Sweet Sorrow

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)

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 LW

Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls: 3. Chance Encounter

3. Chance Encounter

Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls

BBC Radio 4 - Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls, 3. Chance Encounter

Charlie reflects on the year his home life disintegrated and how he failed his exams.

Charlie looks back on the summer after he left school, when a chance encounter turned his world magical. Read by James Norton.

Charlie Lewis looks back on the summer after he left school - when a chance encounter turned his adolescent world into something magical.

David Nicholls's triumphantly engaging pair of young lovers.

Read by James Norton.

When Charlie Lewis meets Fran Fisher in the summer of 1996, he is at something of a loose end. School is out and so is the sun, but his future is not looking bright. He has been hit hard by his parents' split and is not happy about the role assigned to him by his mother - keeping an eye on his depressed and bankrupt father.

Failure hangs in the air - not just the closure of his father's record shop but also Charlie's inability to complete most of his GCSE exams. But then Fran Fisher almost literally stumbles across him and a whole new world opens up. 

Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters 

Producer: Jill Waters

A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in July 2019.

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

Audiobooks

Drama

The new novel by David Nicholls, a bittersweet and brilliantly funny coming-of-age tale.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls

3. Chance Encounter

Genres

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4