Feminine Forever
Gentle comedy set in the 1970s about Hormone Replacement Therapy and the joys of growing old disgracefully, for Radio 4's 15 Minute Drama slot
- Genre
- Comedy Drama
- Broadcast
- 2012
- Channel
- BBC Radio 4
- Episodes
- 5 (1 series)
- Starring
- Lesley Manville, Ron Cook, Alex Tregear and Stephen Hogan
- Writers
- Caroline Stafford and David Stafford
- Director
- Marc Beeby
- Producer
- Marc Beeby
Set in the 1970s against a background of increasingly politicised feminism, Feminine Forever is a comedy about women, HRT and the joys of growing old disgracefully.
The series is loosely based on some of the ideas and attitudes contained in a book, published in 1966 and powerfully influential at the time. The book, Feminine Forever by Robert A. Wilson MD, advanced the notion that the menopause is a disease - much like diabetes - for which modern science luckily has the cure: Hormone Replacement Therapy.
Recent discoveries in the field of menopausal therapy, says Dr Robert, may serve to prolong for many women - and for the men who love and admire them - that wonderfully happy aura of love and adoration that full femininity inspires. Only 15% of women are able to grow old gracefully. The rest are suffering from a serious, painful and often crippling disease - the menopause.
Although this series is a gentle comedy - much in the manner of 2010's highly successful The Year They Invented Sex by the same authors - it explores and explodes the prevailing attitudes that underlay these views of women, their sexuality, and the roles ascribed to them (particularly in relation to age) - views that may not be quite as 'historical' as we might like to imagine.
- Production company
- Laugh track
- None
Broadcast details
- First broadcast
- Monday 24th September 2012 on BBC Radio 4 at 10:45am
- Last new broadcast
- Friday 28th September 2012 on BBC Radio 4 at 10:45am
- Length of episodes
- 15 minutes