Hester

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

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Penelope Wilton

Lyndsey Marshal

Ben Crowe

Patrick Brennan

Paul Stonehouse

Sarah Thom

Liza Sadovy

Joseph Kloska

Jasmine Hyde

Adam Nagaitis

Jonquil Panting

Kate Clanchy

Zena Forster

Margaret `Oliphant

Hester by Margaret Oliphant: 2. Cousin Edward

2. Cousin Edward

Hester by Margaret Oliphant

BBC Radio 4 - Hester by Margaret Oliphant, 2. Cousin Edward

When Hester is offered a merger to cancel her debts, she finds a neat but risky solution.

When Hester is offered a merger to cancel all her debts, she finds a neat but risky solution. Starring Lyndsey Marshal.

Penelope Wilton and Lyndsey Marshal star in this high Victorian tale of a woman who runs her own bank.

Hester rejects another offer of marriage which is in effect a merger attempt from a rival bank. 

To ward off further threats, she invites her disgraced cousin Edward Vernon and his spoilt wife back, to front the business of the bank with local businessmen.

A young woman in a 19th-century Cheshire town, having been snubbed and discarded in marriage, does something truly radical. 

When the family bank is in danger of a run, she pledges her whole private fortune to save it. But instead of merely underwriting it, in return she insists on running the bank herself, as a single woman, in defiance of all convention. 

Margaret Oliphant's novel first published in 1883.

Dramatised by Kate Clanchy & Zena Forster.

Margaret Oliphant ..... Penelope Wilton
Hester Vernon ..... Lyndsey Marshal
Harry Sellon ..... Ben Crowe
Farrington ..... Patrick Brennan
Mildmay Vernon ..... Paul Stonehouse
Miss Vernon-Ridgeway ..... Sarah Thom
Miss Matilda Vernon-Ridgeway ..... Liza Sadovy
Edward Vernon ..... Joseph Kloska
Lady Ellen Vernon ..... Jasmine Hyde
Labourer ..... Adam Nagaitis

Director: Jonquil Panting

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.

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

Drama

The tale of a 19th-century woman who runs her own bank.

The tale of a single woman in a 19th-century Cheshire town who runs her own bank. Series dramatised by Kate Clanchy and Zena Forster.

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Hester by Margaret Oliphant

2. Cousin Edward

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