The Animals Podcast

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The Animals Podcast

Christopher Isherwood, Don Bachardy and Katherine Bucknell

13 episodes

6 months ago

Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, a celebrated novelist and a talented painter, were openly gay in conservative 1950s Hollywood. In private, they called themselves The Animals. Simon Callow and Alan Cumming read their love letters; Katherine Bucknell reveals secrets they kept even from their friends, a galaxy of star writers, artists, stage players and movie makers in L.A., London, and New York. The series is capped by a play the lovers wrote together, A Meeting by the River, starring Dominic West, Kyle Soller and Penelope Wilton, and directed by Anthony Page.

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All content for The Animals Podcast is the property of Christopher Isherwood, Don Bachardy and Katherine Bucknell and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Personal Journals

Society & Culture

Episodes (13/13)

The Animals Podcast

Coda: Don Bachardy at Eighty-two

With an appearance by Don Bachardy.Don Bachardy, from the home he shared with Christopher Isherwood in Santa Monica, talks about the 1979 Broadway production of A Meeting by the River, about his relationship with Chris, and about Vedanta.

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8 years ago

22 minutes 34 seconds

The Animals Podcast

Episode Ten: A Meeting by the River, Directed by Anthony Page, Act II

Playful sparring between the brothers deepens to rivalry and self-doubt. Patrick’s secret love life is exposed. Spiritual darkness closes around Oliver, and he calls upon the memory of his guru to show him a way forward. Dominic West, Kyle Soller, Penelope Wilton and Annabel Mullion star in this audio adaptation of Isherwood and Bachardy’s A Meeting by the River.

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8 years ago

57 minutes 53 seconds

The Animals Podcast

Episode Nine: A Meeting by the River, Directed by Anthony Page, Act I

Two brothers confront each other in a monastery beside the Ganges. One plans to renounce the world, the other tries to stop him. Adapted by Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy from Isherwood’s last novel, A Meeting by the River is a daring, ruthless, and joyfully comic meditation on the nature of love and the question of whether god exists. Dominic West, Kyle Soller, Penelope Wilton and Annabel Mullion star in this audio production.

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8 years ago

49 minutes 35 seconds

The Animals Podcast

A Meeting by the River: Trailer

A play by Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy.

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8 years ago

2 minutes 5 seconds

The Animals Podcast

Episode Eight: “Our Play”

Chris adapts a George Bernard Shaw story for the LA stage to much acclaim; Don is commissioned to paint the Queen’s cousin, the Earl of Harewood, and sells a portrait of W.H. Auden to the National Portrait Gallery in London. A Meeting by the River is staged in Los Angeles to a warm reception and heads to Broadway.

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8 years ago

38 minutes 30 seconds

The Animals Podcast

Episode Seven: “Unfinished Work and Unfulfilled Duties”

Chris thinks increasingly about his past as he continues writing a memoir about his mother and father, Kathleen and Frank. He and Don both work towards a production of A Meeting by the River, hoping Page will direct it at the Royal Court Theatre. There is an explosion between Don and Page.

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8 years ago

25 minutes 23 seconds

The Animals Podcast

Episode Six: David Hockney’s “Giant Portrait”

With an appearance by David Hockney. In Los Angeles, Hockney begins a portrait of Chris and Don. Don is still absent in London, and Hockney is unable to progress with his likeness. Don returns home only as Hockney himself departs, carrying the partly finished painting and newly snapped photos of Don from which to work. The Animals collaborate on a stage adaptation of A Meeting by the River. Don takes their script to London when Anthony Page invites him to draw the cast of Osborne’s Look Back in Anger.

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8 years ago

43 minutes 34 seconds

The Animals Podcast

Episode Five: “Pandora’s Box”

David Hockney, recently settled in LA, offers his London flat to the Animals; Don is able to take a short break in England. Anthony Page hires Don to draw cast portraits for his production of John Osborne’s Time Present, and, later, Hotel in Amsterdam. Don begins an affair with Page and delays his return to Santa Monica.

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8 years ago

42 minutes 34 seconds

The Animals Podcast

Episode Four: “New Friends”

Don draws portraits of George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet company. Chris completes his ninth and final novel, A Meeting by the River, set in India, and he begins a memoir about his family. Researching the family memoir in England, he meets a young theatre director, Anthony Page, who proposes they make a new adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s Lulu plays.

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8 years ago

32 minutes 13 seconds

The Animals Podcast

Episode Three: “I Want to Talk Cat-Horse Again”

Chris and Don's relationship breaks down. After ten years with Don in Santa Monica, Chris moves to San Francisco, where he works on his novel A Single Man, inspired by the fear of living alone. The Animals reconcile at home, and Chris travels to India with his Hindu guru, while Don, separately, also travels abroad.

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8 years ago

29 minutes 52 seconds

The Animals Podcast

Episode Two: “Something Bad Has Happened”

Don’s first gallery exhibition wins praise, but his new artistic identity proves destabilizing for the Animals. He conceals a love affair from Chris, even though they have agreed to have outside relationships. Tension mounts between the lovers when Don returns home after two years.

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8 years ago

36 minutes 58 seconds

The Animals Podcast

Episode One: Introduction to The Animals

After studying Christopher Isherwood for more than twenty years, Katherine Bucknell receives a package from Don Bachardy—stuffed with unpublished love letters. She ushers us back half a century into the private world of The Animals, Chris and Don, as they live, work, and travel, seldom apart, for seven years. When Don leaves their Santa Monica home to study at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, the separation is excruciating.

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8 years ago

32 minutes 49 seconds

The Animals Podcast

The Animals Podcast: Trailer

The true love story of a writer and a painter, openly gay in 1950s Hollywood. The Animals invite you into their secret world.

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8 years ago

1 minute 33 seconds