Radio Plays XXXXIV
Radio Plays XXXXIV
Nymphs And Satyrs, Come Away by Peter Luke
******A biography of Lytton Strachey [1880 - 1932].
Best known now for his revisionist biographies 'Eminent Victorians'
and 'Elizabeth And Essex', in his lifetime Strachey was better known
for practical jokes on the grand scale, pacifism during WWI and his
relationship with artist Dora Carrington [they lived together unmarried
for many years].
This play is good on Strachey, and introduces as individuals some of
the characters usually lumped together under the word 'Bloomsbury'.
Medical Detectives 1.4 - Death in the Parish by Michael Butt
******When a cholera epidemic strikes London in 1854, the brilliant but mercurial
Dr John Snow investigates. Starring Bill Nighy.
Medical Detectives 2.4 - The Last Infirmity
******Two ambitious young doctors tackle a yellow fever epidemic in 19th-century Cuba.
Medical Detectives 3.4 - The Epping Jaundice
******A strange epidemic sweeps through the inhabitants of a quiet Essex suburb.
Medical Detectives 4.4 - The Stranded Eagle
******After Salomon August Andre's doomed Arctic crossing, investigators piece together events.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
****** This parable tells the story of an air pilot who meets a Little Prince when he has
to make a forced landing in the Sahara Desert. The Little Prince tells him wise
and enchanted stories.
The story had its nascence in hallucinations Exupéry experienced about his rescuer
when dehydrated andlost after a plane crash in the Sahara.
He described the experience in 'Wind, Sand and Stars'.
Cast
The Little Prince - Garrett Moore
The Aviator - Robert Powell
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
******In Agnes Grey Anne Bronte drew on her own experiences as a governess,
trying to cope with unmanageable children with little respect from her employer.
It combines a wonderful study of Victorian responses to children with a story of
romantic love, and this new edition does full justice to its fictional as well as its
autobiographical qualities.
The Conservatory by Brian B Thompson
*******Self-made man who doesn't listen - even to himself - builds
a huge conservatory onto his house. His wife, who wanted a
conservatory, is not so pleased, and it becomes a focus for
the discontent in their marriage.
Brian B Thompson is best known for 'Byker Grove' and 'Trueman & Riley'
Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas.
******Nothing says comedy like a man in a dress, and Charley's Aunt is the archetypal
man-in-a-dress comedy. In desperate need of a chaperone so they can woo their
sweethearts, two college lads named Jack and Charley persuade their friend Fancourt
to masquerade as Charley's aunt from Brazil, who had failed to arrive. Of course,
the aunt also shows up (and is also in disguise),
No Nightingales No Snakes 1.5 by Maeve Binchy
No Nightingales No Snakes 2.5
No Nightingales No Snakes 3.5
No Nightingales No Snakes 4.5
No Nightingales No Snakes 5.5
******These five stories feature modern Irishwomen emerging from a culture where
they knew their place, into a more hazardous, but more rewarding light. In
The Night People Came in for Something That Was No Trouble, Cara’s envy of
another couple’s disingenuous ease at giving dinner parties spurs her to plan the
perfect “casual” evening down to the last detail—but things don’t go as she’d intended.
The Stepson sees Clare walking on eggshells, taking great care not to try to replace her
stepson Simon’s dead mother: until she finally attempts to break through his hostile diffidence.
Decisions at Sea finds Tessa, an overlooked but good-tempered secretary, heading out on a
cruise, where she faces a big decision. In The Answer Machine, Biddy reasons that her family
need an answer machine for Christmas, and gives it to them early—but by Christmas, she is
beginning to regret the whole idea. And in By the Time We Get to Clifden, Nessa and her husband
Harry are planning their annual break to Clifden, when neighbor Melly seeks their help, and ends
up changing their itinerary and their lives.
Siege by Francesca Joseph, improvised by the cast.
******Peter and Veronica Pleasance are residents of Skylarks Residential Home
for the Elderly. They haven't spoken to their high-flying son - Managing Director
of Trixel Technologies - for over twenty years. When one of his employees,
Oludayo Akano is kidnapped in Nigeria, son Jerome Akano decides it is time
for some action.
Along with his friends Damien (trying to make a name for himself as an activist)
and Chalky (along for the ride), they attack the residential home in order to hold
Peter and Veronica Pleasance ransom in the name of Akano.
Siege - which came from an idea by writer Francesca Joseph, was developed through
a series of improvisation workshops with the cast, who provided the dialogue for the piece.
This fast-moving tragi-comic piece hurtles towards a surprising climax.
Dylan Thomas, A Celebration 1 of 2
Dylan Thomas, A Celebration 2 of 2
Dylan Thomas - Under Milk Wood - 1 of 3 (1954 remastered)
Dylan Thomas - Under Milk Wood - 2 of 3
Dylan Thomas - Under Milk Wood - 3 of 3
******To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town,
starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits'
wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack,
fishingboatbobbing sea. - opening lines, spoken by First Voice
An all-seeing narrator (Richard Burton) invites the audience to listen to the
dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants of an imaginary small
Welsh village, Llareggub (which backwards is bugger all).
They include Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard, relentlessly bossing her two dead husbands;
Captain Cat, reliving his seafaring times; the two Mrs Dai Breads; Organ Morgan,
obsessed with his music; and Polly Garter, pining for her dead lover. Later, the town
wakes and, aware now of how their feelings affect whatever they do, we watch them
go about their daily business.
Completed just before his death in 1953, this work gives the fullest expression to Thomas'
sense of the magnificent flavor and variety of life. A moving and hilarious account of a
spring day in a small Welsh coastal town, Under Milk Wood is "lyrical, impassioned and funny,
an Our Town given universality" (The New Statesman and Nation). (Poetry/Plays)
Chair by Edward Bond
******Play written for radio, revised for the theatre and staged in 2008.
2077. Civil liberties have been constrained. The justice system
resembles Gitmo's. Society no longer has meaning - people
have been commodified., and live in fear of their neighbours.
Alice has a secret that could be the end of her.
Spitfire! by Mike Walker
******A moving drama by Mike Walker about the most famous British fighter aircraft
in history, marking the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Framed by
recollections from veteran Geoffrey Wellum, the play features specially made
recordings of RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Spitfires, including the only
Spitfire still flying today to have fought in the Battle.
Inspired by real people and real events, the play traces RJ Mitchell's design from
creation to legend and the fortunes of two young pilots who join a frontline Spitfire
squadron just as the Battle of Britain begins. It stars Samuel West, Samuel Barnett,
Rory Kinnear and Ruth Wilson.
Many factors were important in the Battle, but it was the excellence of the Spitfire
which most famously evened the odds in the fight against the Luftwaffe. Mike Walker's
play takes us close to this magnificent aircraft and gives us a feeling of what it was like
to fly the legendary plane which became, in test pilot Jeffrey Quill's words, 'a symbol
of defiance and victory'.
The Sea by Edward Bond
******First performed in 1973
Using biting wit and riotously funny characterisations, Bond uses acute social observation
to touch on the themes of class and leadership - even when the nature of the leadership is
to draw others on to madness.
Hatch is a draper in a small East-Anglian seaside town. He depends on selling to the lady of
the manor, Mrs Rafi. However, it seems that every expensive consignment she orders is returned
- which is costing him money. A lot of money. He is also going slightly mad and believes that
people from outer space are invading the earth. Following a tempestuous storm one night, when
a well-loved villager is killed and a stranger is washed ashore, he manages to persuade other
villagers that the stranger is more than he seems. In fact that he is the first wave of alien
invaders, and that shipwrecks are a cover for the invading force.
Faith Healer by Brian Friel
******A magisterial study of the torments of creative genius and the healing power
of love. In one of the great classic plays in the modern Irish canon, a faith healer
returns to his native Ireland to a potentially terrible fate. When fortune smiles,
Frances Hardy's gifts are prodigious. Otherwise his devoted wife, Grace, can only
watch on as he wages a drunken 'feud between himself and his talent'. Grace has
given up a privileged background and a career in law to join Frank and his engaging
wide-boy manager Teddy, touring remote corners of Scotland and Wales in a battered
van. But now Frank senses that a return to his native land may be the only way to restore
his waning powers. And so the fateful crossing is made, in a homecoming that will change
the lives of all three forever.
The play, now considered a modern masterpiece and a formative influence on subsequent
Irish writing (its monologue structure prefigures Conor Mc Pherson's The Weir, and Port
Authority among other) ran to only twenty performances in its New York in 1979 . It was with
the 1994 production and Donal Mc Cann as the eponymous healer - alongside Judy Geeson
and Ron Cook - that the play truly made its mark on Broadway, Dublin, and London West End
audiences, and worldwide. A recent production originating at the Gate Theatre with Ralph Fiennes
in the role won Ian Mc Diarmid a Tony for best supporting actor.
The Voyage Of Discovery by Fraser Harrison
******Adapted from the Lewis-Clark journals
The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) was the first overland expedition
undertaken by the United States to the Pacific coast and back. The team was
headed by soldiers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.The expedition's goal
was to gain an accurate sense of the resources obtained in the Louisiana Purchase.
This play is drawn from the expedition's vivid journals.
Picnic at Hanging Rock 1.5 by Joan Lindsay
Picnic at Hanging Rock 2.5
Picnic at Hanging Rock 3.5
Picnic at Hanging Rock 4.5
Picnic at Hanging Rock 5.5
*******On St Valentine's day in 1900, a party of Australian schoolgirls set off with two
schoolmistresses on a picnic to a place called Hanging Rock. Some were never to return.
What began as a pleasant and happy day out ended in terror.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Yuri Rasovsky
******Broadcast October 21, 2008,
a radio play adapted from a silent film.
Paranoia in the aftermath of WWI. Mesmerist Dr Caligari and
his somnambulist slave Cesare appear to be responsible for
a series of murders ...
Diary of a Mad Deity 1.2
Diary of a Mad Deity 2.2
******What if God were one of us? What if, in fact, God was some hack writer from Queens
going by the name of Gunther Black? And say God was having a little problem with multiple
personalities and schizophrenia. Say God was losing his frigging mind! With manic abandon
and stylish elan, Stanley Tucci, star of such films as Big Night and Joe Gould’s Secret, brings you…God.
But this is God with a bit of problem. God with His consciousness split into thousands of personas,
into dozens of nations.
An Elevator and a Pole by Tony Daniel
******The amazing ensemble of Kyra Sedgwick, Oliver Platt, Peter Gallagher,
and Stanley Tucci star in a supremely demented cross between Samuel Beckett,
Harold Pinter, and the Marx Brothers! A strangely compelling
"pole" rises up somewhere in the desert. After contemplating the pole
(and their own navels) for a moment, our heroes — or are they anti-heroes? —
risk being thrown off the Earth if they do not begin climbing.
...Meanwhile, another group has been trapped in an elevator for days, assured
that soon "the lubricant will penetrate the mechanism" and they can finally get out.
Each discovers that any idea of conscious control of one's own personal destiny is
an illusion - and a deadly illusion at that.
Close The Coalhouse Door by Alan Plater
******Radio version of Alan Plater's TV play about life in a County
Durham pit village drawn from miner Sid Chaplin's stories.
Skyhooks by Alan Plater
*******Alan Plater at his wittiest:
Ennui in the workplace leads to creative
ways to burn the bosses time.
Abandoned Projects
by Alan Plater
******Alan narrates the story of his successful career, through tongue-in-cheek memories
of the projects that were never made. Other characters interrupting the narrative include
his agent Peggy Ramsay [Maureen Lipman], Brian Blessed [Brian Blessed], Alex Glasgow
and Richard Lester [Christian Rodska], Rex Harrison [John Woodvine]
and John Lennon [Richard Elfyn].
Berlin 1.2 by Heinrich Mann
Berlin 2.2
******The rise and fall of an innocent abroad as he struggles
to make a place for himself in late 19thC Berlin society.
This production has a good feel for the period, and the piece.
Heinrich Mann - Thomas Mann's brother - is best known
for his novel 'Professor Unrat', in the guise of Josef von
Sternberg's film 'The Blue Angel' (Der blaue Engel).
Waste Of Glory by David Gooderson
******The story of WWI army padre and poet, Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy M.C.
- known to the men as 'Woodbine Willie' - who spent years at the front,
and thereafter worked for pacifism until his death at 45 in 1929.
Some vicar. He was known for phrases like:
The church Is not a movement but a mob,
Capitalism is nothing but greed and grab; and,
Religious education is worse than useless.
Hymn To Love by Steve Trafford
******A life of Edith Piaf told through an incident in her life and
English translations of some of her better known songs.
LA Theater Works - Julius Caesar by Wm. Shakespeare
******The skies over ancient Rome blaze with terrifying portents, and soothsayers
warn Julius Caser of approaching doom. As conspiracy swirls through the city,
Shakespeareexplores the deep repercussions of political murder on the human heart.
A classic tale of duplicity, betrayal and murder, masterfully performed by an all star,
all - American cast in this BBC co -production.
A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Richard Dreyfus,
Kelsey Grammer, Stacey Keach, Jobeth Williams, Harold Gould, Bonnie Bedelia,
John de Lancie, Paul Winfie;d, David Birney, and John Randolph.
A Confirmed Bachelor by Arthur Schnitzler
******End of the 19thC. Middle Europe. A bachelor is thrown by
his sister's death, decides to marry, and then equivocates
between two very different women.
Spaceships Have Landed by Alice Munroe
******Someone seems to have had a close encounter.
The question is - have they?
Agonies Awakening by Craig Warner
******Play [with songs] about Cassandra. Set in the Trojan War.
Cassandra was the prophetess condemned to know the
future, but to have her prophecies disbelieved.
Darkness by DJ Britton
******Surgeon who discovers that he has a degenerative eye
disease embarks on a dangerous experiment.
The White Man's Burden by Paul Theroux
******A radio adaptation of Paul Theroux's stage play about the young Rudyard Kipling's
humiliating final months as an American resident. The great English writer plans to settle
in Vermont with his American wife, but a clash with his brother-in-law results in death threats,
a court case and public scandal. Will Kipling manage to keep his head when
all about are losing theirs?
The Ladies' Delight 1.2 by Emile Zola.
The Ladies' Delight 2.2
******"The Ladies' Paradise" (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the development
of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. The store is a
symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family; it is emblematic
of consumer culture and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking
place at the end of the century. Octave Mouret, the store's owner-manager, masterfully
exploits the desires of his female customers. In his private life as much as in business
he is the great seducer. But when he falls in love with the innocent Denise Baudu, he
discovers she is the only one of the salesgirls who refuses to be commodified. This new
translation of the eleventh book in the Rougon-Macquart cycle captures the spirit of one
of Zola's greatest novels of the modern city.
Faust by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (4+ hours)
******* translated by John R. Williams, with Samuel West as Faust, Toby Jones
as Mephistopheles, Anna Maxwell Martin as Gretchen and Derek Jacobi as The Lord.
Adapted and directed by David Timson, with music composed by Roger Marsh.
Goethe's Faust, one of the pillars of Western literature, is presented in a dramatisation
by David Timson. In Part 1, following an agreement between Mephistopheles and
The Lord, the scholar Faust is tempted into a contract with the Devil. His life is changed
and he plunges into the enjoyment of sensuality until his emotions are stirred by a
meeting with Gretchen, leading to a tragic outcome. Part 2, written much later in Goethe's
life, presents a series of episodic scenes in which the poet places his eponymous hero in
a variety of surprising circumstances reflecting the predicament of humanity. Funny,
reflective and moving, this dramatisation shows why Goethe's Faust had such a massive
influence on Western culture.
Hysteria 1.5 by Steve Chambers
Hysteria 2.5
Hysteria 3.5
Hysteria 4.5
Hysteria 5.5
******Against the background of rising hysteria in the Middlesbrough community over
the murders of prostitutes, Denise's dreams of a happy second marriage, even a family
(at 40), are challenged as circumstantial evidence seems to point the finger at husband Phil.
We've all done things in the past that we'd prefer to keep under wraps.
How much do you tell your new partner if you're trying to make a good impression?
Can one small lie unravel a marriage?
The issues raised in the drama are entirely complementary to Woman's Hour. Developed at the
Bore Place workshop with the aim of telling a contemporary story with a small cast and making
full use of the 5-part structure this serial addresses not only the fragile dynamics of a marriage
but also the rather taboo subject of men paying for sex and how a community can so easily be
whipped into a suspicious frenzy.
Death and the Tango by John Fletcher
******Length 1hr 21mins
Winner of the Giles Cooper Award 1990
A Metaphysical, Fantasy, Comedy, Thriller.
Somewhere in Birmingham there must be still, people who dance the tango.
A dance of death aboard a ship of dead souls.
A dance of life among ethereal angels.
Doreen's Chair by Nick Warburton
******An article on feng shui sparks a remarkable change in the life of a
timid husband. Stars Peter Sallis and Gillian Barge.
On Approval by Frederick Lonsdale
******Frederick Lonsdale's On Approval, is a 1920's comedy in which two
titanic egotists are holed up, servantless, in the wilds of Scotland with
their potential marriage partners.
In Extremis by Neil Bartlett
******Oscar Wilde consulted a clairvoyant about his plan to travel to Morocco
with Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie). After Wilde was dead the clairvoyant,
Mrs Robinson (palmist to the Prince Of Wales), claimed that Wilde later
consulted her about the issue of Queensberry's 'criminal libel'.
This play is an 'account' of that consultation. And if her prophecy sounds
similar to what the oracle said to Croesus about his planned war with Cyrus ...
The two great turning points of my life were when my
father sent me to Oxford and when society sent me to jail.
Oscar Wilde
Who is Sylvia by Stephen Dunstone
*******Two scientists are engrossed in their work in the laboratory, experimenting
on cockroaches. It works on two levels - we hear the scientists and their mindless
chatter; then there's a subtle change in the sound quality, and we are with the insects.
They are aware of the horrible things which are being done to them, but can't understand
why they are happening. It is truly horrific. At the same time it is superbly written
and directed, and it won a Giles Cooper Award. It stars Michael Aldridge as Sir Archibald,
Nigel Hawthorne as Henry, Martin Jarvis as Michael, Anna Massey as Angela,
and Frances Jeater as Sylvia.
Director: John Tydeman.
Walter Now by David Cook
******In November 1982, a Channel 4 launched with "Walter" by David Cook, directed by
Stephen Frears and starring Ian McKellen as a man with learning difficulties. It was an
outstandingly truthful social commentary, heartbreaking and thought provoking. More
than 25 years later award-winning writer David Cook brings us up to date with Walter's
life in 'Walter Now' and Sir Ian McKellen recreates his extraordinary performance.
Walter is now a pensioner. Following the death of his mother Walter spent many years
living in a psychiatric hospital. When that was closed down he moved to hostel
accommodation where he is isolated and lonely. When his support worker hears of a
house share with three others he suggests Walter. But Walter is twice the age of the
rest. Will they accept him? Will he cope with independent living? Will they integrate
with the community around them?
Sir Ian McKellen is best known for Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings. Other recent films
include The Da Vinci Code and The X-Men. His portrayal of King Lear for the RSC in
2006-7 was much acclaimed and was released on DVD in January 2009.
David Cook is a stage and television actor who began to write novels in the early 1970s.
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
******From the author of THE AGE OF INNOCENCE.
Set in New England, a farmer struggles to survive
a bare existence, tethered to his farm, first by his
helpless parents and then by a hypochondriac wife.
Yet, when his wife's alluring cousin comes to stay,
his dreams are rekindled.
Love and Animals by Philip Davison
******Love and Animals charts a mid-wife/mid-life crisis in the affairs of a very poorly-parented individual.
Failed entrepreneur Sonny Mullens finds his relationships and his revenues are in freefall.
He’s chasing the wife he loved who’s left him, the creep she left him for and a win on the horses.
All of which brings him to successive police interviews with a detective who becomes almost a spiritual director.
Sonny’s absent father is hugely present throughout, if only as a kind of admonitory hologram, while his
institutionalised mother is either mad, bad, sad or all three at once.
The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace
*******The Four Just Men , first published in 1905, was the novel that made
Edgar Wallace famous as a writer of detective thrillers. A Spanish resistance
leader's safety in England is threatened by the passage through Parliament
of the Aliens Extradition Bill. The minister responsible receives a message from
four mysterious figures, `The Four Just Men', warning him that he faces death
unless he withdraws the legislation. Edgar Wallace maintains the suspense and
excitement as the police struggle to protect the minister before the deadline
imposed by the conspirators is reached.
Yerma by Federico Garcia Lorca
******The tragic tale of a woman's desperate yearning for a child that leads her to murder.
Infused with poetic imagery and song this is one of Lorca's best known plays.
Federico Garcia Lorca (1898 - 1936) is, with Cervantes, the best known figure in Spanish
literature. Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernada Alba are often referred to as a
'rural trilogy', and are Lorca's most mature and characteristic works.
The Beginning of Spring 1.5 by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Beginning of Spring 2.5
The Beginning of Spring 3.5
The Beginning of Spring 4.5
The Beginning of Spring 5.5
******Nellie Reed disappears from her home at 22 Lipka Street, and her husband Frank--
suspecting she has returned to England--must raise their three young children with
the help of beautiful Lisa Ivanovna.
Lulu by Frank Wedekind (2 hours)
******The rise and fall of Lulu, abused victim and abusing seductress.
'Lulu' is a cycle of two plays: 'Earth Spirit' [1895] and 'Pandora's Box' [1904]
Love Is An Existential Thing by David Pownall
******1837. Summer. Copenhagen. Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard is
twenty three. His mind has been flummoxed by a 14-year-old girl.
He's in love. But too busy analysing what he feels to enjoy it.
Goblin Market by Abigail Docherty
******Christina Rossetti's epic poem adapted into the dramatic form,
and in part updated to today. Now a blend of prose and poetry,
with the verse threaded in the new prose and the whole embedded
in Barrington Pheloung's atmospheric music and 'sound pictures'.
The adventures of two young sisters, one quite sensible, the other less so,
who yearn for what they know not, as they are tempted by forbidden fruits
offered by desirous men - the goblins.
The Kane Conspiracy by Jonathan Holloway
******In 1941, Orson Welles's Citizen Kane picked up nine Oscar nominations and was already
being spoken of as a work of genius. But there were powerful forces lobbying hard against it,
not least among them William Randolph Hearst, the media mogul on whom the story is based,
and FBI supremo J Edgar Hoover.
As the Oscar nominations are announced, Welles suffers an uncharacteristic attack of anxiety.
And – not without cause – FBI supremo J Edgar Hoover has tasked a small-time FBI agent,
special agent RB Wood, with making sure the film doesn't triumph at the Oscars ceremony.
Hearst has banned any mention of the film across his media empire, RKO the distributor is
looking shaky, and while the movie plays to capacity houses in art-house cinemas, no major
theatres or cinema chains will take it. A chance encounter in an elevator leads to a highly
charged head-to-head between Hearst and Welles – when the two men lay their cards on the table.
Only the character of agent Wood is imagined, although he is based on a documented but shadowy
figure mentioned in the FBI archives. And it is Wood who finally confronts Welles with the uncomfortable
truth about the film – in hijacking Hearst's life for Citizen Kane, Welles has replaced it with his own.
The Kane Conspiracy is written by Jonathan Holloway and stars Jeff Harding as Orson Welles;
Toby Jones as J Edgar Hoover; John Guerrasio as Herman Mankiewicz; Peter Marinker as
William Randolph Hearst; Garrick Hagon as George Schaefer; Val Jobara as Agent Wood;
and Paul Mundell as the Radio Interviewer.
Billy Bunters Christmas Party by Frank Richards
******'Yarooh!', 'You beast!', 'I say, you fellows', 'Oh scissors', 'Oh Crikey', are some of the
utterances you can hear from fiction's most famous school boy, William George Bunter or
Billy Bunter. In the 1930s the Bunter stories in the Magnet became so popular that parcels
of 'tuck' would arrive at the magazine's offices for the ever hungry 'fat owl of the Remove'.
In the 1950s, a very successful TV series with Gerald Campion revived Bunter's popularity again.
Billy Bunter's Birthday Bash
The Billy Bunter Stories - 01 - Bunter The Hero
The Billy Bunter Stories - 02 - Billy Bunter Afloat
The Billy Bunter Stories - 03 - Billy Bunter On Trial
The Billy Bunter Stories - 04 - Bunter in Brazil
The Billy Bunter Stories - 05 - Bunter's Night Out
The Billy Bunter Stories - 06 - Chunkley's Stores
Goodbye to Berlin 1.2 by Christopher Isherwood
Goodbye to Berlin 2.2
******Isherwood's dramatic eyewitness account of Berlin in the early 30s,
the book that inspired Cabaret.
First published in 1939, the novel evokes the gathering storm of Berlin before
and during the rise to power of the Nazis. Events are seen through the eyes of
various individuals whose lives are about to be ruined.
Living in Berlin as a young man, Isherwood encountered a range of vibrant
characters both ordinary and extraordinary whose daily lives reflect a city
and its people at a very particular time in history. He observed at first hand
how ordinary people, at every level of society, became sucked into the new
era of Hitler and his kind.
Recorded on location in East Berlin, this new dramatisation by Tina Pepler has
a documentary feel that vividly evokes the feel of the city and the lives of its
inhabitants as the Nazi party slowly gains credence and ultimate power in the early 1930s.
Christopher Isherwood is played by UK up and coming leading man James Norton in
his first radio, and the Berlin inhabitants by an ensemble of excellent German actors -
Leslie Malton (award winning German/American actress), Nicola Schoessler, Matthias Horn,
Tilmar Kuhn and exciting newcomers Julia Reznik and Andre Kaczmarczyk.
Isherwood arrives in Berlin, and takes lodgings with Fraulein Schroder, a once well off widow,
now forced to take in a motley crew of lodgers. He's enthralled by Berlin's chaotic, hedonist nightlife
and the rich variety of characters he meets: Jewish department store heiress Natalia Landauer,
her cousin the serious and troubled Bernhard, fantastical night club singer Sally Bowles and the
freeloading Otto Nowak. But as Christopher Isherwood grows to love the city and its people he
cannot ignore the growing influence of the Nazi party even in his own carefree circles.
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse s04e01
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse s04e02
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse s04e03
******Series of comic plays starring Stanley Baxter
The Ballad Of Billy Rainbow by Tony Ramsay
*******Black comedy.
1580. London and Norfolk. Witchfinders are on the loose.
The hero, an actor, on fleeing London pursued by the angry
father of a pregnant girl, is trapped into playing a real life role
of exorcist. Soon he has to solve some murders otherwise
some innocents will burn.
Molle' Mystery Theater - 460517 - 032 - Killer, Come Back to Me (by Ray Bradbury w Richard Widmark)
******1946. They don't to radio drama like this anymore.
The Power of Life and Death 1.5 by Mark Lawson - The Resurrection of Imelda Sharp
The Power of Life and Death 2.5 - A Pill For Everything
The Power of Life and Death 3.5
The Power of Life and Death 4.5
The Power of Life and Death 5.5
*******When a number of distinguished members of government committees are found dead
in suspicious circumstances, it falls to DCI Kate Duncan of Scotland Yard's Sensitive Cases
Squad to discover what the connecting factor is.
Mark Lawson's deftly plotted murder-mystery gets to grips with a major concern at the heart
of our cash-strapped NHS: the post code lottery and exactly who is to be considered deserving
of the most expensive life saving drugs on the market.
Dr Crippen's Trial
******Compiled by Jenny Ward
Review of the case and evidence, and dramatization
of key parts of the trial.
Gregory Stone, the barrister consulted in making the
programme remarked on the 'extraordinary speed' of
events between Crippen's capture and execution:
August 28, 1910 - Arrived in Liverpool from Canada
September 6, 1910 - Committal
October 18, 1910 - Start of trial
November 5, 1910 - Appeal
November 19, 1910 - Request for reprieve rejected
November 23, 1910 - Executed
Cast
Bob Sherman - Dr. Crippen
Frazer Carr - Richard Meare
Manny Wilson - Lord Chief Justice
John Church
Richard Durden
LA Theater Works - Credeaux Canvas 1.2 by Keith Bunin
LA Theater Works - Credeaux Canvas 2.2
******Keith Bunin's play The Credeaux Canvas takes us into the lives of three young people
struggling to survive their "quarter-life crisis." Hilary Swank stars as Amanda, an under-
employed singer whose boyfriend, Jaime, has been disinherited by his family. But Jaime
has a plan to turn their lives around; and when he brings his long-time friend Winston
into the picture, the three must weigh their friendship against their fortune.
Starring Hilary Swank, Chad Lowe, Jeremy Sisto, and Shirley Knight.
Directed by Peter Levin.
LA Theater Works - Tartuffe 1.2 by Molière
LA Theater Works - Tartuffe 2.2
******Initially banned in France by King Louis , Molière's celebrated social satire
Tartuffe exposes false piety and hypocracy in the Catholic Church, when a pious
fraud tries to get title to his friend's estate by sending him to jail.
RTE Sunday Playhouse - A Proper Da by Maeve Ingoldsby in collaboration with
the members of RADE (Recovery through Art, Drama and Education)
******Johnny, formerly a homeless heroin addict, is trying to put the past behind
him. He wants to get to know his children and to be a proper father, but when
people have long memories it's not easy to win trust again. And Johnny's tendency
to shoot his mouth off doesn't help! Recorded on location at the RADE centre in Dublin 8.
RTE Sunday Playhouse - Pariahs by Vincent Higgins
******A support group (Pariahs Anonymous) has been set up to help people who
cannot mention in polite society what they do or did for a living. A banker, a priest
and an O.D.C. (ordinary decent criminal) have a group session where levels of guilt,
ethics and morality are hotly disputed. When they hear that their funding is to be cut
they devise a plan to save themselves and heal the wounded soul of the Irish people.
Starring Miche Doherty, Gerry Doherty, Ali White, Jo Donnelly, Alan McKee and Lalor Roddy.
Recorded on location in Maghaberry Prison.
