In the series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work, John Yorke explores Graham Greene’s dark, comic classic, Our Man in Havana.
Set in pre-revolutionary Cuba, Our Man in Havana is a comic spy caper with a dark heart. In this the second episode on the novel, John considers what impact the place had on the work, and how Greene’s fictional locations became known as ‘Greeneland’. He also examines how Greene’s attitude to the question of loyalty, a recurring theme in his writing, is central to this book.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series.
From EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.
Contributors: Christopher Hull, Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American studies at Chester University and author of Our Man Down in Havana Sarah Rainsford, BBC Foreign Correspondent, author of Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro’s Cuba Reading by Matthew Gravelle
Credits: Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene Publisher - Vintage Digital; New Ed edition (2 Oct. 2010) Archive - Radio 4’s A Writer At Work on 15/8/1969.
Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith Executive Producer: Sara Davies Sound by Sean Kerwin Researcher Nina Semple Production Manager Sarah Wright
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4