The Well of Loneliness

Original version

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Radclyffe Hall - The Well of Loneliness: 1. Outcast?

Radclyffe Hall - The Well of Loneliness

1. Outcast?

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Radclyffe Hall - The Well of Loneliness, 1. Outcast?

A girl named Stephen matures into a woman with strong feelings for her own sex.

4 Extra Debut. Stephen Gordon gradually realises she will never fall in love with a man – but will she be an outcast? Stars Valerie Edmond.

A baby girl named Stephen is born to well-to-do parents and grows up into an intense tomboy and later a thoughtful woman who feels 'different'.  

Stephen is very close to her father, who understands who she is, but alienated from her mother. She turns down an offer of marriage and forms a passionate attachment to an American woman.

Starring Valerie Edmond and Alexandra Bateman.  

Radclyffe Hall's pioneering novel is sympathetic towards love and attraction between women.  

Not sexually explicit, it was still the subject of an obscenity trial soon after it was published in 1928.

Dramatised in two parts by Sarah Woods

Stephen     .......     Valerie Edmond
Young Stephen     .......     Alexandra Bateman
Anna     .......     Roberta Kerr
Philip     .......     Rob Pickvance
Collins/Angela     .......     Amanda Root
Puddle     .......     Sarah Parks
Martin     .......     Paul Warriner
Colonel Antrim     .......     Russell Dixon
Violet     .......     Katy Cavanagh
Young Violet     .......     Sara Kaplan
Young Roger     .......     Thomas Hudson
Ralph     .......     Martin Reeve

Music composed and performed by Odaline de la Martinez.
Celloist: Andy Wardale   
Violinist Janet Fuste      

Director: Melanie Harris

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1999.

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.

Drama: Relationships & Romance

Ground-breaking lesbian novel about a woman's desperate attempt to love and be loved.

Radclyffe Hall's classic ground-breaking lesbian novel about a woman's desperate attempt to love and be loved.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Radclyffe Hall - The Well of Loneliness

1. Outcast?

Genres

Series

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra