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John Yorke unpacks the themes behind the stories in Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.

Producer and writer John Yorke unpacks the themes and impact behind the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.

Producer and writer John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact behind the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.

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Opening Lines: Cloudstreet - Episode 1

Cloudstreet - Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - Opening Lines, Cloudstreet - Episode 1

John Yorke delves into Tim Winton’s beloved novel Cloudstreet, published in 1991.

The series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and asks how they work. John Yorke examines Tim Winton’s prize-winning novel Cloudstreet.

John Yorke delves into Tim Winton’s beloved novel, Cloudstreet, published in 1991.

Set in a suburb of Perth in Western Australia, the novel spans the period from the end of the second world war until the mid 1960s and made the young Winton, who wrote the book in his 20s, both a literary and popular phenomenon in his own country. It tells the story of two large white working class families – the Pickles and the Lambs - who experience separate catastrophes, and end up moving to the city to share a great, breathing, ramshackle house, No.1 Cloudstreet. 

In this first episode about Cloudstreet, John Yorke asks why this prize winning book, iconic in Australia, is so beloved. As the book charts the lives, loves, griefs, struggles and entanglements of the Pickles and Lamb families, he notices that the divine aspect of everyday experience is always present. There is a sacred framing to the novel, as Winton poignantly depicts human beings trying to survive tragedy and continue thriving, by keeping on loving. 

John also examines how Winton’s own background, rooted as he is in the same area his characters emerge from, shines through and gives an added depth to the language and sense of place in the novel. Ultimately John reflects that the novel is both a hymn to and a critique of the country itself, suggesting that Winton is beginning to ask questions about what it means to live in a country where the indigenous people were largely invisible to their white Australian counterparts.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for thirty years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday/Saturday Drama series. From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe, and has
brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in
the last two years alone.

Contributors: 
Lyn McCredden, Professor Emerita, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia
Kathryn Heyman, Australian novelist and writer
Peter Straus, literary agent and Managing Director RCW agency, also first British publisher of Cloudstreet.

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, 1991, Penguin Books, Australia.

Produced by Penny Boreham
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Sound by Martyn Harries
Researcher: Nina Semple
Readings: James Frecheville
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

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