Friends and Crocodiles and Gideon's Daughter

Description

From Stephen Poliakoff, acclaimed author the Emmy Award-winning The Lost Prince, come two unforgettable screenplays broadcast by the BBC in 2006. Friends & Crocodiles is an intoxicating story following the shifting balance of power between a visionary and hedonistic boss, Paul Reynolds, and his secretary Lizzie. Against a backdrop of flamboyant parties, maverick business plans and the boom and bust of corporate Britain in the eighties and nineties, a magnetic relationship of success and failure, aspiration and antagonism is played out. Gideon's Daughter, winner of two Golden Globes and a Peabody Award, is a powerful narrative of ambition, loss and redemption. As the century draws to a close, a new Labour government comes to power and leading PR guru Gideon Warner finds himself feted by politicians, businessmen and starlets eager for his assured touch. But as he reaches the pinnacle of his career, national grief at the death of Princess Diana becomes the emotional backdrop to Gideon's increasing sense of loss at the distance between himself and his daughter. As his ambitions unravel, a chance encounter with the extraordinary Stella begins a relationship that might yet offer him a chance of salvation. As well as the two screenplays, the volume features an entertaining and provocative essay by the author.

Stephen Poliakoff, born in 1952, was appointed writer in residence at the National Theatre for 1976 and the same year won the Evening Standard's Most Promising Playwright award for Hitting Town and City Sugar. His most recent work includes The Lost Prince (BBC, 2003) winner of three Emmy Awards, and two major new companion dramas for the BBC and HBO Films: Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary (2007).