What A Carve Up!

Jonathan Coe's What a Carve Up! is a satirical, sharp and melancholy portrait of 1980s Britain. In 2005 it was adapted for radio by one of the UK's most successful exponents of comedy and satire, David Nobbs.

The series is set in 1980s Britain and based around The Winshaw family, an integral part of the British Establishment who are becoming more wealthy and corrupt by the day.

Newspaper columnist Hilary Winshaw gets thousands for telling it like it isn't; Henry is turning hospitals into carparks; Roddy is selling art in return for sex; down on the farm, Dorothy's squealing every last pound from her livestock; Thomas is making a killing on the stock exchange; and Mark is selling arms to dictators.

Michael Pearce, a reclusive novelist (and our narrator), is commissioned to write their biography by a wealthy geriatric who wishes to expose them. Michael is less than successful, but when he unwittingly uncovers their trail of immoral doings, the time seems ripe for their comeuppance. At the same time, Michael's own story becomes a tale-within-a-tale: in striking and sobering contrast to the Winshaw's gruesome antics and their evil ways.