We Need to Talk about Kevin - BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour (10 of 10)

Book at Bed Time - We Need to Talk about Kevin
10/10. Franklin. "What I saw couldn't be. It made no sense. So I had to tell myself a story." By Lionel Shriver.
On 8 April 1999,15-year-old Kevin killed nine people at his high school. In a series of letters to her estranged husband, his mother, Eva, asks if she was to blame. Lionel Shriver's fictional story is dramatised by Anita Sullivan.
Eva Madeline Potter
Jack/Harvey Morgan Deare
Kevin Nathan Nolan
Baby/Kevin Ethan Brooke
Franklin Richard Lainq
Siobhan/Lorretta Sandra James-Young
Dr Rhinestein Lucinda Cowden
Producer Karen Rose; Director Anita Sullivan
From the Radio Times:
"Kevin is a book that acknowledges what many women worry about but never express - the fear of becoming a mother and the terror of what kind of child one might bring into the world," is how Jenni Murray described this taboo-breaking psychological thriller when it won the Orange Prize for fiction in 2005. Three years later, and it's become the Woman's Hour drama, shot through with dark humour.

[@juno1752]

Honestly Franklin couldn't have done a worse job. He completely ignored Eva's concerns and the concerns of other people but left all of Kevin's care to her so he could be the "fun parent." He repeatedly stated he feared Eva was losing it, or that Kevin needed more than she was willing to give, but he still never thought to find someone who could help Kevin. Children don't do what he kept saying Kevin was "just" doing, and now Eva is left to sop up the hatred, because the parents are to blame, and one's not here. Eva wasn't perfect - reproductive coercion is just as bad as rape, and she broke a child's arm for chrissake's. But this whole mess lies on his shoulders. His judging but not helping, his refusal to talk about it. What if Eva had been a demented ghoul who tortured an innocent Kevin for fun? He'd have thrown his son to the wolves all while proclaiming how much he loved his baby boy.
And I'm sure that when he saw what Kevin did to Celia and saw that his darling dearest son, who he destroyed his marriage for, who he destroyed his own life for, he understood.

[@bev9708]

Just EXCELLENT !!!! OUTSTANDING !!!! Many thanks to the wonderful voice actors and all involved, and many many thanks for posting !!!!

[@krisvallejo74]

Excelent audio so pleased to listen to it!! Thanx again for sharing!

[@ItsEricaBeyetch]

thank you for uploading this

[@Noodlehorn]

You're very welcome. Glad you liked it.

[@ritaw9000]

There is no way I could live with him

[@ursweetsab]

That was brilliant.

[@林致鴻-v2d]

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