Blood, Sex and Money: The Life and Work of Emile Zola

Original version

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.

BBC Radio 4 FM

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

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

BBC Radio 4 LW

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Life Stories

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Blood, Sex and Money: The Life and Work of Emile Zola

Glenda Jackson presents a documentary in Paris of France's great writer–Emile Zola.

4 Extra Debut. Double Oscar-winning actress Glenda Jackson in Paris presents an insight into one of France's greatest writers. From 2015.

Double Oscar-winning actress, and former politician, Glenda Jackson, presents an intriguing insight into the physical and cultural landscape of one of France's most prolific and influential writers – Emile Zola. 

She travels to Paris to get a real flavour of the great writer's work and life, and how his experience and the life around him informed his great commentary of novels on the Second Empire. Zola's descendants describe how the reaction to J'Accuse and the Dreyfus Affair, where Zola accused the French Army of a cover up in an open letter to the press, still creates waves and bad feelings for the family. It's a journey of discovery for Jackson, right down to the fact that both Zola and she befriended a mouse.
 
She travels to his country home in Medan and meets his great grand-daughter. This was the home where, with his wife, he entertained his friends, such as Flaubert and Cezanne, where he set up a home for his lover and two children near by, and where he would cycle every afternoon to visit them.
 
Glenda also visits key areas in Paris where Zola lived in dire poverty, and where he gathered with his artist contemporaries - Manet, Monet, Cézanne at the height of the impressionistic and naturalistic movement. 

And finally a trip to Aix-en-Provence, in the South, where Zola and Cézanne grew up.

Producer:  Pauline Harris  

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2015.

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.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Blood, Sex and Money: The Life and Work of Emile Zola

Genres

Formats

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4