Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC

Written by Rory Cellan-Jones

Narrated by Rory Cellan-Jones

Can we ever really know the truth about our parents?
'For Rory, to read and think about - in the hope it will help him to understand how it really was.'
Rory Cellan-Jones knew he was the child of a love affair between two BBC employees. But until his mother died and he found a file labelled 'For Rory' he knew little of its beginning or ending. Or why his peculiarly isolated childhood had so tested the bond between him and Sylvia as she single-parented two sons in a one-bedroom flat, while working full time, through the 1950s and 60s.
This is a compelling account of what Rory uncovered in the papers, letters and diaries; of a relationship between two romantics and the restrictive forces of post-war respectability and prejudice that ended it. It is also an evocation of the centrifugal force at the centre of all their lives - the BBC itself.
Both tender and troubling, the drama moves from wartime radio broadcasts to the golden era of TV drama. His father may have directed The Forsyte Saga and Rory may have watched him from afar, but he would never actually meet him until adulthood, when the damage to his mother's life had already been done.

• Language: English
• Publisher: September Publishing
• Release date: Sep 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9781914613586

Rory Cellan-Jones

Rory Cellan-Jones is the BBC's chief technology correspondent reporting on the biggest developments and news stories in the field. He has interviewed countless visionaries from Jeff Bezos to Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk to Tim Berners-Lee. He hosts the BBC weekly podcast Tech Tent and is the author of Dot.Bomb: The Strange Death of Dot.Com Britain and Always On: Hope and Fear in the Social Smartphone Era. @ruskin147