This is a curated resource providing current links from Learning on Screen (Box of Broadcasts) of archived programmes from UK radio, television and film.
The citation links offer subscribers to Learning on Screen (usually educational institutions such as universities, schools, colleges and public libraries) the opportunity to study the documentaries and dramatisations for research.
Remember to sign in for Learning on Screen before the links are able to connect.
Where any of these programmes are accessible on BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds, YouTube, links will be provided though with the qualification that they may be time limited and not necessarily stable.
The top image is a superb photograph by Norman Macbeath of the Martin Jennings statue in the courtyard of New Broadcasting House which was unveiled in 2017.
Credits: English: Photograph of George Orwell statue by Norman McBeath, Date 5 December 2017, Source Own work. Author cited by Wikipedia Artaxerxes100 – Own work. CC BY-SA 4.0 File:Orwell McBeath.jpg. Created: 5 December 2017. Uploaded: 10 April 2018
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George Orwell is also celebrated online by the BBC because he worked as a journalist, producer and broadcaster for its Empire Services to the Far East during the Second World War between 1941 and 1943.
See also Professor Jean Seaton’s speech at the unveiling of his statue in 2017: ‘George Orwell at the BBC: a reflection.’
The late Professor Peter Davison also wrote a brilliant article in 2011 on George Orwell’s time at the BBC with the central argument that they were not ‘wasted years.’ This has been made available on the Orwell Society’s website.
See: Orwell at the BBC: Two Wasted Years?
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Orwell on Jura. Tuesday, 20 Dec 1983, 21:25 90 mins. BBC1 London
Synopsis:
A film written by Alan Plater starring Ronald Pickup.
A remote farmhouse on an isolated island. Strangers with English accents. Quarrels and a lonely child. The year is 1946. The man is George Orwell. The book he has come to write is Nineteen Eighty-four.
Film editor Robert Burnett; Designer Campbell Gordon; Photography Dick Johnstone; Film sound Peter Brill; Produced by Norman McCandlish; Directed by John Glenister; A BBC/TPI co-production BBC Scotland
Writer: Alan Plater
Designer: Campbell Gordon
Photography: Dick Johnstone
Director: John Glenister
Producer: Norman McCandlish
Sound recording: Peter Brill
Editor: Robert Burnett
Cast: Bill Riddoch; David Swift; Edward Gray; Elleen McCallum; Fiona Walker; Graeme Rozga; Kit Thacker; Lucinda Gane; Melanie Parr; Robin Davies; Ronald Pickup; Ross Rozga; Sally Kinghorn and Wendy Marsh.
Orwell on Jura, 21:25 20/12/1983, BBC1 London, 90 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/RT3F574D?bcast=119688265 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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A History of Britain by Simon Schama. The Two Winstons. Wednesday, 24 Sep 2014, 01:00 60 mins. BBC4
Synopsis:
Simon Schama tackles the 20th century through the lives of two men – Winston Churchill and George Orwell. Both men, so very different in almost every way, lived through and wrote about the key moments of British 20th-century life – the Depression, Empire, two world wars and the Cold War. What unites them, argues Schama, is one shared theme – forget history at your peril.
Schama’s last programme is a meditation on the place of the past in Britain’s 20th-century history. The documentary explores the fate of the country through two world wars, the slump and a nervous postwar peace.
Produced and directed by Clare Beavan. Executive producer: Martin Davidson.
The series is available commercially on DVD.
Simon Schama, “A History of Britain Vol 3: The fate of empire 1776-2000”. (BBC, 2002).
BBC Programme Webpage
A History of Britain by Simon Schama, The Two Winstons, 01:00 24/09/2014, BBC4, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/0019597B?bcast=114184625 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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Slideshow of images from the BBC’s 1943 Yearbook providing a glimpse of the BBC at War while George Orwell (as Eric Blair) was working there as a producer. Staff tending to allotments nearby, the staff Home Guard (Orwell was a sergeant in the Home Guard in St John’s Wood) and organising entertainment broadcasts to troops.
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The Martians and Us. Episode 2. Trouble in Paradise (Dystopias). Tuesday, 7 Jul 2009, 01:00 60 mins. BBC4. Director: Lucy Donahue.
Synopsis:
Series about the history of British science fiction.
A look at the utopian dreams, and dystopian nightmares of books such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. One is a vision of the future full of sex and shopping; the other is a story of oppression and violence. But why have the British been better than anyone at imagining these future heavens and hells?
Contributors include Margaret Atwood and Iain M. Banks.
The Martians and Us, Trouble in Paradise (Dystopias), 01:00 07/07/2009, BBC4, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/005D8FE2?bcast=32833126 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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BBC Archive- Writers & Wordsmiths “1965: George ORWELL according to family and friends”
The programme when broadcast by BBC Television on 20th November 1965 was original titled: “George Orwell 1903-1950.”
36 minutes 1 second.
Recollections of George Orwell by his wife Sonia Orwell, sister Avril Dunn, and friends Malcolm Muggeridge and Cyril Connolly. [Original billing] “From early in his writing career, Eric Blair adopted the nom de plume, which he is now universally known. He became George Orwell. In his will, he emphatically directed that no biography of him should be written. And to insure his wishes were respected, effectively covered up his traces. Blair hid behind Orwell”. The man behind Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm and The Road to Wigan Pier was elusive, but in this programme family and friends share memories of the influential author.
Further BBC Archve on YouTube extra in Words and Wordsmiths theme.
“1973: In Praise of GEORGE ORWELL”
George Orwell, the author of Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, Keep The Aspidistra Flying, The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated and influential writers of the 20th Century. In this extract from Melvyn Bragg’s documentary, contributors – including poet W H Auden, philosopher Noam Chomsky, Labour politician Michael Foot, writer Norman Mailer and novelist Angus Wilson – explain what appeals to them about Orwell’s work. This clip is from George Orwell. Originally broadcast 17 August, 1973.
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George Orwell in 1984. BBC Television Arena.
In 1984 Alan Yentob at the BBC produced with Nigel Williams directing an influential five part series on George Orwell for the iconic ‘Arena’ arts and culture series.
They are unique and significant because in 1984 there were still many contemporaries of George Orwell when he was alive and the interviews with them are clearly an important archive and opportunity to explore so many biographical issues about him.
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George Orwell: 1: Such Such Were the Joys. First broadcast: Thu 29th Dec 1983, 18:00 on BBC Two England
‘From a very early age, perhaps the age of 5 or 6, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer …One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.’
George Orwell is one of the greatest writers England has produced. Tonight and for the next four nights Arena presents a unique full-scale portrait of this remarkable man, filmed in the places where he lived and worked and told in his own words and the words of those who knew him.
The first programme traces Orwell upbringing in a sedate middle-class home near Henley, his horrific experiences at preparatory school, his years at Eton and as a military policeman in Burma – and closes with his sudden and dramatic emergence as a writer with Down and Out in London and Paris, a book drawn from his experiences among vagrants, tramps and outcasts.
Among those appearing are Jacintha Buddicon, Sir John Grotrion, Malcolm Muggeridge, Cyril Connolly and Professor Bernard Crick.
An Arena production.
Available on YouTube:
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George Orwell. 2: The Road to Wigan Pier. First broadcast: Fri 30th Dec 1983, 18:30 on BBC Two England. Arena.
‘Whichever way you turn this curse of class difference confronts you like a wall of stone. Or rather, it is not so much like a stone wall as the plate-glass pane of an aquarium. It is so easy to pretend that it isn’t there, and so impossible to get through it.
Tonight’s episode of the five-part Arena biography tells the story of Orwell’s marriage to Eileen O’Shaughnessy, his growing political awareness and retraces what was to be the most important journey of his life- the trip he made to Wigan and the industrial north in 1936, in an attempt to understand the embittered and divided working class of the 30s. Among those appearing are
Sir Richard Rees , Kay Ekkeval, Geoffrey Gorer and the people of Wigan and Barnsley.
Learning on Screen citation: Arena, George Orwell: The Road to Wigan Pier, 18:30 30/12/1983, BBC2 England, 55 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/RT3F5AA5?bcast=119689186 (Accessed 28 Oct 2025)
Available on YouTube:
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George Orwell. 3: Homage to Catalonia. First broadcast: Mon 2nd Jan 1984, 18:00 on BBC Two England. Arena.
‘I remember saying once to Arthur Koestler “history stopped in 1936”, at which he nodded in immediate understanding. We were both thinking of totalitarianism in general, but more particularly of the Spanish Civil War … I know it is the fashion to say that most of recorded history is lies anyway but what is peculiar to our own age is the abandonment of the idea that history could be truthfully written.’
Orwell, like many of his generation, enlisted to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Filmed in Barcelona and on the Huesca front, where he fought, tonight’s film tells the story of Orwell’s war. It begins as a heroic crusade for a beleaguered socialist state, and ends with disillusion and betrayal, with Orwell fleeing across the Spanish frontier, a wounded and wanted man. Among those appearing are Stafford Cottman, Victor Alba, Enrique Ardroer, Ramon Jurado and Professor Bernard Crick.
Research: Diana Mansfield; Associate producer: Charles Chabot; Producer: Alan Yentob; Director: Nigel Williams. An Arena production.
Available on YouTube:
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George Orwell: 4: The Lion and the Unicorn. First broadcast: Sun 9th Dec 1984, 15:15 on BBC Two England. Arena.
A series of five programmes. For a brief period after the Spanish Civil War Orwell was violently opposed to the coming war with Germany. This Arena film shows his sudden emergence as a patriot in 1940, and closes with the end of the war and the writing of Animal Farm.
Available at YouTube:
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Arena Episode 5. George Orwell: Ninteen Eighty-Four. Sunday, 16 Dec 1984, 15:10 55 mins. BBC2 England
Synopsis:
The last in this series of Arena films about the life and work of George Orwell begins with the tragic death of his wife Eileen in March 1945.
Overcome with grief, and despair at the future for Britain, he retreated to the remote Hebridean island of Jura. There, crippled with tuberculosis, and isolated from the rest of the world, he wrote his last novel: Nineteen Eighty-Four, a nightmare vision of a totalitarian future.
Among those appearing are Avril Dunn, Bill Dunn, Susan Watson, Sonia Orwell, and Richard Blair.
Producer: Alan Yentob
Director: Nigel Williams
Arena, George Orwell: Ninteen Eighty-Four, 15:10 16/12/1984, BBC2 England, 55 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/RT3FCB6C?bcast=119734261 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
Watch on YouTube:
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George Orwell: A Life in Pictures. Saturday, 15 Oct 2005, 23:40 90 mins. BBC4
Synopsis:
Innovative documentary about the great novelist, journalist and essayist, featuring fake ‘archive’ footage in which Chris Langham plays Orwell, speaking Orwell’s words and acting out events described in diaries. The film reveals the man as both an expert in self-reinvention and a crusader for truth.
George Orwell: A Life in Pictures, 23:40 15/10/2005, BBC4, 90 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/001F2B29?bcast=12250054 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1997). Wednesday, 10 Nov 2004, 23:20 100 mins. BBC2 England. Director: Robert Bierman. Script by Alan Plater.
Synopsis:
An adaptation of George Orwell’s classic comic novel about an advertising executive who rebels against the system and a life ruled by money.
At the height of the 1930s Depression, he begins to question his values, and his wife has to stand patiently by as he rebels against all the institutions he sees as bourgeois, and experiments with a life in which financial constraints are irrelevant.
Cast: Harriet Walter; Helena Bonham Carter; Julian Wadham and Richard E. Grant.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying, 23:20 10/11/2004, BBC2 England, 100 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/004DAA2D?bcast=4794069 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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Nineteen Eighty-Four. Thursday, 16 Dec 1954, 21:30 120 mins. BBC Television
Synopsis:
Yvonne Mitchell, Peter Cushing and André Morell in Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, adapted by Nigel Kneale. The action takes place in 1984, in London, the chief city of ‘Airstrip One’ (formerly called Great Britain), now a Province of the State of Oceania.
(Second performance: for details see Sunday at 8.30 p.m.)
Designer: Barry Learoyd
Music: John Hotchkis
Writer: Nigel Keale
Producer: Rudolph Cartier
Director: Rudolph Cartier
Cast: Andre Morell; Arnold Diamond; Campbell Gray; Donald Pleasenc;e Hilda Fenemore; Janet Barrow; Janet Joye; John Baker; Keith Davis; Leonard Sachs; Malcolm Knight; Norman Osborne; Pamela Grant; Peter Cushing; Sydney Bromley; Tony Lyons; Van Boolen; Victor Platt; Wilfred Brambell and Yvonne Mitchell.
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 21:30 16/12/1954, BBC Television, 120 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/RT335F27?bcast=118425807 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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Animal Farm (1955). Sunday, 16 May 2021, 13:10 90 mins. Film Four
Synopsis:
Joy Batchelor and John Halas created Britain’s first animated feature film with this version of George Orwell’s novel about totalitarianism. Farm animals oust their human oppressors and try to create a perfect society. Narrated by Gordon Heath, with the characters and animals voiced by Maurice Denham.
Director: Joy Batchelor.
Animal Farm, 13:10 16/05/2021, FilmFour, 90 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/184910D1?bcast=134486372 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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Great Lives. George Orwell. Friday, 8 Mar 2019, 00:30 30 mins. BBC Radio 4 Extra
Synopsis:
Whilst at school, a young Alan Johnson was given some money by a teacher and told to go and buy four copies of any book for the school library. He headed down the Kings Road in Chelsea, stopping only for a sly cigarette along the way. Having already read ‘Animal Farm’, he picked ‘Keep the Aspidistra Flying’ and yearned for the life of lead character Gordon Comstock. In conversation with Matthew Parris, former Home Secretary Alan Johnson explains why Orwell was crucial to his education and political development. He’s surprised to learn that Orwell is not on the National Curriculum, and insists that Orwell would have hated I.D. cards. They’re joined by Jean Seaton, Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster and Chair of the Orwell Prize. Orwell was in the news recently when the outgoing Director-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, turned down a proposal to erect a statue of George Orwell outside BBC Broadcasting House.
Great Lives, George Orwell, 00:30 08/03/2019, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 30 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/12FC99DA?bcast=128655785 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell: Animal Farm. Saturday, 18 Jan 2020, 14:45 90 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis
Animal Farm opens The Real George Orwell, a celebration of the writer’s life and work. One night, on an English farm, Major the boar recounts his vision of an Utopia where his fellow creatures own the land along with the means of production and are no longer the slaves of humans. Before long, his dream comes true and for a short while all animals really are equal. But the clever pigs educate themselves and soon learn how to extend their own power, inevitably at the expense of the rest of the community. Narrator ….. Tamsin Greig Napoleon …..Nicky Henson Squealer ….. Toby Jones Snowball ….. Patrick Brennan Boxer ….. Ralph Ineson Clover ….. Liza Sadovy Major ….. Robert Blythe Benjamin ….. Paul Stonehouse Muriel ….. Sarah Thom Mollie ….. Lizzy Watts. With Eleanor Crooks, Ben Crowe, Will Howard, Gerard McDermott, Adam Nagaitis and Stephanie Racine. Musical director ….. Neil Brand. Adapted from his own novel by George Orwell himself. Director ….. Alison Hindell.
The Real George Orwell: Animal Farm, 14:45 18/01/2020, BBC Radio 4, 90 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02EE40AE?bcast=131076395 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell season on BBC Radio 4 produced and broadcast in 2013.
See BBC series website at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pyz0z
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The Real George Orwell: Burma. Episode 1. Monday, 20 Jan 2020, 14:15 45 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
By Mike Walker The first of four dramas featuring episodes in the life of Eric Blair. After an undistinguished academic career at Eton, Eric leaves in December 1921. Unlike most of his friends, his parents can’t afford to send him to University. When the girl he hopes to marry rejects him, he sets sail for Burma to join the colonial police. His experiences in Burma will affect him profoundly. They will give him material for essays such as ‘A Hanging’ and ‘Shooting An Elephant’, and his first novel, ‘Burmese Days’ – and they will begin to shape his political thinking. When he rejects the Empire and returns to England, Blair begins to spend more and more time with the poor. Eric Blair . . . Joseph Millson; Jacintha Buddicom . . . Sophie Roberts; Wilson . . . Joseph Kloska; Inspector d’Souza . . . Ernest Ignatius; Burmese youth . . . Armaan Kirmani; Man on Train . . . Derek Riddel;l Ted . . . Alun Raglan; A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.
The Real George Orwell: Burma, 14:15 20/01/2020, BBC Radio 4, 45 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02EEC477?bcast=131089645 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell: Dreaming. Episode 2. Tuesday, 21 Jan 2020, 14:15 45 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis
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.
The Real George Orwell: Dreaming, 14:15 21/01/2020, BBC Radio 4, 45 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F0B14A?bcast=131097498 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell: Loving. Episode 3. Wednesday, 22 Jan 2020, 14:15 45 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
By Jonathan Holloway. The third of four dramas featuring episodes in the life of Eric Blair. Eric Blair’s relationship with the opposite sex could be a distraught one; over the course of his lifetime, he made several awkward marriage proposals to different women. But his relationship with Eileen O’Shaugnessy, whom he married in 1935, had a huge influence both on his life and his writing. This drama explores the nine years of their relationship. Eric Blair . . . Joseph Millson; Eileen O’Shaugnessy/Blair . . . Lyndsey Marshal; Dorothy . . . Isabella Marshall; Lydia Jackson . . . Vera Filatova; Inspector Summerfield . . . Dick Bradnum; Len . . . Alun Raglan. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.
The Real George Orwell: Loving, 14:15 22/01/2020, BBC Radio 4, 45 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F2037F?bcast=131109401 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell: Jura. Episode 4. Thursday, 23 Jan 2020, 14:15 45 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
By Jonathan Holloway. The last of four plays featuring episodes in the life of Eric Blair. In 1947, the year after Eileen’s death, Eric leaves London and moves to Jura, with his sister Avril, and his three year old son. He is suffering from tuberculosis, but is determined to try and make a go of living off the land. But most of all he is determined to finish Nineteen Eighty-Four, his final book. Eric Blair…Joseph Millson; Avril Blair…Liza Sadovy; David Holbrook… Adam Nagaitis; Sonia Orwell …Stephanie Racine; Ricky Blair…James Foster; Henry…Will Howard; Lucy…Alexandra Guelff; Jane…Lizzie Watts. 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.
The Real George Orwell: Jura, 14:15 23/01/2020, BBC Radio 4, 45 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F345CF?bcast=131114836 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell: Dramatisation of Homage to Catalonia. Part One. Tuesday, 28 Jan 2020, 03:00 60 mins. BBC Radio 4 Extra.
Synopsis:
In 1936 Eric and Eileen Blair were making ends meet by running a small village shop in Wallington and growing vegetables. Eric had recently sent ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ to Victor Gollancz, hoping it would be published. But then news came from Spain that Franco’s Nationalists had risen up against the elected Republican government. In the first of a two-part autobiographical account, Eric decides to go to Spain – not just to record the struggle but to fight the Fascists. Unusually tall, and with size 12 feet, he immediately stood out amongst the locals. He joined a badly organised and ill equipped militia, armed with dud bombs and rusty guns. It was a decision that would nearly cost him his life, and produce one of the most vivid accounts of the Spanish Civil War. Adapted by Mike Walker. Eric Blair …… Joseph Millson; Eileen Blair …… Lyndsey Marshal; Georges Kopp …… Ewan Bailey; Spanish volunteer …… Javier Marzan; Jack Hywel …… John Henry; Miller …… Richard Laing John.
he Real George Orwell: Homage to Catalonia, 03:00 28/01/2020, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02EA6E0A?bcast=131146279 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell. Dramatisaton of Homage to Catalonia. Part Two. Wednesday, 29 Jan 2020, 03:00 60 mins BBC Radio 4 Extra
Synopsis:
The fighting at the front is deadlocked. Freezing temperatures, ancient guns and dud ammunition only add to their woes. The conclusion of Eric Blair’s autobiographical account of the Spanish Civil War adapted by Mike Walker. Eric’s spirits are cheered by a visit from his wife, Eileen, but when they take the train to Barcelona they find the atmosphere changed. Last time there were no class divisions, no masters and servants, only comrades. Now the waiters are calling their customers ‘Sir’ again. To add to the confusion the different factions of the Left are all fighting each other. Then Georges Kopp is arrested and imprisoned; others are tortured. The Blairs begin to realise they are in terrible danger and must flee for their lives. Eric Blair …… Joseph Millson; Eileen Blair …… Lyndsey Marshal; Georges Kopp …… Ewan Bailey; Spanish volunteer …… Javier Marzan; Jack Hywel …… John; Henry Miller …… Richard Laing; John McNair …… John McAndrew; Benjamin …… Jon Lolis.
The Real George Orwell: Homage to Catalonia, 03:00 29/01/2020, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F0A486?bcast=131156516 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell. Dramatisation of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Episode One. Thursday, 30 Jan 2020, 03:00 60 mins. BBC Radio 4 Extra
Synopsis:
Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth. Sick and separated from his wife, he lives alone in a one-room flat in Victory Mansions in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. One of the most influential novels of the 20th century, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was first published in 1949. Dramatised by Jonathan Holloway. Winston Smith…Christopher Eccleston; Julia…Pippa Nixon; O’Brien…Tim Pigott-Smith; Parsons…Kim Wall; Charrington …Robert Blythe; Syme …Sam Alexander; Prostitute…Susie Riddell. With Christine Absalom, Don Gilet, Joe Sims and Joshua Swinney. Director: Jeremy Mortimer. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2013.
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 03:00 30/01/2020, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F1DAA8?bcast=131161997 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell. Dramatisation of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Episode Two. Friday, 31 Jan 2020, 03:00 60 mins. BBC Radio 4 Extra
Synopsis:
Dramatised by Jonathan Holloway Winston Smith has found love and comfort with Julia, and now they are determined to join the Brotherhood, a secret, counter-revolutionary organisation pledged to destroy The Party. But for The Party’s enemies, deep in the Ministry of Love, there is the threat of Room 101. Directed by Jeremy Mortimer.
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 03:00 31/01/2020, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F338D0?bcast=131167626 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell: The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four. Archive Hour. Monday, 18 Feb 2013, 17:00 60 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
What led avowed socialist George Orwell to write a novel beloved of the Right? David Aaronovitch traces how a decade of political chaos shaped Orwell’s vision of a totalitarian future. He explores how, after the war, the threat of the new atom bomb played a crucial part in the birth of Nineteen Eighty-Four – and how Orwell coined the term ‘cold war’ in the process. He traces the impact on the novel of the provocative ideas of an American ex-communist, James Burnham, who predicted a world dominated by three tyrannical superstates.
He finds out why Orwell saw some form of Western European Union as the best way to prevent Britain being swallowed by Big Brother. And he asks why, if Orwell was an English socialist, the totalitarian party ruling ‘Oceania’ in Nineteen Eighty-Four is called ‘IngSoc’ – which is short for ‘English Socialists’. With Peter Davison, Frances Stonor Saunders, DJ Taylor, Hugh Wilford.
Producer: Phil Tinline.
The Real George Orwell: The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four, 17:00 18/02/2013, BBC Radio 4, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F1D5B6?bcast=94006928 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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George Orwell – Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Tuesday, 23 Jun 2015, 03:00 60 mins. BBC 7
Synopsis:
In 1930s London, would-be poet Gordon Comstock tries not to conform. George Orwell drama with Jonathan Tafler and Polly James.
George Orwell – Keep the Aspidistra Flying, 03:00 23/06/2015, BBC 7, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/01262021?bcast=115895185 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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I Was George Orwell’s Pupil. Monday, 14 Sep 2015, 16:00 30 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Andrew McGibbon presents the series that analyses great artists at a significant time in their careers – but from the perspective of someone who worked for them, inspired them, employed them, was taught by them or even did their job for them while no one was looking.
In 1932, George Orwell was still known as Eric Blair and supporting himself by teaching in a private middle school run by tradesmen in semi-rural Hayes, West London.
Geoffrey Stevens was one of his pupils during the year that saw him publish his first book – Down and Out in Paris and London – and also change his name from Eric Blair to George Orwell.
Geoffrey, now 96, remembers Orwell teaching him French – badly, Orwell’s harsh classroom style and reliance on corporal punishment, his avuncular after school country walks to look for puss moth larva and collect marsh gas, and Orwell directing the school play which he wrote himself.
He recalls how Orwell was driven mad by the school owner’s wife playing Baptist hymns on the piano late into the night, the curious role of the school parrot during mealtimes and Orwell coming round for tea with Geoffrey’s mum and dad and giving him more homework as a result.
It’s a fragment of time that reveals fascinating and mundane insights to George Orwell, a powerful sense of early thirties suburban London during the depression and the story of an underperforming pupil who went on to run two businesses and, at nearly 100, still walks 30 miles a week.
Written and presented by Andrew McGibbon
Reader: Gunnar Cauthery
Produced by Nick Romero and Andrew McGibbon
A Curtains For Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
I Was…, George Orwell’s Pupil, 16:00 14/09/2015, BBC Radio 4, 30 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/0AC669F6?bcast=116450812 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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A Point of View. Why Orwell Is the Supreme Mediocrity. Sunday, 31 Aug 2014, 08:48 10 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Will Self takes on one of the nation’s best loved figures, George Orwell…..and braces himself for the backlash! “Not Orwell, surely!” he hears the listeners cry.
He uses Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language” to make his point. This – he says – is often seen as “a principled assault upon all the jargon, obfuscation, and pretentiously Frenchified folderol that deforms our noble tongue”. That – in Self’s view – couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Describing Orwell as a “Supreme Mediocrity”, Self gets to work…..
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
A Point of View, Why Orwell Is the Supreme Mediocrity, 08:48 31/08/2014, BBC Radio 4, 10 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/078FCD76?bcast=114037658 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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Beyond Belief. George Orwell’s allegorical novel ‘Animal Farm’. Monday, 17 Aug 2020, 16:30 30 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
George Orwell’s allegorical novel ‘Animal Farm’ was first published on 17th August 1945 and has never been out of print. It tells the story of a group of exploited animals who take over their farm and attempt to create an ideal society. On the face of it, ‘Animal Farm’ is not a religious book – it is a criticism of Stalin and his totalitarian regime – and Orwell is often described as an atheist. However in this edition of Beyond Belief, Ernie Rea discusses the influence of religion on Orwell and his writing. He is joined by Jean Seaton (Director of the Orwell Foundation and Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster), Michael Brennan (author of the book ‘George Orwell and Religion’ and Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leeds) and the priest and author the Rev Marie-Elsa Bragg. Producer: Helen Lee
Beyond Belief, 16:30 17/08/2020, BBC Radio 4, 30 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/16AC9E2E?bcast=132602062 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. Book at Bedtime reading. Episode 1. Monday, 28 Jan 2013, 22:45 15 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Written when Orwell was a struggling writer in his twenties, this vivid memoir documents the author’s first contact with poverty, initially working as a dishwasher in Paris and surviving on scraps from the kitchen, and later, on his return to London, living in doss houses and hostels among tramps and down and outs. In this groundbreaking book he gave a human face to the statistics of poverty for the first time and, in so doing, found his voice as a writer. Read by Joseph Millson.
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London, 22:45 28/01/2013, BBC Radio 4, 15 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02EEC61D?bcast=93529443 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. Episode 2. Tuesday, 29 Jan 2013, 22:45 15 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Orwell’s vivid memoir of his time living among the poor as a young man. Read by Joseph Millson. 2: Living in Paris with no money to his name, Orwell needs a job. He turns to Boris, a Russian refugee with experience of the restaurant trade, for help.
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London, 22:45 29/01/2013, BBC Radio 4, 15 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02EED976?bcast=93534343 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. Episode 3. Wednesday, 30 Jan 2013, 22:45 15 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Written when Orwell was a struggling writer in his twenties, this vivid memoir documents the author’s first contact with poverty. 3: Orwell finds work as a plongeur – a slave’s slave – washing dishes for 14 hours a day in a stifling inferno of a cellar, deafened by oaths and the clanging of pots and pans. Read by Joseph Millson.
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London, 22:45 30/01/2013, BBC Radio 4, 15 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02EF16B7?bcast=93601842 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. Episode 4. Thursday, 31 Jan 2013, 22:45 15 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Orwell’s vivid memoir of his time living among the poor as a young man. Read by Joseph Millson. 4: The author considers the hierarchy among the hard-pressed restaurant workers of Paris, where he discovers that no-one wears a moustache except the cooks.
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London, 22:45 31/01/2013, BBC Radio 4, 15 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02EF1009?bcast=93606734 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. Episode 5. Friday, 1 Feb 2013, 22:45 15 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Orwell’s vivid memoir of his time living among the poor as a young man. Read by Joseph Millson. 5: On his time off from work, Orwell enjoys the bistro life of Paris’s Latin Quarter and the characters he meets.
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London, 22:45 01/02/2013, BBC Radio 4, 15 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02EF1270?bcast=93611594 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. Episode 6. Monday, 4 Feb 2013, 22:45 15 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Orwell’s vivid memoir of his time living among the poor as a young man. Read by Joseph Millson. 6: After several months slaving as a dishwasher in Paris, Orwell returns to England. But when the job he was promised fails to materialise, he finds himself down and out once more and sees London from a totally new perspective.
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London, 22:45 04/02/2013, BBC Radio 4, 15 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F0B7CC?bcast=93688882 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. Episode 7. Tuesday, 5 Feb 2013, 22:45 15 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Orwell’s vivid memoir of his time living among the poor as a young man. Read by Joseph Millson. 7: Back home in England, but down and out once more, Orwell makes the acquaintance of an Irish tramp, who introduces him to life on the road and nights in various shelters.
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London, 22:45 05/02/2013, BBC Radio 4, 15 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F0B7D8?bcast=93693817 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. Episode 8. Wednesday, 6 Feb 2013, 22:45 15 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Orwell’s vivid memoir of his time living among the poor as a young man. Read by Joseph Millson. 8: Orwell befriends a tramp called Paddy, and they seek shelter in a Salvation Army hostel, where Orwell is struck by the range of men who find themselves down and out.
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London, 22:45 06/02/2013, BBC Radio 4, 15 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F0C3D6?bcast=93761614 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. Episode 9. Thursday, 7 Feb 2013, 22:45 15 mins. BBC Radio 4.
Synopsis:
Orwell’s vivid memoir of his time living among the poor as a young man. Read by Joseph Millson. 9: Down and out in London, Orwell meets a couple of pavement artists and considers society’s attitudes to those who are forced to beg. Then, forced by the system to move on to new accommodation, he takes to the road, leaving London for the leafy lanes of Lower Binfield.
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London, 22:45 07/02/2013, BBC Radio 4, 15 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F1047C?bcast=93829233 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. Episode 10. Friday, 8 Feb 2013, 22:45 15 mins. BBC Radio 4
Synopsis:
Orwell’s vivid memoir of his time living among the poor as a young man. Read by Joseph Millson. 10: Orwell discovers that it is not the lack of money or the hunger that dispirits him most, but the boredom that goes hand in hand with poverty.
The Real George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London, 22:45 08/02/2013, BBC Radio 4, 15 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02F10B2B?bcast=93834111 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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Coming Up For Air (Omnibus). Monday, 27 Jan 2020, 02:30 75 mins. BBC Radio 4 Extra
Synopsis:
An overweight, married, middle-aged insurance salesman surveys his life while reflecting on the country he finds himself living in. George Orwell’s novel is read by Tim McInnerny. Written in 1939, Coming Up For Air was published just before the outbreak of the Second World War and offers premonitions of the impending conflict with images of an idyllic Thames-side Edwardian-era childhood at the same time as taking a rather dim view of capitalism and its effects on the best of rural England. The reviews were among the best that Orwell had received for a novel. It sold 3,000 copies – a considerable improvement on the response to his previous works. Omnibus of the last five of ten episodes abridged by Ellin Stein. Read by Tim McInnerny. Produced by Clive Brill A Brill production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in January 2019.
Coming Up For Air (Omnibus), 02:30 27/01/2020, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 75 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/154AF1B6?bcast=131138503 (Accessed 26 Sep 2024)
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Orwell vs Kafka BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds 2024.
Ian Hislop and Helen Lewis explore the extent to which the works of George Orwell and Franz Kafka continue to express the reality and frustration of life in the 21st century.
BBC Sounds See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m00201sm
BBC Radio 4 See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00201sm
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Episode One. Battle of the Adjectives 08 Jun 2024 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00201vk
In the first episode of Orwell vs Kafka, Ian Hislop and Helen Lewis explore the two adjectives that have arisen from the writing of both men. But what exactly do we mean by Orwellian or Kafkaesque?
Professor Carolin Duttlinger of Wadham College, Oxford and Orwell Biographer DJ Taylor are on hand to wrestle with definitions, while Ian and Helen also hear from New Yorker cartoonist Evan Lian, who made fun of people who use the terms endlessly.
They also find a vivid illustration of the very particular dystopias conjured up by both Orwell and Kafka in the form of the Post Office horizon scandal, hearing from Alan Bates about his experience of striving against injustice in a system that seemed stacked against him.
Producer: Tom Alban
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Episode Two Telescreens 08 Jun 2024 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00201w2
We’re often told that as a nation we’re subject to more camera surveillance than most, and Helen speaks to Gavin Saul of Verrimus, a Newcastle based company specialising in technical surveillance counter measures, to measure the truth of that. He describes the extent of modern surveillance and the acceptance of it through what he refers to as normalcy bias, the shrugged shoulder reaction to the reality of smart phone dependence.
Helen and Ian are also joined by Silkie Carlo of Big Brother Watch, an organisation that took it’s name from Orwell’s dystopian vision of a people permanently under surveillance. She talks about the extent to which Orwell’s warning was prescient, as was Kafka’s awareness that surveillance often becomes internalised, with the subjects effectively policing themselves.
And they lighten the tone somewhat in a conversation with Anna Nolan, the runner up on the first UK TV production of Big Brother House. Anna recalls what it felt like to be under surveillance for the sake of entertainment, and why there was an inevitable air of religiosity about accepting the presence of an all-seeing eye, something that hovers in the background of both Kafka and Orwell’s writing.
Producer: Tom Alban
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Episode Three Doublethink 08 Jun 2024 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00201wl
George Orwell’s 1984 gave us a whole vocabulary to describe the techniques of modern tyranny: from Newspeak, to Doublethink, the Thought Police, and Big Brother, in many ways the language he created is Orwell’s biggest legacy.
In today’s world of half-truths and ‘alternative facts’, Orwell’s 1984 has never felt more relevant. The novel remains the book we turn to when facts are questioned, the truth is distorted and power is abused. Franz Kafka’s work plays a similar role: in February 2024, Russian human rights defender Oleg Orlov sat reading ‘The Trial’ in a Moscow courtroom during his own trial.
Helen Lewis and Ian Hislop find out how and why our duo’s writing is still so potent today.
Guests:
Masha Karp, author of “George Orwell and Russia”
Dorian Lynskey, author of “The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell’s 1984”
Professor Carolin Duttlinger of Wadham College, Oxford
Steve Rosenberg, BBC Russia Editor.
Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
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Episode Four Uneasy Dreams 09 Jun 2024 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00201sl
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” – Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka, 1915.
In this episode Helen Lewis and Ian Hislop talk anxiety and alienation. From Gregor Samsa being transformed into a giant insect, to shouting at a telescreen in 1984’s Two Minutes Hate – Ian and Helen discover why these anxiety ridden images still connect with readers today.
Guests:
Dr Karolina Watroba of All Souls College, Oxford
Dr Nathan Waddell of the University of Birmingham
Wolfgang Hantel-Quitmann, Professor of Clinical and Family Psychology.
Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
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Episode Five But I’m Not Guilty 09 Jun 2024 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00201st
With his nightmare visions of miscarriages of justice and petty authorities in his novel ‘The Trial’ Franz Kafka foresaw the powerlessness and frustration many of us feel in the face of faceless corporations and bureaucracies today. George Orwell’s ‘1984’ depicts a society where citizens are conditioned, monitored and made to live in eternal fear without protest.
In this episode of Orwell vs Kafka, Helen Lewis and Ian Hislop look at powerlessness – and why both our writers were obsessed with it.
Guests:
DJ Taylor, George Orwell biographer
Dr Karolina Watroba of All Souls College, Oxford
Professor Robert Douglas-Fairhurst of Magdalen College, Oxford
With thanks to Charles Games, makers of the “Playing Kafka” video game.
Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
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Episode Six After Life 09 Jun 2024 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00201t9
Having explored the impact George Orwell and Franz Kafka have had on the language we use, the psychological anxieties we experience and the dystopian frustrations that seem rife in 2024, Ian Hislop and Helen Lewis turn their attention to the future. Will the stories created by two writers from fading 20th century European Empires continue to resonate across the globe, and how potent is that resonance beyond the west. Helen speaks to the Booker winning author Shehan Karunatilaka about his experience of both men’s work and his own dystopian afterlife novel ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’. They’re also joined in the studio by Professor Laura Beers, author of Orwell’s Ghosts and Professor Carolin Duttlinger of Wadham College, Oxford.
But they begin the programme with some priceless recollections from the BBC archive from listeners who had seen the first TV adaptation of Orwell’s novel in December 1954, a programme that counted amongst its audience the then monarch Queen Elizabeth I. And then there was the typically British reaction to the dark foreboding of political satire and angst – an episode of the Goons Show which went out a month later called ‘1985’.
Producer: Tom Alban
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Orwell vs Kafka: Nineteen Eighty-Four 2024
Special readings from Orwell’s dystopian classic, now celebrating its 75th anniversary.
There were six one hour readings available during 2024 on these BBC iplayer links:
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1: ‘Big Brother Is Watching You’. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00201vg
Orwell vs Kafka: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Episode 1 of 6
Martin Freeman kicks of a day of readings from Nineteen Eighty-Four, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Orwell’s great dystopian novel, as part of Radio 4’s ‘Orwell vs Kafka’ season.
Other readers include: Tom Hollander, Juliet Stevenson, Samuel West, Adjoa Andoh and Rhashan Stone.
The year is 1984. War and revolution have left the world unrecognisable. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, is ruled by the Party, and its leader, Big Brother, stares out from every poster. The Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal, and no one is free. Winston Smith works at The Ministry of Truth, carefully rewriting history, but he dreams of freedom and of rebellion. When he falls in love with Julia, their affair is an act of rebellion against the Party. But nothing is secret. And Room 101 awaits…
Orwell’s cautionary tale was first published in 1949, and is one of the 20th century’s most influential novels.
Today: Simply by opening a diary, Winston Smith has committed Thoughtcrime. And Big Brother is watching…
Reader: Martin Freeman is an award-winning actor, known for his film and TV roles, including The Office, Sherlock, and The Hobbit film trilogy.
Writer: George Orwell was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, known best for his novels Animal Farm and 1984.
Abridger: Robin Brooks
Producer: Justine Willett
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2: ‘If there is hope, it lies in the proles.’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00201vp
Orwell vs Kafka: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Episode 2 of 6
The next in a day of readings from Nineteen Eighty-Four, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Orwell’s great dystopian novel, as part of Radio 4’s ‘Orwell vs Kafka’ season.
Other readers include: Martin Freeman, Tom Hollander, Juliet Stevenson, Samuel West and Adjoa Andoh.
The year is 1984. War and revolution have left the world unrecognisable. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, is ruled by the Party, and its leader, Big Brother, stares out from every poster. The Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal, and no one is free. Winston Smith works at The Ministry of Truth, carefully rewriting history, but he dreams of freedom and of rebellion. When he falls in love, the affair is an act of rebellion against the Party. But nothing is secret. And Room 101 awaits…
Orwell’s cautionary tale was first published in 1949, and is one of the 20th century’s most influential novels.
Today: Winston is unnerved by attention from a dark-haired girl from the Anti-Sex League. Could she be a spy?
Reader: Rhashan Stone
Writer: George Orwell
Abridger: Robin Brooks
Producer: Justine Willett
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3: ‘Have you done this before?’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00201w0
Orwell vs Kafka: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Episode 3 of 6
Juliet Stevenson continues a day of readings from Nineteen Eighty-Four, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Orwell’s great dystopian novel, as part of Radio 4’s ‘Orwell vs Kafka’ season.
Other readers include: Martin Freeman, Tom Hollander, Samuel West, Rhashan Stone and Adjoa Andoh.
The year is 1984. War and revolution have left the world unrecognisable. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, is ruled by the Party, and its leader, Big Brother, stares out from every poster. The Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal, and no one is free. Winston Smith works at The Ministry of Truth, carefully rewriting history, but he dreams of freedom and of rebellion. When he falls in love, the affair is an act of rebellion against the Party. But nothing is secret. And Room 101 awaits…
Orwell’s cautionary tale was first published in 1949, and is one of the 20th century’s most influential novels.
Today: the girl with the dark hair passes Winston a note – and everything changes….
Reader: Juliet Stevenson
Writer: George Orwell
Abridger: Robin Brooks
Producer: Justine Willett
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4: ‘We are the dead.’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00201wj
Orwell vs Kafka: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Episode 4 of 6
Adjoa Andoh continues a day of readings from Nineteen Eighty-Four, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Orwell’s great dystopian novel, as part of Radio 4’s ‘Orwell vs Kafka’ season.
Other readers include: Martin Freeman, Tom Hollander, Juliet Stevenson, Rhashan Stone and Samuel West.
The year is 1984. War and revolution have left the world unrecognisable. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, is ruled by the Party, and its leader, Big Brother, stares out from every poster. The Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal, and no one is free. Winston Smith works at The Ministry of Truth, carefully rewriting history, but he dreams of freedom and of rebellion. When he falls in love, the affair is an act of rebellion against the Party. But nothing is secret. And Room 101 awaits…
Today: now convinced that an opposition to the Party must exist, Winston risks all when he takes Julia to O’Brien’s flat…
Reader: Adjoa Andoh
Writer: George Orwell
Abridger: Robin Brooks
Producer: Karen Holden
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5: 2 + 2 = 5. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00201wn
Orwell vs Kafka: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Episode 5 of 6
Samuel West continues a day of readings from Nineteen Eighty-Four, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Orwell’s great dystopian novel, as part of Radio 4’s ‘Orwell vs Kafka’ season.
The year is 1984. War and revolution have left the world unrecognisable. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, is ruled by the Party, and its leader, Big Brother, stares out from every poster. The Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal, and no one is free. Winston Smith works at The Ministry of Truth, carefully rewriting history, but he dreams of freedom and of rebellion. When he falls in love, the affair is an act of rebellion against the Party. But nothing is secret. And Room 101 awaits…
Orwell’s cautionary tale was first published in 1949, and is one of the 20th century’s most influential novels.
Today: Winston and Julia read Goldstein’s book in their tranquil haven above Charrington’s shop. But Big Brother is watching…
Reader: Samuel West
Writer: George Orwell
Abridger: Robin Brooks
Producer: Justine Willett
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6: ‘Do it to Julia!’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00201ws
Orwell vs Kafka: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Episode 6 of 6
Tom Hollander ends a day of readings from Nineteen Eighty-Four, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Orwell’s great dystopian novel, as part of Radio 4’s ‘Orwell vs Kafka’ season.
The year is 1984. War and revolution have left the world unrecognisable. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, is ruled by the Party, and its leader, Big Brother, stares out from every poster. The Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal, and no one is free. Winston Smith works at The Ministry of Truth, carefully rewriting history, but he dreams of freedom and of rebellion. When he falls in love, the affair is an act of rebellion against the Party. But nothing is secret in 1984.
Orwell’s cautionary tale was first published in 1949, and is one of the 20th century’s most influential novels.
Today: Room 101 awaits, as O’Brien continues Winston’s interrogation. But will he betray Julia?
Reader: Tom Hollander
Writer: George Orwell
Abridger: Robin Brooks
Producer: Justine Willett
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Nineteen Eighty-Four In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bz77
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell’s (1903-1950) final novel, published in 1949, set in a dystopian London which is now found in Airstrip One, part of the totalitarian superstate of Oceania which is always at war and where the protagonist, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth as a rewriter of history: ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ The influence of Orwell’s novel is immeasurable, highlighting threats to personal freedom with concepts he named such as doublespeak, thoughtcrime, Room 101, Big Brother, memory hole and thought police.
With David Dwan
Professor of English Literature and Intellectual History at the University of Oxford
Lisa Mullen
Teaching Associate in Modern Contemporary Literature at the University of Cambridge
And John Bowen
Professor of English Literature at the University of York
Producer: Simon Tillotson
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Animal Farm In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07wgkz4
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Animal Farm, which Eric Blair published under his pen name George Orwell in 1945.
A biting critique of totalitarianism, particularly Stalinism, the essay sprung from Orwell’s experiences fighting Fascists in Spain: he thought that all on the left were on the same side, until the dominant Communists violently suppressed the Anarchists and Trotskyists, and Orwell had to escape to France to avoid arrest.
Setting his satire in an English farm, Orwell drew on the Russian Revolution of 1917, on Stalin’s cult of personality and the purges. The leaders on Animal Farm are pigs, the secret police are attack dogs, the supporters who drown out debate with “four legs good, two legs bad” are sheep.
At first, London publishers did not want to touch Orwell’s work out of sympathy for the USSR, an ally of Britain in the Second World War, but the Cold War gave it a new audience and Animal Farm became a commercial as well as a critical success.
Featuring:
Steven Connor – Grace 2 Professor of English at the University of Cambridge
Mary Vincent – Professor of Modern European History at the University of Sheffield
Robert Colls – Professor of Cultural History at De Montfort University
Producer: Simon Tillotson
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The retrieval, discovery and rebroadcast of BBC Radio’s first full-length dramatisation of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four which was first aired as the Sunday Play on the BBC’s radio Home Service on 11th October 1965.
This had been released by BBC Sounds in 2025 in the ‘Hidden Treasures Project’ and broadcast by BBC Radio Four Extra on 1st and 2nd April 2025
Unfortunately, it is no longer available on BBC Sounds/BBC iPlayer.
It is, however, available on Learning on Screen via subscription.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1965) Tuesday, 1 Apr 2025, 20:30 90 mins BBC Radio 4 Extra
Synopsis: 4 Extra Debut. Winston Smith sets out to rebel against the omnipresent political state – Big Brother. Stars Patrick Troughton and Sylvia Syms. Genre, Drama
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 20:30 01/04/2025, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 90 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/3C492AB6?bcast=142813563 (Accessed 05 Aug 2025)
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 04:30 02/04/2025, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 90 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/3C492AB6?bcast=142818407 (Accessed 05 Aug 2025)
This archive ressurection is a result of the Radio Circle/Hidden Treasures and BBC Archives project.
This is a very reasonable quality recording from the original broadcast and production. There is some ‘print through’ from the orginal reel to reel recording, but it is high quality compaed to an off-air Medium Wave version which has been on YouTube.
I believe this was the first full length dramatisation of Nineteen Eighty-Four by BBC Radio and I think it is a really impressive one from the radio drama production point of view and audio drama aesthetics. Patrick Troughton and Sylvia Syms give excellent performances.
There was a false trail that Martin Esslin had written a dramatisation which was produced and broadcast by BBC Radio in the 1950s, but my exhaustive searching of all BBC Written Archives of PSBs and script catalogues by BBC Home and Overseas services did not find any such record and no such dramatisation script exists in Martin’s personal papers donated to Oxford University.
I suspect the false trail may emanate from the fact that as Editor/Head of BBC Radio drama succeedng Val Gielgud in 1963, he was responsible for commissioning the dramatisation from experienced radio producer/adapter Eric Ewens.
Cast list and credits:-
Dramatised by Eric Ewens.
Winston Smith …. Patrick Troughton
Julia Brown …. Sylvia Syms
O’Brien …. John Collin
Charrington …. Hector Ross
Goldstein …. Cyril Shaps
TV Announcer …. Michael McClain
Parsons …. John Dearth
Mrs Parsons …. Cecile Chevreau
Old Man …. Norman Wynne
Syme …. Allan McClelland
Jane Parsons …. Elizabeth Proud
Peter Parsons …. Brian Hewlett
Gwenda/Waitress …. Mary Wimbush
Martin/Ampleforth …. Gordon Faith
Director: John Gibson
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1965: NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR – the Controversial 1954 BBC adaptation | Making of | BBC Archive
Late Night Line-Up looks back on the 1954 BBC television adaptation of George Orwell’s “1984”, starring Peter Cushing, Yvonne Mitchell, Donald Pleasance and André Morell.
The television play was performed live on the evening of Sunday 12th December and proved to be extremely controversial, drawing both intense criticism and praise from sections of the press and an unprecedented number of viewer complaints. Such was the strength of feeling that the play was even the subject of several Early Day Motions in Parliament.
In spite of the furore, the BBC proceeded with a repeat performance on Thursday 16th December, which – perhaps because of all the controversy surrounding it – drew the highest viewing figures of any BBC television broadcast since the Coronation.
Michael Dean discusses the play with its director Rudolph Cartier and scriptwriter Nigel Kneale, who had previously worked together successfully on The Quatermass Experiment. Were they taken aback by the audience’s response to 1984? Dean also speaks to cast members Peter Cushing, Yvonne Mitchell and Andre Morell about how they felt having to do the repeat performance, knowing the extreme reaction the original broadcast had elicited, and level of scrutiny that they would face. Did they feel that the BBC was right to go ahead with the repeat?
Clip taken from Late Night Line-Up, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 27 November, 1965.
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Steve Wadhams CBC Canada Orwell Tapes series
The Orwell Tapes, Part 1
CBC News · Posted: Aug 16, 2017 8:30 AM EDT | Last Updated: August 16, 2017
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-orwell-tapes-part-1-1.3513191
The Orwell Tapes, Part 2
CBC News · Posted: Aug 23, 2017 9:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: August 23, 2017
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-orwell-tapes-part-2-1.3527732
The Orwell Tapes, Part 3
CBC News · Posted: Aug 30, 2017 8:05 AM EDT | Last Updated: August 30, 2017
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-orwell-tapes-part-3-1.3540777
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George Orwell’s “1984” (1956 US Columbia Pictures Corporation)
Drama/Sci-Fi | Edmond O’Brien, Michael Redgrave
In a totalitarian future society, Winston Smith, whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love.
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US live studio television broadcast from 1953 with restoration on YouTube.
Studio One – George Orwell’s “1984”
‘This was the premiere episode of season six of Studio One, September 21st, 1953. The kinescope film has been cleaned up and the original frame rate of live television restored, so that you may enjoy this as it was intended to be seen. The film did not have the intro, commercials, or segues; so I added the intro and commercial from an episode that aired the same season for continuity of experience.’
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BBC Alba (In Scottish Gallic with English Subtitles) Sar-Sgeoil – Nineteen Eighty-four (2021)
Cathy MacDonald reveals George Orwell’s time on Jura, and the writing of 1984. Cathy Dhòmhnallach ag innse mar a chaidh le Orwell ann an Diùraidh, agus sgrìobhadh 1984.
Available via Learning on Screen (subscription required) Sar-Sgeoil – Nineteen Eighty-four, 21:00 01/12/2022, BBC Alba, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/3BF07F71?bcast=137929793 (Accessed 23 Mar 2026)
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This posting is still in development and will be updated.
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