Afternoon Plays XXII
Afternoon Plays XXII
Afternoon Play - An Unchoreographed World by
******One of the truly great dancers of our time, 'An Unchoreographed World' explores
a dramatic formative event in the life of the young Margot Fonteyn. It's May 10th 1940,
and she is trapped in Holland during the German invasion with her older lover, the
composer Constant Lambert, and the fledgling Sadler's Wells Ballet. Frances Byrnes'
drama draws on contemporary accounts to evoke a time when, her life threatened,
Fonteyn discovers who she really is, and what her destiny might cost her.
Afternoon Play - The Greenhouse by Dominique Moloney
******A perceptive drama about the positive influence outsiders can have on a close-knit community
in Northern IRELAND and an unlikely friendship between a black woman, Hannah, and the teenage
vandal, Jason, who comes to repair her greenhouse.
Afternoon Play - Atching Tan by Dan Allum
******Lovvie Arkley is torn. Does she marry childhood sweetheart Nelius and live a traditional,
yet isolated Traveller life? Or does she renounce her culture to pursue a career in the outside
'Gorgia' world? Drama teacher John threatens to tip the balance. Recorded on location on a
Traveller site, with all Traveller parts cast from the Traveller community.
Afternoon Play - Grace and The Angel by Sheila Goff
Afternoon Play - Growing Summer by Noel Streatfeild
******Alex, Penny, Robin and Naomi come home from school one day to find their
predictable secure pattern of life completely changed. For the first time they have
to think for, and look after themselves. Their adventures start on a plane to Ireland
to meet "mad" Aunt Dymphna. Presented under the Heydey Theatre banner
(Sunday's 6.15) The Growing Summer was based on a book written by Noel Streatfeild
who wondered what would happen to a group of children if they were transported into
an entirely different environment. Given the basic idea, plus the central character inspired
by an eccentric old cousin, Miss Streatfeild was away with a story which Eric
(Magic Roundabout) Thompson turned into a play. "It was a magical experience,"
said Wendy Hiller, who played the part of Great Aunt Dymphna. Talking for a TV Times interview
in 1968 Hiller said "We went to south-west Ireland, to the country where Noel Streatfeild set her
story about four children who spend a summer with their great aunt. "Sometimes I think it is a pity
we did not make a film about the filming. For example, as great-aunt Dymphna I was supposed to drive
a battered old open car. I am a very bad driver, which meant all the children used to sit in the back
and tell me when to change gear. It must have been alarming for the tourists when they saw this wild
old lady careering along with a load of children, and even more alarming when that same old lady leaned
out and bellowed: 'Out of my way, road hog!' They weren't to know that was in the script."
Afternoon Play - Going To The Dogs by Carol Freebairn
******
Afternoon Play - Signs 1.2 - Horizon by Steve May
******two gripping stories about how technology might determine our lives
in these interlocking plays by two of radio's most thought-provoking playwrights.
A horizon scanner foresees financial meltdown in Steve May's comic thriller, starring Paul Clayton
(Peep Show, Drop the Dead Donkey), Mark Meadows and Devon Black.
Cassie is an horizon scanner for a global bank. When she discovers a black hole in the markets
for June 6th which none of the other scanners has spotted, she must get to the bottom of it.
Meanwhile Cassie's father Frank is busy trying to read the credit crunch as he decides what to
do with his inherited nest egg, and Cassie's mother is busy buying nice things online with credit
cards that Frank doesn't know about. And Cassie's colleague Reg is stealing her computer memory
to develop his software programme. All of them are trying to plan for the future in their own little worlds.
Information is power, but there is a price.
Afternoon Play - Signs 2.2 - Perfect Day by Hattie Naylor
******The second of two gripping stories about the way technology determines our lives,
in interlocking plays by two of radio's most thought-provoking playwrights.
Adam uses technology to find perfection, but there's a price, in this intense romantic drama
by award-winning playwright Hattie Naylor.
Imagine the possibilities of harnessing powerful information-processing technology for the
benefit of one super-rich individual. There is no bad luck if you know how to use the right
technology with the right people: everything can be predicted, manipulated, avoided or sought-out.
Adam signs up to Perfect Day, a company which offers such specialised services, based on access to -
and control over - information. The company promises to take away what is unpredictable, ugly or
frustrating and ensure that a particular experience or life choice goes smoothly for their clients.
No more traffic jams, no lost deals, no rained-off holidays, no bad food, no accidental encounters
with difficult people. At first Adam uses the company to arrange evenings out, holidays, small life
experiences. But his taste for perfection grows and soon he signs up to one of their most expensive
and successful services: the location of a perfect life-partner.
Afternoon Play - The Glad House by Michael Punter
******
Afternoon Play - Blue Eyed Boy by Helen Cross
******A powerful and moving documentary-drama by Helen Cross, which tells the true story
of her father, Lawrence, the evacuee who never went home. Told through improvised
interviews and re-created actuality, the play is constructed as a documentary,
as if it were happening now.
In 1944, when he was five years old, Lawrence Duncomb (Albie D'Urso) was evacuated from
Blitz-torn London to Willerby, a village on the outskirts of Hull, and taken in by a childless
couple. Lawrence had never eaten at a table before, never said prayers, never slept alone
in a bed or had to mind his manners. Lilian (Jane Godber) is determined to raise him as a
well-mannered Christian. She wants this substitute-child to accept and be grateful for all
that she's offering. Her husband (John Godber) also knows she's desperate at the thought
of the boy leaving her after the war. Soon Lilian starts to dream of ways of keeping him,
even against his will.
Finely judged and authentic performances from a quality cast bring a poignant realism to this
true story. The play concludes with an interview with the real Lawrence. He says he never stopped
missing his mother and when he finally tracked her down as an adult, her first words were:
'I've been waiting for you to call.'
Afternoon Play - A Good Place for Fishing by Richard Lumsden
******
Afternoon Play - Moeran's Last Symphony by Martyn Wade.
******A dramatic portrait of the last weeks in the life of the English composer
E.J. Moeran [1894-1950]. After the triumphant reception of his first Symphony
he was commissioned by the prestigious Halle Orchestra to write a second.
Tortured by the end of his marriage to the cellist Peers Coetmore and in constant pain from injuries
sustained during the Great War which had driven him to drink, he retreated to Kenmare in Ireland,
a place of previous inspiration, hoping this would provide the right setting for creativity.
But it was not to be, and his untimely death was both tragic and haunting.
Afternoon Play - Guess Who's Coming to Christmas
******
Afternoon Play - The Babington Plot by Michael Butt
******Documentary-style drama by Michael Butt that tells the story of the 1586 plot
to assassinate Elizabeth I and return England to Catholic rule under Mary, Queen of Scots.
The story is told from the perspective of several of the conspirators - some genuine, some
governemnt spies that had infiltrated the group.
Afternoon Play - Good Thing by Rowland
******
Afternoon Play - The End of the Alphabet by C S Richardson
******"Those who knew him described Ambrose Zephyr as a better man than some. Wanting
a few minor adjustments, they would admit, but didn't we all. His wife described him as the
only man she had loved. Without adjustment."
Ambrose Zephyr and Zappora Ashkenzai (known as Zipper) live contentedly in London, their
world one of work, friends and their abiding love for each other, their routines settled and certain.
Until the day, sometime around his 50th birthday, that Ambrose learns that he has only one month
to live. In response he makes frantic plans to travel the globe, alphabetically, from Amsterdam to
Zanzibar, with his beloved wife at his side. And if he wants to travel at this time, she will go,
wherever the journey takes them and whatever her own feelings may be.
Afternoon Play - Grace by Nick Jordan
******
Afternoon Play - No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 1.2 by Alexander McCall Smith -
An Exceptionally Wicked Lady
Afternoon Play - No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 2.2
******The first of two plays adapted from Alexander McCall Smith's enormously
successful and popular series set in Botswana.
Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi face an old adversary while a letter from America
sets the agency a seemingly impossible task.
Afternoon Play - Eight Feet High and Rising by Ali Taylor
******Giant. Upstairs. Ten quid a look. A touchingly real and comically disingenuous story
about the awkwardness of being misshapen, and the misery of not fitting in.
Afternoon Play - Selfless by Anita Sullivan
*******Drew is brought into A&E by a car-driver who saw him come off his motorbike. He is concussed
and has broken his ankle. But that's not all. Drew can't remember who he is or where he lives. He isn't
carrying a phone and all he has in his wallet is a bank-card and a video-shop membership. The hospital
will only discharge Andrew if he is watched for the next 24 hours. Owen, the driver, offers to put him up
for the night. Owen is the perfect host and the flat is beautiful but it is on the third floor and the injured
Andrew starts to feel trapped. The only thing he can remember is a phone number and a name - Elspeth.
Anita Sullivan's play is a psychological thriller locked in a claustrophobic space.
Afternoon Play - The People's Princess by Shelagh Stephenson.
******Facing financial ruin, George, Prince of Wales was obliged to marry his first cousin
Princess Caroline of Brunswick. But if he had been expecting a docile partner with whom
he could maintain appearances, George had seriously underestimated his wife-to-be.
Afternoon Play - Sky High by Guy Meredith
******The clock is ticking away in this cat and mouse game of twists,
turns and subterfuge.
It is the early hours of a new day and in a tall office block in London there
is a woman working. She thinks she is alone but then she hears the lift doors open ....
A tall office block. Way below a police siren; passing above a helicopter. Emma hammers
with frustration at a computer. Whatever she's trying to do, it isn't working. Suddenly,
a noise behind her - a Security Guard. Is everything ok? It's the early hours of a new day,
no-one else is in the building. He's made her jump and she's spilt her coffee. All's fine and
he leaves her alone once more. A little while later another coffee is spilt as another man bursts
in. How did he get in? What does he want? The two are connected and as the tale unfolds we
discover why he is there and what is going on. But are things quite what they seem?
As we listen to the action the clock is ticking away in real time. Emma needs to unravel a mystery
code in the computer and she hasn't got much time. Will Mark agree to help her or is he more
interested in revenge? He used to work there and would like to settle a score or two. Can Emma
trust him and will she find the code in time? The tension mounts as the minutes tick by ...
Devil in the Fog 1.2 by Léon Garfield
Devil in the Fog 2.2
******"Irresistable... the usual Garfield brilliance." Philippa Pearce
A dramatic and eerie story of lost identity and family secrets, told in Leon Garfield's
memorable and distinctive style. George Treet is happy with his life as part of a family
of travelling actors. But George's world turns upside down when he discovers that
Mr Treet is not his real father, and that he must go and live with his real family.Where
someone, somewhere out in the fog, is waiting for him...Leon Garfield was one of the
most celebrated children's authors of the twentieth century, and won the Guardian Award,
The Whitbread Award, and the Carnegie medal
Afternoon Play - Brief Lives - s03e01 by Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly
Afternoon Play - Brief Lives - s03e02
Afternoon Play - Brief Lives - s03e03
Afternoon Play - Brief Lives - s03e04
******Series of four plays set in a Manchester legal practice,
Debby is representing a posh, middle aged good time girl who has been held at the airport
on suspected drugs charges. She says she has friends in high places. But will they help her?
Meanwhile Sarah's sister suddenly shows up. A North London Princess who gets a nose bleed
if she goes past Watford? What's her game?
Afternoon Play - Wodehouse in Hollywood by Tony Staveacre
******In 1929 MGM shipped PG Wodehouse out West and thrust $104,000 into his hand -
in return for zilch. The stories and novels that Wodehouse created out of his Hollywood
experience were his satiric riposte to those that had made a dishonest man out of him.
Comedy combining Wodehouse's own writing with dramatised fictional scenes by Tony Staveacre.
Afternoon Play - How To Be An Internee With No Previous Experience by Colin Shindler
******In 1944, PG Wodehouse, the creator of Jeeves and Wooster, was questioned by MI5
after broadcasting to America from a German internment camp. One of the interrogators
was an up and coming journalist called Malcolm Muggeridge. The other was Major EJP Cussen,
who later became a high court judge. The stakes were high: one of Britain's best loved authors
was facing the possibility of the death penalty.
Afternoon Play - Chequebook and Pen by Andrew Lynch and Johnny Vegas.
******Johnny Vegas pays tribute to the legendary Les Dawson in a comic flight of fancy.
Les has a way with words but is northern, rather crumpled, a little shambolic and an
unknown quantity, and delightfully unpredictable when he is faced with representing
a national institution.
Nicholas Parsons is Farson, a resplendent foil for Dawson. Farson embraces and
embodies the hammiest forces of the 'traditional BBC'.
A nemesis to Les and all he stands for and aims to subvert.
This homage is a pure joyous farce, taking full artistic license in imagining how the BBC
might have engaged the iconic Les to become a game show great in its eighties
flagship, Blankety Blank.
Afternoon Play - The Other Simenon Striptease
******Georges Simenon is best known for Maigret but he published scores of other novels -
many of them tough, gripping and psychologically-penetrating dissections of small lives
confounded by fate and circumstance. Ronald Frame dramatises a Simenon story set in a
night club in Cannes in 1958. Celita is the mistress of the club owner - but she faces a younger
rival for her lover's affections when he hires a sensational new dancer.
Afternoon Play - What Do You Know by Mark Lawson
******When Natasha Lonsdale, loving mother and respected businesswoman goes missing,
neither her husband, her family or even her lover have any idea why. Natasha it appears had
a secret life; a life which is now starting to unfold in both the newspapers and on the worldwide
web with devastating results. Do any of us ever really know who any one else is - even after
20 years of marriage? Mark Lawson's, 'What do you Know?', suggests not.
Afternoon Play - Shakespeare a la Carte by Richard Hahlo
******One of the highlights of the 2008 Brighton Festival was turned into an
Afternoon Play for BBC Radio 4. Shakespeare A La Carte took the public by
storm when it offered audiences the chance to order up their favourite bits
of Shakespeare, together with coffee and croissant.
Pippa Smith, Head of Education at the Brighton Festival had the idea after a disappointing
encounter at the Edinburgh Festival. "I saw a flyer advertising Shakespeare for breakfast.
But breakfast turned out to be stewed tea in polystyrene cups and the Shakespeare was a
lame production of 'Love Labour's Lost.' I came away with an entire show in my head.
I knew I could create something much classier than this - the bards best bits performed
by leading talent from the RSC and National."
Smith approached Richard Hahlo, Jonathan Cullen and Fiona Dunn, who form the theatre
company Hydrocracker. They devised a show where the actors, masquerading as waiters in
a Pizza Restaurant, take over the performance when they hear that the real actors have been
delayed driving down from Stratford. For the radio adaptation two extra characters played by
Sian Webber and Richard Attlee, have been created.
Says Richard Hahlo: "They frame the action for those listening at home. It's good that we will
record it live, because what you get are big chunks of Shakespeare interwoven into the to-ing
and fro-ing of these waiters trying to get these speeches organised."
Afternoon Play - The Darkness of Wallis Simpson by Rose Tremain
******A play imagining the last days of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, the woman for whom
King Edward VIII gave up the throne of England in 1936. Wallis is now 79 years old.
Edward has been dead for fourteen years.
The play pivots upon a single dramatic conceit: that Wallis, now entering the darkness of approaching
death, has forgotten every single thing about Edward. Her entire part in what an American journalist
once called "the greatest story since the Resurrection" has completely gone from her mind. Other
moments in her life she can vividly recall, but the world-shaking events at the heart of it
are lost to her - apparently forever.
She lies bedridden in her house in Paris. A lawyer friend, Maitre Suzanne Blum has taken charge of her care.
But, believing that Wallis has deliberately chosen to forget her "role in history", Blum is determined to force
her to remember this vital bit of the past, before she dies.
Cast:
Wallis Simpson ..... Elizabeth McGovern
Maitre Blum/ Grandmother..... Miriam Margolyes
Afternoon Play - Hong Kong by Night by In-Sook Chappell.
******Locked out of her apartment, Poppy can either wait for dawn in the lobby, or accept
Arthur's invitation to explore Hong Kong by night... A love story about loneliness and
belonging from an award-winning young writer.
Afternoon Play - Fair Maids Are Shining 1.2 by Nick Wood
Afternoon Play - Fair Maids Are Shining 2.2
Tyger Hunt by Lavinia Murray
******Lavinia Murray's play imagines a surreal day in the life of the young William Blake.
With a runaway tiger on the loose, William is out with his sketch pad to capture the magic
of a truly enchanting and extraordinary afternoon.
Afternoon Play - The Better Half by Noel Coward
******This delicious comedy of marital disharmony was written when its young author, Noel Coward,
was 22 years old. Rediscovered after nearly 90 years, the play was originally considered too 'racy' for
public performance, since it deals - in part - with the subject of female sexual desire.
'The Better Half' is a devastatingly accomplished relationship comedy, focusing on a husband, wife
and her best friend. In an unusual psychological ploy the unhappy wife (Federay Holmes) encourages
the husband (Samuel West) to leave her to pursue a happier connection with her friend (Lisa Dillon.)
But the wife's apparent selflessness may conceal a hidden agenda. Even now the play is surprisingly
unconventional, cannily perceptive - and funny. The author himself makes an unexpected appearance
as a typically witty musical narrator.
Afternoon Play - 43 Letters by Rony Robinson
******Julia and David work together in the family archives. One day a mysterious envelope arrives for David,
with letters from 43 women, all answering a lonely hearts advert he didn't place.
Afternoon Play - Burned to Nothing by Rex Obano
******Matthew returns to Nigeria, the land of his birth. He has come to secure the release of his son
who has become caught up in the politics of a land in turmoil; a land he has fallen in love with.
Afternoon Play - The Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble by Julian Gough
******The Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble was the first short story to be published in The Financial Times.
Written by the Irish comic writer and blogger on economics, Julian Gough, winner of the BBC
National Short Story Prize in 2007, it is that rare thing - fiction which delves into the world of
derivatives, arbitrage and futures.
Set in Somaliland, at a moment unspecified, when markets were fully de-regulated, it follows
the fortunes of one Dr Ibrahim Bihi, a leading economist and the man who woke up the sleepy
goat market of Hargeisa with his 'glorious notion'. Now marooned on a snowy station platform
in England, Dr Bihi relates his tale of triumph and tragedy to a young Irish orphan named Jude,
and along the way illuminates ideas of profit and loss, boom and bust, securitisation and futures.
With the help of the BBC's Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders, Dr Bihi interprets the mysteries
of modern economics and follows the follies of the market to their logical conclusion!
Afternoon Play - Believe Me by Stephanie Dale
******When art teacher Rachel, walking home festooned with end-of-term gifts from her
pupils, bumps into Tyrone on his first day in London it is the beginning of a
passionate love affair. Soon it makes sense for Tyrone, now working as a chef in a local
up-market cafe, to move into Rachel's flat. But it's not long before there are tiny bits of
grit starting to despoil the love oyster. As things get more serious issues of control,
jealousy, trust and violence rise to the surface in this thriller exploring a lesser-known
side of domestic abuse.
Afternoon Play - I Before Bee by Chris Wilson
******A comic and heartwarming play about teenager Michael Croxley whose stammer
has contributed to his fear of public speaking. To his horror, Michael finds that he's
competing in the national school spelling bee's; when the girl he adores, Lynne
Hargreaves, reads a composition of his in double English and discovers he's a
whizz with words and his spelling is stupendous she asks him to be part of the
school spelling-bee team. How can he refuse?
He accepts gallantly. Secretly he sobs to his nana terrified at the prospect.
His Scottish Nana comes to the rescue with the help of Robert The Bruce.
Afternoon Play - My Haunted Expression by Helen Clohessy
******Sue dreams of living by the sea and leaving their tough housing estate behind but husband
Finn earns little and won't borrow. An offbeat 21st Century urban love story.
Afternoon Play - Escape from Gaza by Justin Butcher and Ahmed Masoud
******A small private odyssey. In summer 2009, Ahmed Masoud left his pregnant wife
to visit his sick mother. An everyday occurrence for most, but Ahmed's family live in Gaza.
Afternoon Play - Incredibly Guilty: A Comic Moral Fable by Marcy Kahan
******It's an important day for Ed Hanson; he has to do two things, present a 'vision statement'
to keep hold of his job and propose marriage to his girlfriend, Lucinda. What isn't on Ed's list
of things to do is put Penhaligon Rhinehart, author, barrister, circus clown and National Treasure
into a coma. Ed's life will never be quite the same again.
Stephen Mangan is one of our leading comic actors from playing roles such as 'Adrian Mole' on
television and Norman in 'The Norman Conquests' on Stage and most recently Dirk Gently on BBC4
Marcy Kahan is an award winning screen and stage dramatist.
Afternoon Play - People Snogging In Public Places by Jack Thorne
******A frank and funny coming of age story about the fluctuating friendship between an uncle and his nephew.
Winner of the Sony Gold Award 2010.
Originally broadcast on Radio 3, this won the 2010 Sony Gold Award for best drama and was runner up
for the Prix Italia. People Snogging in Public Places is written by one of the country's leading young writers.
Jack Thorne has written three other plays for radio and has written Shameless, Skins and
This is England '86 (with Shane Meadows) all for television.
Last year also saw the release and his film The Scouting Book for Boys.
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