The Lady in the House of Love

Step into the shadows with us as we unearth Angela Carter's mesmerising 1976 radio play "Vampirella" – a haunting feminist reimagining of vampire lore that later transformed into her acclaimed short story "The Lady in the House of Love."

Most vampire tales follow the menacing male vampire, but Carter brilliantly shifts focus to Count Dracula's daughter, the Countess. Through this female vampire's perspective, we explore themes of isolation, desire, and the possibility of true love. The original BBC Radio production features stellar performances from Anna Massey as the Countess, Richard O'Callaghan as Hero, and David March as Count Dracula himself. The dramatic sound effects create an immersive atmosphere that transports listeners straight into this gothic world – fair warning to headphone users, the audio journey intensifies as the story progresses!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Melancholy Mentor

Transcript

Fran: 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to Melancholy Mentor, where classic literature meets the vibrant world of radio plays. I'm Fran and I'm joined by Evan from Mystery Mythos. Together, we're your guides on this creative journey. During each episode, we'll dive into stories featured on the Melancholy Mentor channel, allowing fresh ideas to flourish, inspiring you to dream big and unlock your creative potential. Get comfy, open your mind and embrace curiosity. Let's get started. Hello, I'm Fran and I'm Evan. During this Melancholy Mentor podcast episode, we're highlighting a radio drama by Angela Carter. Are you ready for the episode reveal? Yes, it's Vampirella. Oh, yes, vampirella was originally written as a radio play in 1976, and it was later rewritten as the short story the Lady in the House of Love. A little bit about Angela Carter. Angela Carter was born Angela Olive Stalker, in 1940 in Eastbourne in England. Wow. Now for those of you who are not aware of England, eastbourne's on the south coast, so it's actually coastal, and I'm based in Dorset, so Eastbourne, I think. Does it come under Sussex?

Evan: 1:40

Yeah, yeah, but it's about.

Fran: 1:42

I don't know. It could be about three hours' drive away from where I am, so it's on the English coast. Angela passed away in 1992, age 51, after developing lung cancer. She was an English novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist. Angela Carter had started working on a sequel. Now this piece of information is very interesting and I wonder whether or not the work will actually be picked up by somebody else, and I should imagine not. I mean, it's sort of if she passed in 1992 and this has just been left. But she was working on a sequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Oh crikey, yeah. Now Jane Eyre is actually my favourite classic literature story next to Little Women. Yeah, jane, jane is like my next one. I love the TV adaptations of it, I love the story of it, I love the way it's written. So that would have been absolutely fascinating. And apparently the sequel was going to be based on the later life of Jane's stepdaughter, adele, and unfortunately only a synopsis, just that brief summary, actually survives. Oh yeah, that would have been absolutely fascinating yeah, yeah, yeah.

Evan: 3:12

It's kind of like I guess it's lost, really, isn't it? She passed away and then you know what's gonna happen.

Fran: 3:18

It's just the. It's just the, the brief summary of it. So I guess, if nobody else sort of you know, takes on that work, that's it. It just remains like that. Yeah, we've actually got a radio drama of jane on the melancholy mentor youtube channel. Yeah, yeah for you to find. So let's have a little sneak peek at vampirella. So I'm going to go straight in with a spoiler alert.

Fran: 3:47

Vampirella has a famous dad. It's actually Count Dracula. Yes, count Dracula is the vampire from the 1897 Gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker. 1997 gothic horror novel by bram stoker. The narrative is related is, so it's related through letters. So the story of count dracula is is told through letters, diary entries and newspaper articles. So actually makes it quite a unique novel. Yeah, it is. Yeah, there are many adaptations of dracula across various media, including film, television and stage. So, moving back to angela carter, angela carter's writing often explores feminist themes and vampirella is no exception. So vampirella is a unique perspective about a female vampire and the story explores true love oh yeah so the radio drama episode of Vampirella, which is featured on our youtube channel, is actually very dramatic.

Fran: 4:59

It's a clear recording. It's got a lot of sound effects in it, so be mindful if you listen via headphones so that you don't get too much of a surprise. And, evan, do you have any more information about the episode?

Evan: 5:14

yeah, actually it was broadcast in 1976 on bbc radio free, and the play was written by Angela Carter. Anna Massey stars as the Countess, richard O'Callaghan stars as Hero and David March stars as Count Dracula. The video was filmed by you in Sandbanks, dorset, and we've got 144 views on this one, so this one's pretty good. Oh nice, yeah, it's not bad.

Fran: 5:47

Yeah, so just to remind you all, by film we mean that evan gets the audio from archives and stuff like that, so it's already made by other people and we credit them if we know who's who's done it or you know whether it was the bbc or which production company did it and the video to accompany it on YouTube, because we also add a video to it for people to watch. It's usually just the coastline or some trees or somebody's pond. Yeah, whatever takes my fancy while I'm out and about with my tripod and my mobile phone, I'll film it and then Evan puts the audio to it and it goes onto YouTube. Yeah, so it's absolutely fascinating because I I like Angela Carter's stories and I've got a collection of. They're kind of like a.

Fran: 6:33

I suppose they're like fairy tales yeah, they've been collected by Angela Carter, so they were collected and then formatted into a book. Um, and I like her writings and I've read. It's gonna go out of my head what book it is that I've read. Um, it was. It was lovely. I'll think about that for next time. Yeah, I had one of her books, but I didn't actually know that she'd written. Vampirella didn't know anything about it until we actually featured it on our YouTube channel yeah, yeah, yeah, amazing.

Evan: 7:04

It's actually really good, isn't it? It starts off with like little birds, like the. The beginning of it's got like the sound effects of little birds, so it's actually, it's actually very good yeah, and then the sound effects get a bit more dramatic.

Fran: 7:16

So it's a warning, okay. So we are passionate about sharing timeless stories with new audiences the new audiences myself included in that, because I hadn't actually heard shockingly enough, I hadn't actually heard of vampirella before we got the audio of it. We're even more passionate about igniting your creative journey along the way. So thank you for joining us. Be sure to explore the radio plays and dramas that are featured on our youtube channel, melancholy mentor. And until next time, thank you, bye, thank you, bye. Thank you for tuning in. Contact us at melancholymentorcom. Until next time, get your minds open and stay curious.