Michael Frayn
Playwright and novelist Michael Frayn talks to John Wilson about his formative cultural influences and experiences.
Over a seven-decade career, Michael Frayn has been acclaimed as a novelist, playwright, journalist, translator & memoirist. From his comedies – including the stage farce Noises Off, and a screenplay for Clockwise starring John Cleese, and the novels Headlong and Skios – to the complex political, historical and scientific themes of his stage plays Democracy and Copenhagen, he has been prolific in a diverse array of genres and subjects. He is also renowned for his stage adaptations of the works of Russian writers including Anton Chekhov. At 92, Michael Frayn advised on a recent revival of Copenhagen for the Hampstead Theatre.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
Archive used:
Extract from To A Skylark, Percy Bysshe Shelley, read by Timothy West, 91¸£ÀûÉç Radio 4, 27 April 1998
Extract from Spies, Michael Frayn, read by Martin Jarvis, 91¸£ÀûÉç Radio 4, 29 April 2002
Clip from Wild Honey, Michael Frayn/Anton Chekov, 91¸£ÀûÉç Radio 4, 20 January 1989
Extract from Scoop, Evelyn Waugh, read by Robert Hardy, 91¸£ÀûÉç Radio 4, 3 April 1998
Clip from Noises Off, Peter Bogdanovich, 1992
Clip from Clockwise, Christopher Morahan, 1986
Clip from Copenhagen, Howard Davies, 2002
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- Thu 7 May 2026 11:0091¸£ÀûÉç Radio 4
- Sat 9 May 2026 19:1591¸£ÀûÉç Radio 4
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This Cultural Life
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