BBC Radio 4 LW

New Grub Street

Christopher Douglas

Henry Lloyd-Hughes

Sam Alexander

Emily Pithon

Olivia Hallinan

Jonathan Keeble

Victoria Brazier

Gary Brown

George Gissing

New Grub Street: Episode 1

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - New Grub Street, Episode 1

Christopher Douglas, one of the creators of Radio 4's Ed Reardon, goes back to the source Victorian novel by George Gissing.

Edwin Reardon is a serious novelist striving for recognition in a literary world that's dumbing rapidly down.

His younger, confident friend Jasper Milvain believes the only purpose of writing is to make big bucks. Neither approach has brought them much success. 

BBC Radio 4's Ed Reardon and Jaz Milvain are loosely based on characters from George Gissing's Victorian novel. 

Starring Christopher Douglas and Henry Lloyd-Hughes  

Dramatised in two-parts by Christopher Douglas.

George Gissing ...... Christopher Douglas  
Jasper Milvain ...... Henry Lloyd-Hughes  
Edwin Reardon ...... Sam Alexander  
Amy/Edith ...... Emily Pithon  
Marian Yule  ...... Olivia Hallinan  
Alfred Yule/Quarmby ...... Jonathan Keeble  
Dora Milvain/Maid ...... Victoria Brazier  

Director:  Gary Brown

Free schooling, which followed the Education Act of 1807 helped to create a newly literate working class. This created a demand for popular fiction and sensational journalism. Thus a gulf opened up between 'Literature' and the mass market as embodied by writers Edwin Reardon and Jasper Milvain.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2016.

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Christopher Douglas adapts George Gissing's 1891 novel.

Christopher Douglas adapts George Gissing's 1891 novel set in the literary world of late 19th-century London.

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