Radio Plays XXXVII
  
  




The L-Shaped Room 01.10 by Lynne Reid Banks
The L-Shaped Room 02.10 
The L-Shaped Room 03.10 
The L-Shaped Room 04.10 
The L-Shaped Room 05.10 
The L-Shaped Room 06.10 
The L-Shaped Room 07.10 
The L-Shaped Room 08.10 
The L-Shaped Room 09.10 
The L-Shaped Room 10.10 
******Jane is unmarried and pregnant when she is turned out by her father. 
She lights on a room at the top of a squalid house. She cares nothing for it, 
or her neighbours. But it is these neighbours that draw her back into life - 
Toby, a Jewish writer, John, a jazz player, and even her landlady. 

Shout a Secret to the Stone 1.2 by Jane Cassidy
Shout a Secret to the Stone 2.2 
******An American holiday in ancestral Ireland turns uneasy......


The Natural Parent 1.2 by Michael Crompton
The Natural Parent 2.2 
******


The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great. by Henry Fielding.
******Jonathon Wild is a satire of Walpole that draws a parallel between Walpole 
and Jonathan Wild, the infamous gang leader and highwayman. He implicitly 
compares the Whig party in Parliament with a gang of thieves being run by 
Walpole, whose constant desire to be a "Great Man" (a common epithet for 
Walpole) should culminate only in the antithesis of greatness: being hanged.



Radio by Al Smith
******A young American boy - who dreams of getting
off planet - and his version of  the 20thCentury.


Leaving Normal 1.5 by Ian Iqbal Rashid
Leaving Normal 2.5
Leaving Normal 3.5
Leaving Normal 4.5
Leaving Normal 5.5
******Sammi and Luke are an unconventional, metropolitan, out-there gay couple. 
Emma and Jason are traumatised kids from deepest, darkest and straightest suburbia.

When the recently orphaned kids are forced to live with the couple, nothing will ever be 
the same for any of them. Emma becomes reclusive. Jason becomes Christian. Sammi starts 
to pull away. While Luke tries to pull it all together.

And then, just as this unlikely family start to find their balance, the men's mums get involved 
and everything starts to unravel once more.

This is a new spin on a family comedy series. But it's also a poignant culture-clash story about 
a group of people who come together to form a household in the most painful of circumstances.


The Roman Road by Frederick Raphael
******Frederick Raphael, author of 'The Glittering Prizes', was
good friends with classics' scholar John Patrick Sullivan.
Together they explored remnents of the classical world. In
1993 they retraced the journey to Brundisium made in 37BCE
by Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] and Virgil [Publius
Vergilius Maro]. It was their last trip together.

This play is Raphael's salute to the professor. It's a mixture
of learned conversations about Virgil & Horace, the political
situation in 37BCE, Virgil & Horace's possible conversations,
and the poetry the original journey inspired. 

The play closes with a short eulogy: 'In memorium John Patrick
Sullivan, Scholar of St. John's College Cambridge, sometime Dean
of Lincoln College Oxford, Professor Of Classics, University of
California at Santa Barbara, who made the journey with me, and
died, 1994, aged 63 ... a brave man who never threw away his
shield because, having no enemies, he had no need of one.'



Resurrecting Schubert by Nicholas McInerny
******Based on a true story.

As he lay dying Schubert asked to hear Beethoven's
C Sharp Minor String Quartet (Opus 131).

A quartet played the wonderful music to him at his bed
end. Schubert died five days later.


Operation Charlie by Rhys Lloyd
******1969. Wales. Conference.

A stranger makes a professor of international
studies an offer that he finds hard to refuse.

Supposed to have been based on a KGB plot to
disrupt the Prince of  Wales' investiture ceremony.



Flight by Mikhail Bulgakov
******Banned in 1928. Not premiered until 1957.

Bulgakov's extraordinary '... play in eight dreams'. 

1920. Russia. Crimea. The civil war will soon be over. A
group of White Russian soldiers and civilians who chose
exile in Constantinople and Paris have mixed fortunes.



Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress by Daniel Defoe
******(1724), Daniel Defoe's final novel.
The novel concerns the story of an unnamed "fallen woman", the second time 
Defoe wrote about this theme after Moll Flanders. In the book, a woman who 
takes on various pseudonyms, including "Roxana," describes her fall from wealth, 
thanks to a "fool" of a husband, and movement into prostitution upon his 
abandonment. The woman moves up and down through the social spectrum 
various times, by contracting an ersatz marriage to a jeweler, secretly courting 
a prince and marrying a Dutch merchant, being finally able to afford her own 
freedom by accumulating wealth from these men. The novel examines the 
possibility of eighteenth century women owning their own estate despite a patriarchal society 
and draws attention to the incompatibility between sexual freedom and freedom from 
motherhood -- the woman becomes pregnant many times due to her sexual exploits and it is 
one of her children who comes back to expose her, years later,in the closing scenes of the novel.


The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
******Cuckoos lay eggs in other birds' nests. The clutch that was fathered on the 
quiet little village of Midwich, one night in September, proved to possess a 
monstrous will of its own. It promised to make the human race look as dated as the dinosaur.








The Empress Wu - The Concubine Wang 1.2 by Carey Harrison
The Empress Wu - The Concubine Wang 2.2
******A modern working of a thirteen hundred years'
old story about a youth, his mentor, the
Empress Wu, and a concubine.

Also included is a small file from Woman's Hour
(January 27, 2007), in which  Jonathan Clements,
who has published a history of Wu, provides some
factual data about the only woman to rule Imperial
China in her own right.

Wu had a 'harem' of 120 youths. Which could explain
why her monument looks like a penis.


Pictures Of The Floating World by Mike Dorrell
******1955. New York. Frank Lloyd Wright is still at
work on the Guggenheim Museum. Meanwhile the
women in his life keep on getting in his way.


Hancock's Last Half-Hour by Heathcote Williams
******June 1968. Australia. Sydney. Hotel bedroom.
Hancock spends his last half-hour reflecting 
on his career and love life.



The Marx Brothers in Britain by Glenn Mitchell 
******Author and historian Glenn Mitchell profiles the fascinating visits to Britain 
of legendary comedy team The Marx Brothers.

The Marx Brothers; Groucho, Harpo, Chico and (for a while) Zeppo, inspired a generation 
of comedians, not least in Britain via The Goon Show and, by extension, Monty Python's 
Flying Circus. Although Britons knew the Marxes essentially from their American films, 
they worked in the UK on several remarkable occasions, the first of which pre-dates 
their movie career.

Featuring actor Michael Roberts, famous for playing Groucho on the UK radio series 
Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel and using archive and new contributions from people 
that met and worked with them this programme recreates and explores the eventful visits of the brothers.

Beginning with their first in 1922, with an ensemble that included future 'boop-oop-a-doop' 
girl Helen Kane, the opening night at the London Coliseum saw them the target of flying pennies. 
With the act not working they reverted to an earlier sketch, moving to the Alhambra for the third 
week prior to appearances in Bristol and Manchester where elsewhere on the bill was a young Sandy Powell.

By the time of their next visit, in 1931, the Marxes had gone from vaudeville to being the biggest 
attraction in Broadway musical-comedy. Two of their shows had been filmed - The Cocoanuts and 
Animal Crackers - and had done sufficient business in the UK for impresario C.B. Cochran to invite 
them to star at the Palace, London.

Audiences were thrilled and the Marxes enjoyed their second stay in London, even when Harpo and 
Chico, drawn into a protracted card game in an unheated flat, found themselves burning the furniture 
to keep warm! The journey back saw Groucho and family strip-searched at US Customs when Groucho 
put down his occupation as 'smuggler'.

In 1947, Chico accepted a solo engagement at the London Casino. He returned to Britain in January 
1949 for an extensive variety tour, joined briefly by Harpo for a four-week engagement at the London 
Palladium in June. In a dockside interview - to be heard in the programme - Chico is asked about the 
Italian accent he used when in character and claims that, after seeing what they'd done to Mussolini, 
he'd become Greek!

Chico's final UK visit was in 1959 for two BBC appearances, one of which, Showtime hosted by David Nixon.

There will also be interview material from Groucho's various trips to Great Britain between 1954 and 1971. 
Some of his activities were professional - such as a British TV version of his quiz show You Bet Your Life - 
while others were purely social, notably his celebrated meeting with T.S. Eliot.



Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot 1.4
Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot 2.4
Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot 3.4
Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot 4.4
******Returning to Russia from a sanitarium in Switzerland, the Christ-like epileptic 
Prince Myshkin finds himself enmeshed in a tangle of love, torn between two women - 
the notorious kept woman Nastasya and the pure Aglaia - both involved, in turn, with 
the corrupt, money-hungry Ganya. In the end, Myshkin's honesty, goodness, and 
integrity are shown to be unequal to the moral emptiness of those around him. 


The Goalkeeper's Boo-boo by Peter Tinniswood
******A man with two lives. But which one's the fantasy?


The Devil's Music 1.3 by Alan Plater
The Devil's Music 2.3 
The Devil's Music 3.3 
******Jazz musician Megan wants to discover where a melody she plays has come from. 
The trail takes her to emancipated slaves from the 1880s and pork pies


Victory by Guy Meridith
******Post WWII Germany. A British scientist works
with a German rocket scientist to document
what he can, and to convince the German to
come to the UK.

The German is unwilling to go west.

This play gets right to the heart of the
the Western Allied Powers'approach to
ownership and use of German technology
and German technicians in the immediate
aftermath of World War II.

The BBC was criticised for broadcasting it.


At Sea On Inya Lake by Guy Slater
******Burma. Period of the 1988 uprising, 1990 election and Generals'
second coup. Story revolves around Aung San Suu Kyi, and looks
back over thirty years of totalitarian rule.


Three Large Beers by David Nobbs
******Three men separately visit the same Indian restaurant on
the third Thursday of each month. They become acquainted
and their curious reasons for coincinding are revealed.



Mountain of Light by Simon Bovey
******London, 1851. The worlds's largest diamond is on show at the Great Exhibition. 
And John Rayverne must find a way to steal it to save the people he loves.


Oblomov 1.2 by Ivan Goncharov
Oblomov 2.2
******If a things worth getting out of bed for,
it can be safely put off until later.

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.


Evening by Boris Pasternak
******A prose poem about a young poet. This was found
among Pasternak's papers after his death. 

The poet's name is 'Reliquimini' ('you
are left behind') 


Playing For Time by Robin Glendinning
******May, 1940. Military disaster in France.
Dunkirk. A new war policy is needed.

This play is about nine cabinet meetings
over three days in May, 1940, where,
against the odds, the following resulted:

* Britain would not pursue peace, and;
* The appeasers would support Churchill.



Naked Radio - World Cup Excuse 1
Naked Radio - World Cup Excuse 2
Naked Radio - World Cup Excuse 3
Naked Radio - World Cup Excuse 4
******Largely the work of Tony Roper and Jonathan Watson from the Naked Radio team, it became a cult classic.



Marie Lloyd, Queen Of The Halls by Steve Trafford
******1922. London. Marie Lloyd [1870-1922],
music hall star, reflects on her life.



I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Shout by Laurence Allan
*******‘I thought I heard Buddy Bolden shout ‘‘Open up that 
window and 
let that bad air out’’
 ’ -- Jelly Roll Morton, from ‘Buddy Bolden Blues’

Charles ‘Buddy’ Bolden was a New Orleans musician at the turn of the 20th Century. 
He is considered to be the first bandleader to play the improvised form of music, 
which later became known as Jazz. Buddy was the first ‘King’ of the cornet in 
New Orleans, and is remembered by musicians as one of the finest horn players 
they had ever heard. In April, 1907, at the age of 31, Bolden burst a blood vessel 
in his neck while playing his cornet with Henry Allen’s Brass Band. Tragically, 
this developed into paranoid dementia for which Bolden was hospitalized in June 1907. 
He remained there until his death in 1931.

Tiger Bay jazz enthusiast Summertime Jones'
quest takes him to New Orleans. He arrives
just as Hurricane Katrina hits. 

BBC Clarification
Buddy Bolden is one of the original greats
of the American jazz scene and this 'road
movie' captures the spirit of Bolden.



The Ironclads by Aldo Nicolaj
******1974. A suburban park in a large Italian city.

A man joins another already sitting on a park bench.
They introduce themselves and converse illogically.
A woman joins in the conversation.

They meet again on other days. Conversation continues
to take illogical turns.



Au Revoir Johnny Onions by Tracy Spottiswoode
******A Welsh family takes an elderly relative to
Brittany in the hope that she can find word
of her pre-WWII sweetheart, Johnny Onions.


The House of Mercy 01.10 by Chris Dolan
The House of Mercy 02.10
The House of Mercy 03.10
The House of Mercy 04.10
The House of Mercy 05.10
The House of Mercy 06.10
The House of Mercy 07.10
The House of Mercy 08.10
The House of Mercy 09.10
The House of Mercy 10.10
******Victorian murder mystery dramatised by Chris Dolan from a storyline by Bruce Young.

The novelist Eliza Martins visits the House of Commons to watch her most notable admirer, 
Sir John Garett Stewart, take part in a debate about electoral reform. When a Metropolitan 
Police detective is assigned to keep a wary eye on potentially wayward MPs the Government's 
Chief Whip learns that Stewart is active in charity work, helping to rescue prostitutes from the streets.



The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman
******A chance to hear the radio drama production of this 5* performance from Szpilman's 
novel, transferred from the 2007 Manchester International Festival.

A duet for piano and voice, charting one man's remarkable story of courage and survival in a 
Warsaw Ghetto during Nazi Occupation. Read by actor Peter Guinness, with the ravishing 
music of Chopin, from concert pianist Mikhail Rudy



Goodnight to Flamboro'  by Martyn Wade 
******




LA Theater Works - Shadowlands 1.2 by William Nicholson
LA Theater Works - Shadowlands 2.2
******William Nicholson's Tony-nominated stage adaptation of his award-winning 
BBC Teleplay relates the story of shy Oxford don and children's author C.S. Lewis 
and American poet Joy Gresham. Shadowlands shows how love, and the risk of loss, 
transformed this great man's relationships, even with God. 
The broadcast includes an interview with actor Martin Jarvis.


Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
******1938. Paris. An English woman whose past
won't leave her be roams the city.
Sasha Jensen has returned to Paris, the city of both her happiest moments 
and her most desperate. Her past lies in wait for her in cafes, bars, and dress shops, 
blurring all distinctions between nightmare and reality. When she is picked up by a 
young man, she begins to feel that she is still capable of desires and emotions. 
Few encounters in fiction have been so brilliantly conceived, and few have come 
to a more unforgettable end.

Jean Rhyss is best known for her novel
'The Wide Sargasso Sea'.


Bluethroat Morning 1.2 by Tony Ramsay
Bluethroat Morning 2.2
*******two related plays set in Morston, Norfolk, a hundred years apart. Morston is famous for its wildlife, 
especially its birds, but we gradually become aware that hidden in the marshes is a trace of a 
hundred-year-old murder. Both plays used the same cast, including Ronald Pickup and Alison Pettitt; 
Janet Whitaker directed. 


Pictures of the Floating World by Mike Dorrell 
******1955. New York. Frank Lloyd Wright is still at
work on the Guggenheim Museum. Meanwhile
the women in his life keep on getting in his way.



Wives and Daughters 1.9 by Elizabeth Gaskell - Calf Love
Wives and Daughters 2.9 - A Crisis
Wives and Daughters 3.9 - The New Mama
Wives and Daughters 4.9 - Mr Osborne Hamley's Secret
Wives and Daughters 5.9 - The Charity Ball
Wives and Daughters 6.9 - The Mother's Manoeuvre
Wives and Daughters 7.9 - The Storm Bursts
Wives and Daughters 8.9 - Scandal And Its Victim
Wives and Daughters 9.9 - Reviving Hopes And Brightening Prospects
******This novel tells the story of Molly Gibson as she moves from childhood 
to womanhood in a complex series of interwoven plots. The sphere of action 
is small, but the implications are wide and carry truths of universal significance. 


Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (3 hours)
******Antony and Cleopatra is Shakespeare's last great tragedy.

Telling the story of one of history's most famous couples, Antony and Cleopatra 
contains some of the most beautiful poetry in the English Language.

Shakespeare's last great tragedy is an epic play of action set against a huge political 
and geographical backdrop, but at the centre of the play is a story about what happens 
when two people fall in love. In this play, love is a madness that leads to excess and 
imbalance. Antony and Cleopatra are middle-aged people who have loved before and 
often and they seize this late love as if it is their last chance. Their love possesses them 
and destroys all rational behaviour.

Antony and Cleopatra are a celebrity couple - they live their lives in public and they wield 
tremendous power. They are 'great' figures, and very conscious of their greatness - both are 
preoccupied with the figure they will cut in history. But they are also 'a soldier and his lass', 
driven by common human emotions. Shakespeare shows that great natures can produce great 
vices as well as great virtues - we see their vanity, cruelty and irresponsibility. Like glamorous 
stars, Antony and Cleopatra are both deeply attractive and open to harsh judgement.


Quo Vadis 01.10 by Henryk Sienkiewicz. 
Quo Vadis 02.10
Quo Vadis 03.10
Quo Vadis 04.10
Quo Vadis 05.10
Quo Vadis 06.10
Quo Vadis 07.10
Quo Vadis 08.10
Quo Vadis 09.10
Quo Vadis 10.10
******In the dark, decadent last days of the Roman Empire, a pagan soldier sees a girl 
of exotic beauty and decides he must have her as his concubine. But unknown to him, 
Ligia is a Christian intent on living a pure life, even as Nero's ruthless persecution 
sweeps the city. As the lives of Vinicius and Ligia intertwine, they watch the world they 
know change before their eyes. While the apostles Peter and Paul seek to save the 
immoral city from ruin, Christians are brutally martyred in the Coliseum and Rome burns.

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