Radio Plays XVI
Radio Plays XVI
Tess of the d'Urbervilles 1.4 by Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d'Urbervilles 2.4
Tess of the d'Urbervilles 3.4
Tess of the d'Urbervilles 4.4
*******Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship
with the wealthy D'Urbevilles, and meeting her "cousin" Alec proves
to be her downfall. When Angel Clare offers her love and salvation,
she must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the
hope of a peaceful future.
The Quest 1.5 by Jonathan Holloway
The Quest 2.5
The Quest 3.5
The Quest 4.5
The Quest 5.5
******King Arthur, loosely based on the works of Sir Thomas Malory and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
The Revenge by Andrew Sachs
*******pioneering thriller featuring sound effects and eleven actors, but no written dialogue.
The Call 1.5 - The Siege
******In 1980, police negotiator Max Vernon spent five days taking brief telephone calls from the leader of the terrorists
who had taken 26 people hostage inside the Iranian Embassy in London. The siege ended when the SAS
stormed the building, as Max listened on the other end of the line.
The Call 2.5 - The Adoption
******After months of form-filling bureaucracy and disappointment, educationalist Fiona Byerley made a late-night call
to a Thai orphanage and was told that a baby girl was waiting to be collected.
The Call 3.5 - The Abduction
******In March 1999, Martin Friend was on a gorilla trek in Uganda when he was taken hostage and killed by
Hutu rebels on the run from neighbouring Rwanda. His parents, Ron and Pauline Friend, have built a
school in the region in memory of him.
The Call 4.5 - The Transplant
******Tony Roth suffered his first heart attack when he was in his early 30s. Within six months he had a triple
bypass operation, but two more heart attacks and more bypass surgery followed. In failing heath, he was
forced to give up work, and waited for the call to tell him that a donor heart was available.
The Call 5.5 - The Win
******Some people cry, some feel sick, some throw a 24-hour party, and some are millionaires already.
Winning the lottery can be a traumatic event, but what is it like for the operators on the other end of the line?
Crossing the Bar by Alfred Lord Tennyson
******"A headlong plunge into the sea-narratives of Alfred Lord Tennyson, with sea-songs from the acclaimed
acappella trio Coope, Boyes and Simpson, centred around his most popular work Enoch Arden,
written in the space of two weeks in 1864..
The Comedian by Joseph O'Connor
******It is 1975 in a small town near Dublin. Starsky and Hutch rule the television screen,
and, in Northern Ireland, bombs are going off. It is a heady time for a boy whose life is
about to change. His father is by day a delivery man for a bakery. Das dream, however,
is to be a comedian, a stage performer, a star. Who can predict what will happen to this
simple family when fame knocks at the door?
The Double-Dealer by William Congreve
******The Double-Dealer (1693) revolves around a socialite who deceives everyone with the
simple device of telling the plain truth.
Flesh and Blood by Gillies Mackinnon
*******Three generations of men have continually failed to understand one another. Kenny's teenage son
leaves home without explanation. Kenny does not tell his own elderly father, Roddy, who he visits every day.
But the old man, an ex-cop, smells a rat, and is determined to find his only grandchild.
The Hybernaculum by Yolanda Pupo-Thompson
******A play depicting a summer's day at The Wakes, the house of 18th-century amateur naturalist the
Rev Gilbert White, when White, awaiting the final proofs of his book, is tormented by a form of tinnitus
which he calls 'obsessive ruminations'. He is also distraught at the disappearance of his pet tortoise
Timothy and, during the course of the search for his old friend, he is forced to emerge from his secluded
hybernaculum and confront the fact that his days as a naturalist and
active clergyman are nearly at an end.
Valley of the Dolls 01.15 by Jacqueline Susann
Valley of the Dolls 02.15
Valley of the Dolls 03.15
Valley of the Dolls 04.15
Valley of the Dolls 05.15
Valley of the Dolls 06.15
Valley of the Dolls 07.15
Valley of the Dolls 08.15
Valley of the Dolls 09.15
Valley of the Dolls 10.15
Valley of the Dolls 11.15
Valley of the Dolls 12.15
Valley of the Dolls 13.15
Valley of the Dolls 14.15
Valley of the Dolls 15.15
********The exploits and excesses of three pill-popping showbiz heroines:
Anne, the smalltown girl supposedly modelled on Grace Kelly, who captivates
a millionaire but falls for an English cad; Jennifer, the beautiful Marilyn Monroe
clone who possesses everything - except immortality; and Neely, the ruthless
Judy Garlandesque understudy-turned-superstar. As friends - and enemies -
they learn the hard way that fame, fortune, beauty and stardom don't always equal
happiness. Jacqueline Susann's sensational novel staked her claim as a pop pioneer,
perfectly crystallized the decadence of the 1960s - and ushered in a whole new
genre of mass-market fiction.
Lockerbie on Trial by Sheena MacDonald.
********With the Lockerbie bombing once again in the news, another
chance to hear Peter Goodchild's dramatised reconstruction of the
extraordinary story of one of the longest, costliest and most complicated
trials in legal history.
Few would have predicted the verdict in February 2001, when
Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was convicted and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah acquitted
of blowing up Pam Am flight 103. The prosecution are sure they have got their men,
but a succession of witnesses who prove to be CIA double agents, convicted terrorists
and arms dealers with shady histories begin to undermine a case which is skilfully and
passionately contested by the defense.
The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar
*******'If any gentlemen soldiers, or others, have a mind to serve Her Majesty,
and pull down the French king; if any prentices have severe masters, any children
have unnatural parents; if any servants have too little wages, or any husband
too much wife; let them repair to the noble Sergeant Kite, at the Sign of the Raven,
in this good town of Shrewsbury, and they shall receive present relief and entertainment.'
'Entertainment' was, of course, drink.
A Pretty Little Gift Horse by T.D. Webster
******
The Professor 01.10 - by Charlotte Bronte - Trade
The Professor 02.10
The Professor 03.10
The Professor 04.10
The Professor 05.10
The Professor 06.10
The Professor 07.10
The Professor 08.10
The Professor 09.10
The Professor 10.10
********Dramatisation of Charlotte Bronte's novel, published posthumously, about a man who comes to work
as a professor at an all-girl's school.
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
******God is dead. Meet the kids.
When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck.
Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later,
Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing
"gifts" his father bestowed - before he dropped dead on a karaoke
stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life.
Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall good-looking
stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be
the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as
night is to day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten
up and have a little fun...just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden,
life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie.
Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi,
a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion -- he is
able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil.
Exciting, scary, and deeply funny, Anansi Boys is a kaleidoscope journey
deep into myth, a wild adventure, and a fierce and unstoppable farce,
as Neil Gaiman shows us where gods come from, and how to survive your family.
Potter's Wheel by Albert Welling
*******An elderly preist has lived for years in a run-down seaside hotel. Then suddenly, two other visitors arrive;
one English and one Japanese. It's not clear why they have come, but it seems they may have a score to settle..
Five Wedding Dresses 1.5 by Katie Hims - True Love
Five Wedding Dresses 2.5 - The Rescue
Five Wedding Dresses 3.5 - The Scarecrow
Five Wedding Dresses 4.5 - Janey's Big Day
Five Wedding Dresses 5.5 - The Perfect Dress
******Series of dramas by Katie Hims about brides dressing for wedding ceremonies
and the significance and symbolism of the dress itself
The Bassett Table by Susanna Centlivre
********
The Black Bono by Gabriel Bisset-Smith
******Gideon Gordon, film star and celebrity campaigner for human rights, is murdered in Africa,
and the main suspect is his brother Ken. What can have driven the brothers apart?
The Golden Age by Kenneth Graham
******Five orphans enjoy England's idyllic countryside,
but boarding school awaits.
The Green Man by Doug Lucie
*******'Cause to be a real angler you got to have soul.'
When Mitch offers his men the fishing trip of a lifetime, they're prepared to stay up till dawn.
But while the whisky flows, the intimacy turns sour and the man with the fishing gear fails to show up.
The Green Man is a poignant and vicious portrait of a team of builders and their pub landlord
through a night of cards, jealousy and angling.
Figure with Meat by Craig Warner
*******Just imagine that your beliefs regarding the afterlife actually determined your fate.....
Craig Warner’s latest grim entertainment has all the energetic surrealism and originality of
'by where the old shed used to be' .
.... Funny, disturbing, and well made by Andy Jordan”. (Robert Hanks, The Independent).
Slow Boat to Leningrad by David Pownall
********Black comedy by David Pownall following events of August 1939, when the British and French
were seriously out-manoeuvred by Stalin and Hitler when they unexpectedly agreed to sign a non-aggression pact.
The Provok'd Wife by John Vanbrugh
******a dazzling comedy about the drastic steps a wealthy couple will take to spice up their marriage.
Phone by Peter Jukes
******Eliot it thrust into danger when his gangster friend hands him a phone.
Glamour by Stephen Lowe
******a semi-autobiographical comedy set in Nottingham's Moulin Rouge cinema in the 1960s.
The story follows the character of Jimmy Potter who makes his own blue movie.
The screening attracts the infamous gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray, who did actually visit Nottingham in 1966.
Ex Libris by Nicholas McInnerney
******A woman receives a legacy: a cottage previously inhabited by her aunt, an academic.
She finds a bundle of old letters. That’s where the story begins.
The Autobiography of a Nobody by Ian Kershaw
******bittersweet comedy about a man dealing with loneliness at Christmas. Rob decides to start his autobiography,
but can't think of anything interesting to write. He's also in the middle of assembling a mini in the kitchen,
and hides under the table when his best friend comes to collect the rent.
Be Prepared - by Andy Rashleigh
*******a dramatisation of the life of the founder of the Scouting movement. In this play, set on Baden-Powell's
balcony in 1937, he is looking back on his life as he talks to his young son. Baden-Powell would sleep
on the balcony of his house, Pax Hill, on at the Hampshire - Surrey border , because, after years as a
soldier and regimental commander, he found lying down in a bedroom claustrophobic.
The title role was taken by Ian McKellen,
A Slow Train to Woking by Michael Mears
******.A touching comedy written and performed by Michael Mears, who plays all 28 characters.
Daniel's biggest headache in life is his dear old mother Lil. With her eccentric demands and
obsession with hymn-singing, he dreads the routine of his weekly visits. That is why he always takes the slow train.
Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn
******Acclaimed by the Sunday Times as "Mr Ayckbourn's finest play", ABSENT FRIENDS is a wonderfully comic
observation of the foibles of the middle classes. Colin needs cheering up. For obvious reasons. The love of his life,
his beloved fiancée, has been most inconsiderate. Silly girl, she went and died! So his best friends arrange a tea party
to jolly up poor Colin. However it soon becomes clear that marital relationships among the party-givers are far
from perfect. Whereas Colin with his thoughts of an exaggerated - though gone - idyllic love, is sublimely happy.
Dispensing chunks of ridiculous unasked-for psychology keeps Colin forever smiling. And his friends miserable.
Memories are easy, living is hard, as this hilarious play proves.
A Long Memory 1.2 by Peter Simpkin
A Long Memory 2.2
*****
Black Cinderella Two Goes East by Clive Anderson and Rory McGrath
******An all-star pantomime, with ex-members of the Cambridge Footlights.
Featuring Peter Cook and John Cleese.
From December 1978.
Deadfall by R D Wingfield
******Retired special agent Harry Davis is drawn back to his old job for an assassination plot.
Another Shakespeare by Martin Wade
*******Martin Wade has based this play on the true case of William-Henry Ireland, an 18th-century forger
of "lost" plays by Shakespeare. The deception began innocently enough: William-Henry's early
forgeries were simple documents, made to please his Shakespeare-mad father. But by the time
an entire "newly-discovered" Shakespeare play was presented on the London stage,
matters had got rather out of hand.
The Last Obit by Peter Tinniswood
******the story of Millicent, a middle-aged spinster who spent her life writing obituaries for a regional newspaper,
but who was about to be replaced by a computer.
Omega by Mike Walker
******Penelope Wilton, Sarah Jane Holm and David Calder star in Mike Walker's
disturbing vision of the near future. Omega presents a vision of the near future.
It tells the story of John Stone, a civil engineer, building the world’s
tallest tower rising above London.
He discovers God after his daughter makes a miraculous recovery from a car crash.
But did a miracle really take place?
Perhaps John's whole life is a fiction and he's merely the plaything of a group
of controlling scientists.
The World Service play Omega (broadcast 3 Febuary 2002), written by Mike Walker and
directed by Gordon House has won two out of three Radio Awards at the Worldplay
conference in Ireland.
The Awards are given for Worldplays, a series of international plays commissioned
by World Service, ABC, CBC, Radio New Zealand, RTHK, RTE and Los Angeles TheatreWorks.
Omega won the Awards for Best Script, and Best Production.
Showing Promise by Dave Sheasby
******Marjorie's creative writing class has been running for years, but a newcomer arrives to shake things up.
Things will never be the same again.
The Places In Between by Rory Stewart
*******The true story of one man's solo walk across Afghanistan in the final leg
of a twenty-one-month journey through Asia on foot.
The Perfect Wood by Andy Barrett
******a lighthearted comedy - drama about rivalries on the bowling green. Bill has just retired
and is looking forward to winning the local bowls championship with his wife; they're easily
the best players in the area. But two skilful young newcomers move in, bringing some
unwelcome changes and the realisation that perhaps the championship is not in the bag.
Skeggy by Chris Thompson
******A runaway teenager in Skegness brings three separate partnerships closer together.
Radio by Al Smith
******
Who's Jimmy Dickenson by Alan Plater
******How does a shady man affect the lives of a suburban Humberside couple?
Two Brown Eyes by Angela Turvey
****** In 1884; before achieving fame as a composer; the young Frederick Delius arrived in Florida
from his home in Bradford. During his stay; he allegedly fell in love with a black woman.
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
******Kenneth Horne, Leslie Phillips and Hubert Gregg star in a musical adaptation of
Jerome K Jerome's classic afloat.
Two Plays by Harold Pinter
******Another chance to hear two plays by Harold Pinter, in tribute to the playwright who died in 2008.
Moonlight
First performed in 1993, this radio production of Pinter's play was recorded to mark his 70th birthday.
Andy, a middle aged civil servant, lies in his bed, dying. His wife tries desperately to bring his estranged
adult sons to his side. Bridging these two worlds is the haunting presence of the daughter they have lost.
Voices
One of Pinter's last dramatic works, this was first broadcast in 2005. Some of the tormentors and the tormented
so potently etched in Pinter's later plays are brought together with a musical setting by the composer James Clarke.
Breaking Point. by Philip Palmer
******Philip Palmer's powerful drama tells the story of Jon Starkey as he undergoes training to become
a British Army interrogator. A career soldier with a young family, Starkey is about to join
the front line in the so-called war against terror.
Campion's Ghost by Garry O'Connor
*****The Sacred & Profane Memories Of John Donne, Poet
Angels At Partridge Cottage by Lucy Gannon.
******A couple move into a cottage, which a bunch of friendly ghosts haunt.
A mixture of love story and ghost story; a good tale to hear in the run-up to Christmas
The Brahmin and the Lady by Mike Harris
*****A dramatisation of the events surrounding the partition of India in 1947 to 1948. It looks at the events
from the point of view of the Mountbattens and and the people with whom they came into contact.
By the end of the 19th century several nationalistic movements had started in India. Indian nationalism
had grown as a reaction to British policies on education and the advances made by the British in India
in the fields of transportation and communication. However British insensitivity to the peoples of India
and their customs created great disillusionment. Eventually the end of British rule was inevitable.
The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe
******By the age of 29 Marlowe was a brilliant scholar, a popular playwright,
an international spy, a forger, a homosexual and was accused of atheism.
His hugely ambitious characters, like Tamburlaine and Faustus, are often
taken to be versions of Marlowe himself, a subversive who also counted
religion as a 'childish toy'. By the age of 30 Marlowe was dead.
Pass the Parcel by Melissa Murray
*******A romantic drama about two people who meet at a genealogy course researching
the background to their family history. Both are emotionally scarred by the past, and when
they investigate their family backgrounds they discover that there is a curious
link between their ancestors as well.
Power of Attorney by David Wade
******An old lady has moments of lucidity, and some grasping relatives.
Will she sign over her finances to them, or not?
The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard
******The Real Thing is a play by Tom Stoppard, first performed in 1982. It examines the nature of honesty,
and its use of a play within a play is one of many levels on which the author teases
the audience with the difference between semblance and reality.
The play focuses on the relationship between Henry and Annie, an actress who is part of a committee
to free Brodie, a Scottish soldier imprisoned for burning a memorial wreath during a protest.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 1.2 by Bertolt Brecht
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 2.2
*******Set during the Great Depression in America of the 1930s, the play opens with actor John Lomas’
excellent narration. He is a glitzy ringmaster introducing a circus of human greed
in the cut-throat world of Chicago.
The plot revolves around a crooked business deal that leads to embezzlement of money earmarked for a shipyard.
The involvement of a respected pillar of the community Dogsborough (analogous with President Hindenburg)
shows how even an esteemed dignitary can become embroiled in corruption.
The theme of big business’ involvement in American politics is clearly shown. The corrupt dealing gives
the gangster Arturo Ui his big opportunity because of course when big business becomes
corrupt its bedfellow, politics, is besmirched too.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (1983)
******
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
*******Renowned as Shakespeare's most boisterous comedy,
The Taming of the Shrew is the tale of two young men -- the
hopeful Lucentio and the worldly Petruchio -- and the two sisters
they meet in Padua. Lucentio falls in love with Bianca, the apparently
ideal younger daughter of the wealthy Baptista Minola. But before
they can marry, Bianca's formidable elder sister, Katherine, must be
wed. Petruchio, interested only in the huge dowry, arranges to marry
Katherine -- against her will -- and enters into a battle of the sexes
that has endured as one of Shakespeare's most enjoyable works.
The Prisoner of Zenda.1.2 by Anthony Hope
The Prisoner of Zenda.2.2
******Five times made into film versions since its original publication
in 1894, The Prisoner of Zenda is a perennially popular adventure
and romance story. Hope's swashbuckling romance transports his
English gentleman hero, Rudolf Rassendyll, from a comfortable life
in London to fast-paced adventures in Ruritania, a mythical land
steeped in political intrigue. Rassendyll must impersonate the rightful
king in order to rescue him from the castle Zenda, all the while facing
tests of honor with the beautiful Princess Flavia, and enduring tests of
strength in his encounters with the villainous Black Michael
and his handsome, debonair bodyguard, Rupert of Hentzau.
Rupert Of Hentzau by Anthony Hope
******Sequel to 'The Prisoner of Zenda'. The story is set within a framing
narrative told by a supporting character from The Prisoner of Zenda.
The frame implies that the events related in both books took place
in the late 1870s and early 1880s. This story commences three years after
the conclusion of Zenda, and deals with the same fictional country
somewhere in Germanic Middle Europe, the kingdom of Ruritania.
Slavery: The Making Of by Peter Jukes.
******A group tries to make a documentary about slavery. a comic mockumentary which formed part
of the BBC's 2007 programming series to commemorate 200 years since Britain
abolished the slave trade, was described as "refreshingly honest" by The Spectator:
Statement of Regret by Kwame Kwei-Armah
******The Year of Obama should be an opportunity for Kwaku's black policy think-tank to flourish.
But Kwaku is still grieving for his father and his latest misjudged proposal is about to explode.
Totally Gutted by Alick Rowe
******A local football team is faced with a bizarre new management including a middle-aged striker
with a wooden leg. The sound effects of his running for the ball are wonderful. An excellent comedy
Zubeda by Naylah Ahmed
******Naylah Ahmed's play, set in rural India, is a parallel tale of two romances,
one long-standing and unfulfilled and the other newly-formed and full of hope.
A House for Mr Biswas 1.2 by V. S. Naipaul
A House for Mr Biswas 2.2
*******A gripping masterpiece, hailed as one of the 20th century's finest novels*
A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS is V.S. Naipaul's unforgettable third novel.
Born the "wrong way" and thrust into a world that greeted him with little
more than a bad omen, Mohun Biswas has spent his 46 years of life
striving for independence. But his determined efforts have met only with
calamity. Shuttled from one residence to another after the drowning
of his father, Mr Biswas yearns for a place he can call home. He marries
into the domineering Tulsi family, on whom he becomes indignantly
dependent, but rebels and takes on a succession of occupations in an arduous struggle to weaken their hold
over him and purchase a house of his own. Heartrending and darkly comic, A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS
masterfully evokes a man's quest for autonomy against the backdrop of post-colonial Trinidad.