The Chatelaine

Lady Dorothy Combe-Carrington, an elderly landowner, has been forced to open her ancestral home, Astbury Hall, to the public.  Among the two hundred or so visitors one summer afternoon are the Cutter family:  Frank; Mary; their two sons, David and Jason; and David’s girlfriend, Gail.  David, a student radical, is equally disgusted by the Combe-Carrington’s accumulated wealth and his mother’s deference to a family for whom her own mother worked as a maid.  A few days later he breaks into the house in the dead of night to take revenge on Lady Dorothy.  During the ensuing confrontation, she displays a grit and guile worthy of her ancestors, disarming him in every sense.

The Chatelaine was broadcast on Radio Four in June 1987 with the following cast:

Frank Michael Graham Cox

Mary Tessa Worsley

David Julian Firth

Jason Rusty Livingstone

Jack Stephen Harrold

Gail Karen Ascoe

Robin Tim Reynolds

Susan Penelope Lee

Lady Dorothy Fabia Drake

 

Directed by Richard Wortley