This film celebrates a supremely insightful, funny and sharp-eyed chronicler of our lives and times: Dame Jilly Cooper. \n\nHaving sold over 12 million books, few other British writers have so consistently held up a mirror to the British as we really are – to our sex lives, class obsessions and the messy reality of our relationships. What does her extraordinary half-century of work reveal – not just about her world but about ourselves? \n\nTold in her own words, and with access to her personal archive, the now 87-year-old writer reflects on her life and work, from her childhood in Yorkshire, where her love of horses, dogs and devilishly handsome men were all forged, to her early career in journalism and publishing in the 1950s and 1960s. She describes the ‘macho’ world of both industries at the time and, with unflinching honesty, recounts an incident of attempted rape by a then-famous (and unnamed) author. \n\nThe film takes Jilly back to the home in Putney she left 42 years ago, where she lived with her late husband Leo and her children. It was here that she first found success in the late 1960s, writing a Sunday Times column about marriage, sex and society that, with its candour and sharp social commentary, was decades ahead of its time. \n\nWatching some of her chat show appearances with Russell Harty and Terry Wogan, Jilly talks with humour and frankness about married life, her attitude to sex, moving to the Cotswolds and the breakthrough success of her 1985 novel Riders – the first of a series of racy and thrilling novels that became known as the Rutshire Chronicles, catapulting her to the top of the bestseller lists. And attending a polo match at Cirencester Park, Jilly is mobbed by fans, young and old: a testament to how her writing continues to enthral.
Source: BBC 1
Series 1: Jilly Cooper
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Series 1: Jilly Cooper
This film celebrates a supremely insightful, funny and sharp-eyed chronicler of our lives and times: Dame Jilly Cooper. \n\nHaving sold over 12 million books, few other British ...
09-10-2024
BBC 1
Series 1: Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi is one of Britain's most eminent and outspoken writers, whose work encompasses fiction, plays, screenwriting and non-fiction essays. Now, in this definitive and i ...
24-09-2024
BBC 1
Series 1: Jackie Kay
Jackie Kay is one of Britain’s most loved and lauded poets. She is also a playwright and writer and from 2016 until 2021 was Scotland’s makar, the national poet for ...
02-10-2024
BBC 1
Series 1: Alison Lapper
Alison Lapper – an artist, a muse, a mother – explores her life through art and archive in this visually rich and emotionally intimate documentary as she emerges fro ...
16-09-2024
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Series 1: Billy Connolly
Neither Parkinson’s disease nor age have diminished Billy Connolly’s wit or wisdom in this astonishingly intimate self-portrait of the stand-up pioneer turned cultur ...
09-09-2024
BBC 1