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By Jonathan Holloway. Eric and his sister move to Jura in 1947. He is writing Nineteen Eighty-Four. With Joseph Millson and Liza Sadovy.

By Jonathan Holloway
The last of four plays featuring episodes in the life of Eric Blair. In 1947, the year after Eileen's death, Eric leaves London and moves to Jura, with his sister Avril, and his three year old son. He is suffering from tuberculosis but is determined to try and make a go of living off the land. But most of all he is determined to finish Nineteen Eighty-Four, his final book.
Eric Blair..Joseph Millson
Avril Blair...Liza Sadovy
David Holbrook... Adam Nagaitis
Sonia Orwell ...Stephanie Racine
Ricky Blair...James Foster
Henry...Will Howard
Lucy...Alexandra Guelff
Jane...Lizzie Watts
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer

Of course there is no real George Orwell - it was the pen name of Eric Blair - but he was a writer and political commentator who is very hard to pin down. Ever since his early death in 1950, he has been at one and the same time the darling of some on both the left and the right of British politics - whilst being reviled by others. For all the beautiful simplicity of his writing and storytelling Orwell/Blair is a complex mass of confusions - an anti-establishment, pro-English, ex-Etonian ex-policeman and socialist, who was ardently anti-authoritarian. He was as anti-fascist as he was anti-communist, a former Spanish Civil War soldier who was anti-war but pro the Second World War, and so on and so on.

44 minutes

Last on

Thu 23 Jan 2020 14:15

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Credits

Role Contributor
Eric Blair Joseph Millson
Avril Blair Liza Sadovy
Ricky Blair James Foster
Henry Will Howard
Lucy Alexandra Guelff
Jane Lizzy Watts
Writer Jonathan Holloway

Broadcasts

  • Mon 18 Feb 2013 14:15
  • Thu 23 Jan 2020 14:15