Kipps
A five-part BBC Radio adaptation by Michelene Wandor of H.G. Well’s 1905 “rags-to-riches” novel. .
Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul is a novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1905. It was reportedly Wells’s own favorite among his works, and it has been adapted for stage, cinema and television productions, including the musical Half a Sixpence.
Arthur ‘Artie’ Kipps leaves school, and his first love Ann, when he’s apprenticed to a Folkestone draper. His life – and fortune – changes dramatically when he answers an advertisement in a newspaper.
HG Wells … Paul Daneman
Kipps … Mark Straker
Chitterlow … Nickolas Grace
Miss Walshingham … Kathryn Hurlbutt
Emily … Rosalind Ayres
Uncle …. John Hollis
Aunt … Jane Wenham
Sid Pornick … Michael Jenner
Ann … Moir Leslie
Driver … Jon Strickland
Mr Shalford .. Michael Bilton
Carshot … Christopher Biggins
Buggins … John Webb
Flo … Helen Atkinson-Wood
Chester Coote …. Christopher Good
Henry Walshingham … Spencer Banks
Miss Lomax … Margot Boyd
Adapted by Michelene Wandor
Directed by Martin Jenkins.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 1984
Herbert George Wells was an English writer. Prolific in many genres, he wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and has been called the “father of science fiction”.
In addition to his fame as a writer, he was prominent in his lifetime as a forward-looking, even prophetic social critic who devoted his literary talents to the development of a progressive vision on a global scale. A futurist, he wrote several utopian works and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons and satellite television.
This collection brings together BBC Radio dramatizations and readings of some of Wells’ most notable works of fiction.