Narnia’s Lost Poet:
The Secret Lives and Loves of C.S. Lewis
In this very personal and entertaining film for BBC4, writer AN Wilson goes on the trail of an enigma: CS Lewis. In a film marking the 50th anniversary of his death, AN Wilson will present an intriguing psychological portrait of this seemingly well-known figure - CS Lewis, the world famous author of a best-selling series of children’s books, the religious convert whose popular theological writings are bought and devoured by Christians worldwide. In this film AN Wilson, author of a revelatory biography of CS Lewis, will take a revisionist view and show that behind what we know about CS Lewis, lies another more surprising, intellectual and emotional story. A great medievalist, our first popular critic, an aspiring and yet failed poet, one of the most popular lecturers in Oxford and yet an academic much hated and a man who struggled emotionally to connect to himself or to the 20th century. The film will explore the turning points of Lewis’ life, the death of his mother, his relationship with his friend’s mother ‘Mrs Moore’, his religious conversion, the arrival and untimely death of his wife Joy Gresham. At each point Andrew will visit the significant locations for these periods in Lewis’ life and speak to people with personal connections to Lewis who can give a unique insight into this part of Lewis’ story and biography.