74 episodes

Million Dollar Lover is an unlikely love story, recorded in real time as the relationship unfolds between a wealthy widow, Carolyn, who is 80 and Dave, 57, a former drug addict who is homeless and has a long criminal history.
The story captured the attention of the BBC Journalist Sue Mitchell as it was unfolding on her street. She spends a lot of time in California, she married an American and her award-winning journalism has been about the lives of people like Dave who inhabit the dangerous margins of society.
There are so many homeless people in America that the wealthy can no longer avoid contact with them. When Dave arrives in Cayucos, a charming beach town, prosperous and sunny all year round, he goes to church. People there help him find work, recommending him to Carolyn as an odd job man. She falls in love with him and within a fortnight, he's moved in.
Dave is a skilled joiner and musician who makes and sells jewellery. With Carolyn’s support, he appears to be thriving. Her daughters fear that he has his sights set on the valuable property portfolio which their parents and grandparents built up over the years and turn to the police for help.
Soon everyone is asking whether Dave is really a tender carer or a dangerous interloper who will fleece her – breaking her heart and her family?
New episodes will be released on Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Intrigue first on BBC Sounds. https://bbc.in/3WEQS5W
Million Dollar Lover is produced at BBC Audio by the team behind The Boy in the Woods and is presented by Sue Mitchell.
The series is scripted by Winifred Robinson; the producers are Sue Mitchell and Joel Moors; the dramaturg is Flo Dessau and sound design is by Tom Brignell.

Intrigue BBC Podcasts

    • True Crime
    • 4.7 • 3.3K Ratings

Million Dollar Lover is an unlikely love story, recorded in real time as the relationship unfolds between a wealthy widow, Carolyn, who is 80 and Dave, 57, a former drug addict who is homeless and has a long criminal history.
The story captured the attention of the BBC Journalist Sue Mitchell as it was unfolding on her street. She spends a lot of time in California, she married an American and her award-winning journalism has been about the lives of people like Dave who inhabit the dangerous margins of society.
There are so many homeless people in America that the wealthy can no longer avoid contact with them. When Dave arrives in Cayucos, a charming beach town, prosperous and sunny all year round, he goes to church. People there help him find work, recommending him to Carolyn as an odd job man. She falls in love with him and within a fortnight, he's moved in.
Dave is a skilled joiner and musician who makes and sells jewellery. With Carolyn’s support, he appears to be thriving. Her daughters fear that he has his sights set on the valuable property portfolio which their parents and grandparents built up over the years and turn to the police for help.
Soon everyone is asking whether Dave is really a tender carer or a dangerous interloper who will fleece her – breaking her heart and her family?
New episodes will be released on Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Intrigue first on BBC Sounds. https://bbc.in/3WEQS5W
Million Dollar Lover is produced at BBC Audio by the team behind The Boy in the Woods and is presented by Sue Mitchell.
The series is scripted by Winifred Robinson; the producers are Sue Mitchell and Joel Moors; the dramaturg is Flo Dessau and sound design is by Tom Brignell.

    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 10: Final Plot

    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 10: Final Plot

    In this last programme of the series, the community of Cayucos is watching on and wondering how things will develop. Is there a way to handle a situation like this, where homelessness and wealth collide. Where a damaged man and a frail older woman come together to share a life?
    The unusual romance between Dave and Carolyn captured the attention of the BBC Journalist Sue Mitchell as it was unfolding on her street. She spends a lot of time in California, she married an American and her award-winning journalism has been about the lives of people like Dave who inhabit the dangerous margins of society.
    New episodes will be released on Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Intrigue first on BBC Sounds. https://bbc.in/3WEQS5W
    Million Dollar Lover is produced at BBC Audio by the team behind The Boy in the Woods and is presented by Sue Mitchell.
    The series is scripted by Winifred Robinson; the producers are Sue Mitchell and Joel Moors; the dramaturg is Flo Dessau and sound design is by Tom Brignall. The editor is Philip Sellars.
    With special thanks to BBC Radio 4's Commissioning Editor Daniel Clarke.

    • 36 min
    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 9: Missing You

    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 9: Missing You

    With Carolyn’s daughters powerless to act, it looks like Dave might be on the brink of a receiving a small fortune from his 80 year old lover, Carolyn. She has promised to take care of him and says that he is the best thing to happen in her life. Her daughters do not believe she is in her right mind, but they cannot find anyone prepared to help them.
    It is shaping up for a distressing battle when suddenly events take a turn for the worse.
    The unusual romance between Dave and Carolyn captured the attention of the BBC Journalist Sue Mitchell as it was unfolding on her street. She spends a lot of time in California, she married an American and her award-winning journalism has been about the lives of people like Dave who inhabit the dangerous margins of society.
    New episodes will be released on Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Intrigue first on BBC Sounds. https://bbc.in/3WEQS5W
    Million Dollar Lover is produced by R&M Production, the team behind The Boy in the Woods and is presented by Sue Mitchell.
    The series is scripted by Winifred Robinson; the producers are Sue Mitchell and Joel Moors; the dramaturg is Flo Dessau and sound design is by Tom Brignall

    • 34 min
    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 8: Taking Control

    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 8: Taking Control

    Things are reaching a head as worries grow about Carolyn’s decision to sell two houses, on a single plot. One of the houses is home to her grandson and his family and Carolyn does not appear to be totally sure about her decision. Her daughters are so concerned that they approach the estate agent begging him to stop things.
    If he does not and the sale goes ahead, Dave could be looking at a sizeable amount of money being transferred into his name. Carolyn’s daughters could be seeing their worst nightmares coming true. And a homeless man who rode into Cayucos on a bike could soon be on the brink of achieving the sort of stability he could never have dreamed of.
    The relationship between Dave and Carolyn captured the attention of the BBC Journalist Sue Mitchell as it was unfolding on her street. She spends a lot of time in California, she married an American and her award-winning journalism has been about the lives of people like Dave who inhabit the dangerous margins of society.
    New episodes will be released on Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Intrigue first on BBC Sounds. https://bbc.in/3WEQS5W
    Million Dollar Lover is produced at BBC Audio by the team behind The Boy in the Woods and is presented by Sue Mitchell.
    The series is scripted by Winifred Robinson; the producers are Sue Mitchell and Joel Moors; the dramaturg is Flo Dessau and sound design is by Tom Brignall. The series Editor is Philip Sellars

    • 36 min
    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 7: Hidden Lives

    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 7: Hidden Lives

    In the idyllic seaside town of Cayucos, on the Californian coast, property is expensive, a home here can easily cost a million dollars or more. The property boom which has made people of Carolyn’s generation well off, has priced so many out of the market and made it expensive to rent. There is a growing problem with homelessness, a world that Dave knows well. Even now that he is living with Carolyn he has not cut his ties with the homeless and is determined to help when he can.
    When Dave returns to Riverside, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, he visits some of the friends he lived alongside on the river bottom. There are tarpaulin covers stretching for miles, largely hidden by the trees and it is down there that we meet Rebecca. She is a crystal meth addict and offers him the pipe: he has made so much of leaving this world behind, but has he really?
    In that same visit he goes back to the Gavilan mountains, a spaghetti Western landscape that is sun scorched and inhospitable. It was here that Dave lived with a famous Hollywood actress. A story which hardly seems true but which is and one which quickly raises new worries about Carolyn’s safety at his hands.
    The relationship between Dave and Carolyn captured the attention of the BBC Journalist Sue Mitchell, an investigative journalist who reports on the lives of people like Dave who inhabit the dangerous margins of society.
    New episodes will be released on Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Intrigue first on BBC Sounds. https://bbc.in/3WEQS5W
    The series is scripted by Winifred Robinson; the producers are Sue Mitchell and Joel Moors; the dramaturg is Flo Dessau and sound design is by Tom Brignall

    • 34 min
    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 6: Unforgettable

    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 6: Unforgettable

    At first glance Carolyn appears to be a lucky woman who has led a charmed life: loved by her husband and daughters – prosperous and secure. But she has endured great hardship and in this episode it becomes a bit easier to understand why she initially felt so drawn to Dave and what he has come to represent in her life.
    For his part, Dave is reluctant to dwell on his childhood, but he undoubtedly had a difficult start in life. Some of that damage has since been repeated in the lives of his children and grandchildren. As the bond between Carolyn and Dave deepens, she is clear about wanting to protect his future by helping him financially.
    Relationships in your later years are never going to be plain sailing: there are usually long established patterns, and problems to contend with. Carolyn is on her own with these now that her daughters have been pushed to the side-lines of her life. She is struggling to drive at night and to do her tax returns and she is increasingly frustrated with Dave’s drinking and socialising
    The story captured the attention of the BBC Journalist Sue Mitchell as it was unfolding on her street. She spends a lot of time in California, she married an American and her award-winning journalism has been about the lives of people like Dave who inhabit the dangerous margins of society.
    New episodes will be released on Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Intrigue first on BBC Sounds. https://bbc.in/3WEQS5W
    Million Dollar Lover is produced at BBC Audio by the team behind The Boy in the Woods and is presented by Sue Mitchell.
    The series is scripted by Winifred Robinson; the producers are Sue Mitchell and Joel Moors; the dramaturg is Flo Dessau and sound design is by Tom Brignall

    • 36 min
    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 5: Family Fortunes

    Million Dollar Lover – Ep 5: Family Fortunes

    With Carolyn’s encouragement, Dave is making more effort to see his children, including his daughter, Cody. Like her Dad, Cody has struggled with crystal meth addiction and is sometimes sleeping rough in her car as she waits for a place in a recovery unit. She longs for her Dad’s love, but she has been let down by him in the past and cannot really trust that he has changed
    In this episode BBC Journalist, Sue Mitchell, goes with Dave to Riverside, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. This is where Dave has spent a lot of his life and on a walk at a local landmark he discloses that it is also where he was locked up following a violent attack. As more secrets from his past emerge Sue catches glimpses of Dave’s anger and of his more sinister side.
    The revelations go to the heart of the question everyone in Cayucos is asking: is Dave really a tender carer who will cherish Carolyn to the end as he promises, or is he a dangerous interloper who will fleece Carolyn – breaking her heart and her family?
    New episodes will be released on Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Intrigue first on BBC Sounds. https://bbc.in/3WEQS5W
    Million Dollar Lover is produced at BBC Audio by the team behind The Boy in the Woods and is presented by Sue Mitchell.
    The series is scripted by Winifred Robinson; the producers are Sue Mitchell and Joel Moors; the dramaturg is Flo Dessau and sound design is by Tom Brignall

    • 38 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
3.3K Ratings

3.3K Ratings

Teddy&Baby ,

Excellent

Sue Mitchell is great, a balanced view and investigation. You can easily fall either side of the argument depending on the latest information. Ultimately you make you’re own mind up, but I think any child in Carolyn’s daughter’s position would feel exactly the same.

JDB1000464 ,

J

Enjoyable until the BBC feels the need to push the vaccine narrative. Not needed in the story

neverlacking ,

Less Angela please

Three episodes into Million Dollar lover and I’m fairly certain that Angela the ‘friend psychologist’ is actually the villain.

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