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Jojo Sutherland: Riches to Rags

One day in 1981 Jojo Sutherland woke up in her family’s castle. That night she went to bed in her new home, a caravan. Here she shares her experiences of the class system.

Stand up comedian Jojo Sutherland was born into aristocracy and grew up in a castle in Scotland where her parents would entertain the higher echelons of British society. After a death in the family saw her father disinherited, on one fateful day in 1981 she would wake up in a bedroom at the top of a tower and go to sleep in their new home, a static caravan.

Jojo believes that this day many decades ago has dictated everything that has happened to her since and, in Jojo Sutherland: Riches to Rags, she questions what her life, and the lives of her children, would have been like if she still called the castle home.

Would she have married into royalty like her mother longed for her to? Would she have had any money worries or would she, like her father, be able to stroll into banks, speak to the manager, and leave with a loan for £50,000? And armed with a cut-glass accent, a double-barrel surname and a claim to half of Perthshire, would she have to play by the same rules in life as the rest of us common folk?

This programme contains anecdotal references to domestic violence and sexual assault.

Written and performed by Jojo Sutherland

Produced by Kurt Brookes
Directed by Laila Noble
Dramaturg: Gowan Calder
Sound recording and editing: Mark Burrows

A Made In Manchester production for ±«Óãtv Radio 4

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Thu 15 Aug 2024 23:00

Broadcast

  • Thu 15 Aug 2024 23:00