Radio Plays XX
Radio Plays XX
Beau Geste 1.2 by P C Wren
Beau Geste 2.2
******This work is a romantic adventure of the French Foreign
Legion, and is set in the searing heat of the Sahara desert.
It evokes the ethos and pride of the Legion, and the often
wild lives and loyalties of the legionnaires.
Suit of Lights by David Napthine
******Interesting play about the bullfighter Ignacio Sanchez Mejias
and the poet Lorca, who wrote a lament on his death.
Summer of Love At the Buena Vista by Chris Thompson
******This play is set in 1967. Col is stuck in England - he's going to the Buena Vista Hotel in Margate,
where he has a summer job with his friend Pete. Pete is good at attracting girls, but Col has no chance;
he's too sensitive. Then a wedding anniversary changes things....
St Graham & St Evelyn Pray For Us by Mark Lawson
******a literary comedy. The Vatican decides to stop the slide of literature towards the base and obscene
by canonising either Evelyn Waugh or Graham Greene.
Priests explore the two writers' characters, and their very different attitudes to almost everything emerge.
John Sessions was Waugh, Simon Day was Greene and Peter Wickham
and Daniel Evans were the clerics; the director was Robyn Read.
Aubrey's Brief Lives 1.5 - Replete with New Discoveries by Nick Warburton
Aubrey's Brief Lives 2.5 - This Is the Man
Aubrey's Brief Lives 3.5 - Such Idle Fellows As I Am
Aubrey's Brief Lives 4.5 - Hardened by Degrees
Aubrey's Brief Lives 5.5 - Sudden Ease
******Collection of anecdotes by genial eccentric John Aubrey about the great and good
of the 16th and 17th century, set against the story of his friendship with antiquarian Anthony Wood
The Law of Diminishing Returns by Owen McCafferty
******An old married couple reflect on their lives
The Loss Adjuster by Richard Monks
******a thought-provoking play about corrupt business practices. Martin's house has been built
along with hundreds of others on a flood plain. When the estate gets flooded, and a young girl dies,
he discovers first-hand how big business operates.
The Lucas Testament by Michael Robson
******Excellent murder mystery, an exciting play with its roots in the past. Robert Cardiff finds himself suspected
of the murder of a close friend and occasional lover and it becomes necessary to investigate for himself when
the police inquiry begins to make life intolerable. All the victim's male friends are put through the wringer
but Robert, in particular, is harried by Jeffrey Segal's dogged chief inspector and Steve Hodson's vengeful sergeant.
His disentangling makes for riveting listening.
Lord Dracula by Brian Hayles
*******Father Benedict begins to write a chronicle of the year 1476, at the command of the King of Hungary
and his ecclesiastical superiors, who resolve him of the evils that he has witnessed. The story begins
at the mighty castle of Tirgoviste, where Father Benedict served as chaplin and chancellor to the
Prince of Wallachia and Transylvania - the most cruel of men yet once the most just of rulers.
Known now and to the future of his more legendary names: Vlad Tepes,The Impaler,
and of a more darker meaning still, Lord Dracula.
The Looneys by John Antrobus
******Two lunatics, Brian and Eric escape from an asylum and hole themselves up in the Gosport household -
an unlikely mix of characters who are just as mad as the two now holding them hostage.
Journey's End by by R C Sherriff
******A thought provoking drama on a hugely emotive subject, Journey’s End portrays
the nightmare of life in the trenches in 1918. The enemy and a bloody death just a few
yards away, as the bullets and bombs take their toll.
Joseph Andrews 1.4 by Henry Fielding
Joseph Andrews 2.4
Joseph Andrews 3.4
Joseph Andrews 4.4
****** Henry Fielding's comic novel "Joseph Andrews"
( or: "The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of
His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams") was originally published in
1742 in two volumes. A takeoff on Samuel Richardson's
"Pamela," it follows Pamela's brother Joseph in the model of the
Tory satirists of the previous generation. Joseph Andrews begins
as a burlesque of Pamela, but the parodic intention of the novel
soon becomes secondary, and it develops into a masterpiece of
sustained irony and social criticism. At its center is Parson Adams,
one of the great comic figures of literature. Joseph and the parson
have a series of adventures, in all of which they manage to expose
the hypocrisy and affectation of others through their own innocence
and guilelessness.
Although begun as a parody, it became an accomplished novel and marks the beginning of
Fielding's career as a serious novelist.
Just a Gypsy by Ian Cullen
******Interesting play about prejudice and a group of travellers. A lot takes place in 90 minutes.
An excellent piece of work.
Looking for Alice by Peter McKelvey
******Scene is a Country house 'somewhere in Suffolk'. Neil has broken in but is surprised by Albert and Greta.
At first they tell him to go but when he says he is 'Looking for Alice' they change their minds and tie him up.
Neil wriggles free during the night and at first grabs Greta when she comes in but soon lets her go again.
There seems to be something odd about this place. There is a girl, Miranda, who doesn't fit with the other two
who are strangely frightened when he plays a tape recording of Alice's last message to him.
The Last Time I Saw Richard by Roger Ellsgood
*******Drama documentary about the life and death of Sri Lankan journalist and TV newsreader Richard de Zoysa,
who was abducted and killed in February 1990.
Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham
*******Some objects just cry out to be stolen, and an obliging
ring of international thieves stands ready to heed the cry.
Their current target is the Gyrth Chalice, a priceless goblet
that the Gyrth family has for centuries held in trust for the
British Crown. Kept in a windowless chapel, and protected
by a fearsome curse, the Chalice should be impervious
to thievery. But this is 1930, and the crooks have all the
advantages of the modern world. Chief among these is the
craving for publicity, to which at least one member of the
Gyrth clan has succumbed. Her careless chatter about the
Chalice seems to have called up all manner of misfortunes -
of which larceny is just the beginning - and the vague, bespectacled Albert Campion doesn't look like he'll
be much help against them.
But looks can be deceptive.
Lord of the Dance by Michael Davis
******
Lorelei by Tom Wright
******In 2003, Reprieve commissioned Theatre Tarquin to produce a theatrical companion piece to
'This is a True Story'. Tom Wright was engaged to write the script for a monologue about the
experiences of Lorilei Guillory. Unlike Howard Neal in True Story, Lorilei did not sit on death row
wondering when the State might execute her. Rather, her 'true story' concerned the death of her
young son, Jeremy, at the hands of Ricky Langley. At the time of developing the script, Langley
had been convicted of Jeremy's first degree murder and had been sentenced to death.
Ultimately, Lorilei met with Langley in prison and decided to fight to save him from execution.
Tom Wright and Nicholas Harrington worked on the script. It was based on Lorilei's own words and public statements.
The monologue performance is a simple, true story about one woman's loss, her sadness,
her compassion, her conviction and her courage.
In Reprieve's view, Lorilei is a modern day heroine. She demonstrates the power of compassion and humanity.
Lorna Doone 1.5 by Richard Doddridge Blackmore
Lorna Doone 2.5
Lorna Doone 3.5
Lorna Doone 4.5
Lorna Doone 5.5
******This work is an historical novel of high adventure set in the
south west of England during the turbulent time of Monmouth's
rebellion in 1685. Told through the life of young farmer,
John Ridd, it is a moving love story of a man determined
to right wrongs and win the heart and hand of Lorna Doone.
Lost Empires 1.3 by J B Priestley
Lost Empires 2.3
Lost Empires 3.3
******Written in the mood of Angel Pavement, this imaginative novel is set
in the years immediately before the First World War. In turns funny, sad,
nostalgic, it is the story of young Richard Herncastle who travels the now
vanished Music Halls (the 'Lost Empires') with his uncle, an illusionist.
The core of the story is the young man's emotional awakening.
Lucinda Brayford 1.3 by Martin Boyd (3 hours)
Lucinda Brayford 2.3
Lucinda Brayford 3.3
******"The Sunday Times has called Martin Boyd a 'more graceful Australian Galsworthy',
and his novels of families in Australia and England have been compared to The Forsyte Saga.
"Lucinda Brayford, the most widely-praised of his books, is the story of three generations
of an Anglo-Australian family around the turn of the century.
"Lucinda's grandfather is forced to leave England in disgrace, and settles in Australia.
His son Fred takes over the management of a run-down station in the Riverina,
where his tenacity in the face of adverse conditions eventually makes him a wealthy man.
The Lost Stradivarius 1.2 by J. Meade Falkner
The Lost Stradivarius 1.2
******Set in Oxford and Naples in the 1840s, this is a tale
of demonic possession, long regarded as a classic ghost
story of the occult. It also touches the "decadent" decades
of the 19th century at sensitive points - the physical, the
moral and the aesthetic.
A short novel of ghosts and the evil that can be invested in
an object, in this case an extremely fine Stradivarius violin.
After finding the violin of the title in a hidden compartment
in his college rooms, the protagonist, a wealthy young heir, becomes
increasingly secretive as well as obsessed by a particular piece of music, which
seems to have the power to call up the ghost of its previous owner.
Love in the Mist by Alan Ayckbourn
******An unhappily married man takes another woman for a weekend away.
Loyalties by John Galsworthy
******English novelist and playwright, winner of the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1932, Galsworthy became known for his portrayal of
the British upper middle class and for his social satire. Loyalties
is one of the best of his later plays; the story deals with a lawyer's
ethical dilemma.Loyalties is one of the first plays to deal honestly
and openly with the problem of anti-Semitism.
Naples '44. by Norman Lewis
******A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy.
An adaptation for radio of material taken from the diary of Norman Lewis,
a travel writer who was in Naples just after it was liberated from the Nazis.
His job was that of Army Intelligence officer.
Graham Greene wrote:
"Norman Lewis is one of the best writers, not of any particular decade, but of our century".
Who Wrote Horseback Hall? by Michael Robson
******A lovely play combining a parody of the formal detective story, set among odious Edwardian aristocrats,
with a sympathetic account of the enigmatic Saki, the wit and satirist whose death in the Great War
was caused by someone else's momentary folly.
Louis - The Lonely Days by Bonnie Greer
******It's the early 30s, and Louis Armstrong is on his European tour, keeping ahead of the women,
the gangsters and the racists. One night, on the stage of the LONDON Palladium, his lip is split
in front of the Prince of Wales, and the music has to stop.
The Folly by Martin Reed
******Sir Morton Makepeace's characters disrupt his new play, so risking the building of his Folly. Comedy set in 1770
Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner
******Originally published in 1929, Erich Kastner’s engaging tale
has delighted readers young and old, for generations. It’s Emil’s
first train ride alone and he’s excited, and a little nervous.On the
train, his fellow passengers are impressed with how polite and
grown-up Emil is, and the man in the bowler hat offers him some
chocolate—but Emil keeps checking his coat pocket, where he’s
pinned the money that he is taking to his grandmother. Soon,
though, Emil finds himself getting sleepy . . . and the next thing
he knows, the man in the bowler hat is gone— and so is the money!
With the help of some new friends Emil becomes a detective and
tracks the thief through the city.
A Woman Killed With Kindness by Thomas Heywood
******Anne Frankford is a paragon of grace, beauty and all wifely virtues, while her husband, John,
is kindness itself and deeply in love with his new wife. All this augers well for a long and happy
married life. But Frankford foolishly takes into his household Wendoll, an impoverished gentleman
to whom he has taken a liking. Wendoll is unable to resist the charms of his friend's wife
and persuades her to accept him as a lover.........
The Twyborn Affair by Patrick White
******Eddie Twyborn is bisexual and beautiful, the son of a
Judge and a drunken mother. His search for identity,
self-affirmation and love takes us into the ambiguous
landscapes, sexual, psychological and spiritual,
of the human condition.
Gush 1.6 by Nick Newman & Ian Hislop
Gush 2.6
Gush 3.6
Gush 4.6
Gush 5.6
Gush 6.6
******A satire based on the first Gulf War, in the style of Jeffrey Archer.
Everyone's Got a Mountain to Climb by Dave Duggan
******Three generations of an Irish family have beliefs ranging from new age spritualism to atheism
and their thoughts on how to behave as a family differ too. Janice is dying and Petey wants to drop
out of college. Will a climb to Croagh Patrick, a holy mountain, help them to deal with their troubles?
I Am Emma Humphreys by Shelley Silas
******the true story of Emma Humphreys, who in 1985, aged 16, murdered her
pimp, Trevor Armitage, who had found her homeless on the streets
of Nottingham.Emma's case changed the law and may yet contribute
to further controversial changes in the defence laws for murder.
The Magistrate by Arthur Wing Pinero
******The Magistrate (1885), is a farce about a woman named Agatha who has lied about her age
in order to marry her second husband, the honest magistrate, Mr. Poskett. Not only has she
shaved five years off her own age, but she has also shaved five years off the age of a son from
her first marriage, making him fourteen instead of nineteen. The fact that the young lad has taken
to flirting, drinking, and gambling, of course, complicates matters and makes for an enjoyable comedy.
Out of the Ordinary by Gary Owen
******When a failed contestant on Tonys pop talent show kills herself, his callous put-downs may be to blame.
But soon more is at stake than a celebrity career.
Conan Doyle and the Edalji Case by Roy Apps
******In his autobiography, the celebrated writer Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle wrote that after the death of his first wife in
1906 he was "for some time...unable to settle to work until
the Edalji case came suddenly to turn my energies into an
entirely unexpected channel".
The channel into which he turned would have been very familiar
to his most famous creation, the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes,
but solving real crimes, tackling real cases of inadequate police
investigation, and fighting real cases of wrongful conviction was not something
Conan Doyle would normally do. He was a writer who was renowned for creating imaginary
crime scenarios and controlling an imaginary cast of characters. And he resented
being identified with Holmes, as frequently happened. Nevertheless, when the Edalji
case came to his attention, he saw an injustice which he resolved to remedy.
The Streets of Pompeii by Henry Reed
******
The Day That Lehman Died by Matthew Solon.
******A drama charting the collapse of one of the oldest and largest
investment banks in the world, which sparked the beginnings of the
global recession.On 15 September 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for the
largest bankruptcy in US history. It sent the already unstable markets
into an uncontrollable tailspin. How did the 'big beasts' of Wall Street
make this critical decision? They held in their hands the future, not just of a bank,
but the stability of the global financial system.
A Choice of Straws by E R Braithwaite
******1960, London's East End: twins Jack and Dave Bennett are a happy-go-lucky,
rootless pair. If they do occasionally rough-up a black guy it's just a game to them -
until a victim in Whitechapel fights back and Dave pulls a knife.
Passport to Pimlico by T.E.B. Clarke
******A bomb left over from the Second World War blows up in Miramont Gardens
in the Pimlico district of London after some local children roll a tractor tyre
down a hole. The explosion reveals a buried cellar from the manor house that gave
Miramont Gardens its name, in which artwork, coins, jewellery and an ancient
parchment document are found. Professor Hatton-Jones authenticates it as a royal
charter of Edward IV that ceded the house its estates to Charles VII ("the Rash"),
the last Duke of Burgundy, when he sought refuge there several centuries ago after
being presumed dead at the Battle of Nancy. As the charter had never been revoked,
Pimlico is legally part of Burgundy.
Local policeman P.C. Spiller observes,
"Blimey! I'm a foreigner!"
Some scenes in which the residents are refused passage out of their district into London
by the authorities, and rely on supplies thrown over the dividing wall by well-wishers,
were very topical because the script was made during the Berlin Blockade.
Shadowlands by William Nicholson
******The moving true story of the 1950s relationship between Oxford don and author CS Lewis
and divorced American writer Joy Gresham.
The Magnetic Lady by Ben Jonson
******The focus of the play lies in the wealthy Lady Loadstone and her young,
attractive, "marriageable" niece Placentia Steel. Placentia is the target of the
amorous ambitions of a set of gulls and fools and hangers-on — Parson Palate,
Doctor Rut, Bias, Practice the lawyer, and Sir Diaphanous Silkworm.
Lady Loadstone's brother, Sir Moth Interest, is Placentia's financial trustee,
and cares about little but maintaining control of her money. This crew is
counterbalanced by two Jonsonian men of worth: Compass, Lay Loadstone's
faithful steward, and his friend Captain Ironside.
The Von Trapps and Me by Annie Caulfield
******Annie Caulfield's comedy tells the famous story of the Von Trapp family
singers from the perspective of the Princess Yvonne, the woman Captain
Von Trapp jilted in order to marry Maria.
England by Tim Crouch
******This award winning stage-play was adapted for World Drama. The Observer hailed it 'a sensory masterpiece'.
Dark House by Mike Walker
******a ground breaking interactive radio drama in which the listeners dictate how the story is heard.
Perfect for a Halloween party background.
Drama International - SA - Room 13 by Dorothy Parker
******Room 13 seems to have disappeared - and the woman in it - but the consensus is....the room never existed.
Drama International - SA - A Friend Indeed
Drama International - SA - Bizarre Murder
Drama International - SA - Claire's Vacation
Drama International - SA - Deadly Marriages
Drama International - SA - Finding Joe
Drama International - SA - I'm a Flyer
Drama International - SA - Precious Jewels
Drama International - SA - Respect Your Elders
Drama International - SA - The Bright September Afternoon
Drama International - SA - The Curse of the Yarcles
Drama International - SA - The Gift
Drama International - SA - The Hidden Truth
Drama International - SA - The Horror of It All
Drama International - SA - The Land of the North Wind
Drama International - SA - The Spy in the Pyramid
Drama International - SA - Who Was Corsair
******An Assortment of mystery and suspense broadcast from South Africa
The King's Colours by Roy Bolitho
******
The King's Wife by John Weik
******
The Kamikaze Ground Staff Reunion Dinner by Stewart Parker
******It's a pretty surprising notion at first appearance, but the Kamikaze Groundstaff do have a reunion dinner;
they're not failed Kamikaze pilots, but the men who serviced the planes. John le Mesurier (as a wealthy Japanese
dentist and ex-groundstaff) finds at the Reunion Dinner that the Kamikaze spirit is not dead, even forty years on....
The King's General by Daphne du Maurier
******Inspired by a grisly discovery in the nineteenth century,
The King's General was the first of du Maurier's novels to be
written at Menabilly, the model for Manderley in Rebecca.
Set in the seventeenth century, it tells the story of a
country and a family riven by war, and features one of
fiction's most original heroines.
Honor Harris is only eighteen when she first meets
Richard Grenvile, proud, reckless - and utterly captivating.
But following a riding accident, Honor must reconcile herself
to a life alone. As Richard rises through the ranks of the army,
marries and makes enemies, Honor remains true to him,
and finally discovers the secret of Menabilly.
Tom Jones 1.3 by Henry Fielding
Tom Jones 2.3
Tom Jones 3.3
******Tom Jones isn't a bad guy, but boys just want to have fun.
Nearly two and a half centuries after its publication, the adventures
of the rambunctious and randy Tom Jones still makes for great reading.
I'm not in the habit of using words like bawdy or rollicking, but if you
look them up in the dictionary, you should see a picture of this book.
Introduction and Notes by Doreen Roberts, Rutherford College,
University of Kent at Canterbury Tom Jones is widely regarded as one of
the first and most influential English novels. It is certainly the funniest.
Tom Jones, the hero of the book, is introduced to the reader as the ward
of a liberal Somerset squire. Tom is a generous but slightly wild and feckless
country boy with a weakness for young women. Misfortune, followed by many
spirited adventures as he travels to London to seek his fortune, teach him a sort
of wisdom to go with his essential good-heartedness.
My Name Is Red 1.2 by Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk
My Name Is Red 2.2
******Istanbul, 1590.
The Sultan brings together the most acclaimed artists in his
kingdom to create a secret book of miniatures celebrating the
glories of his realm. But when two of the miniaturists
are murdered, panic erupts.
The Kingston File by Steve Gallagher
*******(aka Here Comes the Mirror Man) A social worker takes on
a disturbed down and out but may have cause to regret it
as her predecessor was murdered in mysterious circumstances.
A nasty chiller.
Knives in Hens by David Harrower
******"An outstanding new Scottish play: David Harrower's Knives in Hens,
set in a God-fearing, pre-industrial rural community and dealing, passionately
and intelligently, with a woman's discovery of a language that corresponds with
her feelings ... A remarkable theatrical debut."-Guardian
"Harrower's remarkable debut as a professional dramatist creates a haunting, poetic,
and entirely individual world of its own. I have never seen a play quite like it ...
You leave the theatre in no doubt that you have watched one of the year's most heartening
and accomplished debuts. Harrower already seems like a writer built to last."
-Daily Telegraph
The Knightsbridge Memorial by Josephine Achillini
******
Lady Chatterley's Lover 1.2 by D H Lawrence
Lady Chatterley's Lover 2.2
******Lawrence's frank portrayal of an extramarital affair and the
explicit sexual explorations of the central characters caused this
controversial book, now considered a masterpiece, to be banned
as pornography until 1960.
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