Novels That Shaped Our World - Season 1
Season 1
Episodes
A Woman's Place
Episode one discusses the story of women and the novel - both as characters and authors. With Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale capturing global audiences, the programme will show how the plight of women is a theme that reaches right back to the earliest novels.
From Richardson's Pamela to Austen, the Brontës through to Mary Shelley and Virginia Woolf, and to the post-war publishing boom where a new generation of global writers such as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker have continued to speak out for women to a new generation of readers.
Featuring readings from Lily Cole, Russell Tovey, Tuppence Middleton, Emily Berrington, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Sean Biggerstaff, Mandeep Dhillon, Bridget McCann, Apphia Campbell, Nicole Cooper, Bessie Coates, Apphia Campbell, Laura Lovemore and James G O'Hara.
The Empire Writes Back
Episode two examines the response to race and empire, from Robinson Crusoe and Uncle Tom's Cabin to Things Fall Apart and Wide Sargasso Sea, as well as lesser known but groundbreaking work such as Aphra Benn's Oroonoko to Samuel Selvon's Lonely Londoners.
The programme comes up to date with titles such as Malorie Blackman's Noughts And Crosses and Paul Beatty's The Sell Out.
Featuring readings from; Don Warrington, Antonia Thomas, Robson Green, Robbie Coltrane, Nitin Ganatra, Paapa Essiedu, Rian Gordon, Titana Muthui, Emeka Sesay and Nick Ikunda.
The Class Ceiling
This episode deals with class in all its shapes and sizes, from all sides of the class divide, in the UK, USA and India.
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Revival
Revival is set on one miraculous day in rural Wisconsin when the recently deceased suddenly rise from their graves. But this is no zombie story as the "revived" appear and act just like they once were. When local Officer and single mother Dana Cypress is unexpectedly thrown into the center of a brutal murder mystery of her own, she's left to make sense of the chaos amidst a town gripped by fear and confusion where everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect.
Karen Pirie
True to Val McDermid's iconic character, DS Karen Pirie is a young and fearless Scottish investigator with a quick mouth and tenacious desire for the truth.
When teenager Rosie Duff was found brutally murdered in the Scottish university town of St Andrews in 1996, suspicion fell on the three drunken students who were discovered at the scene of the crime, claiming to have found her body. But with a lack of forensic evidence, no charges were brought and the police investigation floundered.
Twenty-five years on, someone appears to be willing to risk everything to keep the secrets surrounding the case hidden. Do the three men know more than they previously revealed? How flawed was the original investigation? And can Karen uncover the truth of what happened to Rosie that fateful night?
Foundation
When revolutionary Dr. Hari Seldon predicts the impending fall of the Empire, he and a band of loyal followers venture to the far reaches of the galaxy to establish The Foundation in an attempt to rebuild and preserve the future of civilization. Enraged by Hari's claims, the ruling Cleons – a long line of emperor clones – fear their grasp on the galaxy may be weakening as they're forced to reckon with the potential reality of losing their legacy forever.