Rory Cellan-Jones – Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC

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 meet him until adulthood, when the damage to his mother’s life had already been done.

Rory Cellan-Jones was the BBC’s principal technology correspondent until 2018. He now writes an influential and fast-growing Substack column on medical innovation and tech. Through this and his 300k+ Twitter followers he spreads awareness of technological developments in the fields of medicine, health care and – more specifically – Parkinson’s.

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