3. The Visit to Sheffield

Available for 29 days

Adrian visits his mother and Mr Lucas in Sheffield and realises how much he misses her. At home, there is no food in the house and the electricity is cut off. Sue Townsend's hilarious and heart-breaking chronicle of a teenager growing up in the Midlands in the 1980s. It's 1981 and Margaret Thatcher is in power; Britain is at war in the Falklands and teenagers are growing up in a world without mobile phones or computer games. While his parents are downstairs, drinking, smoking and arguing about their failing marriage, Adrian is upstairs in his bedroom listening to ABBA, reading great works of literature, writing poems, and penning letters to the BBC. Despite the many challenges that life throws at him - including regular beatings from the school bully, unrequited love, raging hormones, a severe case of acne and numerous rejection letters - Adrian soldiers on bravely and wins a place in our hearts with his charming naïveté. Abridged by Sara Davies. Read by Harry McEntire. Producer: Alexa Moore A Pier production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2017.