The series that examines books, plays and stories and how they work. John Yorke looks at the 1968 theatre novel Next Season by Australian writer and director Michael Blakemore. Based on Blakemore’s lived experience as an actor in English repertory theatre in the late 1950s in Stratford-upon-Avon, the novel has been described as one of the true great theatre novels.

The novel follows young Australian actor Sam Beresford as he joins a six-month repertory season in the fictional town of Braddington, where he brushes up with the company’s great stars and battles with its powerful and aloof director. That the novel’s characters were based on real-life theatre greats that Blakemore knew and worked with meant it caused a stir at the time of publication.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised 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: Simon Callow, actor Greta Scacchi, actor Michael Billington, author and arts critic

Readings from Next Season by Michael Blakemore (Faber & Faber, 1968)

Reader: Ciaran Owens Sound: Sean Kerwin Researcher: Henry Tydeman Production Hub Coordinator: Nina Semple Producer: Lucy Hough Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4