Episodes
| Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Gargantua | 20111211 | 20111217 | and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais. Dramatised by Lavinia Murray. Ep 1 Gargantua The bawdy, exuburant adventures of medieval giants. A dizzying blend of fantasy, comedy, philosophy and scatological humour. The world's a messy place. Episode 1 depicts the young life of the giant Gargantua, who is reduced to laughable insanity by an education at the hands of paternal ignorance, old crones and syphilitic professors. Rabelais...David Troughton Gargantua..Robert Wilfort Grangousier..Eric Potts Gargamelle..Melissa Jane Sinden Holofornes/Friar Jean..Jonathan Keeble Panochrates..Malcolm Raeburn Eudomon/Sun..Kathryn Hunt Producer Gary Brown Gargantua (ep 1) depicts a young giant, reduced to laughable insanity by an education at the hands of paternal ignorance, old crones and syphilitic professors, who is rescued and turned into a cultured Christian knight. This tale is a dizzying blend of fantasy, comedy, philosophy and scatological humour. All the big mock-heroic novels that followed - Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy, Gulliver's Travels, Ulysses - are about mess, they're about slops and slime, encyclopedic in their efforts to encompass humanity in all its bawdy, chaotic, grungy, and painful reality. And like Gargantua and Pantagruel they're also very funny. The Rabelaisian world view is founded on the assumption that the humourless are not yet wise - and these tales insist you learn to laugh at humanity. Gargantua and Pantagruel is dramatised by Lavinia Murray, one of our leading radio playwrights whose credits include 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' and 'The Confessions of an English Opium Eater'. A young giant is rescued and turned into a cultured Christian knight. |
| 01 | Gargantua | 20111211 | 20111217 | and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais. Dramatised by Lavinia Murray. Ep 1 Gargantua The bawdy, exuburant adventures of medieval giants. A dizzying blend of fantasy, comedy, philosophy and scatological humour. The world's a messy place. Episode 1 depicts the young life of the giant Gargantua, who is reduced to laughable insanity by an education at the hands of paternal ignorance, old crones and syphilitic professors. Rabelais...David Troughton Gargantua..Robert Wilfort Grangousier..Eric Potts Gargamelle..Melissa Jane Sinden Holofornes/Friar Jean..Jonathan Keeble Panochrates..Malcolm Raeburn Eudomon/Sun..Kathryn Hunt Producer Gary Brown Gargantua (ep 1) depicts a young giant, reduced to laughable insanity by an education at the hands of paternal ignorance, old crones and syphilitic professors, who is rescued and turned into a cultured Christian knight. This tale is a dizzying blend of fantasy, comedy, philosophy and scatological humour. All the big mock-heroic novels that followed - Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy, Gulliver's Travels, Ulysses - are about mess, they're about slops and slime, encyclopedic in their efforts to encompass humanity in all its bawdy, chaotic, grungy, and painful reality. And like Gargantua and Pantagruel they're also very funny. The Rabelaisian world view is founded on the assumption that the humourless are not yet wise - and these tales insist you learn to laugh at humanity. Gargantua and Pantagruel is dramatised by Lavinia Murray, one of our leading radio playwrights whose credits include 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' and 'The Confessions of an English Opium Eater'. A young giant is rescued and turned into a cultured Christian knight. |
| 02 LAST | Pantagruel | 20111218 | 20111224 | Concluding the bawdy and scatological adventures of Medieval giants. This episode concentrates on the story of Gargantua's son, Pantagruel and his morally dubious friend Panurge, as they go on a quest to discover whether marriage is for them. On the way they have many adventures before they come before the Seer of the Holy Bottle who gives them a definitive judgement. Rabelais....David Troughton Gargantua....Robert Wilfort Pantagruel....Justin Edwards Panurge...Conrad Nelson Friar Jean....Jonathan Keeble Jacqueline/Seer...Fiona Clarke Librarian/Secretary...Mark Chatterton Producer Gary Brown This tale is a dizzying blend of fantasy, comedy, philosophy and scatological humour. The world's a messy place. All the big mock-heroic novels that followed - Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy, Gulliver's Travels, Ulysses - are about mess, they're about slops and slime, encyclopaedic in their efforts to encompass humanity in all its bawdy, chaotic, grungy, and painful reality. And like Gargantua and Pantagruel they're also very funny. The Rabelaisian world view is founded on the assumption that the humourless are not yet wise - and these tales insist you learn to laugh at humanity. Gargantua and Pantagruel is dramatised by Lavinia Murray, one of our leading radio playwrights whose credits include 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' and 'The Confessions of an English Opium Eater'. Pantagruel and his friend Panurge go on a journey to find out about matrimony. |