C.S. Lewis, the evacuee and the wardrobe.

On Sunday 14th December and again on Tuesday 16th BBC Radio 4 broadcast the programme, "CS Lewis, the evacuee, and the wardrobe."

Narrated mostly by the actress Emma Freud, it is the story which begins when her mother Jill Freud (nee Flewett) as a girl during World War II, was evacuated from London, as many children were, to get them to relative safety away from Nazi bombs.

One of the people who lived in the house to which the young June Flewett was evacuated was an Oxford don who was introduced as Jack Lewis, and it was a while before she came to realise that while his friends and family called him Jack, his real name under which he wrote and broadcast was Clive Staples Lewis - and he was her favourite author.

As this graphic about the programme relates:






















Many years later, in a letter to Jill Freud, Lewis's Stepson Douglas Gresham told her that she had bee the inspiration for the character Lucy in "The Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe."


Jill Freud died at the age of 98 on 24th November 2025, the day after her daughter had finished putting together "C.S. Lewis, the evacuee, and the Wardrobe." Her obituary in The Observer can be found by clicking on the link below:

Obituary: Jill Freud, actor and literary muse | The Observer


It is an immensely moving programme. 

Chiss don't cry, but if they could I would probably have cried while listening to parts of this story. If you are at all interested in C.S. Lewis or his work, or if you are interested in hearing a remarkable story about some remarkable people, you may find it worthwhile to listen to this one.

The programme will be available on BBC Sounds: at the moment it can also be accessed on the BBC website at

BBC Radio 4 - Illuminated, CS Lewis, the Evacuee and the Wardrobe

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