Life in London

Oct 8, 2024 2:25 PM

Author:Pierce Egan,Mark Gatiss,Greg Wise,James Bachman,Geoffrey McGivern,Dave Lamb,Amanda Abbington,Alex MacQueen,Morwenna Banks,Full Cast

Life in London

Pierce Egan's renowned 19th-century comic novel adapted by Dan Tetsell is a rollicking real tour of the sprawling post-Regency Metropolis in the years before the Victorians turned up and made everything boring.

Comedy drama showing the 'fast life' of Regency London, starring Mark Gatiss, Greg Wise and James Bachman andGeoffrey McGivern asPierce Egan.

We travel through London town all in the company of garrulous author Pierce Egan, cocksure urbanite Corinthian Tom, his naive Somerset cousin Jerry Hawthorn and their drunken compatriot Bob.

Tom and Jerry visit a cockfight, try to buy a horse, meet a sporting legend and lay a wager on which is better, London or the West Country. Meanwhile, garrulous narrator Pierce Egan takes literary critic William Hazlitt to his first boxing match. The lads of Regency London drink with the lower orders in the East End and generally get up to mischief around town.

When Pierce Egan falls on hard times, will his adventures help him make his fortune or will this be the end of the trio's life together?

When first published the popularity of Pierce Egan's book amounted to a craze, as society tried to guess the real life characters featuring in the tales. The celebrity obsession of the Regency period is depicted in this cleverly adapted comedy.

Episodes

In Training for a Swell

The Fancy

Mr Lushington

High and Low Life

The Show Folks

An End to Life in London

Cast

Pierce Egan - Geoffrey McGivern

Corinthian Tom- Greg Wise

Jerry Hawthorn - Mark Gatiss

Bob Logic - James Bachman

Old Hawthorn - Christopher Douglas

Corinthian Kate - Amanda Abbington

Mrs Belcher / Fishwife - Laura Shavin

Mr Primefit / Sir Richard / Actor - Dave Lamb

Plausible Jack/ Jarvey / George Sala - Ben Graves

William Hazlitt/Tom Cribb/ Hustle - Alex MacQueen

Mrs Egan - Alys Torrence

Lady Wanton - Morwenna Banks

Fanny - Margaret Cabourn Smith

Theodore Holt / Dick Trifle- Giles Taylor

Mr Jonah / Pickpocket - Neil Edmond

Production Credits

Written by Pierce Egan

Adapted by Dan Tetsell

Music: Ben Walker

Producer: Tilusha Ghelani

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 1st May, 8th May, 15th May, 22nd May, 29th May, 5th June 2006

Reviews

A treasure trove of human ingenuity, and testament to our need to tell and believe stories, it deserves a front-row seat at any budding Bond's bedside

—— James Owen , The Times

Andrew and Green have carried out a huge amount of impeccable research, which they relay with infectious gusto... I found it extremely difficult to put this book down

—— Jake Kerridge , Daily Telegraph

Anyone who loves a good spy story will find and enjoy hundreds of them here

—— Economist

[An] enjoyable and well-informed survey...stars and spies will forever be inextricably linked

—— Alan Judd , Oldie

Perfect...read as you settle into James Bond on Christmas afternoon.

—— Simon Heffer , Daily Telegraph, *Books of the Year*

A thoroughly entertaining read

—— Simon Ings , Spectator

A beautiful book. There are amazing stories in there about meeting Princess Diana, the Red Arrows and all of our favourite telly shows. It's a delight

—— Zoe Ball , BBC Radio 2

The book we've all been waiting for . . . we haven't been able to put it down

—— New

A fantastic read!

—— Steve Wright , BBC Radio 2

We have loved your book - you've been so honest, open, everything that anyone knows you so well will have hoped to get from this book . . . you get it. A stroll through your incredible career and you also tackle, head on, in a really beautiful way what happened earlier this year

—— Andrea McLean , Loose Women

A bona fide national treasure . . . He tells his story in his way, with great honesty

—— Prima

One of our favourite things is the many hilarious anecdotes he has to share about his good friend Holly Willoughby

—— Hello!

Phillip Schofield has spoken candidly about his coming out process and his current mental health struggles in his autobiography

—— Pink News

Takes readers on the journey Phillip has taken to get to where he is today. Fans will delight at a nostalgic look back at Phillip's life, relish the behind the scenes stories, and feel touched by the emotional honesty in his writing

—— Northern Life Magazine

Dazzling

—— Evening Standard

Full of anecdotes about onscreen mishaps and meeting the famous

—— Daily Mail

The silver-haired overlord of daytime TV . . . Schofe's candour is admirable

—— Evening Standard

In this soul-bearing autobiography, Phillip looks back on his broadcasting career . . . A frank and highly readable life story

—— Sunday Express

O'Connor brings everything to this memoir

—— Financial Times

Incendiary

—— i

Astonishingly good, wise and hilarious

—— Louise Nealon

Candid, open-hearted . . . a lot of self-deprecation, a lot of laughs, and a measure of honesty that would put most of us to shame

—— Anglo-Celt

Genuinely incredible . . . [Rememberings is] suffused with humour and forgiveness

—— Guardian

There's nothing conventional about Sinéad O'Connor and there's little conventional about her memoir either. . . She writes with searing honesty and plenty of wit

—— Independent

Her complicated life makes for riveting reading. From ripping up photographs of the Pope on prime time US television and her mental health struggles to a rollercoaster spiritual quest, she has never been afraid to be fearless

—— iNews

A deliciously decadent tale of sex, tragedy, celebrity, surfboards and tanned skin in 1980s Malibu.

—— The Times

I absolutely loved her book.... It's an absolute blast to read

—— Alice- Azania Jarvis

JACKIE COLLINS, BUT BETTER Sacrilege to say "better", I know, but there we are. Set in the 1980s, Taylor Jenkins Reid's Malibu Rising is wonderfully written, intensely evocative and concerns the model/ surfer children of a rock star. Tons of glamour, tons of sharply observed insights about sibling relationships, plus a massive party. Beach read par excellence. See also her brilliant Daisy Jones & the Six, which is heaven (more rock stars).

—— Anonymous

When we picked up Malibu Rising, the new novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, we could barely put it down

—— That's Life

You'll never want this book to end, it will suck you in and spit you out!

—— Muddy Stilettos

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