The Real George Orwell: Dreaming

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)

The Real George Orwell

Documentaries

Podcasts

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

A journey exploring the man Eric Blair and the writer George Orwell

BBC Radio 4 LW

Joseph Millson

Lyndsey Marshal

Ewan Bailey

Paul Stonehouse

Ben Crowe

Will Howard

Mike Walker

The Real George Orwell: Biographical Dramas: Dreaming

Dreaming

Biographical Dramas

BBC Radio 4 - The Real George Orwell, Biographical Dramas, Dreaming

By Mike Walker. In Sept 1938, Eric and Eileen travel to Morocco. With Joseph Millson.

By Mike Walker. In September 1938 Eric and Eileen travel to Morocco for his health. In Marrakech Eric imagines a meeting with Georges Kopp. With Joseph Millson and Lyndsey Marshal 

By Mike Walker
The second of four plays featuring episodes in the life of Eric Blair. 
In September 1938, Eric and Eileen Blair leave London for Marrakech. He is hoping that the climate will be good for his health, and that he will be able to complete 'Coming Up for Air' a novel that examines, among other things, the nature of England. But the bruising reception he received following the publication of Homage to Catalonia is troubling Eric. And both Eric and Eileen are still feeling guilty about the fate of one of their Spanish Civil War comrades, Georges Kopp. In the summer of 1938 Kopp had just been released from prison. In Marrakech, Eileen falls ill, and Eric dreams of England, and of Kopp.
Eric Blair... Joseph Millson
Eileen Blair... Lyndsey Marshal
Georges Kopp... Ewan Bailey
Tommy... Paul Stonehouse
With Ben Crowe and Will Howard
Directed by  Jeremy Mortimer

Of course there is no real George Orwell - it was the pen name of Eric Blair - but he was a writer and political commentator who is very hard to pin down. Ever since his early death in 1950, he has been at one and the same time the darling of some on both the left and the right of British politics - whilst being reviled by others. For all the beautiful simplicity of his writing and storytelling Orwell/Blair is a complex mass of confusions - an anti-establishment, pro-English, ex-Etonian ex-policeman and socialist, who was ardently anti-authoritarian. He was as anti-fascist as he was anti-communist, a former Spanish Civil War soldier who was anti-war but pro the Second World War, and so on and so on.

The Real George Orwell: Biographical Dramas

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

Drama: Biographical

Four plays tracking the life story of writer Eric Blair

From his early twenties, when he was an Imperial policeman in Burma, to his last years on Jura, these four plays examine the life of Eric Blair. With Joseph Millson

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Real George Orwell

Biographical Dramas

Dreaming

Contributors

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4