The Pallisers: Episode 12
This is the full version of the twelfth episode of the BBC Radio 4 drama series The Pallisers. This was the secnod and final episode of the series in which Rachael appeared.
25 January 2004
The Pallisers: Episode 11
This is the full version of the eleventh episode of the BBC Radio 4 drama series The Pallisers. This was the first episode of the series in which Rachael appeared.
The Pallisers
This is a 12-part dramatisation of The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope. The sequence of novels was written when Trollope was at the height of his powers.
The characters are immediately recognisable and their stories are as gripping and as relevant as they were when they were first written, between 1864 and 1880. The central family is the Palliser dynasty, led by Plantaganet Palliser, heir to the Duke of Omnium. He marries the feisty Glencora, who has been in love with the reckless Burgo Fitzgerald. The theme of dutiful marriage versus the temptations of passionate love runs through the novels. Glencora grows to love Plantaganet, in her own way, but never fully recovers from her first love.
The Pallisers follows the fortunes of Phineas Finn, a young Irish barrister who wins a seat in Parliament, which introduces him to a London life full of temptations for a man of his attractions. Several society ladies swoon at his feet but he seems destined to be pipped at the post as a potential husband.
3 January 2004
Celebrity Passport: Rachael Stirling
Actress Rachael Stirling dreams of going to South America but dreads returning to India.
Favourite holiday destination?
South America. I've never been there and I really want to go. I think I'd have to go for a year backpacking. I've done the backpacking thing round Africa, and climbed Kilimanjaro and been to the Himalayas on my own for a few months. You can do what you want when you want that way. And it lets you see landscapes you'd never otherwise get a chance to.
What can't you go on holiday without?
Silk Cut ultra lights. I'm afraid I'm a smoker.
Favourite childhood holidays?
It would have to be Inverness and Morar. I used to spend all my summers there, visiting my great aunt. I loved it. It's somewhere you can roam wild and I loved that feeling of freedom as a child.
Holidays from hell?
It wasn't a holiday from hell, but some folk might have thought it was. In India I went on what turned out to be a death-defying bus journey from Delhi to Ledakh which takes you through the Himalayas. I was up the back of this bus surrounded by animals. I looked out the window and there were carcasses of buses all over the place, which was worrying. And if you needed to go to the loo you had to shove your bum out the window.
Next holiday?
I haven't been on a bloody holiday for years. I've been so busy working on the recent Poirot series and a film with Lee Evans called Freeze Frame. Even talking about holidays makes me realise how much I need one.
Look forward to the US release of both films.
