Queen of Nightclubs
Irishwoman Kate Meyrick was known as the Queen of Nightclubs. She was born Kate Nason in 1875 and grew up in Cambridge Terrace in Kingstown, now Dun Laoghaire, and later attended Dublin’s Alexandra College and when she was 19 years old married a doctor and moved to England. She went on to have eight children but did not live happily ever after for in the 1920s she became a businesswoman who opened the most famous nightclubs of London’s Jazz age, went to prison five times and wrote a memoir.
Through Kate Meyrick’s own words, court reports, newspapers, home secretary files, police surveillance documents, divorce papers and stacks of police reports, presenter and producer Zoë Comyns pieces together the story of Kate Meyrick – London’s Nightclub Queen.
Maria Doyle Kennedy voices Kate Meyrick’s memoir Secrets of the 43 and through these and interviews with historians, writers and family, the spirit and decadence of the age comes to life.
This is the first time a full length documentary about Kate Meyrick, a woman who generated hundreds of newspaper headlines, was involved in the biggest police bribery scandal of the 1920s, hosted royalty, famous musicians, the aristocracy, actors and criminals.
Presented and produced by Zoë Comyns
with Maria Doyle Kennedy as the voice of Kate Meyrick.
Series Producer: Eoin O Kelly
Production Coordinator: Lily Collins
Commissioned for RTÉ lyric fm with support from the Coimisiún Na Meán Sound and Vision Fund and RTÉ Independent Radio Productions from the television license fee. Bronze winner Best Radio Documentary at the 2024 IMRO awards.
(First broadcast 3rd March 2024)
RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 24th November, 6pm-7pm
