Afternoon Plays XX
Afternoon Play - Caesar Price our Lord by Fin Kennedy
******Illusionist Caesar Price has reproduced nearly all of the miracles of Jesus
and built a massive cult following but is he prepared for what will happen when
he decides to stage the crucifixion?
In a near-future London, society is in distress. In the midst of climate chaos, people
are seeking solace in the promises of new strains of religion. Illusionist Caesar Price
has already walked on water; resurrected people from the dead and fed thousands
from one tin of sardines. When he announces that his next 'miracle' will be the
crucifixion and eventual resurrection a media frenzy erupts. Is Caesar Price merely
an illusionist or is there something more?
Afternoon Play - Letter from a Far Country by Gillian Clarke
******With Letter from a Far Country (1982), Clarke really found her stride, especially
in the lengthy title poem, written for radio, about the ‘far country’ of ancestral memory
and childhood, which she has described as ‘an essay on roots and responsibilities’.
Women are at the heart of this life; even the landscape is ‘essentially feminine’, and it
‘collects conversations / as carefully as a bucket / gives them back in concert / with a wood of birdsong’.
Afternoon Play - Letters from Africa by Karen Blixen & Shelia Hannon
******the story of Karen Blixen's years in Africa, was dramatised by Sheila Hannon, from her letters.
Karen had an unusual life: marriage to a man old enough to be her father, moving from England
to Africa, and a long, passionate love affair.
Afternoon Play - Letters by Ted Hughes
******Richard Armitage reads from the letters of the poet Ted Hughes
in BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Play on 29th October 2007.
Ted Hughes (1930-1998) is considered one of the finest British poets of
the 20th century and was Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death. His first
wife, American poet Sylvia Plath, committed suicide a few months after they
separated and their life together has been the subject of much controversy
and speculation. Although primarily a poet, his work also encompassed
stories for children and much other writing besides.
His letters, including many to Plath, to his brother and sister, to his children
and to friends and academics, were published in autumn 2007 and formed the
basis of this programme, which, in spite of being broadcast in the Afternoon Play
series, was not actually a drama.
Afternoon Play - Lights by Mark Tuohy
******
Afternoon Play - Like an Angel by Al Kennedy
******A cabbie is in love. His elderly passenger wants to talk about the war.
With freddie Jones as the old man and Sean Hughes as the cabbie.
Afternoon Play - Linen and Straw by Rebecca Trick-Walker
******
Afternoon Play - Little Violet by Philip Osmen
******A contemporary fairy story, set in present-day Romania.
Vlad's life is turned around when he finds a baby girl on his doorstep.
Does Viorica really have a guardian angel?
Afternoon Play - Mango by Tara Gold
******
Afternoon Play - Marriage According to Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
******
Afternoon Play - Mars Flight by Max Mueller & Alasdair Mangham
******
Afternoon Play - Masks by Jennie Buckman
******about the self-deceptive nature of love. The setting, Venice in 1735, lent itself to this
universal theme with its love of disguise. It worked towards a predictable finale which
brought disappointment for both Geraldine James’ veiled crone and Raymond Coulthard’s
cruel young romantic adventurer.
Afternoon Play - Mattie and Bluebottle by Juliet Ace
******In this last play in the series, Mattie Jones is on the brink of leaving home. It's 1955
and she is 17 years old, studying (so she pretends) for her 'A' Levels. Her parents have
said she must go to teacher training college but Mattie still dreams of becoming an actress.
At home, Mattie uses her room to escape and to dream. She is still timorous of her parents
but the thing that draws them together is The Goon Show. It's the one time they'll sit together
as a family, around the wireless, sharing the jokes. At school, with her friend Millie, she covers
up for her family life by endlessly quoting the Goons and by keeping a diary.
The girls are lazy at school and naïve about the world but they know they are on the brink of
adulthood and desperate to be independent. But Mattie's mother manages to strike one more
blow of humiliation on Mattie's first day of freedom at college.
Afternoon Play - Miracle Postponed by Helen Jacey
******about the writer Jean Rhys
Afternoon Play - Mister Lowry's Loves by Glyn Hughes:
******When the artist L.S.Lowry died 25 years ago, he left nearly all his wealth and many paintings
to a young unrelated woman who happened to share his surname. At the age of 14, Carol Ann Lowry
wrote to Lowry, asking for advice on her own artistic career. Lowry responded by paying for her
education and helping her through art school, and the two became lifelong friends. In this brilliant
play we discover that Carol wasn't the only young woman with whom Lowry had a platonic relationship.
Afternoon Play - Moliere Imaginaire by D J Britton
******When Harriet and Gwyn buy their dream house in France, everything goes wrong. But this
is Moliere country, and sometimes, unexpected solutions can be found.
Afternoon Play - Nude, Untitled by Gowan Calder
******An art college threatens to close down sections of its drawing and painting school in favour of
more economically viable departments. The life models' jobs are threatened, so some of them take a stand.
Afternoon Play - One Day by Helen Cross
******
Afternoon Play - One Up, One Down
Afternoon Play - Opera Companion by Byrony Livery
******
Afternoon Play - The Other Man by Bernard Schlink
******an intensely sad and moving story, adapted for radio by Mike Harris. After many years
of marriage a man's wife dies. Shortly afterwards, a letter arrives for her from another man.
Obsessed with finding out the truth, he writes back, impersonating his dead wife. He
discovers a love which he cannot understand.
Afternoon Play - Out of the Woodwork by Melissa Murray
******Susan and her second husband are about to make a fresh start in America where he has
got a new job. They have had some marital problems and are convinced this will help them
rebuild things. Then her visa is refused, and when she finds out why the past comes up to haunt her.
Afternoon Play - Partial Eclipse of the Heart by Sarah Daniels
******
Afternoon Play - Pearls in the Tate by Linda Buckley Archer
******
Afternoon Play - Pier by Rhiannon Tise
Afternoon Play - Protection by Deborah Catesby
Afternoon Play - The Great Swim by Gavin Mortimer
******In the roaring twenties the world was changing at an electric pace. In science,
commerce and art, everything seemed possible and the challenges were there to be
confronted. By 1926, only five men had ever conquered the English Channel, and the
race to become the first woman to swim the Channel captivated two continents.
Many doubted that a woman could do it.
Gertrude Ederle, a brilliant young swimmer, was the 19-year-old daughter of a German
migrant to the United States. Her father Henry Ederle ran a successful butcher's business
in New York. Ederle's cross-channel swim was sponsored by the New York Daily News.
The News sent a crime reporter, Julia Harpman, to accompany the swimmer and cover
the story and this drama is told through Julia's eyes.
Afternoon Play - Swimming Around Ireland by Martin Meenan
******Steven was badly injured in a traffic accident, his physiotherapy sessions haven't
been going well and he has grown depressed and despondent. Keen to motivate him
and make some progress his physiotherapist Caet decides to try some hydrotherapy
in the pool. But the first session goes badly, Steven can't move his leg and grows
increasingly frustrated: 'It's not as if I'll ever swim around Ireland is it?'
But Caet has an idea to prove that Steven can do just that. For every move or kick Steven
makes they will travel ten kilometres around Ireland, plotting their progress on a map.
So begins an unusual journey of imagination and discovery as Steven and Caet set out
to 'swim' around Ireland!
Afternoon Play - Big Pies by Gill Adams
******Two lonely people, one night school and a lot of lying. A romantic comedy.
Ron runs a successful chippy, but when his wife dies, he loses his heart and half
his custom. Elaine is trapped at home caring for her irascible Dad, stuck in
Yorkshire when she'd much rather be back in Wales. She feels her failure at school
holds her back, and her dad doesn't exactly help her self esteem. Ron is fed up at
being nagged by best mate Keith about his soggy batter and lack of interest in
romance. Goaded into action, they both reluctantly sign on at local night school.
Meanwhile, Keith and Elaine's Dad are caught up with the excitement of local UFO
spotters with mysterious crop circles. Keith is adamant that if Ron will only absorb
a few cosmic rays, his love life will be transformed.
One night, during a break, Ron is sneaking a fag near the bins round the back when
he bumps into Elaine - and sparks immediately fly. Neither is prepared to admit why
they are at night school, so they make up elaborate lies about what they are studying.
Over the weeks, attracted to each other but in denial, their deception involves them in
more and more complicated situations. When the end of term concert is announced,
Ron realises he will have to come clean - he is a widower but not really a stand up
comedian - and Elaine isn't really a belly dancer...
Big Pies is written by popular radio, stage and screen dramatist, Gill Adams, who has won
Silver Sony, Prix ex Aqueo and a Mental Health Award for her previous BBC radio dramas.
Afternoon Play - The Cracks by Rob Evans
******A dark and lyrical drama set in the heart of London.
Michael's a teenager who feels like his life's about to begin. He's travelling from Leeds
to London for a date with a guy he's met online.
David's a forty year-old man who feels like he might be over the hill. When his partner
announces he's leaving, David's life finally caves in.
Michael and David's worlds are about to collide as each wanders Soho on a quest that
will change them forever.
Afternoon Play - Pilgrim, s02e01 by Sebastian Baczkiewicz - The Drowned Church
Afternoon Play - Pilgrim, s02e02 - The Lost Hotel
Afternoon Play - Pilgrim, s02e03 -
Afternoon Play - Pilgrim, s02e04 -
******Pilgrim comes to Skaymer, a seaside town in Norfolk, to investigate the strange
appearance of a young man believed drowned in the great flood of 1757.
What if all the myths and folktales of these islands were true? And what if they were
not only true but present now in our world? All the spirits, existing, as they have
always existed, in the gaps between tower blocks, in the shadows under bridges,
in the corner of our vision. An ancient and eternal world which has existed alongside
ours since time immemorial and will exist long after we have gone.
Enter Pilgrim... In 1185 William Palmer was making pilgrimage to Canterbury.
Unbeknownst to him his fellow pilgrim was the Lord of Faerie. When William claimed
that the Church would wipe out the belief in the Faerie world, he was cursed by the
Faerie Lord and condemned forever to the walk between our world and theirs.
The plays in PILGRIM are thrilling, dark and contemporary. They're set in a very
recognisable, very real present, but a present haunted by the folktales of these
islands: drowned villages, changeling children, werewolves, Puck, unruly nature spirits.
Afternoon Play - Stopgap by Julie Mayhew
*******New graduate Max takes a temp job while on her way to bigger things. She considers
her colleague Emma to be a victim of dull office life, but Emma's secret postcards tell a very different story
Afternoon Play - What the Bishops Knew by Hugh Costello
******fictionally explores an accusation of child abuse by a Catholic Priest in Ireland
and how over several decades this was allegedly covered up within the hierarchy of the
Church in an attempt to protect its reputation.
Afternoon Play - What the Nun Discovered by Harriet O'Carroll.
******Sr. MaryJo returns home to Ireland after 25 years as a missionary in Uganda,
to a disillusioned public and a Church which has lost so much of its moral authority.
But with an honesty and simplicity learned in another continent she sets in train a
quiet but radical revolution.
Afternoon Play - Staring into the Fridge by Annie McCartney
******With two twenty-something children and a dubious boyfriend eating her out
of house and home, Maggie, (Annie McCartney) is beginning to lose the will to live.
She feels she has no one to talk to or listen. But all that is about to change when
she hears a voice speaking to her from the corner of the kitchen. It seems that the
only one who understands her predicament is her Fridge (James Nesbitt.) But unlike
poor beleaguered Maggie, this fridge has got 'attitude' and is determined to help her
get her life back on track!
Afternoon Play - Pythonesque by Roy Smiles
******The story of Graham Chapman's history with the Monty Python team;
how he met and started writing with John Cleese, his rise through the ranks
writing The Frost Report, the glory, glory years with the Pythons and his struggle
to overcome his considerable drinking demons.
And how the collective kindness of Messrs Cleese, Jones, Idle, Palin and Gilliam
saved him from oblivion and gave him the lead in the two funniest British films of
all time: Monty Python And The Holy Grail and Monty Python's Life Of Brian.
Apparently Chapman was recruited into the RAF at birth and flew bombing missions
over Germany in a pram; Cleese got into the Footlights by doing a rather peculiar walk;
Chapman had to take a test to become an alcoholic; Cleese returned to a pet shop to sing
the praises of a recently purchased budgie and Chapman discovered on his last day on earth
that Death likes Spam and drives a Ford Anglia.
Written by Roy Smiles, Pythonesque is an affectionate tribute to a troubled, brilliant, kind man
who was part of the funniest comedy team ever.
Afternoon Play - Men of Hope by Paul Watson
******Only days after our Coalition Government gave their 'mother of all budgets' the English
nation is again holding it's collective breath. A Chancellor's fear filled austerity speech fades
into party politics, a warm up act to a more serious matter. Football! A sport that enables the
understanding of a nation.
Set in the Man of Hope, a pub draped in the ephemera of patriotism, Paul Watson's play
'Men of Hope' explores sensitive male issues, difficult lives and the sexual relationships
of its regulars.
Gathered together in high expectation of an English World Cup win the mood of the men
blackens as our football team are out played by the old enemy, Germany. Interweaving the
games intense moments with the emotional drinkers 'Men of Hope' exposes a variety of
revealing outbursts from those watching: a culture of hopelessness, an inability to cope
with relationships and the every day needs of being a man.
Colin and Dean, lovers for years, are facing up to Colin's irascible temper and terminal cancer.
John is advising Dave to leave his unfaithful wife and live with Lola, the pub's barmaid. The
landlord Gerry also desires to woo Dave 'a man with a miserable wife and sleeps alone is fair
game I'd say'. For Lola it's a declaration of war! Max; a sexually aware virgin from the local
public school seeks enlightenment from Andrea.
Greying Jonathan is in the clutches of a Russian 55million dollar con. The football match
is eventually hijacked with tragic consequence by Gareth and his gang of tin pot car drivers.
By plays end, England is shamed both by its footballers and watchers.
Afternoon Play - Tiny by Ben Lewis.
******This is the story of a legend in the making.
A nervous young man lives at the dead end of a dead-end town.
On his eighteenth birthday he comes into his inheritance. With a little
help from an old teacher, he finds it equips him to broadcast over the internet.
Living in a house where rolling news is a constant presence, he does what comes
naturally - he fires up his computer and presents the news. But his news is different.
It puts a spring in its audience's step. That is, until his grandma starts to grow suspicious
about what this boy is getting up to, nightly in his bedroom, and tries to put a stop to the
broadcasts completely.
A quirky comedy about a teenager who becomes an internet phenomenon.
Afternoon Play - The Last Tudor by Jolyon Jenkins
******A reality show contestant decides that he has a greater claim to the throne than
the current Royal Family. This improvised drama, told in a documentary format, charts
his rise and fall, in a satire on celebrity, delusion and spin.
The story is based on a true story of Anthony Hall, a former policeman who in 1931 started
to give public speeches claiming that he was the descendant of an illegitimate son of
Henry VIII and therefore the last Tudor. Documents released by the National Archives show
that his threats to the Royal Family started to alarm the police and Home Office, and that
George V lobbied to have him quietly declared insane and put away without trial.
The drama supposes that Anthony Hall's great grandson, a local government employee at
Bristol City Council, discovers his family history and decides to exploit the royal claim as
part of his bid to win a television talent show called the Fame Factor. This central character,
called Murray Gray, dresses up as Henry VIII to raise money for charitable causes, and seeks
pop stardom to escape his boring job dealing with parking fines.
Initially the case of Murray Gray is simply one story in a history documentary about royal pretenders,
but as Murray's gets more and more successful in the Fame Factor, events, and the documentary,
spiral out of control.
The "documentary" is presented by real life presenter and producer Jolyon Jenkins, who also
devised the drama with Abigail Youngman. Murray Gray is played by Jonathan Alden and his
girlfriend Chantelle by Nadia Williams. Murray's PR agent Memphis Garfield is played by real life
music promoter Conal Dodds.
Afternoon Play - For Ever England by Tom Green
******Now living abroad, Steve discovers his estranged son Matt has been killed serving
in Afghanistan. He returns to England anxious to do the right thing. But how do you begin
to grieve for a child you never really knew?
Afternoon Play - The Second Mr Bailey by Andrew Doyle.
******John is a young gay man living in Edinburgh in 1967. Homosexuality is about to be
legalised in England, but not in Scotland. When John takes up lodgings with the enigmatic
Mrs Margaret Bailey, he begins to experience what life as a conventional straight man could
be like. But Margaret is no ordinary house-wife; she's slowly turning John into a replica of
her husband. And John's beginning to like it.
Haunting drama
Afternoon Play - We Happened to be Passing by David Nobbs
*******It is a quiet Saturday morning in the Hinchcliffe home. Tony and Sal, tired after a week of work,
have time on their hands. But not for each other. Middle aged and middle class - they haven't had
kids and they still feel that emotional vacuum.
The doorbell rings. It is an American couple - Monty and Janey - a rather loud duo they stayed with in
Delaware years ago. They said "If ever you happened to be passing...". Well, the Americans are passing
and they have no hotel booked. To Tony's horror Sal invites them to stay. Well, it's only polite isn't it?
Once Monty and Janey are settled the doorbell goes again. It is Jan and Hilda, the Flemish Belgian couple
from Bruges. They kindly helped when Janey had a migraine in Bruges. Even fed them some waterzooi
(flemish stew). In gratitude Sal and Tony said - "If ever you happened to be passing."
Then the doorbell goes again - it is Pierre and Colette, French Belgians who helped them in Namur when
Sal was sick over a Saab because she had eaten some cloying Flemish stew. In gratitude they said -
"If ever you happened to be passing."
So - polite Tony and Sal have a house full. The Americans are loud and pompous and the Belgians loathe
each other. But when Colette and Jan find themselves drawn to one another, the ensuing, messy crisis
precipitates a reassessment of all the couples' pattern of behaviour.
Afternoon Play - The Conspiracy of the Illuminati by Nigel Baldwin
******A historical mystery set in Arras in the lead up to the French Revolution,
looking into the suggestion that the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati were behind
some of the key figures of the time.
Afternoon Play - The English Civil War by Paul Farley
******A cavalier walks into an out of town supermarket and holds the customers to ransom.
Is he a genuine time-traveller or an ecological warrior with a unique campaign style?
Afternoon Play - On The Field On Leave by Annie Caulfield
*******Annie Caulfield's comedy drama returns with a third episode in the On The Field series.
Mahmoud the barber has exchanged Basra for Istanbul where his old friend Sergeant -
now Captain - Billy has ended up as Miltary Attache.
After witnessing a traumatic attack on duty in Kabul, squaddies Kev and Damon opt for a bit
of escapism. Damon fancies himself as a secret agent and is obsessed with James Bond.
He persuades his mate to join him in visiting Istanbul's famous "From Russia With Love"
film locations. First stop: Electra King's house.
But they discover they're not cut out to follow in Bond's footsteps and Billy and Mahmoud
have to pick up the pieces when an unofficial trip to the Basilica Cisterns goes spectacularly wrong.
Billy tries to give the soldiers some worldly wisdom to take back to the front: survival skills more
useful than anything they'd learn on the parade ground.
By turns funny, exciting and poignant, the play gets under the skin of life as a soldier.
Afternoon Play - A Nice Little Holiday by Sarah Wooley.
*******1961. The South of France. On holiday with his mistress, Jocelyn Rickards, John Osborne
has embarked on a passionate affair with his future third wife while, in London, Osborne's
current wife gives birth to a son.From the idyllic French farmhouse, Osborne penned his infamous
'Damn you, England' letter which caused such a furore back home that they found themselves
under siege and their nice little holiday turned into a nightmare -with Osborne only just escaping alive.
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