Gloomsbury

The six-part series from the pen of Sue Limb is an affectionate send up of the infamous literary group whose arty and adulterous adventures dominated the cultural scene in the early 20th century.

The series follows the fortunes of Vera Sackcloth-Vest (Margolyes) - writer, gardener and transvestite - and her urge to escape from the tranquillity of her rather cramped little castle in Kent which she shares with her doting but ambiguous husband Henry (Coy), who is 'something in the Foreign Office'. Vera's heart is forever surging with exotic passion for Ginny Fox (Steadman), a highly-strung novelist who adores her, or the beautiful but shallow Venus Traduces (Banks).

As the scene shifts from Kent to London, and Cornwall to Monaco, this close-knit coterie is divided by misunderstandings, jealousies and rows.

In episode one, Vera longs to elope to Mediterranean sunshine with one of her bosom chums. But her first choice, Ginny, is stubbornly impervious to adventure and Venus Traduces is fully booked for elopements until next April. Will Vera run off instead with the perky waitress at Lyons' Corner house? Meanwhile, what is Vera's husband Henry up to as telegrams fly between him and Archie Pinkerton-Poker at the Foreign Office?

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

Miriam Margolyes, Alison Steadman and Nigel Planer send up the Bloomsbury literary group.

The six-part series from the pen of Sue Limb is an affectionate send up of the infamous literary group whose arty and adulterous adventures dominated the cultural scene in the early 20th century.

In Episode Two, the novelist Ginny Fox is visiting her friends Vera Sackcloth-Vest and Henry Mickleton, who live in a modest unassuming little castle in Kent.

Ginny has writer's block, so Vera tries desperately to provide peace and quiet, gagging the blackbirds and cloaking the gravel paths in velvet. But their tranquil idyll is shattered by the explosive arrival of Venus Traduces, hell-bent on recapturing Vera's heart with a series of appalling musical serenades.

Ginny's tiresome husband Lionel has followed her incognito with a portfolio of herbal remedies, but Henry manages to detain him in the pantry whilst Ginny and Vera dive under the covers to devour a steamy new book, Lady Hattersley's Plover by the intriguing proletarian writer D.H. Lollipop. The chums emerge flushed and enthralled, convinced that they must meet D.H. Lollipop and experience his dangerous animal magnetism at first hand.

Cast:

Vera Sackcloth-Vest - Miriam Margolyes

Gosling, her Gardener - Nigel Planer

Henry Mickleton - Jonathan Coy

Venus Traduces - Morwenna Banks

Mrs Gosling, Housekeeper - Alison Steadman

Mrs Ginny Fox - Alison Steadman

Lionel Fox - Nigel Planer

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother Production for BBC Radio 4.

Plagued by writer's block, novelist Ginny Fox visits Vera and Henry at their castle.

Vera's persistent and flamboyant admirer Venus Traduces arrives, desperate to re-kindle their Sapphic passion. However she is distracted when, on the cliff path, she meets a thin man with a red beard who exudes animal magnetism. He informs her that his wife is away in London being painted by Augustus John, invites Venus to call him Dave, and ravishes her in the brambles.

Meanwhile, though Vera and Ginny seem to search in vain for Lollipop, he is always much closer than they think.

Cast:

Vera Sackcloth-Vest - Miriam Margolyes

Henry Mickleton - Jonathan Coy

Venus Traduces - Morwenna Banks

Mrs Ginny Fox - Alison Steadman

Lionel Fox - Nigel Planer

DH Lollipop - John Sessions

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother Production for BBC Radio 4.

Vera Sackcloth-Vest and Ginny Fox pursue DH Lollipop, who writes naughty books.

The guests are accommodated in the dovecote as Henry will not have Lollipop in the house, in case the cook Mrs Gosling is exposed to impertinences. Vera is hoping that Lollipop will be able to improve her prose style, but instead he seems to take pleasure in trashing her garden and redesigning her study. Lollipop is intent on awakening Venus's blood consciousness but, alas, any educational impulse involving Venus is doomed to failure.

As Venus's passion for Lollipop begins to flag, she finds consolation with the gardener Gosling on the potting bench. Despite Henry's precautions, Mrs Gosling is exposed to Lollipop's impertinences, and the outcome is unexpected and inconvenient.

Cast:

Vera Sackcloth-Vest - Miriam Margolyes

Gosling, her gardener - Nigel Planer

Henry Mickleton - Jonathan Coy

Venus Traduces - Morwenna Banks

Mrs Gosling, Housekeeper - Alison Steadman

D H Lollipop - John Sessions

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

Vera Sackcloth-Vest welcomes the writer of naughty books, DH Lollipop, to Sizzlinghurst.

She and her husband Henry have been summoned to London by her bosom chum, the novelist Ginny Fox. Ginny and her husband Lionel have realized that they have never had what is known as fun and they beg Vera and Henry to provide it.

Simultaneously, Vera's ardent acolyte Venus Traduces asks Vera to educate her, so she can be taken seriously by the Gloomsbury set. Exhausted by her efforts to educate and entertain, and haunted by the fear that her beloved Henry will soon be posted to the Balkans, Vera endures an emotional crisis at a picnic in Kensington Gardens.

Rescue arrives unexpectedly, and she escapes back to her beloved Sizzlinghurst, just as her mammillarias lift their saucy little faces to the sun.

Cast:

Vera Sackcloth-Vest - Miriam Margolyes

Henry Mickleton - Jonathan Coy

Venus Traduces - Morwenna Banks

Mrs Ginny Fox - Alison Steadman

Lionel Fox - Nigel Planer

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

Vera Sackcloth-Vest endures an emotional crisis at a picnic in Kensington Gardens.

Her friends Ginny and Lionel Fox have come down to Sizzlinghurst to support her, along with her slightly demented devotee Venus Traduces. Whilst maintaining a veneer of cheerful serenity, Vera is inwardly desperate and hatches several intricate plots to detain him: an ominous dream, a succession of spurious telegrams, an extensive repertoire of ailments. She even attempts, disastrously, to persuade the cook to stage a staff crisis.

Meanwhile, down in the gazebo at midnight, Venus encourages Henry to resist all Vera's attempts to detain him as she will surely give in at the last moment and go with him to Romania.

Cast:

Vera Sackcloth-Vest - Miriam Margolyes

Henry Mickleton - Jonathan Coy

Mrs Gosling - Alison Steadman

Venus Traduces - Morwenna Banks

Lionel Fox - Nigel Planer

Mrs Ginny Fox - Alison Steadman

Mr Gosling - Nigel Planer

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

Vera braces herself for Henry's departure on a Foreign Office posting to Romania.

Green-fingered Sapphist Vera Sackcloth-Vest shares a bijou castle in Kent with her devoted husband Henry, but longs for exotic adventures with nervy novelist Ginny Fox and wilful beauty Venus Traduces. It's 1921, the dawn of modern love, life and lingerie, but Vera still hasn't learnt how to boil a kettle.

Ginny is writing a new book and wants to pick Vera's brains about her aristocratic childhood. But all is not well. Henry thinks that Ginny is a bad influence on Vera because Ginny is so highly strung and Lionel thinks that Vera is too aristocratic and not socialist enough for Ginny.

Terrified that the oppressed people of Staplehurst will rise up and storm the castle, they flirt with a posh kind of socialism until the working class DH Lollipop pops in with his demi-mondaine Venus Traduces and tells them that he likes them just the way they are.

Producer: Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

With a general strike looming, the Foxes visit Sizzlinghurst to see how aristocrats live.

Never have two literary giants been so eager to have their geniuses confirmed, but self-doubt plagues their every waking hour.

Due to a series of unfortunate coincidences, involving Lionel's inability to remember addresses and Vera's obsession with creating a new Blue Garden at Sizzlinghust, which involves her sending off for hundreds of new plants by mail order and storing them in Gosling's shed, the manuscripts go missing.

What the writers interpret as a literary thumbs-down from their readers is nothing more than misdirected-mail. Friendships are strained to breaking point, while Ginny and Vera try to guess what the other is thinking and Mrs Gosling burns DH Lollipop's filthy manuscript when she accidentally comes across it and reads it from cover to cover.

Producer: Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

Ginny Fox and DH Lollipop desperately seek literary acclamation for their latest work.

Vera, wracked with torment, breaks the habit of a lifetime and unburdens herself to Mrs Gosling. But of course Mrs Gosling's life has been an endless struggle to suppress her jealousy of her employers' wealth and privilege. Even a chance encounter with Sigmund Void on Hampstead Heath fails to shake Vera from her melancholic mood. In the end it falls to Henry and Lionel to try to boost Vera's confidence.

Producer: Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

Vera is consumed with jealousy because of the literary success of her friend Ginny Fox.

Meanwhile, Henry can't decide whether to carry on working for the Foreign Office or write a biography of Byron or Tennyson, and follows Vera round the castle unsuccessfully trying to elicit her advice.

When the great day arrives, Henry is banished from the castle lest he gets in the way. Instead of the longed-for literary celebrities, however, the only arrival at Sizzlinghurst that day is a snowstorm of apologetic telegrams. Hurt and aghast that nobody loves them, Vera and Ginny blame each other.

The only person who turns up is Venus, who wasn't invited and has never read a book in her life. Only as the day draws to a close does Vera remember with horror that today was Henry's birthday and that she has neglected him without so much as a card, a gift or a kiss. Wracked with guilt, Vera makes up to Henry on a pile of dusty sacks in Gosling's shed.

GLOOMSBURY - THE SERIES

Green-fingered Sapphist Vera Sackcloth-Vest shares a bijou castle in Kent with her devoted husband Henry, but longs for exotic adventures with nervy novelist Ginny Fox and wilful beauty Venus Traduces. It's 1921, the dawn of modern love, life and lingerie, but Vera still hasn't learnt how to boil a kettle.

Producer: Jamie Rix

A ittle Brother Production for BBC Radio 4.

Flushed with her recent success, Ginny holds a literary salon at Vera's castle.

The Goslings deliver conflicting opinions: Mrs Gosling is affronted by the very mention of the facts of life, whilst Gosling, dealing with pollination on a daily basis, would happily talk of nothing else all year.

Finally a willing educator is found. Venus, deeply broody for her first child, volunteers to rush down to Eton and enlighten Charlie and Fred over ginger beer and crumpets. Worried lest they should suddenly become grandparents before their time, Henry and Vera swiftly call a halt to the whole scheme and pack Venus off to climb Everest instead.

GLOOMSBURY - THE SERIES

Green-fingered Sapphist Vera Sackcloth-Vest shares a bijou castle in Kent with her devoted husband Henry, but longs for exotic adventures with nervy novelist Ginny Fox and wilful beauty Venus Traduces. It's 1921, the dawn of modern love, life and lingerie, but Vera still hasn't learnt how to boil a kettle.

Producer: Jamie Rix

A Little Brother Production for BBC Radio 4.

Vera and Henry get into a stew about who should tell their sons the facts of life.

Henry warns Vera not to underestimate Ginny, however, who won't allow Vera to read anything unless Ginny agrees to it... and Ginny does not think that Vera's poem is modern enough to be in her programme.

What Ginny has not bargained for is the prudery and authority of Lord Reith who will not allow TS Jellitot to appear on her programme, because his American accent will corrupt the listeners and banishes DH Lollipop from Broadcasting House because of the constant sexual references in his language.

It falls to Vera to save the day by impersonating TS Jellitot and DH Lollipop live on air and then to get one over on Ginny by reading out her poem before Ginny can stop her. The broadcast falls apart, but Vera returns Sizzlinghurst the victor. Back at home, over a brandy or two, Henry reminds Vera about the prohibition movement in America. Reason enough for Vera to wriggle out of her lecture tour. Chin chin!

GLOOMSBURY - THE SERIES

Green-fingered Sapphist Vera Sackcloth-Vest shares a bijou castle in Kent with her devoted husband Henry, but longs for exotic adventures with nervy novelist Ginny Fox and wilful beauty Venus Traduces. It's 1921, the dawn of modern love, life and lingerie, but Vera still hasn't learnt how to boil a kettle.

Producer: Jamie Rix

A Little Brother Production for BBC Radio 4.

Ginny asks Vera to help her present a programme on BBC Radio about modern poetry.

When Henry decides to work from home, his wife - the novelist and gardener Vera Sackcloth-Vest - is forced to rearrange her secret liaison with Venus Traduces lest Henry should discover her betrayal.

But Henry has more pressing matters to attend to. His boss from the foreign office is coming down for a secret meeting to discuss a breach of security at Sizzlinghurst and, as a result, Henry can't stop seeing spies round every corner. His paranoia is fuelled by the arrival of a journalist and a photographer from that hotbed of Bolshevism, the Observer newspaper, who have come to interview Vera, and by the unexpected visit of Ginny Fox and her Socialist husband, Lionel, who have come to do research for Ginny's new novel on the Foreign Office.

Everyone appears to be asking intrusive questions and Henry becomes very, very twitchy - especially when he discovers that the interviewer is the working class genius DH Lollipop and the photographer his occasional squeeze, Venus Traduces.

Now Henry feels properly betrayed and only Vera denouncing Venus in public can assuage his jealous rage.

MIRIAM MARGOLYES AS VERA SACKCLOTH-VEST

ALISON STEADMAN AS GINNY FOX/MRS GOSLING

NIGEL PLANER AS GOSLING/LIONEL FOX

MORWENNA BANKS AS VENUS TRADUCES

JONATHAN COY AS HENRY MICKLETON

JOHN SESSIONS AS DH LOLLIPOP

Producer: Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4

However, before she can leave Sizzlinghurst, Lady Utterline Amoral and Lytton Scratchy arrive unexpectedly to take a tour of the garden. Keen to see them leave, Vera's patience is put to the test in the face of Lady Utterline's snobbishness, insisting that Vera should follow her example and hold an annual garden party to raise money for the Red Cross.

Meanwhile, Henry is chased round the sofa by Lytton who, as an irrepressible gossip, lets slip that Vera and Venus are back together. His suspicions now confirmed, Henry insists on accompanying Vera down to London.

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4

Vera Sackcloth-Vest puts her marriage to the test by rekindling her infatuation with Venus

Ginny and Lionel have come down to help without realising that Vera is planning to dress up as a man (to avoid being recognised), so that she can indulge in a secret liaison with Venus, who is planning to dress up as a Russian Fortune Teller - Mrs Pullova.

And all of this charade just to deceive Henry.

But from the moment Vera asks Ginny and Lionel to be co-conspirators in her plot by luring Henry away from the garden party, things start to go wrong.

Eventually, Henry finds out about the clandestine meeting in the fortune teller's tent and - despite an unwanted furore when the police arrive to arrest DH Lollipop for selling the vicar his pornographic novel (Lady Hattersley's Plover) - Henry manages to put a stop to Vera and Venus's elopement.

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4

Vera opens her garden to the public as a smoke screen to hide her liaison with Venus.

Lionel disapproves of the Bohemian lifestyle of Nesta and her husband Cliff and goes off to spend the weekend with Henry at Sizzlinghurst. Cliff is a rogue who spends half of his time away from the house living with his lover, Mrs Hutchinson. Nesta only tolerates Cliff's dalliance because there's another man living at Charlatan with whom she's really in love - Duncan Grunt. Unfortunately for Nesta, Duncan only has eyes for his homosexual lover, who also lives in the house, and whose name is Flopsy. And to top it all, Nesta's two children run up and down the garden without any clothes on.

When Ginny and Vera turn up at Charlatan House, Nesta makes an improper suggestion when she asks if she can paint Vera in the nude. Vera is shocked and wants to leave. Unable to share Vera with her sister, Ginny storms out too, and she and Vera return to Sizzlinghurst, where their mood is not lightened by the discovery of Henry and Lionel wrestling naked in front of the library fire as research for DH Lollipop's new book.

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4

A trip to see Ginny's sister at Charlatan House turns into a Bohemian nightmare.

But Henry has writer's block and can't think of a single thing to write. He asks Vera to do it for him. She refuses, but does offer to accompany him up to London to see Ginny and Lionel Fox in the hope that something on the trip will inspire him.

Lionel and Ginny are having their own problems - Ginny feels trapped by the city and wants to escape to the country. Lionel suggests to Henry that they go to London Zoo as this has always been a source of inspiration to him. There, Ginny reflects on how the animals in their cages resemble the way she feels about her current situation and, when Henry pounces on the idea as a splendid subject for his article in the Evening Standard, Ginny throws a fit. She accuses him of plagiarism and storms out.

Vera and Henry are sitting in the cafe alone when the Prince of Wales happens to turn up with one of his mistresses and starts to flirt with Vera. Jealousy inspires Henry, but it takes Vera to save his reputation as a fledgling writer.

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4

Henry finally gives up his job at the Foreign Office for a career as a writer.

With good cause it would seem.

Gosling's rampant Republicanism and grandmother's shot gun means that Henry has no choice but to lock the gardener up in the potting shed. Then two gun-toting Americans pop in unannounced and brandish their weapons on the front lawn - the poet Gertrude Klein and the socialite Mrs Wallis Simpleton.

Henry manages to disarm them just as the Prince makes his entrance. But when the Prince of Wales makes a play for Vera, asking her out on a clandestine date to to the theatre, Henry regrets getting rid of the guns.

If the Prince continues to threaten his marriage, Henry might have to assassinate the Prince of Wales himself.

Produced by Jamie Rix

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4

The visit of the Prince of Wales to Sizzlinghurst Castle throws the household into chaos.

Not only does Llewd George live up to his reputation as a randy old goat (as Vera suspected), but Mrs Gosling takes affront at his politics and, after a row with Mr Gosling, goes on strike and storms off to live with her sister.

Meanwhile Vera has resorted to digging in the corner of her garden to escape Llewd George's clutches, only to be interrupted by Ginny Fox and a BBC producer, Miss Hilda Matthewson. There is a fascination between Vera and Hilda, much to Ginny's chagrin, and plans are immediately set in motion for Hilda to arrange a BBC tour for Vera talking about her books and her garden so that the two women can be together.

But telling Henry that she is going on tour raises Henry's suspicions. After all, it was only this morning that Vera craved solitude and swore she would never leave her precious castle again.

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

VERA SACKCLOTH-VEST.........................MIRIAM MARGOLYES

HENRY MICKLETON..................................JONATHAN COY

LIONEL FOX.................................................NIGEL PLANER

GINNY FOX...................................................ALIS0N STEADMAN

HILDA MATTHEWSON...............................MORWENNA BANKS

MRS GOSLING..............................................ALISON STEADMAN

LLEWD GEORGE..........................................JOHN SESSIONS

GOSLING THE GARDENER........................NIGEL PLANER

Vera reacts badly to Henry's announcement that he wants to become a Labour MP.

GOSLING THE GARDENER...............................NIGEL PLANER

VERA SACKCLOTH-VEST.................................MIRIAM MARGOLYES

HENRY MICKLETON..........................................JONATHAN COY

GINNY FOX................................................

The Goslings have effected a reconciliation of sorts after Mr Gosling tells Mrs Gosling about a dream he's had in which Jesus told him that Mrs Gosling should forgive his dalliances. And to quash Mrs Gosling's doubts and prove the authenticity of his visitation, he shows his wife the stigmata on the palms of his hands.

Meanwhile at the Fox's, Henry is sick not just with nerves but with the pickled herring that Lionel has fed him for breakfast. This results in Henry being sick in the middle of the broadcast - leaving Vera and Hilda alone by the microphone. But an open microphone reveals more than their scripted conversation ever could.

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

GOSLING THE GARDENER........................NIGEL PLANER

MRS GOSLING..............................................ALISON STEADMAN

VERA SACKCLOTH-VEST.........................MIRIAM MARGOLYES

GINNY FOX..................................................ALIS0N STEADMAN

LIONEL FOX................................................NIGEL PLANER

HENRY MICKLETON..................................JONATHAN COY

NESTA BELL................................................MORWENNA BANKS

DUNCAN GRUN

Meanwhile, in an attempt to win back Vera's affection (which Vera has given to Hilda), Ginny secretly installs an Aeolian Harp in the gardens at Sizzlinghurst in the hope that its sweet sound will captivate Vera. But things backfire when the painter Augustus Dong and his Biblical beard turn up to propose the setting up of a pantisocracy with Vera and Henry.

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

VERA SACKCLOTH-VEST..........................MIRIAM MARGOLYES

HENRY MICKLETON...................................JONATHAN COY

MRS GOSLING..............................................ALISON STEADMAN

GINNY FOX..................................................ALIS0N STEADMAN

LIONEL FOX................................................NIGEL PLANER

HILDA MATTHEWSO

When WB Yikes meets Ginny he announces that he has found it and declares that she is his muse. Ginny sets off for Sizzlinghurst with WB Yikes and his wife in tow in better spirits.

Meanwhile WB Yikes gives Lionel and Henry a rejuvenating pill designed to cure writer's block in Henry and give Lionel a younger outlook on life. But the pill has unfortunate side effects.

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

GINNY FOX....................................................ALIS0N STEADMAN

LIONEL FOX...............................................

Apart from the smell and his fear of water, Lionel is worried about money and is anxious about the cost of the trip while Henry is worried about the cost of replacing a figurine that he inadvertently smashes whilst swatting a mosquito on their first night in the Grotti Palace Hotel.

They meet Dave Lollipop and his pneumatic German wife Frieda on the Rialto and Ginny is whisked off to see his paintings. He too has money problems and is planning to sell them to Art Connoisseur and man-eating American, Peggy Googleheim.

Meanwhile Lionel has despatched Henry and Vera to see Peggy as well, with the aim of getting her to put money into his avant garde publishing house. Peggy takes a shine to Henry's moustache and attempts to seduce him on the steps of the Campanile. But when Vera gets to hear of their kiss she explodes and tells Peggy what she thinks of her, which swiftly puts an end to Dave or Lionel extracting any cash. The trip is nothing more or nothing less than a disaster.

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

GINNY FOX....................................................ALIS0N STEADMAN

LIONEL FOX...............................................

He is hoping to ignore it, but Vera has organised one of those vulgar Surprise Parties and everybody will be there - Lytton, Barrington, Hilda, DH Lollipop, his wife, Frieda and Venus, who sneaks in without an invitation and makes a nuisance of herself in the bushes.

By the end of the party a seven week lecture tour in America seems quite appealing.

ANNOUNCER - NIGEL PLANER

VERA SACKCLOTH-VEST - MIRIAM MARGOLYES

HENRY MICKLETON - JONATHAN COY

GINNY FOX - ALISON STEADMAN

LIONEL FOX - NIGEL PLANER

MRS GOSLING - ALISON STEADMAN

MR GOSLING - NIGEL PLANER

LYTTON SCRATCHEY - NIGEL PLANER

DH LOLLIPOP - JOHN SESSIONS

FRIEDA LOLLIPOP - MORWENNA BANKS

HILDA MATTHEWSON - MORWENNA BANKS

VENUS TRADUCES - MORWENNA BANKS

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in October 2018.

Henry is not keen to celebrate his 50th birthday.

Vera is invited to the Round Table at the Algonquin and meets Dorothy Barker, who she finds repellent. Henry, travelling towards Chicago on the sleeper, finds he is sharing a compartment with Al Padrone and his mysteriously heavy violin case.

Meanwhile, back at Sizzlinghurst, Ginny and Lionel are acting as caretakers and making a spectacular mess of things as they attempt to remodel the garden.

Literary comedy by Sue Limb parodying the Bloomsbury Group.

Vera Sackcloth-Vest - Miriam Margolyes

Henry Mickleton/Room Service - Jonathan Coy

Mrs Gosling/Ginny Fox - Alison Steadman

Lionel Fox/Gosling - Nigel Planer

Dorothy Barker/Rich Woman - Morwenna Banks

Robert Bletchley/Al Pardone/Taxi Driver - John Sessions

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 2018.

Henry notices that some of the silver is missing and suspects the Goslings.

Nutwood Cottage, a pretty cottage on the estate. has become vacant and everyone wants it - the Goslings especially and, in a surprise reappearance, Venus whose excuse is that it would be the perfect location for her to nurse her husband in his `last weeks of life`.

Meanwhile Ginny is desperate to get back into Vera's good books and she and Lionel visit Scratchey and Barrington to house hunt for a weekend cottage. The hunt proves fruitless but inspires a fabulous idea.

Literary comedy by Sue Limb parodying the Bloomsbury Group.

Vera Sackcloth-Vest - Miriam Margolyes

Henry Mickleton - Jonathan Coy

Mrs Gosling/Ginny Fox - Alison Steadman

Lionel Fox/Gosling/Lytton Scratchey - Nigel Planer

Venus Traduces/Barrington/Raymond - Morwenna Banks

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in October 2018.

A cottage on the Sizzlinghurst estate becomes vacant and everyone wants it.

Nutwood Cottage, a pretty cottage on the estate. has become vacant and everyone wants it - the Goslings especially and, in a surprise reappearance, Venus whose excuse is that it would be the perfect location for her to nurse her husband in his “last weeks of life ?.

He puts out a general invitation for a brainstorming session. Vera, who has refused to attend any of his meetings, simply wants to spend the day gardening.

Ginny is still keen to repair relations with Vera and she and Lionel, accompanied by Scratchey and Barrington, go down to Sizzlinghurst to talk about socialism. George Gurnard Shaw also turns up accompanied by his crazy wife Charlotte.

They are not liked by Mrs Gosling, who takes vociferous exception to vegetarians who go skinny-dipping in Madam's pond.

Literary comedy by Sue Limb parodying the Bloomsbury Group.

Vera - Miriam Margolyes

Henry - Jonathan Coy

Mrs Gosling/Ginny Fox - Alison Steadman

Gosling/Lionel Fox/Lytton Scratchy - Nigel Planer

Barrington/Charlotte, his wife/Raymond - Morwenna Banks

George Gurnard Shaw/Heckler - John Sessions

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in November 2018.

Henry seeks election as a Labour Party candidate.

She is very religious and Vera is influenced by this, to Henry's atheistical disgust. Vera also has a fleeting longing for a third child and promises Henry that she will never kiss another woman again in her life, if he will just agree to make one with her.

So Ginny's new idea, inspired by Aristophanes and Lysistrata, that the women of Britain must stop the looming war by refusing to sleep with their husbands comes at a tricky time.

Meanwhile, Lionel goes to Westminster to meet Henry and hear a debate. He meets - and is slightly smitten by - Nancy Astor. Churchill advises Henry to take Vera to Paris for a fling before the war starts. And Gwen, curious about same-sex relationships, asks Vera for a kiss.

It's not long before they both regret it.

Literary comedy by Sue Limb parodying the Bloomsbury Group.

Vera - Miriam Margolyes

Henry - Jonathan Coy

Gwen Staubyn/Nancy Astor - Morwenna Banks

Mrs Gosling/Ginny Fox - Alison Steadman

Lionel Fox/Winston Churchill - Nigel Planer

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in November 2018.

Vera wants another child - much to Henry's surprise.

But it's not the carefree, scintillating city of their youth. The atmosphere is oppressive - everyone is preparing for war. Nevertheless, Gertrude Klein's parties of the literati beckon, and Hammingaway escorts Henry and Lionel to the Folies Bergere afterwards.

Venus reappears briefly with the awful news that Hitler has invaded somewhere or other, it begins with a P, and the foursome scuttle home, arriving on the very evening when Sizzlinghurst is rocked by a massive explosion.

Literary comedy by Sue Limb parodying the Bloomsbury Group.

Vera - Miriam Margolyes

Henry - Jonathan Coy

Mrs Gosling/Ginny Fox - Alison Steadman

Lionel Fox/Mr Gosling - Nigel Planer

Venus Traduces - Morwenna Banks

Ernest Hemingway/Gertrude Klein/James Voyce/Waiter ......John Sessions

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in November 2018.

Vera, Henry, Ginny and Lionel are in Paris attempting to recapture their youth.