Hyde Park-on-Hudson is a radio play by Richard Nelson. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 07 June 2009[1].
Nelson was inspired by a collection of letters and diaries by Daisy Suckley, published posthumously in 1995. Suckley was a distant cousin and neighbor to Roosevelt, whose romantic relationship with him did not come to light until after her death in 1991. Conceived as a movie idea, Nelson's choice of director, Roger Michell, was not immediately available. The script was produced as a radio play and then went into production as a film a few years later, when Michell was available[2].
Plot[]
No reigning British monarch had ever been to the United States before George VI's visit in 1939, just on the cusp of a new world war. History was in the making when the King and Queen arrived at President Roosevelt's upstate New York home, with a promise of politics, a picnic and hot dogs. But the private life of the President provided a whole new dimension to an epochal moment, at least in the memory of his lover.
Cast[]
- Older Daisy- Barbara Jefford
- Younger Daisy - Emma Fielding
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Tim Pigott-Smith
- Missy - Nancy Crane
- Eleanor - Julia Swift
- Mother - Sylvia Syms
- Tommy Qualters - John Chancer
- Bertie - Corin Redgrave
- Elizabeth - Kika Markham
- Cameron - Jamie Newall
Directed by Ned Chaillet