Feminine Forever. Copyright: BBC
Feminine Forever

Feminine Forever

  • Radio comedy drama
  • BBC Radio 4
  • 2012
  • 5 episodes (1 series)

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. Stars Lesley Manville, Ron Cook, Alex Tregear and Stephen Hogan.

Key details

Genre
Comedy Drama
Broadcast
2012
Channel
BBC Radio 4
Episodes
5 (1 series)
Stars
Lesley Manville, Ron Cook, Alex Tregear and Stephen Hogan
Writers
Caroline Stafford and David Stafford
Director
Marc Beeby
Producer
Marc Beeby
Company

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.

Additional details

Production
Studio

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Monday 24th September 2012 at 10:45am on BBC Radio 4