F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night & more

Dramatisations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most popular works, plus bonus documentary

Often described as ‘the laureate of the Jazz Age’, F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the reckless, hedonistic spirit of 1920s America in his classic novels The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and Damned and Tender is the Night. All three are dramatised here, as well as his sparkling short story ‘Head and Shoulders’, and a fascinating programme presenting a fresh perspective on Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece.

The Great Gatsby – Arriving in Long Island, Nick Carraway is reacquainted with his distant cousin Daisy Buchanan, and falls in with her wealthy crowd. His neighbour, the self-made and self-invented millionaire, Gatsby, seems to have it all – but the one thing he truly wants, he can never have. Bryan Dick, Andrew Scott, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Amaka Okafor and Karl Johnson, star in this 2012 dramatisation of Fitzgerald’s seminal book on the fallibility of the American dream.

The Beautiful and Damned – Anthony Patch and his wife, Gloria Gilbert, are the essence of glamour. True socialites, they spend their time drinking, partying and planning how to spend the vast fortune Anthony is set to inherit. But their decadence and excess will be their downfall, and when their perfect relationship hits the rocks, they descend into despair and alcoholism… Starring Joel MacCormack, Rhashan Stone and Jessica Hardwick, this mesmerising drama charts the Roaring Twenties via a vivid portrait of a golden couple and their doomed marriage.

Tender is the Night – Psychoanalyst Dick Diver and his wife Nicole live the high life at their rented villa on the French Riviera. When young film star Rosemary Hoyt enters their circle, she fails to grasp the dark secrets that hold them together, and her dangerous attraction to Dick will have tragic consequences… Simon Harrison, Melody Grove and Kelly Burke star in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s poignant tale of love, disintegration and shattered dreams.

Head and Shoulders – Seventeen-year-old Horace Tarbox, nicknamed ‘Horace Brainbox’ by his cousin Charlie, is a serious university scholar who doesn’t have time for romance. That is, until he meets sassy blonde flapper and chorus girl Marcia Meadow, and gives up the academic life for love… Starring Alan David Marriott and Briony Glassco.

Against the Current: The Great Gatsby at 100 – Professor Sarah Churchwell explores new poetic, aesthetic and philosophical interpretations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel, asking whether we have misunderstood the author’s intentions all along.

Production credits

Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Contents

The Great Gatsby

The Beautiful and Damned

Tender is the Night

Head and Shoulders

Against the Current: The Great Gatsby at 100

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