Opening Lines

Opening Lines is a new series which unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.

It's presented by the legendary producer and script writer John Yorke, who shares his experience of storytelling and dramatisation with Radio 4 listeners. The whole series is FASCINATING I’m very proud to have worked with academics, journalists, theologians, psychoanalysts and brilliant actors to tell the stories of the story.

In 2023, I produced episodes about Antic Hay by Aldous Huxley, Enduring Love by Ian McEwan, The History of Mr Polly by H.G. Wells and Death At La Fenice by Donna Leon. For Christmas 2023, I produced an episode about Comet in Moominland by Tove Jannson featuring interviews with Tove Jansson's biographer Tuula Karjalainen and John Finnemore who stars as Moomintroll in the Radio 4 adaptation of the book.

And for Christmas 2024, I produced an episode about Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden with contributions from the utterly wonderful Dame Jacqueline Wilson. What an honour it was to work with her, and to get to spend time in her joyful, warm company.

In 2025, I produced an episode about PG Wodehouse's Joy In The Morning - with contributions and readings by Sir Stephen Fry, an episode about Muriel Spark's The Girls of Slender Means with contributions from AL Kennedy and a gorgeous episode about The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

In 2026, I produced an episode of Opening Lines about the extraordinary Transcription by Kate Atkinson. I adored this book. And the moment I finished it, I went back to the beginning and read it again, such is the brilliant seed planting and precisely hidden secrets that lead you through this twisting tale of guilt and betrayal. It's a fantastic book and it was a pleasure to produce this programme about it. It's a spy novel but it is also so much more than that as it tells the story of three different time periods in the life of our protagonist, Juliet Armstrong. The interweaving timelines take us from 1940 to 1981, telling of her experiences working in wartime for MI5, working in peacetime for BBC Radio, up to the end of her life in the moments between life and death.

All episodes of Opening Lines are available now on BBC Sounds and can be heard before the BBC Radio 4 weekend dramas on Sundays at 14:45.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001tpwj