Radio Plays XXXXVII
  



Project Archangel 1.4 by Jenny Stephens
Project Archangel 2.4 
Project Archangel 3.4 
Project Archangel 4.4 
******Project Raphael sequel with Dan Hagley.
Malcolm Holmes is drawn back into the murky world of espionage from beyond the grave. 



Cold in the Earth and Fifteen Wild Decembers 1.6 by Sally Wainwright, based on a theory by Sarah Fermi.
Cold in the Earth and Fifteen Wild Decembers 2.6 
Cold in the Earth and Fifteen Wild Decembers 3.6 
Cold in the Earth and Fifteen Wild Decembers 4.6 
Cold in the Earth and Fifteen Wild Decembers 5.6 
Cold in the Earth and Fifteen Wild Decembers 6.6 
*******Why did Emily Jane Brontė write Wuthering Heights? And how was she able to do it? 
In spite of the massive amount of material published about the Brontė sisters over the last 150 years, 
these two questions still remain unanswered. Yet given the large amount of autobiographical material 
in the novels of Charlotte and Anne Brontė, it is almost unthinkable that Emily would not have also used 
her own experience in the creation of her great book. How could she write so vividly about love, grief 
and hatred without having known these emotions in her own life?

This is a compelling drama about the story of Emily Brontė's socially transgressive love affair with a weaver's son.



The Colours of Steam 1.9 by John Pilkington 
The Colours of Steam 2.9 
The Colours of Steam 3.9 
The Colours of Steam 4.9 
The Colours of Steam 5.9 
The Colours of Steam 6.9 
The Colours of Steam 7.9 
The Colours of Steam 8.9 
The Colours of Steam 9.9 
******This drama marked the centenary of the death of the painter Pisarro. The story traced his time 
as an exile in London when he and Monet gave birth to the French Impressionist movement. 




The Conflict is Over 1.6
The Conflict is Over 2.6
The Conflict is Over 3.6
The Conflict is Over 4.6
The Conflict is Over 5.6
The Conflict is Over 6.6
******Dramatisation by Michael Eaton of the events that led to the signing of the Downing Street Declaration 
in December 1993 and the subsequent IRA ceasefire in August 1994, told through the relationship between 
John Major and Albert Reynolds.




Banished: Mugabe of Zimbabwe by Andrew Whaley
******It is 2000, and Aurelia, studying in London, returns home to Zimbabwe following 
her father's death. Years before he had worked with Robert Mugabe, and now Aurelia 
learns that the President is to attend the funeral. Their meeting is the start of a dark 
and frightening journey.




Murder on the Home Front by Michael Crompton
*******Freely adapted from Molly Lefebure's book of the same name, based on her own 
wartime experiences as secretary to the famous pathologist Keith Simpson.
Murder on the Home Front is Molly Lefebure's fascinating memoir of her time as pathologist 
Keith Simpson's secretary from 1940 to 1945. Dealing with anything from ten to twenty-eight 
bodies in a day, on an endless round of post-mortems from Portsmouth to Paddington, Molly 
took her portable typewriter--and strong stomach--into the autopsy room to transcribe 
Simpson's notes, as the corpses yielded up their secrets.

With Simpson, she investigated murders, suicides, manslaughters, infanticides, accidents and 
criminal abortions, on a never-ending exploration of London. Journeying into the country she 
examined corpses in copses and cottages, among cabbages and on cricket pitches.

Presenting a series of vividly described cases and colourful portraits of murderers, mortuary 
attendants and police, the book is the occasionally shocking, always charming inside account 
of scientific detection in wartime Britain. 

Murder on the Home Front 1.5: `Love at First Sight'.
It is 1941, and a chance encounter in a dancehall leads Molly to romance, murder and a new career.
With Emily Bruni, Bob Cryer and James Hazeldine.
Director John Dove.

Murder on the Home Front 2.5: `The Case of a Lifetime'.
Molly starts work with the famous Home Office pathologist, Hardcastle, and attempts to solve 
an extraordinary case.
With Emily Bruni, Chrissie Cotterill and Jonathan Hackett.
Director John Dove.

Murder on the Home Front 3.5: The Wigwam Murder
Spring, 1942.
Molly continues her work as assistant to the Home Office pathologist Hardcastle. The stresses of 
wartime life begin to affect them both, and the discovery of a body on an American army base brings 
new dilemmas for each of them.
With Mary MacLeod, Emily Bruni, Kevin Whately and Joseph May.
Director: John Dove.

Murder on the Home Front 4.5: The Secret Agent
In early 1940s LONDON, forensics experts Molly and Hardcastle become involved with some apparently 
connected killings.
With Kevin Whately, Emily Bruni, Mary MacLeod and Jonathan Hackett.
Directed by John Dove.

Murder on the Home Front 5.5: The Horsham Trunk Murder
The final story in this series is set at CHRISTMAS, but there's no respite for Molly and Hardcastle 
in their quest to solve the next grisly murder.
Hardcastle has been seriously injured in a bombing raid and is travelling to his brother's home to 
convalesce when he is asked to investigate the gruesome discovery of a body in a trunk at the left 
luggage office at Horsham train station.
The murder has remarkable similarities to an infamous murder case, which ultimately destroyed the 
reputation of Hardcastle's predecessor, Wilkinson.
Hardcastle is exhausted from the pressures of work and the emotional and physical strain of his bomb-
blast injuries and Molly is furious that he is working when he should be resting but is someone 
deliberately taunting them? 



Shirley Valentine 1.2 by Willy Russell. (2010)
Shirley Valentine 2.2 
******Shirley Valentine is a middle-aged Liverpool housewife, who reveals her innermost thoughts 
and fears in a manner that is both insouciant and poignant. Once an incorrigible anti-establishment 
rebel, Shirley now chafes under the plodding insensitivity of her husband, Joe and the stultifying 
pace of her suburban routine. Her life enters a new and exciting phase when, after her best friend, 
Jane, wins an all-expenses-paid vacation to Greece, Shirley is given the opportunity to travel to 
faraway places without her husband; she begins to see the world, and herself, in a different light.

Starring Meera Syal, after a much lauded run at the Menier Chocolate Factory the play transferred 
to The Trafalgar studio to continued success. Finishing in theatre on October 30th Meera walked 
straight into the studio to record the one woman play for Radio 4. Based on the original 
Menier Theatre production directed by Glen Walford.



From Fact to Fiction - Series 9
******Series in which writers create an imaginative response to a story from the week's 
news. FROM FACT TO FICTION presents writers with the opportunity to work in a bold 
and instinctive way as they respond to events in the news, beginning on a Monday 
when an idea is selected through to Friday when the programme is recorded and edited.

From Fact to Fiction - 1.8 - Octopus's Garden by the Sea
With a new brand of austerity on the horizon, and the implications of Housing Benefit cuts to 
inner cities, playwright Lavinia Murray takes a satirical and bizarre look into the future in - 
Octopus's Garden by The Sea

From Fact to Fiction - 2.8 - Inside the Bonfire
For Bonfire Night weekend, poets Jo Shapcott and Paul Farley respond in verse to a week 
of headlines full of bombs, blasts and eruptions.

From Fact to Fiction - 3.8 - Reform
In response to planned changes to welfare provision announced this week, playwright 
Nell Leyshon examines the extent to which a big society can fill the gaps. Two years ago 
Lyn and Tom adopted a vulnerable four year old boy, tonight they must look again at 
what it means to be a family.

From Fact to Fiction - 4.8 - House Arrest
"What could be nicer than to draw the nets, pull the curtains to, turn up the log effect fire, 
switch on the telly and relax since you're compelled to stay at home. But now I understand, 
it's under house arrest - not home arrest."

In his monologue, House Arrest, the novelist Will Self responds to a week of news that has 
reported the release of various individuals after periods of imprisonment. The narrator is 
holed up somewhere that is both familiar and strange. And surely his release, poised to 
happen any moment, marks the end of it all?

Not really..

From Fact to Fiction - 5.8 - Carnival
In a week that once again saw students protesting on the streets Janice Okoh tells the story 
of single mother Lorraine and daughter Nicole and how they are affected by the proposed changes to student fees.

From Fact to Fiction - 6.8 - The Galway Ghost
In the week of Ireland's bail out writer Lizzie Nunnery takes a look at how the economic dream 
turned sour. Declan Conway's life was good, spurred on by success he'd bought a stake in his 
very own horse - the Galway Ghost. Will Declan be a relic from his time or does he have a future?

From Fact to Fiction - 7.8 -  Frozen
Two strangers in a remote cottage by a frozen lake. One is about to release an incendiary secret 
video clip on the internet. The other wants to stop him. What are the consequences? A haunting, 
lyrical drama by Linda Marshall Griffiths.

From Fact to Fiction - 8.8 -Santa's Sit-in
Santa protests too much when he hears his local library might close. A festive verse comedy by Ian McMillan.



I'm Sorry I Haven't a Christmas Carol
******Humphrey Lyttelton and the all-star Clue cast's unique Dickens interpretation.

Originally broadcast on Christmas Day 2003, the 
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue Players present 
their unique interpretation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, 
starring Humphrey Lyttelton as Ebenezer Scrumph, 
Colin Sell as his downtrodden assistant Crotchet, 
and Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Barry Cryer 
as the Ghosts of Christmas Future, Present and P*ssed. 



The Hornblower Story 01.20 by CS Forester The Even Chance
The Hornblower Story 02.20 The Cargo of Rice
The Hornblower Story 03.20 The Man Saw God
The Hornblower Story 04.20 The Examination for Lieutenant
The Hornblower Story 05.20 The Duchess and the Devil

The Hornblower Story 06.20 The Peculiar Captain
The Hornblower Story 07.20 Sealed 
The Hornblower Story 08.20 The Landing
The Hornblower Story 09.20 Court of Inquiry
The Hornblower Story 10.20 Home and Beauty 

The Hornblower Story 11.20 Hotspur Sails
The Hornblower Story 12.20 Hotspur and the Loire
The Hornblower Story 13.20 The Raid 
The Hornblower Story 14.20 Blockade
The Hornblower Story 15.20 The Treasure Fleet

The Hornblower Story 16.20 The Mutiny
The Hornblower Story 17.20 Plan for Rebellion
The Hornblower Story 18.20 Counter-Stroke
The Hornblower Story 19.20 Out of the Past 
The Hornblower Story 20.20 Story's End

******A dramatisation in twenty 30mins episodes from four of the Hornblower novels.
"I recommend Forester to every literate I know." Ernest Hemingway



The Singapore Grip 1.3 by J G Farrell
The Singapore Grip 2.3
The Singapore Grip 3.3
******Adapted by Mike Walkler
A love story and a war story, a tragicomic tale of a city under siege and a dying 
way of life.Singapore, 1939: life on the eve of World War II just isn't what it used 
to be for Walter Blackett, head of British Singapore's oldest and most powerful 
firm. No matter how forcefully the police break one strike, the natives go on strike 
somewhere else. His daughter keeps entangling herself with the most unsuitable 
beaus, while her intended match, the son of Blackett's partner, is an idealistic 
sympathizer with the League of Nations and a vegetarian. Business may be 
booming - what with the war in Europe, the Allies are desperate for rubber and helpless to resist Blackett's 
price-fixing and market manipulation. But something is wrong. No one suspects that the world 
of the British Empire - of fixed boundaries between classes and nations - is about to come to a 
terrible end. The Singapore Grip completes the classic historical "Empire Trilogy," which also 
includes Troubles and the Booker Prize-winning The Siege of Krishnapur.



The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig
******It is the story of Dr. Berg (Paul Rhys) a well to do German banker who is interrogated 
by the Gestapo who want to find out where influential members of the Clergy and aristocrats 
have hidden their money. They hold him in a deserted hotel in solitary confinement in order 
to break him down. But he steals a book of chess puzzles from a guard and this keeps his 
mind active. Unfortunately after learning to play games in his head Dr. Berg goes mad.



The Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk 1.2 by Nicolai Leskov
The Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk 2.2
******The story tells of an emotionally isolated woman in 19th century Russia 
who falls hard for one of her husband's workers and commits a heinous act of murder.
Part-based, and introduced with a short extract from the 1934 Dimitri Shostokovich opera 
of the same name from whose libretto this adaptation takes its inspiration.


The Art of Deception s02e01 by Philip Palmer.
The Art of Deception s02e02
The Art of Deception s02e03
The Art of Deception s02e04 
The Art of Deception s02e05 
*****Two years after faking his own death, notorious art forger and conman Daniel Ballantyne 
re-emerges to resume his cat and mouse game with biographer Jessica Brown. 
But who is chasing who?
The return of Daniel Ballantyne: monster and angel, thief and fraud...and genius. He is about 
to face the challenge of his life. Philip Palmer's compelling serial returns.

Daniel Ballantyne is one of the greatest and most successful forgers of all time. 
He is a rich man. And he is dead.

His 'death', however, is just another forgery - he paid a body double who was dying of cancer 
to impersonate him. Now, Ballantyne has nothing to fear. He has everything he needs to 
enjoy a contented and quiet retirement.

But instead, Ballantyne goes out of his way to make enemies. And he does this because he 
loves the danger. That's his first fatal flaw.

But he has a nemesis. Art expert Jessica Brown - who after writing her book on him knows 
Ballantyne better than anyone alive - is on his trail.

Ex-copper Andrew Jarrold, released from prison, has intimidated Jessica into finding Ballantyne.

But when Jessica does find Ballantyne, everything changes. For he has a second fatal flaw:
 Jessica. He duped her once, but only just; and he has come to respect her as an equal. 
She is the only person in the world he truly cares for.

And together - they are terrifying.



Jeeves in Manhattan by P.G. Wodehouse
******Martin Jarvis performs 'The Artistic Career of Corky', the first of two of P.G. Wodehouse's 
celebrated 'New York' stories, starring blithe Bertie Wooster and his urbane valet Jeeves.

Recorded in front of a live audience - a packed house at the Everyman Theatre - it was a highlight 
of this year's Cheltenham Festival of Literature. In this one-man tour de force, as well as the 
characters of Jeeves and Wooster, Jarvis also portrays spineless American artist Corky, 
choleric Manhattan millionaire Alexander Worple and winsome chorus girl Muriel Singer. 
The laughs abound!

Wodehouse wrote these sparkling stories in 1925 during the period when he was enjoying 
success in Manhattan as a lyric writer for American musicals. The tales provide a brilliantly 
humorous perspective for Jeeves and Bertie Wooster on how to deal with eccentric Americans, 
plus how to cope with the Brits abroad.

In 2007, Jarvis's previous one-man Wodehouse at the Festival received outstanding reviews. 
The Times wrote: "Outshining all was Martin Jarvis in the funniest performance of the year... 
an astonishing one-man tour-de-force... Jarvis switched unerringly from one character 
to the next, but it was more than that. He caught the essence of Wodehouse's writing in a way 
I thought only possible through reading." Martin Jarvis received a Theatre World Award for his 
performance as Jeeves in 'By Jeeves' on Broadway.



The Phone - All Night Cafe by Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
******A series of late night thrillers, each connected by a mysterious mobile phone. 
In Rebecca Lenkiewicz's drama, an insomniac mathematician is forced to turn hero 
when he answers a phone belonging to a prostitute.


The Phone - Episode 3 by Peter Jukes.
******When his daughter goes missing, Matt must track her down by following the clues left on her mobile phone.



Himmler's Boy 1.9 by Adam Thorpe
Himmler's Boy 2.9
Himmler's Boy 3.9
Himmler's Boy 4.9
Himmler's Boy 5.9
Himmler's Boy 6.9
Himmler's Boy 7.9
Himmler's Boy 8.9
Himmler's Boy 9.9
******In 1931, in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, art history student Klaus Bessel meets and falls 
in love with the clever and vivacious Anya Goldberger. But Anya is a Polish Jew, and in a few short 
years Klaus will be a member of a special SS unit, personally charged by Reichsfuhrer Himmler to 
plunder occupied Poland of its priceless art.




The Mysteries of Udolpho 1.2 by Ann Radcliffe
The Mysteries of Udolpho 2.2 
******This is perhaps the most famous Gothic novel from the 18th-century. It was the object 
of Jane Austin's satire in "Northanger Abbey", but had made Mrs Radcliffe famous as the 
great enchanter and one of the most popular female novelists of her day. It is the novel that 
set the tone for horror fiction, with its decayed castles, trap doors and ghostly portents.





The Castle of Otrantol by Horace Walpole
******First published pseudonymously in 1764, "The Castle of Otranto" purported to be 
a translation of an Italian story of the time of the crusades. In it Walpole attempted, as 
he declared in the Preface to the second edition, "to blend the two kinds of romance: 
the ancient and the modern". He gives us a series of catastrophes, ghostly interventions, 
revelations of identity, and exciting contests. Crammed with invention, entertainment, terror, 
and pathos, the novel was an immediate success and Walpole's own favourite among his 
numerous works. His friend, the poet Thomas Gray, wrote that he and his family, having read 
Otranto, were now "afraid to go to bed o'nights".



Clavigo by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
******1760s. Spain. A woman is abandoned by a chap who ought to 
know better. Her brother goes to Madrid to sort things.


Hitler's Buddha by  R J Gallagher
******1937. China. The Japanese army marches on Nanking.
'The 'Rape Of Naking' is about to start. Half a million or
so Chinese are about to die.

All but twenty two foreigners fled the city. One who stayed,
German businessman, John Rabe, organised a safety
zone, and used his Nazi party credentials to keep the
Japanese Army out of it - for a while.

John Rabe is credited with saving around 250,000 lives.

He earned the right to be something more than a footnote.
He died a pauper subsisting on food parcels.




Kennedy's Secret Tapes by Anthony Howard
******As the Cuban Missile Crisis developed, JFK assembled a group called
the 'Executive Committee of the National Security Council' (ExComm)
to discuss & advise how best to proceed.

ExComm consisted of the National Security Council's main players, &
Robert Kennedy, Theodore Sorensen, C Douglas Dillon, Dean Acheson,
Robert Lovett, and Llewellyn (Tommy) Thompson.

JFK secretly recorded ExComm's discussions.

When these tapes were declassified the BBC's original intention was
to use them as was (one series drew extensively on them), but they
were hard to hear. And so they were transcribed & used to recreate
conversations & discussions as they happened.

This drama-documentary was the result. Amongst other things it
shows just how near run a thing it was, and what a sound politician
JFK was. A lesser man could easily have set the world aflame.
Cast
Ed Bishop
John Guerrasio
Bill Roberts
Kerry Shale
Bob Sherman
Colin Stinton
John Turner



A Room with a View 1.4 by E M Forster
A Room with a View 2.4
A Room with a View 3.4
A Room with a View 4.4
******In this piece of social comedy, Forster is concerned with one of his favourite themes - 
"the undeveloped heart" of the English middle classes, who are here represented by a 
group of tourists and expatriates in Florence.




Ben Hur 1.4 by lew Wallace
Ben Hur 2.4
Ben Hur 3.4
Ben Hur 4.4
******From a thrilling sea battle to its famous chariot race to the agony of the Crucifixion, 
this is the epic tale of a prince who became a slave and by a twist of fate and his own 
skill-won a chance at freedom. 



The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter by George Etherege
******with Derek Jacobi and Anna Massey
A restoration Comedy of 1676
In the course of buying some fruit, Dorimant, who had a remarkable reputation 
as a lover, heard that a young woman of quality and fortune from the country 
had fallen in love with him at sight, despite her mother’s attempts to keep
her daughter away from thoughts of loving any heartless man of the fashionable 
world. Although he was in the processof ending an affair with Lady Loveit and 
beginning a new one with Bellinda, Dorimant was interested...........






The Letters Of Abelard and Heloise
******Translated by Ranjit Bolt
12th Century France. A passionate correspondence
between two brilliant scholars and erstwhile lovers
now committed to the church,



Aridosio by Lorenzino de Medici
******A Florentine Comedy written and first performed in 1536.

Lorenzino de Medici was born in Florence, Italy, the son of Pierfrancesco II de' Medici 
and Maria Soderini. He was educated at Camerino together with Cosimo and 
Alessandro de' Medici. He and the latter were later involved in several public scandals 
involving theirescapades. In 1526 Lorenzino was brought with Cosimo to Venice to escape 
the Landsknechts falling on Florence, and was also savedfrom the expulsion of the Medici 
from that city following the Sack of Rome which crushed the power of the most powerful 
member of the family, Pope Clement VII. After a period in Veneto, Bologna and Rome 
(where he gained the nickname Lorenzaccio, "Bad Lorenzo", for his habit of decapitating 
statues), he returned to his native city in 1530, after the end of the Imperial siege which 
installedAlessandro as duke.

Probably prompted by Filippo Strozzi, Lorenzino and the killer Scoronconcolo murdered 
duke Alessandro on January 5, 1537. Lorenzino entrapped Alessandro through the ruse 
of a promised arranged sexual encounter with Lorenzino's sister Laudomia, a beautiful widow. 
After this, he fled to Bologna, and from there to Turkey, France, and then Venice. He wrote a 
public defense of his actions (the Apologia), claiming that, as an ideal heir of 
Marcus Junius Brutus, dedication to human liberty had forced him to kill Alessandro.
Cosimo I de' Medici became Duke of Florence, and condemned Lorenzino to death. 
An assassin in Cosimo's pay killed Lorenzino in 1548 in front of his lover's house at 
Campo San Polo, Venice. 


American Faith - Richard Milhous Nixon's Road to Watergate by Mike Walker (incomplete)
******The poor Quaker grocer's son, the teenager who struggled
onto the college football team, legal training, war in the
Pacific, the HCUAA, VP, Checkers' speech, JFK's defeated
opponent. And then, triumph, China, and abuse of power.



Summoned by Bells by John Betjeman
******"I abandon all the usual literary equivocations and 
                                                     call it a masterpiece." -- Sunday Times 
"Betjeman is perhaps as completely orginial a writer 
                                   as has ever existed." -- Times Literary Supplement 


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