Radio Times

Review by:

Laurence Joyce

As in his recent Booker-winning The Sense of an Ending, the two men in Julian Barnes’s 1991 novel Talking It Over began their friendship in their schooldays. (That Barnes is gnawing away at something in his own life is an obvious possibility.) Stuart (Carl Prekopp), tongue-tied, plodding and reliable, and Oliver (Nicholas Boulton), verbose, conceited and unreliable, go back a long way.

But the moment Stuart marries Gillian, Oliver sets about seducing his friend’s wife, excusing his actions in the name of love. The novel’s style, in which the three main characters talk directly to the reader, is a gift for radio, and Julia Stoneham’s economical adaptation tells us just what we need to hear about this happy/unhappy triangle.

Compelling, pathetic and tragic, the action is superbly paced by director Tracey Neale, right up to the puzzling and unexpected dénouement.

About this programme

By Julian Barnes, dramatised by Julia Stoneham. Two men with very different personalities, who have been friends since school, become embroiled in a love triangle. Drama, starring Carl Prekopp and Nicholas Boulton.

Cast and crew

Cast

Stuart

Carl Prekopp

Oliver

Nicholas Boulton

Gillian

Hermione Norris

Madame Rives

Tracy Wiles

Crew

Director

Tracey Neale

Dramatised By

Julia Stoneham

Producer

Tracey Neale

Writer

Julian Barnes

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