TV Pick For Tonight: Jeanette Winterson: My Monster and Me

Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit is a revealing and award-winning novel which was adapted into a ground-breaking TV drama in 1990. Despite having similarities to her own childhood, Jeanette claims the book is not a lesbian novel nor an autobiographical account. Whatever her intentions, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit has certainly made an important and unique contribution to both the literary world and television drama.

The central story follows a young girl, Jeanette, as she struggles with life with an overbearing and very religious mother. Jeanette is outcast at school and finds her evangelical life difficult to cope with, especially after her feelings for her friend Melanie are discovered by her mother and religious community.  As those around her attempt to 'save' her from what they regard as sinful behaviour, Jeanette cannot hide her same-sex desires. 

Tonight, the BBC arts series Imagine discovers the real story behind author Jeanette Winterson's childhood. Nearly thirty years after her triumphant debut novel, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette returns with Alan Yentob to the scenes of her extraordinary childhood in Lancashire. The documentary reveals how Jeanette was adopted and brought up to be a missionary by the larger-than-life Mrs Winterson, but instead followed a different path: she found literature, fell in love with a girl, and escaped to university. Following her recent memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, Jeanette Winterson tells the story of her recent breakdown and suicide attempt, her quest to find her birth mother and how the power of books helped her to survive.

Imagine: Jeanette Winterson: My Monster and Me airs tonight at 10:35pm on BBC1.

Image Credit: BBC