Book of the Week - A Strange Eventful History - Episode 5

Eleanor Bron reads from Michael Holroyd's biography of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, two greats of the Victorian stage. In his old age, Irving embarked upon a tour of Britain, in which he seemed to literally be dying on stage in front of his public. After a performance of Becket, his end finally came, and the nation mourned the passing of the great tragedian. Ellen, however, was determined to carry on. After an unlikely marriage to an American 30 years her junior, her career continued successfully for another 20 years.