Making Masterpiece: 25 Years behind the Scenes at Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! on PBS
About this audiobook
The Emmy Award–winning producer of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! reveals the secrets to Downton Abbey, Sherlock, and its other hit programs.
For more than twenty-five years and counting, Rebecca Eaton has presided over PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, the longest-running weekly prime-time drama series in American history. From the runaway hits Upstairs, Downstairs and The Buccaneers to the hugely popular Inspector Morse, Prime Suspect, and Poirot, Masterpiece Theatre and its sibling series Mystery! have been required viewing for fans of quality drama.
Eaton interviews many of the writers, directors, producers, and other contributors and shares personal anecdotes about her decades-long career. She reveals what went on behind the scenes during such triumphs as Cranford and the multiple, highly rated programs made from Jane Austen's novels, as well as her aggressive campaign to attract younger viewers via social media and online streaming. Along the way she shares stories about actors and other luminaries such as Alistair Cooke, Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Daniel Radcliffe, whose first television role was as the title character in David Copperfield.
Readers will also get to know Eaton on a personal level. With a childhood steeped in theater, an affinity for nineteenth-century novels and culture, and an "accidental apprenticeship" with the BBC, Eaton was practically born to lead the Masterpiece and Mystery! franchises. Making Masterpiece marks the first time the driving force behind the enduring flagship show reveals all.
About the author
Rebecca Eaton has been executive producer of Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! for more than twenty-five years. She has won multiple Emmys for her work. She lives in Boston.
Kenneth Branagh, was already a celebrated stage actor when, in 1988, he made his debut as a film director with Henry V; among other films he has directed are Dead Again, Peter's Friends, Much Ado About Nothing, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, In Bleak Midwinter, Hamlet, and Love's Labour's Lost; as a performer he has been seen in Conspiracy, Celebrity, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Meredith Mitchell is an actress who has performed in such films as Mona Lisa Smile and The Reunion, on stage with Shakespeare & Company and the New Repertory Theatre, and on television on Good Morning America. She received her BA in psychology from Emory University and her MFA in acting from Brandeis University.
