42. Joy

Set in 2022, Joy is now 76 and living in a care home, where sharp humour and fierce independence help her navigate a world increasingly shaped by care, compromise and other people’s decisions. When someone from her distant past unexpectedly reappears, Joy is stirred into rethinking who she is and what she still wants. As her daughter Glory wrestles with responsibility, fear and unfinished grief, long-standing family tensions resurface, testing ideas of love, loyalty and control.

Faith, Hope and Glory is an ambitious Radio 4 drama series telling intimate domestic stories that together illuminate the emergence of modern Britain. The story began in 1946, when Hope and Jim’s baby was entrusted to Eunice, later known as Faith, to take home to Antigua, but never made that journey and was taken in by Gloria and Clement. Named Joy, the child becomes the emotional centre of the series, her life unfolding across decades as personal lives intersect with social change.

Joy . . . . . Doreene Blackstock
Benny . . . . . David Hounslow
Glory . . . . . Cat Simmons
Suveer . . . . . Lolita Chakrabarti
Bernadette . . . . . Tanya Moodie

Writer: Rex Obano
Director: Femi Elufowoju, jr
Producer: Jessica Dromgoole
Production Co-ordinator: Kate Gray
Casting Manager: Alex Curran
Sound design: Keith Graham, Sam Dickinson, Sharon Hughes

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.