James Graham on his "stripping vicar" ice-dancing routine
Desert Island Discs

James Graham on his "stripping vicar" ice-dancing routine

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 2, 20263 min
  • Interview

The playwright James Graham was cast away by Lauren Laverne in 2024. He was a shy and quiet child who enjoyed nothing more than watching soap operas on TV. So what was he doing taking his "stripping vicar" ice-dancing routine on tour? You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

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of people to our imaginary desert island, among them many writers. Our postcard today

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into a hit TV drama.

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B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 40%A2 27%B1 13%B2 20%C1 0%
  • 80% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 181 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 20 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

Welcome to Desert Island Discs postcards. I'm Lauren Laverne. We've cast away thousands of people to our imaginary desert island, among them many writers. Our postcard today comes from the playwright James Graham, who recently adapted his acclaimed play Dear England into a hit TV drama.

0:31

When I spoke to James in 2024, he told me how finding a passion for performance helped him come out of his shell as a young boy. We were like a TV family.

0:41

We used to love sitting in front of the TV every evening, dinner on our laps and watching dramas and soaps. I loved soaps growing up. What did you love about them?

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