The Lost Prince

The screenplay of Poliakoff’s award-winning BBC drama about the forgotten son of King George V and Queen Mary

The Lost Prince follows the life and times of Prince John, the forgotten youngest son of King George V and Queen Mary, who was born in 1905. Although remembered as a charming boy, he was diagnosed as epileptic and suffering from learning difficulties similar to autism and shut away at the age of twelve at the in Wood Farm near Sandringham to prevent the family from public embarrassment. He died there when he was just thirteen. Dramatising the historical facts, Poliakoff portrays with extraordinary sensitivity, a child’s experience of the Royal Family in the late Edwardian period and during the First World War. Set against a backdrop of unprecedented upheaval in Britain, The Lost Prince tells the very human story of a unique family and an extraordinary boy.

Published to tie in with the BBC’s production, broadcast in two feature-length instalments in January 2003, The Lost Prince stars Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Gina McKee, Tom Hollander, John Sessions, Billy Nighy and Bibi Andersson.

Author Biography

Stephen Poliakoff was appointed writer in residence at the National Theatre for 1976 and in the same year won the Evening Standard’‘s Most Promising Playwright award for “Hitting the Town” and “Sugar City”. He won a BAFTA for best single play in 1980 for “Caught on a Train”, the Evening Standard’‘s Best British Film Award for “Close My Eyes” in 1992 and the Critics Circle Best Play Award for “Blinded by the Sun” in 1996.