Devil in the Wilderness

Devil in the Wilderness episodes:

• 05.11.2024

  BONUS FIVE: In conversation with Michael Frayn and Blake Morrison

  In this extra-special bonus episode two huge literary figures, Michael Frayn and Blake Morrison - both of whom knew Christopher Wordsworth - join host Saul Wordsworth for a discussion about father-son memoirs. The Observer piece cited in this episode can be...

  
• 04.01.2024

  BONUS FOUR: The search for Spratt

  Saul Wordsworth visits the British Library in search of Spratt, a name cited in his father's diaries and very likely the  figure central to “that moment in Iraq". Link to  BBC feature Original music by Saul Wordsworth from the series...

  
• 02.01.2024

  BONUS THREE: New material

  NEW RELEASE: Devil in the Wilderness: Original Podcast Soundtrack by Saul Wordsworth is available on Spotify, Amazon Music and all other streaming services. This episode features previously unheard diary entries including an original poem by Christopher Wordsworth, plus a letter that has...

  
• 12.16.2023

  BONUS TWO: The Self-Inflicted Wound

  Reproduced in full: Christopher Wordsworth's essay The Self-Inflicted Wound - which would propel him from isolation and hunger in the depths of bleak Snowdonia moorland, to Fleet Street. Plus discussion of future bonus episodes and the ripple effect of the...

  
• 12.04.2023

  BONUS ONE: Speeches at the launch

  El Vino's on Fleet Street played host to an event marking the launch of the series. The speeches were captured and are replayed here. Plus reflections from Saul Wordsworth, and diary entries not featured previously. Executive producer of the series is...

  
• 10.31.2023

  6. That moment in Iraq

  6 of 6. Christopher Wordsworth's son, Saul, weighs up the evidence of what happened in Iraq and reaches a conclusion. He also charts his father's final years - and considers his legacy. Executive producer of the series is Paul Kobrak (The...

  
• 10.24.2023

  5. Deliverance

  5 of 6. As Christopher Wordsworth's trickle of work turns into a stream, he prepares to make the move from Snowdonia to London, though not before one final indiscretion. Meanwhile, his son Saul explores what it was like growing up...

  
• 10.16.2023

  4. Isolation

  4 of 6. After five years with Susan Russell, three friends rent Christopher Wordsworth an impossibly remote, derelict cottage seven miles from civilisation.  Here he remains, freezing, starving and haunted by the past - until his fortunes finally begin to...

  
• 10.14.2023

  3. The ghost of madness

  3 of 6. Christopher Wordsworth begins a relationship with beautiful American heiress Sue Russell, daughter-in-law of Nobel prize winner Bertrand Russell. But after years of high living, Sue's mental instability finally catches up with them both, and a panorama of...

  
• 10.14.2023

  2. Snowdonia

  2 of 6. Former Fleet Street journalist Christopher Wordsworth fetches up in Snowdonia in 1953 with plans to write The Great Novel, but his arrival causes upset within the community, and his diaries reveal a man haunted by the past. ...

  
• 10.13.2023

  1. Troubled beginnings

  1 of 6. Video trailer here. Christopher Wordsworth was a Fleet Street journalist from 1962 until his death in 1998, when he was 83. He left behind five diaries that span 1953 to 1963, a period when he was divorced,...

  
• 09.22.2023

  SERIES TRAILER: Devil in the Wilderness

  Video trailer HERE * * * Christopher Wordsworth was a literary critic and sports writer on Fleet Street from 1962 until his death in 1998, when he was 83 and his son Saul Wordsworth was 25. He left behind five diaries that cover 1953...