検索キーワード： 制作 "Soundings" 大衆小説

Seventeen-year-old Alan can’t stand rows. But, though the Second World War has ended, peace hangs by a fine thread at home: his troublesome sister Madge creeps off for night-time liaisons with a German POW; their ineffectual father – broken by the hardships of war and an unhappy marriage – can’t put food on the table despite the family’s middle-class manners; his mother pursues her escapist fantasies in romantic novels and love affairs. Obedient, faithful Alan is trapped among them all, the focus of their jibes and resentment, as inexorably the family heads towards disaster.

Paranoid, wilful, lazy, the young Adolf Hitler turns up in Liverpool to stay with his brother Alois and sister-in-law Bridget. Hailed by Alois as a student and an artist, Adolf soon irritates his family beyond measure by his constant sponging and his tendency to get into serious trouble with the English. Surely this is a young man who will never amount to anything.

Edward is throwing a dinner party with Binny, his mistress. Aware that she has long been denied those small intimacies that his wife takes for granted – choosing a birthday present for his sister, for example, or sorting his socks – he wants to give her a chance to feel more involved in his life, to socialise with some of his friends (the discreet ones). Things are a little awkward to begin with, but everything seems to be going well. Then some uninvited and rather forceful guests arrive, and it doesn’t look like Edward is going to make it home on time…

Seven years ago, Charlotte Russell's father walked out on her family. Ever since, the task of caring for her bitter mother and sick uncle have fallen heavily on Charlotte's shoulders. If only she had agreed to marry Joe Llewellyn the first time he asked. Unable to leave her family to fend for themselves, Charlotte is constantly delaying her own happiness, and fears that Joe may soon move on. Then, as 1950 begins, Charlotte's father reappears, bringing with him his brood of children from his mistress.

It is 1950 and the Liverpool repertory theatre company is rehearsing its Christmas production of Peter Pan, a story of childhood innocence and loss. Stella has been taken on as assistant stage manager and quickly becomes obsessed with Meredith, the dissolute stage director. But it is only when the celebrated O'Hara arrives to take the lead that a different drama unfolds. In it, he and Stella are bound together in a past that neither dares to interpret.

Genteel, passive Ann works for the BBC in London and is engaged to a successful academic, fulfilling her snobbish mother's ambitions – more or less – while the Swinging Sixties happen elsewhere, to other people. Then she meets William: snub-nosed and generous, cunning and protean. She is first seduced, then transfixed, as William's past, present and future swirl around her kaleidoscopically, overwhelmingly, and Ann is herself irrevocably, and irreparably, changed.

The Bottle Factory Outing follows Freda and Brenda, who work together in an Italian-run wine-bottling factory. A work outing becomes a pivotal moment that promises different experiences for each woman: excitement for Freda and apprehension for Brenda. The intense emotions of that chilly day of freedom fundamentally alter their lives, ensuring nothing will return to its previous state.

An old snapshot shows a group of friends lounging in the sunshine, on a weekend in the country at the invitation of bearded, satyric Claude and his wife Julia. The girl in the centre is dreamy Lily, whose latest failed love affair forms the purpose of the weekend, as Lily's friends set out to help her ensnare an unwitting father for her unborn child. Next to her is Norman, a Marxist romantic hell-bent on seducing his milk-white hostess; behind them is old, persecuted Shebah; and, slightly apart, the young man on whom all hopes are pinned: quiet, pleasant Edward.

North Atlantic Ocean, 1942. Fifteen-year-old Connie is leaving war-torn England for the safer shores of America, looking after a nine-year old orphan boy with sad blue eyes. But the ocean is rife with Nazi vessels. And when their boat is torpedoed, in the fear and chaos Connie can’t stop thinking about handsome Jack, who stayed behind in London. Will the orphans survive, and will Connie ever be reunited with her first love? Back in London, 16-year-old Jack desperately misses Connie, his brave, kind friend, after their tearful goodbye when her ship set sail.

Alice and Isaac have been close friends since childhood but their paths diverge when they discover they have very different values... Alice Leigh is being prepared for marriage by her mother but has her eyes opened to the injustices faced by girls and women when she gets involved with the charity that runs the House of Help for Friendless Girls, befriending worker Emma Hyde. She has dreams of going to London to continue the fight for women's rights. But her mother won't allow it.

It is 1962 and 18-year-old Jenny is finally able to train for her dream job as a nanny. The residential training is tough—Matron takes no prisoners but Jenny bonds with her two roommates, Bernice and Rita, and loves helping the children. Finally, Jenny gets her first nanny job, heading for the bright lights of London at the dawn of the Swinging Sixties. Suddenly she is thrust into the lifestyle of the rich at a household in the affluent West End, working for a family whose busy lifestyle means that their child is neglected.

Newlywed Bobby Atherton has barely had time to experience married life with her airman husband Charlie before war separates them. Bobby must face the challenge of marriage to a man mentally and physically scarred by his experiences. When Charlie resumes operational flying, Bobby's role as a WAAF plotter becomes a matter of life and death. Can the couple survive the war and heal the rift between them?

May 1931. For blind First World War veteran Frederick Rowlands, the craze for flying holds little interest - after all, he is unlikely ever to set foot in an aeroplane himself. However, a chance meeting with a famous flier draws Rowlands into the glamorous, and dangerous, world of aviation. When a body is discovered in one of the hangars at Hendon aerodrome, he finds himself buffeted by a turbulent mix of jealousy, betrayal and murder.

Manchester, 1960. When you're young, unmarried and pregnant, in a shaming society that will never understand, there's only one place left to go. St Ann's mother and baby home. That's how restless Joan, who dreams of a glamorous new life in the Big Smoke, finds herself shut away with two unlikely new roommates: spirited Megan and timid country-girl Caroline, who fell pregnant on her first time. Abandoned by their families, they have no one to rely on but each other, as they wait out the days before they birth their babies - only to be parted from them forever.

Jean Parris was a child when her adored father was taken away by the Nazis. As she and her mother wait anxiously for news, Jean starts to question everything around her. Now, in the immediate aftermath of the liberation of Jersey in the summer of 1945, a different kind of war has been unleashed on the islands: one of suspicion, accusation and revenge.

Sarah is lonely. Living in a small Yorkshire village with just her grandmother for company, she longs to be reunited with her mother and sisters in Manchester. When she meets the mysterious Joe Bancroft, she feels her luck might be changing. And, before long, Sarah's married with a baby on the way. But Sarah's hopes for a family home are dashed by Joe's work, which takes him away from her for months at a time. And when tragedy strikes, Sarah is left more alone than ever.

After Pearl's home is destroyed in the Exeter Blitz, so too are her dreams of performing onstage. Finding work as a bus conductress instead, a chance encounter revives her hopes once more, and soon she is singing for the troops alongside new friend Ivy. When agent Gordon Gold approaches them, Ivy jumps to sign with him and sets off for the bright lights of London. But Pearl is wary of the charming man and decides to stay, watching her friend go with a heavy heart. A year later, while Pearl is struck mute by an illness, Ivy returns - and is quick to seize the chance to fill Pearl's place.

18th century, Scotland. Jacobite sympathies stir powerful emotions, especially in a titled young man with little to occupy him. But strong-willed Lady Winifred Nithsdale has already seen her mother, father, and brother imprisoned for their support of England's Catholic king. While she wants to be loyal, Winifred tries to protect her husband from imprisonment, or worse, the scaffold. But will she escape with her own life intact?

When Eleanor Markham is asked to run a festival on St. Brannock's Island, she instantly accepts. She needs something new to focus on after the death of her beloved mother, and she knows that her mother was adopted from the island. When she arrives, Eleanor is welcomed by the islanders. All except rugged farmer Bruno Roskelly. He doesn't want the festival to take place on his land but Eleanor soon realises his gruff exterior hides a kind heart that was broken many years ago.

linded war veteran Frederick Rowlands has escaped the bustle of London to establish a secure life for himself and his family in the countryside. But everything is about to change when an old friend, Chief Inspector Douglas, asks for his assistance in tracking down the killer of a beautiful dancer. That there is a link between the murder and St Dunstan's, the institute for blind ex-servicemen of which Rowlands himself is a member, is only one of the puzzling features of the case.