Mr_Larkin's_Awkward_Day
Mr Larkin's Awkward Day
Comedy radio play by Chris Harrald
Mr Larkin's Awkward Day is a comedy radio play by Chris Harrald, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, 29 April 2008 as the Afternoon Play,[1] repeated on 25 January 2010. The producer was Steven Canny. It won the Gold Award for Drama at the Sony Radio Academy Awards in 2009.[2]
In 1957 Philip Larkin's friend Robert Conquest, of the group known as The Movement, played a practical joke on him. Mr Larkin's Awkward Day tells the true story of the joke, one that had Larkin fearing he might be sent to prison.
The Sony Gold citation said: "Assured direction, excellent performances and concise, skilfully-researched writing all made this deceptively straightforward story a masterpiece. Funny and touching by turns, a single, seemingly insignificant incident in the life of Philip Larkin brought out the humanity and humour of a poet whose personal life is not commonly associated with either."