8. #FreeBritney

Pandora Sykes explores the movement to liberate Britney from her conservatorship - and considers the future of fame

In this eight-part series for BBC Radio 4, Pandora traces Britney’s incredible life: from her hardscrabble childhood in rural Louisiana, to her coronation as the inaugural pop princess of the internet, navigating an insatiable celebrity gossip complex; through to a young mother on trial by the paparazzi. Britney is a pop culture phenomenon. Pandora looks behind that mask - and beyond Britney herself - to explore how Britney became the most Googled person in the world, for almost 7 years, and what it says, both then and now, about the entertainment industry, politics, sex and how we see women in the public eye. Britney’s public struggles saw her placed in a conservatorship, that she remains in to this day, and in which she has lost the right to control her finances and day to day life. Today, as Britney fights to remove her father from his role as her conservator, we will look at how Britney has been transformed from girl-next-door teen sensation to pop music’s Rapunzel, trapped in a supposedly rotten system. Pieces of Britney mixes documentary, archive and interviews to tell Britney’s remarkable story. It also features drama, written by playwright Katie Hims, to bring Britney and her extraordinary world to life. Pieces of Britney will be a sympathetic portrayal of Britney, during a time of cultural reappraisal about how we treat women - famous, or otherwise.

Episode 8 Cast:

Britney . . . . . Samantha Dakin Lynne . . . . . Laurel Lefkow Young Britney . . . . . Maddie Evans Other parts were played by Joseph Ayre, Elinor Coleman, Tony Turner and Simon Ludders.

Sound design by Peter Ringrose Produced by Anne Isger and Sasha Yevtushenko.