The Mischief Makers

1: Baron Corvo - Fr Rolfe

'I cultivate the gentle art of making enemies. A friend is necessary - one friend; but an enemy is more necessary. An enemy keeps one alert.'

Frederidk Rolfe managed to turn most of his friends and would-be helpers into implacable enemies. He was capable of immense and sustained malevolence. He spent his last years in Venice, living in poverty and squalor, writing pornography, and engaging in an exhibitionist and sexually dissolute existence.

Ane yet this priest manque was a dedicated artist, a writer of near genius. Alec McCowen reads from his works, and Julian Symons (whose brother wrote Questfor Corva), Donald Weeks and Peter Luke (who dramatised Rolfe's novel

Hadrian VII) help

Margaret Howard trace the tragic life of this greatly talented, deeply flawed man.

Producer GRAHAM TAYAR

0 HEAR THIS! page 16 and WODDIS ON: page 79

2: Bishop Charles Webster Leadbeater

Once an immensely influential cult figure in theosophy but now largely forgotten, Leadbeater started life as an Anglican curate but much later on appointed himself bishop in a small schismatic church. To some he was a gifted seer and clairvoyant; to others a charlatan, a manipulator, an irrepressible fantasist and an incorrigible pederast.

David Wade investigates the truth behind this charismatic but dishonest figure, with the help of those who knew him well: Mary Lutyens , Irene Silber and Dr Hugh Gray of the Theosophical Society.

Also taking part NIGEL ANTHONY NIGEL GRAHAM , CHRISTINE MACKIE Producer GRAHAM TAYAR

Harris wanted to be a great man of letters and, for a time, was a good editor and an influential critic. But he ended his life impoverished and embittered, writing his own pornographic memoirs and even trying to set up a partnership with Aleister Crowley. Celia Toynbee tells his remarkable story, together with his biographer Philippa Pullar , Michael Holroyd , and those who knew him: Gerald Hamilton , and Enid Bagnold , whom Harris seduced in an upper room at the Cafe Royal.

Readers CLIFFORD NORGATE

MICHAEL POOLE , JOHN TALBOT and NICK MERCER

Producer GRAHAM TAYAR

4: Aleister Crowley

'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.' 'Love is the law - law under will.'

Crowley, poet, mountaineer and black magician, looms in some ways larger and more sinister today than at the time of his death in a seedy Hastings boarding-house nearly 40 years ago. With help from those who knew him or have written about him - Arthur Calder-Marshall . Robin Cecil , Francis King ,

Angela Yorke - and the voice of the master himself. Frances Donnelly tries to disinter the facts from the fiction obscuring the life of a man who delighted in being styled 'the wickedest man in the world'.

Producer GRAHAM TAYAR

From a Birmingham orphanage to national fame as an MP and editor of the influential, though scurrilous, magazine John Bull , Bottomley became probably the second most popular man in Britain during the First World War. His spectacular public career eventually ended when he was sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud.

Frances Farrer investigates the intriguing life of this gambling, womanising, reckless, thoroughly dishonest, but attractive figure, with the help of Julian Symons and Alan Hyman (biographers), Lord Brockway, whom

Bottomley tried to persuade to join John Bull, Walter Southgate and Percy Attwood who campaigned for him in his Hackney heartland.

Readers MICHAEL POOLE and JOHN TALBOT

Producer GRAHAM TAYAR

1: Baron Corvo (Fr Rolfe )

Frederick Rolfe managed to turn most of his friends and would-be helpers into implacable enemies. He spent his last years living in poverty and squalor in Venice, writing pornography and engaging in a publicly exhibitionist and sexually dissolute existence.

And yet this priest manque was a dedicated artist and a writer of near-genius.

Alec McCowen reads from his works, while Julian Symons

(whose brother wrote The Quest for Corvo), Donald Weeks and Peter Luke (who dramatised Hadrian VII) help Margaret Howard to trace the tragic life of this greatly talented, deeply flawed man.

Producer GRAHAM TAY AR (R)

2: Bishop Charles Webster Leadbeater

Once an immensely influential cult figure in theosophy,

Leadbeater started life as an Anglican curate and later became a bishop in a small schismatic church.

To some he was a gifted seer and clairvoyant; to others a charlatan and an incorrigible pederast.

David Wade investigates this formidable and charismatic figure with the help of Mary Lutyens and Irene Silber , who both knew him well, and of Dr Hugh Gray of the Theosophical Society.

With Nigel Anthony ,

Nigel Graham and Christine Mackie. Producer GRAHAM TAYAR (R)

Harris wanted to be a great man of letters and for a time was a good editor and an influential critic. But he ended his life impoverished and embittered, writing his own pornographic memoirs.

Celia Toynbee tells his remarkable story, together with his biographer Philippa Pullar , Michael Holroyd and the views of Gerald Hamilton

(Isherwood's Mr Norris ) and Enid Bagnold , whom Harris seduced in an upper room at the Cafe Royal.

Producer GRAHAM TAYAR (R)

Crowley, poet, mountaineer and black magician, looms in some ways larger and more sinister today than at the time of his death nearly 40 years ago.

With help from Arthur Calder-Marshall, Robin Cecil , Francis King , Angela York - and the voice of the 'Master' himself, Frances Donnelly tries to disinter the facts from the fiction obscuring the life of 'the wickedest man in the world'. Producer GRAHAM TAYAR (R)

Horatio Bottomley

From a Birmingham orphanage to national fame as an MP and editor of the influential though scurrilous magazine John Bull, Bottomley's spectacular career eventually ended when he was sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud.

An investigation with help from his biographers Julian Symons and Alan Hyman , and from Lord Brockway, Walter Southgate and Percy Attwood

Readers MICHAEL POOLE and JOHN TALBOT

Interviewer and researcher

FRANCES FARRER

Presented and produced by Graham Tayar (R)