Radio Archives - Helen McCrory

Minuet by Harriet O’Carroll on BBC4 Radio Extra

On April 14, 2022April 14, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

Helen as Jane Austen? Yes, please!

Helenistic | helen-mccrory.com | April 14, 2022

BBC4 Radio Extra has now made Harriett O’Carroll’s Minuet – an hour long radio play – available for a month. Don’t miss this fantastic play in which Helen McCrory gives life to novelist Jane Austen! The story focuses on Austen’s real-life love affair with the son of a Limerick army officer, Tom Leffroy. This affair fuelled Austen’s desire to become a writer.

Starring Helen McCrory as Jane Austen.

Written by Harriet O’Carroll.

Jane Austen …. Helen McCrory
Tom …. John Light
Mr Austen …. John Rowe
Mrs Austen …. Paula Jacobs
Eliza …. Geraldine Fitzgerald

With Frances Jeater, Tilly Gaunt, Giles Pagan and Harry Myers.

Director: Cherry Cookson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1999.

You can listen to Minuet in its entirety here.

‘It’s a show about love’: Desert Island Discs celebrates 80 years on air

On January 23, 2022January 23, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory’s DID is among the 5 Key Shows

By Donna Ferguson | The Guardian | January 23, 2022

As the radio classic marks a major anniversary, it’s the shared human experience revealed by the castaways that keeps us hooked

Louis Armstrong, Helen McCrory and George Michael were all guests on the show. Composite: Redferns; REX/Shutterstock; Getty

A familiar theme tune is playing in my ears as I step out of my front door and start running. It is a cold, frosty day in Cambridge but as I make my way towards Midsummer Common and the River Cam, I am transported to a much warmer climate. A desert island, where I know I will find exactly eight tracks of music, the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare and an incongruous luxury.

I am, of course, listening to Desert Island Discs, which will celebrate its 80th anniversary next weekend. First broadcast on 29 January 1942, it is the jewel in BBC Radio 4’s crown, to the extent that being on it is “kind of like getting a people’s knighthood”, observes the Observer’s radio critic, Miranda Sawyer. “There is no better radio show,” she says. “And I think, because it’s been for so long, there’s a status attached to getting picked – like, if you get asked to be on Desert Island Discs, that means somehow that you’ve made it.”

There are now more than 2,300 episodes of the show available online from the BBC archive. The oldest available dates back to 1951, when Roy Plomley interviewed the actress Margaret Lockwood and the famous theme tune was heralded by squawking seagulls and the crash of waves.

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Helen McCrory Was a Star of Screen as Well as Stage

On April 21, 2021April 24, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

There Was Vastly More Depth and Breadth in Her Screen Work than The Queen and Skyfall

by Lawrence Jackson | The Guardian | April 21, 2021

*Actor Helen McCrory. ‘I liked her immediately’, writes Lawrence Jackson. Photograph: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images*

In 2002, I had the luck to direct Helen McCrory (Obituary, 18 April) in a BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial of The Charterhouse of Parma. She was every bit as talented, funny, raucous and generous as everyone says, and more.

My first impression of her was when, upon arrival, she started to debate, with her fellow lead actor, the merits of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the film everyone was seeing at the time. The other performer was cool about it; Helen passionately defended it and said she loved it so much that she stayed in the cinema to watch it a second time.

I liked her immediately and thought: fantastic, she’s brought a real buzz to the production. But her appetite to consume a film twice in a row was also a reflection of her infectious attitude of wanting to make discoveries and take things further.

Memorials and obituaries so far have focused on her achievements on stage; but there was vastly more depth and breadth in her screen work than The Queen and Skyfall. In particular, I would suggest seeing her in Streetlife (Karl Francis, 1995), In a Land of Plenty (Hettie Macdonald, 2001), Charles II: The Power and the Passion (Joe Wright, 2003) and Inside No 9 (S1 E6, 2014).

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Helen McCrory on Desert Island Discs Podcast

On June 28, 2020April 12, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen Dishes About Her Better Half

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | June 28, 2020

Helen McCrory OBE is one of the most versatile and critically acclaimed actresses working today. On screen she has played Anna Karenina, Cherie Blair (twice), Harry Potter‘s Narcissa Malfoy and the Peaky Blinders matriarch Aunt Polly. Her theatre roles range from Yelena in Uncle Vanya to Euripides‘ Medea.

A diplomat’s daughter, she spent her early childhood in Africa before continuing her education in the UK. After a bruising and unsuccessful audition at the Drama Centre in London – she was instructed to find out more about life before learning to act – she travelled to Italy where she discovered art and love and came back to try again. This time she passed the audition.

In 1993 she made her mark in Richard Eyre’s production of Trelawny of the Wells at the National Theatre and went on to perform leading roles on some of London’s most prestigious stages, winning two Olivier Award nominations. She was awarded an OBE for services to drama in 2017.

She met her husband, fellow actor Damian Lewis, when they both starred in a play called Five Gold Rings. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic Helen and Damian, together with the comedian Matt Lucas, co-founded the Feed NHS campaign which raises money to provide hot meals to frontline NHS workers.

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Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis on BBC Radio 4

On December 15, 2017April 27, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Niccolo Machiavelli – The Prince

Tune in on iPlayer to hear Damian as Machiavelli and Helen as Defence on BBC Radio 4 Extra. The programme, originally broadcast in 2013, is one hour in length and there are currently 29 days left to listen.

A little about the audio play: Five hundred years after writing his most provocative political tract, Niccolo Machiavelli appears before an infernal court to appeal against the harsh treatment his works have received over time. Rather than being seen as a description of political cynicism and opportunism, he argues that “Machiavellian” should be a compliment and The Prince has in fact been an infallible guidebook followed closely by all successful leaders.

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Adapted by Jonathan Myerson

Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4