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BBC Radio 7, 18 June 2010
Fading diva Cordelia (Maggie Steed) and her son Primus (Michael Cochrane) are looking for a vocation in life. After several failed schemes, they take up with Gerald (David Horovitch), who works with religious publishers Spaven and Spaven. Cordelia pretends to fall in love him, while Primus starts work as a publisher's representative, on the lookout for new authors. However Primus is not particularly interested in religious works; he seeks more spicy material. A chance encounter with 'Currer Bell' - later revealed as Charlotte Bronte (Sarah-Jane Holm) - leads Primus and Cordelia to make the trip north to 'Bronte Country,' to see whether there are any more salacious manuscripts, similar to Wuthering Heights, which might be worth publishing. Primus finds Wuthering Heights 2 - a warts-and-all story of love and passion, together with enough biographical material for a biography of the entire family. However misfortune strikes: Primus falls in a bog, and has to use the Wuthering Heights manuscript as a float to save himself. Meanwhile Mrs. Gaskell (Francis Jeater) steals the biographical material and publishes a work of her own, without acknowledging Primus' help.
Cherry Cookson's 1998 spoof of the Brontes and their world contained plenty of jokes (neither Primus nor Cordelia really wanted to travel to 'Bronte Country,' but they soon discovered the potential for marketing Haworth as a potential tourist site). Yet the play also had a serious point, as it prompted reflection on just how much we actually know about the Brontes and their world. Perhaps the myth of their world - as reinforced through tourism as well as innumerable film versions of their work - has become more attractive than hard fact.
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