BBC R4 - Thomas Love Peacock's 'Headlong Hall'
Music by Margaret Harris
Adapted by D.J. Britton
Directed by Alison Hindell 
Broadcast December 21, 2003
Coded from tape at 128/48

Christmas house party in North Wales. Guests exchange
philosophical diversions while Miss Brindle-Mew seeks
to marry off her niece and nephew before the holiday
is over. 

Cast
Eiry Thomas
John McAndrew
Andrew Wincott
Bill Wallis
Ysthan Jones
Mannie Harris
Yoller Hughes
Mike Povey
Richard Mitchley
___________________________________________________
Thomas Love Peacock: 1785-1866. Bon viveur, satirist,
and Shelly's literary executor.

'He was sent, as usual, to a public school, where a
little learning was painfully beaten into him, and
from thence to the university, where it was carefully
taken out of him.'

Shelly introduced him into the radical literary set;
whom he satirised for the rest of his life. He wrote
novels of ideas set against guests in country houses.
The best are 'Headlong Hall' and 'Nightmare Abbey'.

His set pieces and word play were adopted by Tom Stoppard.
It's no coincidence if the setting, and lines like: 'I
almost think it is the ultimate destiny of science to
exterminate the human race', remind you of, say,
Stoppard's 'Arcadia'.