E. M. Forster A Room With A View


(4.8 stars; 13 reviews)

Dramatised by David Wade FOUR EPISODES MERGED TO ONE: TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1: Miss Honeychurch, Giotto and Too Much Beethoven. 1905. Lucy and Charlotte arrive at the Pensione Bertolini in Florence to discover they have not been given their promised rooms.  Lucy Honeychurch ...... Cathy Sara
 Charlotte Bartlett ...... Sheila Hancock
 Mr Emerson ...... John Moffatt 
George Emerson ...... Gary Cady
 Mr Beebe ...... Stephen Moore
 Miss Lavish ...... Barbara Jefford
 Miss Alan ...... Anna Cropper 
Mr Eager ...... David Collings
 Maid ...... Jilly Bond
 Man ...... Ian Masters
 Beggar ...... Michael Tudor Barnes Other parts played by members of the cast. Pianist: Terence Allbright 2: Good Men and Violets Lucy Honeychurch has witnessed a murder in Florence, but George's actions disturb her more... Lucy Honeychurch ...... Cathy Sara
 Charlotte Bartlett ...... Sheila Hancock
 Mr Emerson ...... John Moffatt 
George Emerson ...... Gary Cady
 Mr Beebe ...... Stephen Moore
 Miss Lavish ...... Barbara Jefford
 Mr Eager ...... David Collings 
Phaeton ...... Andrew Branch Pianist: Terence Allbright 3: A Proposal and a Bathing Party. Lucy Honeychurch returns to England much changed after her disturbing trip to Italy. Lucy Honeychurch ...... Cathy Sara 
Charlotte Bartlett ...... Sheila Hancock
 Mr Emerson ...... John Moffatt
 George Emerson ...... Gary Cady
 Mr Beebe ...... Stephen Moore 
Mrs Honeychurch ...... Julia McKenzie
 Freddy Honeychurch ...... Roger May
 Cecil Vyse ...... Nathaniel Parker
 Mrs Phipps ...... Tessa Worsley 
Sir Harry Otway ...... Derek Waring
 Minnie Beebe ...... Sara-Jane Derrick
 Floyd ...... Jonathan Keeble Mrs Vyse ...... Pauline Letts Pianist: Terence Allbright 4: The Triumph of Phaeton. Lucy is engaged to Cecil Vyse yet haunted by visions of George Emerson.  Lucy Honeychurch ...... Cathy Sara
 Charlotte Bartlett ...... Sheila Hancock 
Mr Emerson ...... John Moffatt
 George Emerson ...... Gary Cady
 Mr Beebe ...... Stephen Moore
 Mrs Honeychurch ...... Julia McKenzie 
Freddy Honeychurch ...... Roger May
 Cecil Vyse ...... Nathaniel Parker 
Minnie Beebe ...... Sara-Jane Derrick 
Floyd ...... Jonathan Keeble
 Miss Alan ...... Anna Cropper 
Phaeton ...... Andrew Branch Pianist: Terence Allbright Director:………Glyn Dearman Classic Serial: A Room with a View First broadcast: From - Sun 11th Jun 1995, 14:30 on BBC Radio 4 FM A Room with a View is a 1908 novel, by British writer E. M. Forster, about a young woman, in the restrained culture of Edwardian era England. The title of E M Forster’s third novel, A Room with a View refers to the booking that his characters, Lucy Honeychurch and Charlotte Bartlett, believed they had made at the Pensione Bertolini, Florence. Forster uses this apparently banal situation to explore the rigidly class-based nature of Edwardian English society: the room’s occupants – Mr Emerson and his son George, who are of lower social standing – politely give it up on the more genteel ladies’ behalf. But you do," he went on, not waiting for contradiction. "You love the boy body and soul, plainly, directly, as he loves you, and no other word expresses it ..." Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her, until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George. Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull fiancé Cecil Vyser. Will she ever learn to follow her own heart? Forster gathered the inspiration for the novel on a trip that he made with his own mother after graduating from King’s College, Cambridge in 1901; the hotel they stayed at was called the Pensione Simi, and Forster began writing the work in Rome and completed it in England.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

Reviews


(5 stars)

Such a very sweet story about following one’s intuition and pushing past what everyone says to what matters most. The reading was great. I loved the movie but this brings out details that are lost in cinema.