Afternoon Plays XIX
  
Many of these are older plays, 
so we could not find a lot of info about some of them. 




Afternoon Play - Higher - Inspection by Joyce Bryant
******The second comedy about the Geography department at 
Hayborough University. Where if you have a pulse you can have 
a degree. In these straightened times there have to be cuts. So it 
does seem a bit of a coincidence that when David Poll is 
earmarked for disciplinary measures leading to possible dismissal 
the Quality Assurance Inspectorate turns up.



Afternoon Play - Rescue Me by Tanika Gupta
******Rukhsana is a successful lawyer in her late 20s, living in London 
where she shares a house with Arif, who, like her, is British Bengali.

When her mother has a heart attack, Rukshana returns to Dhaka to be with her family. 
Then she calls Arif. Her parents have taken her mobile and her passport. And they won't 
let her leave the house. She's very scared.

Arif flies out to Dhaka, the city where he was born, to see if he can find her. 
With the help of James, at the British High Commission, he embarks on a search which 
forces him to examine his own past.



Afternoon Play - The Barber and the Ark by Marcia Layne
******Issachar has been given an ultimatum by Yvonne, either the dreadlocks go 
or she does. But the veteran barber he visits has other ideas. Over a bottle of his 
'special ingredient roots tonic' the barber shares his dream of discovering the 
Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia. 
A dream that will change Isaachar's life



Afternoon Play - Tetherdown by Scott Cherry and Gregory Evans
******The place: London.
The threat of terrorism, imported and home-grown, hangs in the air. 
A recession bites. Fresh crimes of violence are reported daily, with 
Londoners torn between fascination and fear, and the police struggling to 
retain the confidence of the public.
The year: 1896.
In the well-heeled suburb of Muswell Hill, Henry Smith, a retired engineer, is found tied-up 
and beaten to death in his own home. Scotland Yard detectives are on the scene within 
the hour, but their investigations are hampered by judges and politicians, who refuse to 
recognise the latest breakthrough in forensic science, fingerprints. "The British policeman,
" says a high court judge," must depend on his customary tenacity and ingenuity."
As the detectives identify suspects, and launch a nationwide manhunt, news of the crimes 
goes global, with reports in newspapers as far apart as the USA and New Zealand.
Tetherdown (the name of the road where the murder took place) is a fast-moving play by 
Scott Cherry and Gregory Evans which views these tragic events of over a century ago through 
the prism of 2010. Every character is based on a real person connected to the case.

Nicholas Woodeson (Great Expectations; Conspiracy; Red Riding) stars as Detective Constable Burrell.



Afternoon Play - Rumpole and the Family Pride by John Mortimer
******We rejoin Rumpole and Hilda in the late 1950s, when they have been 
married for a year or two. Rumpole mingles with a branch of Yorkshire 
aristocracy remotely connected to Hilda's family when he represents 
a Lord in the Coroner's Court.

Hilda's first cousin (once removed), Rosemary, lives with her husband, Richard, the 
17th Baron Sackbut, in Sackbut Castle and Hilda and Rumpole are invited to Yorkshire 
when a body is found in the grounds of the castle.



Afternoon Play - Rumpole and the Eternal Triangle by John Mortimer
When Rumpole and Hilda attend a concert performed by The Casterini Trio, Rumpole is surprised 
to be approached by Elizabeth Casterini - the trio's beautiful violinist. Rumpole falls for her charms. 
But then, the Trio's cellist, Tom Randall is murdered.

Elizabeth's husband Desmond was supposedly suspicious of Randall's feelings for Elizabeth. And, 
since he owned the gun that was found by the body, Desmond is arrested. Flattered by Elizabeth's 
seductive pleas, Rumpole agrees to defend Desmond at the Old Bailey. But there, Rumpole's admiration 
for Elizabeth rapidly begins to wane.




Afternoon Play - Stannie and Jim by Simon Littlefield
******Trieste 1914
A fictional romance is woven round a comic reimagining of James Joyce's
relationship with his brother Stanislaus as they fight, write
and prepare for war.




Afternoon Play - The Judgement Test by Michael Butt.
******Officers in the armed units of the Police have a dangerous job - 
both physically and psychologically. We ask them to face death and 
to make life and death decisions. But when it comes to the crunch, 
what kind of decisions does Constable John Woolf make? 
And how are they affecting him?

In Michael Butt's play, a probing journalist asks some difficult questions 
  and gets some very unexpected answers.



Afternoon Play - Tall Stories by Samina Baig
******Samina's life is a whirl of work and worry about her single status until a family crisis 
stops her in her tracks. Both her parents are admitted into separate hospitals forcing her 
to come to terms with their sudden entry into old age.
Between hospital visits, emergency phone calls and cookery lessons, she attempts to finally 
grow up and preserve the fading family memories that connect her to her roots. But then 
things take a turn for the worse...



Afternoon Play - The Patience of Mr Job by Justin Butcher
******Mr Job is an African farmer with an unshakeable faith in 
the benevolence of the West. There's a flurry of excitement in 
the village. Mr Kismet, from the World Development Agency, 
has sent a letter offering rich rewards if the region sells its timber 
and moves to cut-flower production. Mr Job obeys the WDA 
scrupulously, even when the instructions prove extremely 
inconvenient, but as they wait for Mr Kismet's arrival, a series 
of disasters strike. A satire about globalisation and climate change.




Afternoon Play - Unauthorised History: The Killing by Michael Butt
******In May 1593, the playwright Christopher Marlowe was killed. 
Apparently, it was because of an argument over a bill. Michael Butt's 
innovative drama dons the cloak of documentary to re-examine the 
unsolved case.
The scene is Deptford on 30th May 1593. Four gentlemen enter a tavern. 
They order lunch, take a room above the public bar, and ask for privacy. The afternoon passes uneventfully: 
every now and then drinks are called for, but otherwise the landlady hears almost nothing, 
bar the creaking of floorboards, from the company upstairs. On the surface there is nothing 
remarkable about any of this, that is until the eighth hour passes. As the last stages of 
sunlight are reflected across the Thames, the hush is pierced - a cry is heard, the door thrown 
open, a man is dead.

The official story was that a fight resulted after an argument regarding the bill. But just scratch 
the surface of this meeting at Deptford and you find yourself in the company of sharks and spies. 
They all dealt in the perennial currency of that day: bargains, tricks, betrayals, lies. Their paths 
intersect, part, and join again. It is no surprise to find them together in Deptford.

The puzzling thing is the presence of the fourth man. What was their business with Christopher Marlowe?

An unsolved murder case never ages. Our narrator opens the play whilst crouching next to the dead body, 
which is now growing cold. Over the next 45 minutes he speaks to the people who knew Marlowe and enters 
a world of half-truths and outright lies, as he tries to elicit answers that will finally lead to the truth.


Afternoon Play - Bottle Blonde and Beautiful by Vanessa Rosenthal
******A northern hairdresser and single mum gets more than 
she bargained for from a new client. 



Afternoon Play - Miss Balcombe's Orchard by Jonathan Davidson
*******A drama-documentary by Jonathan Davidson set and recorded in 
an apple orchard. Miss Balcombe is getting on but she is determined to 
keep her apple trees. Her workers don't much care but there is a 
 trespasser among her russets.



Afternoon Play - The Rain Maker by Matthew Broughton
******When a father takes his son on a trip to a cabin in the woods, he has no idea 
what terrible horror is to come. A sinister story about the demons that lurk in the 
dark forest of the mind.









Afternoon Play - The Gallery by Alan Plater
******A second chance to hear Alan Plater's final play for radio. The opening night of a new 
Tyneside art gallery is thrown into jeopardy by the well-meaning but ill-trained staff. 
Dodgy wiring, an over-zealous cleaner and a retired greyhound add to the comic mix.



Afternoon Play - Quirks by Simon Brett
*******Wealthy East Ender Joey and his much younger wife Bianca live in an expensive villa 
on the Costa del Sol, surrounded by servants and other staff. They seem to have the perfect life. 
But as the story unfolds, some unsettling questions arise.

Why can't Joey go back to England, where most of his business interests still lie? Why is he so 
obsessed about security? Why, come to that, does Bianca keep going on about contract killers? 
And when it comes to the crunch, how far can husband and wife trust each other?

David Troughton and Tracy-Ann Oberman star as Joey and Bianca in this taut black comedy. 
Written by Simon Brett, the crime novelist and creator for radio of After Henry, No Commitments 
and - more recently - People in Cars.




Afternoon Play - Elephant and Castle by Robin Baker
******It's Ian's 35th birthday and we're in the middle of a row with his girlfriend from which there's no 
going back. Fast rewind 9 months to the Tibetan cafe where they meet. In a series of short scenes 
the play follows the full trajectory of their relationship.



Afternoon Play - Bedtime Stories - Breakfast in Bed-Room 271 - The Main Event by Frank Vickery
******



Afteernoon Play - Boxing Clever by Mike Yeaman.
******Thelma Barlow stars in this comedy to chase away the post-Christmas blues.

Never have the Boxing Day sales seemed such a minefield. Moral dilemmas abound 
at the front of the queue outside Marshall's department store in Leeds - and all over a bed.

Pensioner Amy (Thelma Barlow) may have got there first, but as opening time approaches, 
she's going to have to use all her cunning to compensate for her lack of speed.

They've all come for the star buy: a one-off, super king size mahogany bed and they're all 
prepared to queue overnight in the freezing cold to get their hands on it. 



Afteernoon Play - Blind by Juliet Ace
******Mattie Jones' South Wales childhood.
1953: 15-year-old Mattie has to spend her Saturdays cooking for her grandfather and her blind aunt, Catherine Jane.



Afteernoon Play - The Bride's Chamber
******""Set in northern England during the 19th century, writers Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins stop off 
at an inn in Lancaster where they hear a ghostly tale 
(based on a Dickens short story - "The lazy tour of two idle apprentices").




Afternoon Play - Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford
******"I need fiction. I'm an addict," confesses Spufford, a British journalist and critic. 
Few will dispute the sincerity of this confession after following this autobiographical 
journey of an obsessive reading life, which Spufford began as an escape from the envy 
and pity he felt toward his seriously ill younger sister. To Spufford, reading is a way of 
balancing the real-world experience of incident with a controlled, or "piped," experience 
and is the force that shaped his values, imagination, self-understanding, and personality. 



Afternoon Play - Church Ladies



Afternoon Play - City at Night by Rachel Matthews



Afternoon Play - Dark Island 
******Pakistani doctor in the Highlands


Afternoon Play - Dennis Ockerby on Ice by Debbie Oates
****** Dennis Ockerby is going to the deep freeze but will his wife Viv be there when he thaws? 
A comic look at the bizarre implications that the pursuit of immortality could bring to an everyday relationship.


Afternoon Play - The Dollie Mixtures by Carol Freeburn



Afternoon Play - End of the Pier by Christopher Green



Afternoon Play - Even the Olives Are Bleeding by Jim O'Hanlan


Afternoon Play - Every Breath You Take
******psychological thriller about a mother who trying to protect her family from a man who threatens 
to expose her past. Maura's son Ryan wins a recording contract as a singer in a television talent show. 
But then Maura receives an unexpected 'phone call from a man she met on holiday twenty years earlier 
and who says he could be Ryan's father.

 
Afternoon Play - Every Eye by Isobel English
******love story set in London and Ibiza. Hatty is a pianist, young and ambitious and desperate to fall in love. 
She meets Cynthia, an older woman who encourages her to follow her heart, and Jasper, a friend of her uncle. 
There were some surprises in this gentle and interesting story, and it was well-cast and produced. 



Afternoon Play - Face



Afternoon Play - The Flood  by Rudie van Meurs
****** based on the flooding of a Dutch town in 1953, the year of the Lynmouth flood. There's not a lot to say; 
the sea gets rough, the tides keep rising, and eventually the sea wall gives way, but it was a an effective 
piece for radio. The narrator was Colin Baker, playing the adult Simon, who was there as a boy when the 
flood took place. The young Simon was played by Jack Rawlings and the director was Turan Ali. 



Afternoon Play - Flying 



Afternoon Play - Forever Young by Maggie Graham



Afternoon Play - The Frozen And The Drowned by John Doona



Afternoon Play - Generation Electric by Christopher Green



Afternoon Play - Geronimo by Louise Doherty



Afternoon Play - Good Man Yer Da 



Afternoon Play - Hiding Leonard Cohen  by Esther Wilson



Afternoon Play - The House in the Trees 



Afternoon Play - I Can See Clearly by Tim Loane\



Afternoon Play - I Was a Stranger by Peter Spafford
******Prince Alemayehu or Alamayou of Ethiopia (1861 – 14 November 1879) was the son 
of Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia. This is the story of Alemayehu's life.



Afternoon Play - In Our Strange Gardens



Afternoon Play - Jadoo  by Amit Gupta
******a lovely comic tale about two brothers who run a family restaurant in Leicester's culinary golden mile.
One brother does the main courses; the other does the starters. Then they fall out; one brother leaves 
and starts his own restaurant, on the other side of the road. But such is the brothers' expertise that 
customers start eating in one restaurant and then go over to the other for the main course. This doesn't 
endear either of the brothers to the customers, and eventually there is a punch-up....



Afternoon Play - Journey Round My Room by Peter G Morgan
******



Afternoon Play - The Kamikaze Handbook  by Lavinia Green



Afternoon Play - Kepler by John Banville
******Guardian Fiction Prize winner. Allied Irish Bank Fiction Prize. 
Johannes Kepler, born in 1571 in south Germany, was one of the world's greatest 
mathematicians and astronomers. The author of this book uses this history as a 
background to his novel, writing a work of historical fiction that is rooted in poverty, 
squalor and the tyrannical power of emperors.




Afternoon Play - Kindling by Lynn Ferguson
******The play's central idea - about a family obsessed with fireworks - was sparked by a childhood experience 
of Ferguson's. "When I was 16, a guy I was at school with hanged himself on Bonfire Night. I really liked him 
and I felt that he deserved some recognition. I know that makes me sound like a big nancy wanker but the 
metaphor was already there and I wanted to say something about people having choices. He didn't take 
the opportunity to change his life and I've caught myself doing that over the years."



Afternoon Play - The Last Country House by Mark Carey



Afternoon Play - The Last Ten by Simon MacCallum



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