelma, hoping to bring Rachel back into her life again. But the best laid plans are wont to be sabotaged ...

When Elizabeth Jane Howard began writing the novels her aims were modest. "I wanted to write about my youth, and the ten years that straddled the Second World War. I also wanted to write about what domestic life was like for people at home. A lot has been written about the battles and the war in a more direct sense, but little had been said about the way the whole of England changed. When the war ended, everybody was in a different position from where they were when it started."
Two decades later, Howard's quartet of books -- The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion and Casting Off - charting the family's fortunes between 1937 and 1947 have sold over a million copies.
Martin Amis said of Elizabeth Jane Howard, "She is, with Iris Murdoch, the most interesting woman writer of her generation. An instinctivist, like Muriel Spark, she has a freakish and poetic eye, and a penetrating sanity."
A star cast includes Penelope Wilton as the narrator, Pip Torrens, Lisa Dillon, Naomi Frederick, Helen Schlesinger, Raymond Coulthard, Zoe Tapper, Alix Wilton Regan, Flora Spencer-Longhurst and Georgia Groome.
Casting Off is dramatised by Lin Coghlan.

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Cazalets: Casting Off

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.

The fourth series of Elizabeth Jane Howard's family saga is set between 1945 and 1947

The fourth series of Elizabeth Jane Howard's family saga is set between the summer of 1945 and 1947. Dramatised by Lin Coghlan

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Cazalets

Casting Off

Episode 1

Contributors

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4