Rachel Joyce's Wuthering Heights on BBC Radio 4

Rachel Joyce's radio adaptation of Wuthering Heights is on BBC Radio 4, starting today:

This is award winning writer Rachel Joyce's final adaptation from the Brontë canon to mark Emily Brontë's 200th anniversary. Emily's only novel, it's unforgettable, full of passion and darkness. Thrilling but haunting until the very end.

BBC Radio 4
Monday to Friday, 10:45 and 19:45 h

May 14;  Earnshaw (1 of 10)
May 15; Edgar (2 of 10)
Following Mr Earnshaw's death, Hindley has become master of Wuthering Heights. His cruelty to Heathcliff intensifies and he tells the young boy he is no longer part of the family.
May 16; Hareton (3 of 10)
After hearing devastating news Heathcliff runs from Wuthering Heights. Cathy desperately searches for him on the moors but unable to find him, she makes a decision that will change her life for ever.
May 17; Cathy (4 of 10)
Heathcliff has returned to the Heights and for Nelly it feels like an evil beast is prowling, waiting his time to destroy. Should Nelly warn Cathy of the danger ahead?
May 18; Isabelle (5 of 10)
Nelly's fears have been confirmed. Isabella has gone. She dare not tell Edgar while Cathy is so ill.

Adapted by Rachel Joyce
Produced and Directed by Tracey Neale

Heathcliff Ben Batt
Cathy Chloe Pirrie
Nelly Emma Fielding
Mr Earnshaw Clive Hayward
Hindley Luke Bailey
Joseph Philip Bretherton
Frances Lauren Cornelius
Young Cathy Rosie Boore
Young Heathcliff Reuben Bainbridge
Edgar Linton Ryan Whittle
Isabella Linton Kerry Gooderson
Young Hareton Ruben Cryer
Priest Ryan Early

Wuthering Heights is one of the great iconic love stories and the last novel in the Brontë canon that award winning writer Rachel Joyce has adapted for Radio 4.

A story filled with violence, forbidden trysts, family warfare and revenge. Riddled with drinking, gambling, cursing and consumption. It's got energy, it's fast, passionate, unpredictable and thrilling. The story is elemental and tempestuous, uniquely bound to its setting on the bleak Yorkshire moors.

Nelly Dean is the voice of normality and reason in a world of chaos, darkness and intense passion. Heathcliff and Cathy's love is the beating heart of the story, and even after Cathy's death we hear her chilling and ghostly voice. An intensely powerful and haunting soundscape weaves around the action as the two grow from children to adults and we witness the brutal actions that lead to Heathcliff's own cruelty. Cruelty that shatters the lives of all those around him. But even through Heathcliff's destruction there is a redemptive ending filled with such mystery and lyricism it works like a spell.