The inaccuracy of Shadowlands

On Saturday 3 October 1997 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a new adaption of Shadowlands for radio with Michael Williams as Jack and Zoe Wanamaker as Joy. Radio 4 broadcast separately a discussion on the adaption, with Humphrey Carpenter(producer), William Nicolson(writer), Douglas Gresham(CSL’s step-son) and A. N. Wilson(biographer).

After the broadcast, Douglas Gresham wrote: "Wilson once again spouted a whole lot of inaccuracies and twisted and exaggerated assumptions. I never heard my mother being ‘foul-mouthed’ at all, and she never smoked in her life. Jack never 'toiled' up and down to Oxford to find Kosher food for David, as we always had an account at "Palms of the Covered Market", a Jewish delicatessen. Jack much enjoyed the walk into Oxford when he did make it, but he never did the shopping in any case."

Unfortunately, the movie and TV play are just as inaccurate in their portrayal of both Jack and Joy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A.N. Wilson's biography of Jack is to avoided at all costs. It is basically salacious rubbish. Read Roger Lancelyn Green & Walter Hooper's biography if you want to get a 'true-to-life' account of Jack's life.