The Mystery Of The Mystery Of Edwin Drood

'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' is a tantalising element of the Dickens manuscript archive held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 
Along with fellow crime-writer Simon Brett and Dickens scholar Professor Jenny Hartley, Frances Fyfield uses the packed manuscript pages, detailed number plans and early cover designs to try and make sense of one of English Literature's great mysteries: what really happened to the eponymous hero. Edwin Drood. 
Dickens died shortly after bringing the curtain down on Chapter 23, barely half way through the twelve monthly instalments. He suffered a massive stroke later that day, 8 June 1870, and died the next day. 
By that stage in Dickens' novel, Edwin has gone missing and it is suspected that he has been murdered but no body has been found. The finger of suspicion points at Neville Landless but the author seems to be hinting at the guilt of a more sinister figure, the leader of the Cathedral choir, John Jasper. 
Ever since, Dickensian enthusiasts have searched the book for every hint of a clue as to what the author intended to do with the characters he'd created. Frances isn't afraid of joining these so-called 'Droodians' in trying to employ her crime-writer's insights to make sense of the pieces of the jigsaw left to us. 
But her investigation, which takes her to Rochester where the novel is set, also examines the state of Dickens' mind at the time, and his fascination with the criminal mentality, including vintage Dickensian types like Mr Crisparkle, the angular Mr Grewgious and the hideous auctioneer Mr Sapsea. 
Frances and her colleagues also search the manuscript for signs of the author's failing health, and, perhaps more importantly, failing ability. 
What they find is the usual high octane writing style, brilliant inventiveness and perhaps a greater subtlety in characterisation than in many of the earlier works. 
Producer: Tom Alban. 
 First broadcast: BBC Radio 4, 19 January 2012.

Frances Fyfield

Clemency Burton Hill

The extraordinary stories behind classical musical manuscripts

Frances Fyfield and Clemency Burton-Hill explore the tales and tribulations behind the scores of well-known pieces of music 
 
'Endlessly fascinating' New Statesman 
 
Crime writer Frances Fyfield and classical music broadcaster Clemency Burton-Hill pore over the hand-written scores of great composers to decipher the hidden tales of creativity locked within. Behind the hieroglyphics, scribbles and corrections on these priceless pages are clues that, when forensically examined by an expert eye, reveal the extraordinary craft, skill and inventiveness of geniuses such as Beethoven, Handel, Elgar, Stravinsky, Schubert, Puccini, Rachmaninov and Chopin. 
 
Accompanied by a team of musical sleuths, including world-leading performers, conductors, writers and graphologists, Frances and Clemency travel the UK, Europe and America to track down these rare and treasured documents. Among their discoveries are the manuscripts for famous songs like 'On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring', and some of the best-loved operas, operettas and musicals of all time including Madame Butterfly, Porgy and Bess, and The Pirates of Penzance. 
 
They scour the fragile pages of Bach's B-Minor Mass, so thick with music that the ink has burned through the paper; the ballet score for Aaron Copland's 'Appalachian Spring', revealing the changes made to please guest dancer Rudolf Nureyev; and a long-lost flute concerto by Vivaldi, rediscovered after being buried in an Edinburgh archive for 250 years. Through detailed study of these, and many other, manuscripts, they reveal the answers to questions such as, how did Debussy attempt to capture the sea? What famous lines were adapted for their first singers? Why was one of Mozart's boldest lines crossed out? And did the shooting of a German diplomat inspire Tippett's A Child of Our Time? 
 
Inspired, insightful and often surprising, this is an unparalleled look at the astonishing secret history of musical invention - ink blots, doodles, coffee stains and all. 
 
Copyright © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, May 2004 - August 2020 
 
Presented by Frances Fyfield, Clemency Burton-Hill 
Christine Andreas and Ted Sperling (Series 19, Episode 3) 
Loras Schissel (Series 19, Episode 4) 
Produced by Tom Alban, Simon Elmes, Mohini Patel

Frances Fyfield

Books by Frances Fyfield

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