The classic tale of an Australian girl who marries into the English aristocracy at a time of great change to the traditional order

November 1910, and seventeen-year-old Lucinda is looking forward to being making her debut in Melbourne society. Beautiful and wealthy, she is set to make a brilliant match – and when she meets dashing army officer Hugo Brayford, the younger brother of an English viscount, it seems she has succeeded in landing her prize. Bowled over by his charm and aristocratic lineage, impressionable Lucinda quickly forgets her first love, Tony Duff, and accepts Hugo’s proposal of marriage.

Leaving Australia, she prepares to start a new life in England – but all is not as she had anticipated. Hugo is frequently away, runs up debts that Lucinda must settle, and even the birth of his son, Stephen, cannot keep him by his wife’s side. And when he is injured fighting in the Great War, Lucinda finds herself faced with a terrible dilemma. Torn between society’s expectations and her heart’s desires, can she find the happiness she craves?

Inspired by his own upper-class ancestors and his experiences during World War I, Martin Boyd’s seminal tale of family, class, marriage and money spans 30 years, from the last days of the Edwardian era to the Second World War. At once a romance and a chronicle of a world in flux, it charts one woman’s life and loves against the backdrop of societal transformation. Juliet Aubrey stars in this captivating adaptation, with a stellar cast including Eleanor Bron, James Laurenson, Penelope Wilton and Paul Rhys.

Production credits

Written by Martin Boyd

Dramatised by Elspeth Sands

Directed by Janet Whitaker

Cast

Lucinda – Juliet Aubrey

Hugo – Jonathan Firth

Julie – Angela Pleasence

Fred – James Laurensen

Lydia – Abigail McKern

Lady Wendale – Eleanor Bron

Marian – Penelope Wilton

Tony Duff – Matt Day

Paul Brayford – Paul Rhys

Susannah Brayford – Pamela Wise

Arthur – Michael Cochrane

Pat Lanfranc – Mark Straker

Watteau – Miranda Barber

Canon Chapman – David Timson

Bill Vane – Nicholas Boulton

Mrs Greene-James – Joanna McCallum

Mrs. Galway – Ndidi Del Fatti

Driver – Jason Chan

Lord Fitzauncell – Stephen Hogan

Stephen – Robert Hastie

Muriel – Helen Longworth

Heather – Alex Tregear

Bill as a child/Stephen as a child – Pax Baldwin

Commanding Officer – Hugh Dickson

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 2-16 January 2005

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