Summary
Hilary Mantel on how fiction changes when adapted for stage or screen. Each medium, she says, draws a different potential from the original. She argues that fiction, if written well, doesn't betray history, but enhances it. When fiction is turned into theatre, or into a film or TV, the same applies - as long as we understand that adaptation is not a secondary process or a set of grudging compromises, but an act of creation in itself. And this matters. "Without art, what have you to inform you about the past?" she asks. "What lies beyond is the unedited flicker of closed-circuit TV."
The programme is recorded in Stratford-Upon-Avon in front of an audience, with a question and answer session, chaired by Sue Lawley. The producer is Jim Frank.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Nicola Cocklin. |
| 0:02.8 | Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. |
| 0:06.6 | My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. |
| 0:10.6 | In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people |
| 0:16.0 | who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. |
| 0:19.8 | Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, |
| 0:22.5 | Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey, history's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin. Listen on BBC |
| 0:28.9 | Sounds. Hello, I'm Hilary Mantell and I'd like to welcome you to the fifth of the 2017 BBC |
| 0:36.8 | Reith Lectures Podcasts. |
| 0:39.9 | In this lecture, Adaptation, I'll talk about history on stage and screen, |
| 0:45.6 | and argue that adaptation is not a compromise or betrayal of an original, |
| 0:51.3 | but a natural, necessary and creative act, one we perform every day. |
| 0:57.0 | Thank you. |
| 0:58.0 | Hello and welcome to the last of the wreath lectures with the novelist Hillary Mantell. |
| 1:15.2 | We're at the Arts House in Stratford-on-Avon, a venue for music, theatre and dance |
| 1:20.7 | in the centre of this historic town, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. |
| 1:25.9 | Hilary's title for her lecture series is Resurrection, the Art and the Craft. |
| 1:31.4 | Resurrecting the Dead is arguably, of course, what Shakespeare did with his history plays, |
| 1:35.9 | from King John to Henry VIII, 200 years of royal power struggles. |
| 1:40.5 | Those plays, of course, are works of Shakespeare's imagination, |
| 1:47.8 | based fairly loosely on the historical figures themselves. |
| 1:56.4 | Nevertheless, says Hillary Mantell, historical fiction, whether a novel, a play or a film, brings the dead to life. |
... |
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