Author:George Eliot,Full Cast,Anna Maxwell Martin,Joanna Vanderham,Jack Farthing

George Eliot’s classic Victorian epic abouta brother and sister pitted against one another in love and life, starring Anna Maxwell Martin
Based on George Eliot’s own rural upbringing and relationship with her estranged brother, The Mill on the Floss is a powerful, dynamic tale of familial rejection, sibling rivalry and what happens when the head confronts the heart.
Growing up at Dorlcote Mill in the beautiful English countryside, young Maggie yearns for approval and affection. With her dark, striking looks and quick intelligence she is the misfit of the Tulliver family, and while her father dotes on her, her mother despairs of her rebelliousness. But it is the love of her stolid, dutiful brother Tom that Maggie craves most, and despite their opposing natures, the two forge a close bond.
But as adults, their paths diverge. Following their father’s bankruptcy, Tom leaves school and enters the world of business, determined to repay the family’s debts and regain their home.Maggie, meanwhile, is drawn to two very different men: kindred spirit Philip Wakem, the son of her father's enemy, and the charming, seductive Stephen Guest, already promised to her cousin, Lucy.
As she struggles to reconcile passion and loyalty, the choices Maggie makes will set her against her beloved brother – with tragic consequences...
This stunning adaption is full of humour and high drama, and features a rich, filmic soundscape.
Also included is bonus programme Free Thinking: George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss, hosted by Shahidha Bari, in which writer Rebecca Mead, actor Fiona Shaw and academics Dafydd Mills Daniel, Philip Davis and Peggy Reynolds discuss the background to Eliot’s much-loved 1860 novel and read selected extracts.
Cast
George Eliot, the Narrator ….. Anna Maxwell Martin
Young Maggie ….. Amy-Jayne Leigh
Young Tom ….. Oliver Zetterstrom
Young Lucy ….. Grace Doherty
Mr Tulliver ….. Roger Ringrose
Mrs Tulliver ….. Alison Belbin
Maggie ….. Joanna Vanderham
Tom ….. Will Kirk
Lucy ….. Ell Potter
Philip ….. Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Stephen ….. Jack Farthing
Mrs Moss ….. Heather Craney
Mr Wakem ….. John Dougall
Mrs Glegg ….. Elizabeth Counsell
Mr Stelling ….. John Lightbody
Dr Kenn ….. Hasan Dixon
Luke/Bob …..Kurtis Lowe
Keiza/Sally ….. Bettrys Jones
Written by George Eliot
Adapted by Rhiannon Tise
Produced and directed by Tracey Neale
Studio Managers: Keith Graham, Mike Etherden, Jenni Burnett & Alison Craig
Production Co-Ordinator: Anne Isger
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 6-17 April 2020
Free Thinking: George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss
Presented by Shahidha Bari
With Rebecca Mead, Fiona Shaw, Dafydd Mills Daniel, Philip Davis and Peggy Reynolds
Produced by Fiona McLean
'Wood's lively translations grasp the irrepressible sense of freedom which is the poet's hallmark ... Pushkin is lucky in Antony Wood. Pleasure is to be found on every page of this book'
—— The Times Literary SupplementThis Selected Poetry by Antony Wood supersedes all previous translations ... Wood's 'The Bronze Horseman' gives us Pushkin at his most tragic. 'Count Nulin' shows him at his most light-hearted. 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' bounces along with delightful vitality. Even with the delicately musical short lyrics - still harder to translate - Wood's success rate is remarkable ... The result is a more rounded picture of Pushkin - in many ways the most universal of poets
—— Robert Chandler , The Financial TimesThis Selected Poetry deserves a wealth of praise . . . a truly valuable edition both for its scrupulous and often magnificent versions of individual poems and as a worthy general introduction to this poet, who is such a treasure for Russia and for the world
—— Los Angeles Review of BooksEverybody knows how difficult Pushkin's poems are to translate. Antony Wood has succeeded, within the limits of the possible
—— John BayleyRe-creating Pushkin requires skills approaching magic. Antony Wood is one of the two or three best translators of Russia's greatest poet in the Anglophone world, because his Pushkin moves: you watch him dance as well as hear him sing
—— Caryl EmersonAntony Wood's translations show an unusual grace and a deep knowledge of Pushkin's poetry
—— Elaine FeinsteinPushkin's poetry is lyrical, beautifully simple, vivid, and endlessly emotive. It can be enjoyed by all readers, regardless of their background in poetry. And there is now one definitive book of Alexander Pushkin's poetry, the one book you need to read in order to fully appreciate Alexander Pushkin's poems: Alexander Pushkin Selected Poetry, translated with complete command and majesty by Antony Wood
—— Books and BaoA volume to keep within easy reach at most times
—— East-West ReviewAnthony Wood is to be congratulated on this suburb collection, which renders Pushkin in all his matchless grace, wit and musicality
—— The TabletA masterpiece. This book haunts me more than any other novel I've read in recent years.
—— Garth GreenwellA highly unusual novel in which a writer confronts one of life's deepest sorrows in losing her child. . . Funny, touching and profoundly moving
—— Chigozie Obioma‘Getting inside a living person’s head sounds like a colossally bad idea, but Sittenfeld makes it convincing here, just as she did with a character based on First Lady Laura Bush in her 2008 novel, AMERICAN WIFE’
—— BBC CULTUREDeviously clever . . . Sittenfeld’s Hillary is both a player in the Game of Thrones and a romance novel heroine. She’s a brilliant badass who has found her voice and knows how to use it. She’s whoever she wants to be
—— THE OPRAH MAGAZINEAs Hillary finds her groove, so the momentum and entertainment builds, as does your admiration for how ingeniously and plausibly Sittenfeld has re-written the script
—— DAILY MAILA counterfactual novel ... throbs with energy
—— TLSA fascinating glimpse into an alternative future
—— DAILY MIRRORPacy... plenty of sex and gossip - and a cameo from a certain yellow-haired, orange-faced president-to-be... ripe for TV adaptation
—— SUNDAY TELEGRAPHA brilliantly smart re-imagining
—— WOMAN AND HOMESittenfeld's writing is so fine, her characters so vivid, her empathy so profound that she manages to absorb the reader on a level that transcends partisanship. In 2020, that was a remarkable achievement and an enormous gift to her readers
—— THE NEW YORKERIt ends up being a love letter to a type: the female intellectual, who is given none of the licence of her less talented male peers. At the end, i found myself saying Oh My God
—— OBSERVERA triumphant feminist reinvention. Sittenfeld is the bard of presidential female adjacents
—— VOGUERODHAM is wide- ranging political anthropology, concerned not so much with what makes Hillary tick as it is with the culture around her and how she might have shaped events, and been shaped by them, if the pieces of reality's jigsaw were rearranged just so. It's stippled with clever mischief
—— NEW YORK TIMESA smartly structured character study and a stay- up- all- night plot . . . A captivating and durable story containing rooms within rooms. RODHAM turns into a high- speed bildungsroman about a woman of formidable intellect and self- insight.
—— THE LOS ANGELES TIMESIt's the genius of Sittenfeld's prose that we come to understand this ambivalence,as well as the deep conflicts in this complicated character. In the longing and loneliness, the anger as well as ambition, this Hillary makes RODHAM a compelling portrait of a future that might have been.
—— THE BOSTON GLOBETantalizing . . . part thought experiment, part wish- fulfillment fantasy . . . delectably discussable, a book tailor- made for book clubs.
—— USA TODAYWildly compelling . . . What RODHAM is interested in is examining what feminine ambition looks like when it is untethered from a man. . . . Sittenfeld is free to invent, and the reality she builds is deliciously dishy.
—— VOXThought-provoking and compelling
—— SUNDAY EXPRESSA moving feat of feminist and novelistic imagination
—— THE TABLETFrom this memorable novel's eerie first paragraph to its enigmatic ending, Laura van den Berg has invented something beautiful indeed
—— LA TimesThis is one of my favorite novels of 2015, and we’re not even IN 2015 yet . . .The language is beautiful, spare, and carefully crafted, and the characters are fully realized and unforgettable. There is tension and redemption and insight and even humor in these pages, and they make for a really incredible read
—— BookriotSurreal adventures blend with a reflective and sad sensibility in van den Berg’s lyrical debut novel
—— Library JournalBoth novels offer precision of language and metaphor and scene even as what is being constructed feels messy, chaotic, sad, hopeless... Both orphaned and alone in the world, both so completely real, both telling a story that feels important and exciting to read. I feel lucky to have stumbled upon these books this year, and challenged by them to be better
—— The MillionsThis debut novel by acclaimed short story writer van den Berg tends to lean much closer to the realms of literary fiction with its complex psychology. . . Van den Berg's writing is curiously beautiful
—— Kirkusa strange beauty in this apocalyptic tale
—— Psychologies