This collection of audio adaptations of Aldous Huxley’s selected works provides over nine hours’ worth of quality drama. The highlight for many listeners will inevitably be the 2016 production of ‘Brave New World’, Huxley’s dystopian vision of humanity’s future. The stories presented in ‘A BBC Radio Collection’ combine to give the listener a taste of Huxley’s versatility as a writer. His vivid imagination always leaves the listener with philosophical ideas to ponder.
First up is ‘Antic Hay’, a radio drama based on Huxley’s 1923 novel. Recorded almost a century after its publication, the 2020 production stars James Cooney, Emily Pithon and Jonathan Keeble. Despite that distance of time, it is effective at capturing the essence of upper class indulgence and a detachment from reality that pervaded the Roaring Twenties. Although the story satirises the entitlement of socialites and their fay and rather indolent lifestyle, the listener spends time in their company throughout. This proves to be not always as pleasant as it generally is with Waugh, nor as witty as Wodehouse.
Next up is a 1989 adaptation of Huxley’s sinister 1921 novel The Gioconda Smile. The suave and sophisticated Peter Bowles (‘To the Manor Born’) stars as Henry Hutton, a man who conducts affairs whilst his wife lies seriously ill in bed. The story takes a turn for the macabre when Hutton’s wife dies, and question marks are raised as to whether or not it was natural causes. In some ways, Bowles plays against type. An actor of his consummate skill is convincing as a cad, and his characterisation effortlessly evokes the period setting. As with many of Huxley’s works, the listener is left not entirely comfortable with the unfolding drama.
The centrepiece of the collection is the 2016 production of ‘Brave New World’. Huxley’s vision of the future sees a rigid class system imposed in which monogamy and natural child birth have been outlawed and replaced by free love and the universal use of soma (a drug that eradicates emotional pain). The resulting depiction of society built on empty hedonism is as startling now as it was when the novel was published in 1932. Justin Salinger leads a fine cast in this two-hour radio adaptation that also features Anton Lesser as the corrupt director. Milton Lopes plays John the ‘savage’, the outsider from the world familiar to us who is taken into the authoritarian World State where he shocks decent society and threatens to cause a revolution, before the system works to protect itself. This dramatisation successfully picks out the essence of Huxley’s compelling story and imaginatively translates it into an audio experience that has plenty of snappy dialogue to keep the listener fully engaged.
The next piece is a 1980 adaptation of Huxley’s book ‘The Devils of Loudun’. It is based on the true story of a Seventeenth Century witch hunt when a priest is accused of being in league with the devil. He is blamed and put on trial for the outbreak of hysteria and alleged demonic possession among a convent of nuns. Huxley’s book was adapted for stage in 1960 by playwright John Whiting, and his work was later turned into a celebrated film by Ken Russell. This production is based upon Whiting’s stage play. It stars Michael Bryant as Grandier, the accused priest. Peter Jeffrey is deliciously pompous as Father Barre, a busybody cleric who is convinced of Grandier’s guilt. There’s also Tony Robinson as a Chemist in a part not a million miles from ‘Blackadder’s Baldrick. Sarah Badel is especially impressive as the possessed Sister Jeanne. Her wicked laugh is chillingly effective. The two-hour production was originally transmitted on Radio 4. It captures the essence of Huxley’s story about religious mania, and the question of how to deliver justice when innocence or guilt is impossible to prove. Darkly funny, ‘The Devils’ is the highlight of this collection.
‘The Dwarves’ is adapted from a chapter of Huxley’s 1921 novel ‘Crome Yellow’. It tells the story of the upper class Sir Hercules who endures an appalling childhood on account of his short stature. His aloof and cruel father goes so far as to torture him with a Medieval rack in an attempt to encourage him to grow. When he later marries Filomena, a fellow dwarf, they plan a future where people of short stature are valued by society. However, their son is not like them, but of average height. Not only that but he is haughty and contemptuous of his parents’ physicality. The 2018 production stars David Learner, Claire Faulconbridge and Garard Green. In common with much of Huxley’s canon, ‘The Dwarves’ is darkly humorous in parts. It shines a light on the human propensity for bigotry and the urge to mock or dismiss anything that deviates from social norms. Although it comes across as a fable, the story is also discomfiting and leaves a bad taste in the mouth by its conclusion.
‘Aldous Huxley – A BBC Radio Collection’ concludes with five of short stories. Actor Edward Petherbridge narrates ‘Cynthia’, ‘The Bookshop’ and ‘Eupompus Gave Splendour to Art of Numbers’, which are all taken from Huxley’s first short story collection ‘Limbo’, first published in 1920. ‘Fard’ and ‘The Portrait’, also read by Petherbridge, are taken from Huxley’s short stories collection entitled ‘Little Mexican and Other Stories’, which was published in 1924. The final half hour of this collection is called ‘All Those Vile Bodies’, a 1993 profile of Aldous Huxley. This contribution gives some insight into the author and captures his transition from a writer who sought to satirise the shallowness of the class to which he belonged, into one whose target became the whole of society. The later writings contained prophetic warnings about the direction of the human race that remain relevant to this day.
Both sides of Huxley’s career are included in ‘Aldous Huxley – A BBC Radio Collection’, and which the listener prefers is a matter of taste. I found the most substance in ‘Brave New World’ and ‘The Devils’, though a writer of Huxley’s undoubted talent and craft is always worth reading. It’s telling that these recordings are separated by several decades, yet cohere seamlessly in this collection. Whatever the age we live in, Aldous Huxley has something of value to say about the human condition. That’s why his work endures and continues to fascinate readers and listeners today.
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK audio Publication date: 4th April 2024 Buy ‘Aldous Huxley – A BBC Radio Collection’
