Julie Walters narrates The Secret Life Of Sue Townsend, Age 68 ¾: the extraordinary untold story of a working-class woman lacking connections, encouragement and opportunity, who achieved literary stardom through talent, luck, and an indefatigable will to write.
A critical and commercial smash, The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾, has sold over 10 million copies and has been into 48 languages. Its success made its author a household name, but Sue later said that no amount of balsamic vinegar or Prada handbags would make her forget what it was like to be poor. Her experiences from the margins of Leicester’s working classes, provided a rich source of inspiration throughout her life – in smash hits like The Queen And I, to lesser known works like Ghost Children.
The programme will draw on Townsend’s vast archive of letters and notebooks, as well as unseen photographs, footage and also Sue’s personal appointment diary, featuring poignant entries about her struggles with ill-health, written in the painfully honest style instantly recognisable to readers of her books. Never previously published, could this be Sue’s own secret diary?
Inspired by her famously egalitarian approach to literature, this warm, witty story of her life and work will be told with help from her working class community in Leicester; children from Sue’s old school, and her friends and family, sharing the stage with the comic and literary stars she inspired – including Stephen Mangan, Ian Hislop, Isy Suttie and Adrian Scarborough.
Platform: BBC2
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