Educating Rita at 40 with Julie Walters, Willy Russell and real life Ritas
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2020
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This summer marks 40 years since Willy Russell’s landmark play Educating Rita was first performed. The funny and moving story of a 26 year-old Liverpudlian hairdresser studying for an Open University degree has barely been off stage since. Dame Julie Walters played the lead role in both the original theatrical production and the later film, for which she was Oscar-nominated. She joins Jane to talk about what playing the role has meant to her, and how much Rita/Susan’s experience chimed with her own. Jane also speaks to Willy Russell about Rita’s story, and why he believes it has resonated with so many women. They are joined by four real life Ritas – working-class women who returned to education in later life, Glynthea Modood, Sue Slater, Kate Wiseman, and the Open University’s Pro Vice Chancellor Liz Marr.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Woman's Hour podcast. |
| 0:02.4 | Hi, good morning and welcome to this bank holiday Monday edition of Woman's Hour. |
| 0:06.6 | We're not live today, but you're still very welcome to contact us on social media |
| 0:10.9 | and talk about what you hear, because I think you will want to react to what's in today's programme. |
| 0:16.2 | It's at BBC Woman's Hour on social media, or you can email us via our website. |
| 0:21.3 | We're marking the 40th anniversary of Willie Russell's play, Educating Rita. |
| 0:27.8 | It's a funny and moving story of a hairdresser, a 26-year-old Liverpoolian, |
| 0:32.5 | who studies for an open university degree. |
| 0:35.8 | It's rarely been offstage since it was first produced, |
| 0:38.7 | and of course it was a massive Hollywood film as well, |
| 0:41.8 | starring Dame Julie Walters playing opposite Michael Cain as her open university tutor, Frank. |
| 0:48.8 | We can hear from Dame Julie Walters in this programme today. |
| 0:52.0 | We'll talk to the playwright and the screenplay writer, Willie Russell, |
| 0:56.4 | and we'll hear as well from some real-life readers. |
| 1:00.0 | Listeners to Woman's Hour, who went back to education |
| 1:03.1 | and really want to celebrate it and talk to us about how they got there |
| 1:06.5 | and why it meant so much to them. |
| 1:08.8 | First of all, I've been talking to Dame Julie Walters, who played Rita, |
| 1:13.2 | both on stage back in 1980 in London and memorably, of course, |
| 1:17.7 | and she was Oscar-nominated for it in the film as well. |
| 1:21.5 | I asked her what she made of the role when she first got it. |
| 1:25.4 | Well, at the time, I just thought, oh, nice, a little too handled. |
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