A brand new BBC Radio 4 drama plus the story of the play's scandalous opening night

Pygmalion

A star-studded BBC radio production of Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion – plus bonus drama The ‘B’ Word, telling the story of the play’s scandalous opening night

Bernard Shaw (Author) 
Bernard Shaw was one of the greatest 20th Century dramatists. He wrote over 60 plays, including Arms and the Man (1894), Man and Superman (1903), Pygmalion (1912-13) and Saint Joan (1923). In addition, he also authored five novels and two collections of short stories. He is the only person to have been honoured with both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Academy Award (1938, for Pygmalion). Shaw was offered a knighthood, but turned it down, as he refused most awards. He died in 1950, aged 94.

A star-studded BBC radio production of Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion – plus bonus drama The ‘B’ Word, telling the story of the play’s scandalous opening night. 
 
Irascible phonetics professor Henry Higgins makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can train Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle to talk ‘like a lady’ and pass as a duchess at the Ambassador’s Ball. As the day of reckoning approaches, can Eliza convince the assembled aristocrats that she’s one of them? And what will become of her afterwards? 
 
This effervescent radio version of Shaw’s classic comedy features a stellar cast, including award-winning comedians Alistair McGowan as Henry Higgins, Morgana Robinson as Eliza Doolittle and Al Murray as Alfred Doolittle. 
 
Also featured on this release is The ‘B’ Word, written by and starring Alistair McGowan as Bernard Shaw. Centring on the shocking opening night of Pygmalion – the first time that the word ‘bloody' was used on the British stage – it also explores the passionate love-hate relationship between Shaw; his leading man, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his leading lady, Mrs Patrick Campbell, who played the 19-year-old Eliza Doolittle at the age of 49. 
 
Cast and credits 
 
Pygmalion 
Henry Higgins……………………Alistair McGowan 
Eliza Doolittle……………………Morgana Robinson 
Alfred Doolittle……………………Al Murray 
Colonel Pickering……………………Hugh Fraser 
Mrs Higgins……………………Siân Phillips 
Mrs Pearce/Maid……………………Charlotte Page 
Mrs Eynsford-Hill……………………Georgie Glen 
Clara Eynsford-Hill……………………Maeve Bluebell Wells 
Freddy Eynsford-Hill.....……………………Tom Forrister 
Nepommuck……………………David Sturzaker 
Ambassador……………………John Dougall 
Ambassador's wife……………………Sarah Ridgeway 
Bystander……………………David Sterne 
Written by Bernard Shaw 
Produced and directed by Emma Harding 
 
 
The ‘B’ Word 
Bernard Shaw……………………Alistair McGowan 
George Alexander……………………David Sturzaker 
Mrs Patrick Campbell.....……………………Charlotte Page 
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree……………………Richard McCabe 
Charlotte Shaw……………………Georgie Glen 
Merivale……………………Philip Fox 
Gurney/Fishman……………………Simon Ludders 
Bell……………………Charlie Clements 
Maid……………………Sarah Ridgeway 
Written by Alistair McGowan 
Produced and directed by Emma Harding

Mary Cooper

Jonathan Tafler

Anna Linstrum

Alistair McGowan

Elizabeth Lewis

Robin Brooks

Lucy Caldwell

Sarah Wooley

Stephen Wakelam

Frances Bingham

David Pownall

Katie Hims

Ian Billings

Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre

Judith Adam

Andrew Scott

Glenda Jackson

Toby Jones

Haydn Gwynne

Ian McDiarmid

Richard Dormer

Full Cast

Paul Ritter

Tom Goodman-Hill

A BBC Radio 4 drama collection

18 biographical dramas based on the lives and loves of celebrated writers 
 
These surprising, revealing dramas take a behind-the-scenes look at some of our best-loved authors, mingling fact and fantasy to explore their extraordinary hidden lives. From love affairs, friendships and family relationships to traumas, tragedies and journeys of self-discovery, we glimpse the unwritten worlds that shaped their unforgettable fiction. Among the star casts are Andrew Scott, Toby Jones, Richard Dormer, Glenda Jackson, Bella Ramsey, Julia Davis, Ian McDiarmid, Haydn Gwynne, David Threlfall, Alistair McGowan, Tom Goodman-Hill, Hattie Morahan, Rosie Cavaliero, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Paul Ritter and Lia Williams 
 
Jane and Tom - Writing to her sister, Jane Austen describes her love for Tom Lefroy - a love that would lead to Pride and Prejudice. 
 
When Fanny Met Germaine - A delightful romp through the passionate, scandalous friendship between two 18th Century writers: Fanny Burney and Mme de Stael. 
 
Comrade Ackland - Dorset, 1936. Newly returned from an illicit trip to Civil War Spain, Sylvia Townsend Warner and her lover Valentine Ackland have an unexpected visitor.... 
 
Tongues of Fire - 1913. When a Nobel laureate visits Dublin's Abbey Theatre, fireworks erupt between WB Yeats and Sean O'Casey. 
 
A Year at the Races - Approaching the end of his career, Groucho Marx meets a wisecracking fan determined to teach him new comedy tricks. 
 
Spike and the Elfin Oak- A comic fantasy inspired by Spike Milligan's madcap attempts in the mid-1960s to preserve a curious sculpture in Kensington Gardens. 
 
Everybody's Got Conditions - Casting Bette Davis in his play The Night of the Iguana proves the biggest mistake in Tennessee Williams' career... 
 
I Believe I Have Genius- Humble and obscure, young Charlotte Brontë travels to Brussels to study at a girls' school. 
 
Marian and George - Marian Evans (aka George Eliot) must choose between her adored brother and the love of her life... 
 
Lying Low - An intriguing drama imagining what happened to Samuel Beckett during his mysterious three weeks in Folkestone in 1961. 
 
A Terrible Beauty - WB Yeats travels to France to propose to beautiful Maud Gonne, soon after her husband's execution in the 1916 Easter Rising. 
 
The Watcher on the Wall - Dramatised from his letters, this is the story of Louis MacNeice's transatlantic love affair and the poetry it inspired. 
 
Edith Sitwell in Scarborough - Returning to her birthplace, Edith Sitwell sets out to wreak revenge. 
 
Mrs Tolstoy - A five-part drama charting the tempestuous marriage between Leo and Sofya Tolstoy. 
 
The 'B' Word - The opening night of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion causes a scandal and sparks a passionate love/hate triangle... 
 
The Rules of Palship - The young Noël Coward demanded fierce loyalty from his friends - but did he live up to his own high standards? 
 
The Lost Road - A playful tribute to the long friendship between CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien and how it influenced their respective masterpieces. 
 
Luxembourg Gardens - Re-imagined from Katherine Mansfield's stories, letters and journals, this Mansfieldesque play explores her last day in Paris, where she is dying of consumption aged 34. 
 
Copyright © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Alistair McGowan

Books by Alistair McGowan

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter