Penda's Fen: Scene by Scene

THIS IS A PRE-ORDER: RELEASE DATE JUNE 23

Penda’s Fen, a film for television by David Rudkin, tells the story of a boy obsessed with the music of Elgar. Through a series of visitations — angels and demons, Christ, King Penda, even Elgar himself — emerge the ancient secrets of the Malvern Hills.

Director Alan Clarke achieves a masterful balance of the fantastical and the literal that has connected deeply with generations of viewers for over fifty years.

Scene by Scene is a deep dive into how this masterpiece came to be, drawing upon every surviving draft of the script, a wealth of production papers, revealing correspondence, evocative on-location photography from the summer of 1973, and extensive interviews with cast and crew. This is the definitive account of how the film was written and made.

Ian Greaves has written about broadcasting history and the arts for over twenty years. Previous books include edited collections of Dennis Potter, Jonathan Miller and Ivor Cutler. He has devised documentaries for BBC Radio and curated events at the BFI, Barbican and the Royal Court. Ian has worked as a consultant on major television archive projects including BBC Four’s fiftieth anniversary celebration of Play for Today and the Raven Row exhibition of community broadcasting, People Make Television.

Paperback (129mm x 198mm): 344 pages in black and white, plus 12-page photograph insert in black and white and colour.