George Bernard Shaw is probably one of the best known Irish writers but despite writing from the age of 20 he struggled throughout his life financially.
Born in 1856 he moved to London in 1876 and became a well known activist, socialist, pacifist, vegetarian and supporter of the campaign for women’s rights.
On Sunday January 7 at 10pm on BBC Two NI Irish actor Gabriel Byrne will explore the life, works and passions of Shaw.
Programme Name: My Astonishing Self: Gabriel Byrne on George Bernard Shaw – TX: 07/01/2018 – Episode: My Astonishing Self: Gabriel Byrne on George Bernard Shaw (No. 1) – Picture Shows: Gabriel Byrne. – (C) BBC NI – Photographer: Animo TV for BBC NI
Best known for Man and Superman (1902), Saint Joan (1923) and Pygmalion (1912) he wrote more than 60 plays in his career. Pygmalion is probably better known as My Fair Lady starring Julie Andrews on the stage and Audrey Hepburn in the film version.
My Astonishing Self follows the life and influences of Shaw, travelling around the real places he lived and died.
Byrne also explores Shaw’s radical and unapologetic political thinking, from his opposition to the Great War to his wrong-headed support of Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler.
In the show Byrne describes Shaw as “the most relevant thinker, artist, and literary genius Ireland ever produced”.
He added: “Shaw wrote that poverty was the greatest of our evils, and the worst of our crimes. He hated poverty, because he was born into it. He believed, more than anything, in human beings.
“My abiding sense of the man is of humanity, compassion and courage: a life spent seeking and speaking the truth, and damn the consequences.”
Not just that the programme also features Shaw on the cover of the Beatles Sgt Pepper album and is the man behind the famous phrase: “Those who can, do… those who can’t, teach”.
My Astonishing Self: Gabriel Byrne on George Bernard Shaw will air on Sunday January 7 at 10pm on BBC Two NI