Writer Interview - Dan Rebellato - Blood, Sex and Money

Little Written Podcast - Conversations with Writers

In this episode, I talk to Dan Rebellato, playwright, academic and lead writer on the first season of BBC Radio 4's massive adaptation of Emile Zola's twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart novels, titled Blood, Sex and Money, which starts this Saturday (21 November) and runs for nine consecutive days. The adaptation will eventually total twenty-seven episodes across three seasons (called Blood, Sex and Money, appropriately enough), and Dan has written episodes one, two and nine of the first run. He very kindly gave me a sneak preview of his episodes and talked to me about his role on the project. Our conversation covers the challenges of adapting such an enormous body of work, why narrators can be boring, why no one in nineteenth century France speaks French, doing action scenes in audio, the finer points of nineteenth century French naturalist literature (well, sort of) and much more. The discussion becomes a little spoilerific in the final ten minutes or so, but Dan does give a warning about this when it happens, so listen out for that if you are concerned, and act accordingly. Otherwise, enjoy the interview and be sure to follow the serial over the next week. It's pretty marvellous. Twitter: Dan Rebellato: www.twitter.com/DanRebellato Little Written: www.twitter.com/LittleWritten Me: www.twitter.com/Mathistopheles Websites: Dan Rebellato: www.danrebellato.co.uk BBC Radio 4 - Blood, Sex and Money: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06pydll Little Written Podcast: www.littlewritten.co.uk