John Yorke looks at King Lear, the brutal tragedy that some claim is Shakespeare’s greatest achievement.

When Lear, the 80 year old king of ancient Britain, decides that the time has come to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, he unwittingly sets in motion a catastrophic chain of events that will tear apart both his family and his realm. He banishes his faithful youngest daughter, Cordelia, while his two elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, who declared their undying love for their father, bar their doors to him. Driven mad by fury, Lear wanders a barren heath in the midst of a storm with only his Fool for company.

In this second of two episodes, John looks at the loyal but provocative character of the Fool. He also discovers that, since the 17th century, critics including Samuel Johnson have struggled with the play’s remorseless cruelty and the bleakness of its ending.

John has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. As creator of the BBC Writers Academy he's trained a generation of screenwriters - now with over 70 green lights and thousands of hours of television to their names. He is the author of Into the Woods, the bestselling book on narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of narrative, including many podcasts for R4.

Contributors:

Excerpt taken from the BBC Radio 3/Renaissance Theatre Company production of King Lear, directed by Glyn Dearman and first broadcast on Radio 3 on 10th April 1994.

Sound: Sean Kerwin

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4