`From Father With Love` BBC radio play about Ian Fleming`s relationship with his son Caspar, January 13th

31-Dec-2005 • Media Alert

"From Father With Love" is a new play about Ian Fleming's relationship with his son, Caspar, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Friday, 13th January 2006 at 2.15pm GMT.

The broadcast is a Pier Production and has been written by Mark Burgess and directed by David Blount. In a wonderful touch, husband and wife team, Simon and Lucy Williams will play Ian and Anne Fleming.

Lucy Williams is Ian Fleming's niece being the daughter of Ian's older brother, Peter. Peter's other children are Kate Grimond and the late Nicol Fleming.

The play will chart the tender yet distant relationship of Ian with his only child, Caspar. Caspar was born by Caesarian operation on 12th August 1952 in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London UK. He followed his father by going to Eton. He went on to New College, Oxford.

Ian Fleming dies on 12th August 1964, Caspar's 12th birthday. The impact on the young boy cannot be measured. Caspar was keen connect himself with his father's fictional creation (at school he sold his father's autographs and various artefacts) but had a trouble youth, leaving Eton early and Oxford early. Caspar visited Goldeneye in August 1974 but failed to come to terms with his loss. He committed suicide by a drugs overdose on 2nd October 1975. Ian Fleming's only son and heir was lost to the world.

Burgess first came to fame in the UK as Gordon Collins on the Mersy soap, Brookside. He was also the author and performer of the superb one-man show about the life of Ian Fleming, 'The Man With The Golden Pen' which toured the UK in 2000-2001. A Hanover Production, directed by Roger Alborough, lit and designed by Dan Thompson and originally staged by the Brighton Revue Company, the show was given the seal of approval by Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Publications Limited. The play was an instant success and was sponsored by Parker Pens for the nationwide tour. An afficianado of the style and elegance of the creator of James Bond, the play took five years to write, Burgess researching the subject extensively.

News article submitted by Ajay Chowdhury - editor of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang magazine (www.007.info).