Radio Plays XXXXVIII

Radio Plays XXXXVIII


Les liaisons Dangereuses - part 01 of 08 by Choderlos de Laclos Les liaisons Dangereuses - part 02 of 08 Les liaisons Dangereuses - part 03 of 08 Les liaisons Dangereuses - part 04 of 08 Les liaisons Dangereuses - part 05 of 08 Les liaisons Dangereuses - part 06 of 08 Les liaisons Dangereuses - part 07 of 08 Les liaisons Dangereuses - part 08 of 08 ******Diana Rigg as the Machiavellian Marquise de Merteuil with a splendid supporting cast. Unlike the Christoper Hampton dramatization, Polly Coles' adaptation for radio stays with the epistolary format of the original book. An ideal format for radio. The Vicomte de Valmont is determined to seduce the virtuous (and married) Madame de Tourvel, who is living with Valmont's aunt while Monsieur de Tourvel is away for a court case. At the same time, the Marquise de Merteuil is determined to corrupt the young Cécile de Volanges, whose mother has only recently brought her out of a convent to be married to a former lover of Merteuil. Cécile falls in love with the Chevalier Danceny (her music tutor) and Merteuil and Valmont pretend to want to help the secret lovers in order to gain their trust, so that they can use them later in their own schemes...................... Successful Stategies by Marivaux ******"Timberlake Wertenbaker's translation defies the old rule that you can't do Marivaux in English. Marivaux here analyses the chessboard element of love in which caprice mixes with strategy. A rich rose-decked Comtesse, turning infidelity into a style, whimsically abandons her lover, Dorante.Instead she takes up with the posturing and absurd Chevalier. And, in order to get her revenge, the latter's abandoned lover, the Marquise, forms an amorous alliance with Dorante. What this leaves out of account, however, are the servants (shrewd maids and valets anything but green) who in Marivaux are both victims of their employers' passions and skillful tacticians in their own right." (The Guardian) The Strange Case of Springheel'd Jack ep01 by Paul Skevington ******In the winter of 1837, a mysterious devil-like creature began attacking young women in London and the surrounding villages. He was first seen on Barnes Common by a businessman returning home from work, and he was later spotted in Clapham, Lavender Hill and most famously Old Ford, where he attacked a girl named Jane Alsop. A local man, Thomas Millbank, was accused of the crime and was put on trial in 1838, but he was subsequently acquitted. Some say the real culprit was in fact the 'mad' Marquis of Waterford, some say it was an alien or a ghost, but the truth is, we'll never know. I think that he was most likely not a single person but was in fact a group of upper-class young men, possibly including Waterford, who thought it fun to disguise themselves in fancy dress and attack young women at night. The attacks caused a sensation, and then I think people of all classes took up the practice and that's how it spread, rather like 'happy-slapping' today. Pretty soon, a legend was born, with sightings all over Britain. The Devil's Disciple 1.9 by George Bernard Shaw The Devil's Disciple 2.9 The Devil's Disciple 3.9 The Devil's Disciple 4.9 The Devil's Disciple 5.9 The Devil's Disciple 6.9 The Devil's Disciple 7.9 The Devil's Disciple 8.9 The Devil's Disciple 9.9 ******The Devil's Disciple A Melodrama in Three Acts; Like several of Shaw's early plays, The Devil's Disciple first produced in 1897 and published in his collection Three Plays for Puritans in 1901 takes an existing popular theatrical form, in this case melodrama, and adapts it to serve Shaw's dramatic purposes. In the preface to Three Plays for Puritans he writes: It does not contain a single even passably novel incident. Every old patron of the Adelphi [a theatre which specialized in melodrama] pit would recognize the reading of the will, the oppressed orphan finding a protector, the arrest, the heroic sacrifice, the court martial, the scaffold, the reprieve at the last moment, as he recognizes beefsteak pudding on the bill of fare at his restaurant. As well as using the stock devices of melodrama, Shaw writes in the preface that he unashamedly borrowed from previous works, Mrs Dudgeon being drawn from Mrs Clennam in Dickens's Little Dorrit and Dick Dudgeon's willingness to go the gallows for another man deriving from Sidney Carton's sacrifice in A Tale of Two Cities. The play was given its first production in the United States and was successful there. When it was produced in England it had little success, the main reason probably being that the plot involves a British military defeat. Melodrama was attractive to Shaw at the beginning of his dramatic career because it incorporated certain ideals, attitudes, beliefs, values, which an audience would accept virtually without question but which he aimed to undermine. Thus he retains the form of melodrama but radically alters the content, his aim being to tackle the large numbers of shams, repressions, sentimentalities, insincerities, and ideal with which, he claims, the English identify and take pride in. Two of the ideals that Shaw sets out to attack in this play are the ideal of the family and the ideal of marriage. The main character of The Devil's Disciple, Dick Dudgeon, is in revolt against the ideal of the family to the extent that he has rejected his own family. Identifying with the devil has prevented his spirit being taken over by his mother's life-denying religion. In the preface Shaw claims that it is the failure of marriage or the family that creates the idealization of them because idealists refuse to accept the reality of that failure and substitute ideals in place of the reality. Mrs Dudgeon is an idealist of this type, a person for whom marriage and the family have failed but who endeavours to hide this fact by turning them into ideals. She refused to marry the man she loved, Dick's uncle Peter, because he was irreligious and instead married a man she didn't love because he was god-fearing, but she refuses to recognize that this act destroyed any chance of a happy marriage and family life and condemns Peter and her son for their refusal to conform. The setting of the play is New Hampshire in 1777 at the time of the American Revolution. In the first act Dick Dudgeon's father has died and the action culminates in the reading of his will. Much to his mother's consternation, a former will is revoked in order that the house and the land belonging to it be left to Dick Dudgeon, the eldest son. At the end of the act Dudgeon asserts that he is rightfully called the Devil's Disciple much to the horror of Judith, the wife of the minister, Anthony Anderson. The second act is set in Anderson's house. Dudgeon calls at the minister's invitation. He is warned that he may be in danger as his uncle has been hanged by the British army. When the minister has to leave because he is summoned to go to Mrs Dudgeon who has been taken ill, Dudgeon and Judith are left alone together. The British come to the house to arrest Anderson but mistake Dudgeon for him. Press Cuttings by Bernard Shaw ******Action takes place in 1909. Arthur Lowe plays a Colonel Blimp type character charged with introducing martial law to counter the women's suffrage demonstrations. Things look nasty until his charlady makes Lowe and the PM (Balsquith) see sense. The events used as a backdrop for the piece were culled by Shaw from contemporary newspaper reports. Darwins Devon by Jo Loosemore ******Charles Darwin travelled the world. Now his adventure in Devon is the subject of a radio play. BBC Radio Devon cast local actors to play the real life characters who shaped the time Charles Darwin spent in Devon. While waiting for the Beagle to set sail, the naturalist lived in Plymouth for two months during 1831. His diaries formed an important part of this play first broadcast on Thursday 11 June, 2009. Artists And Admirers by Aleksandr Ostrovsky ******An able ambitious young actress faces a choice - languish in the provinces with her poor but true love, or accept the help of an aristocratic masher and move on. Doctor Zhivago 1.6 by Boris Pasternak Doctor Zhivago 2.6 Doctor Zhivago 3.6 Doctor Zhivago 4.6 Doctor Zhivago 5.6 Doctor Zhivago 6.6 ******"Doctor Zhivago" is the epic novel of Russia in the throes of revolution and one of the greatest love stories ever told. Yuri Zhivago, physician and poet, wrestles with the new order and confronts the changes cruel experience has made in him and the anguish of being torn between the love of two women. The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser Episode 1- A Gloriously Swashbuckling Retelling of St George and the Dragon Episode 2- Sir Guyon, the Knight of Temperance, journeys to the Bower of Bliss. ******The Faerie Queene was one of the most influential poems in the English language. Dedicating his work to Elizabeth I, Spenser brilliantly united Arthurian romance and Italian renaissance epic to celebrate the glory of the Virgin Queen. Each book of the poem recounts the quest of a knight to achieve a virtue: the Red Crosse Knight of Holinesse, who must slay a dragon and free himself from the witch Duessa; Sir Guyon, Knight of Temperance, who escapes the Cave of Mammon and destroys Acrasia’s Bowre of Bliss. Although composed as a moral and political allegory, The Faerie Queene’s magical atmosphere captivated the imaginations of later poets from Milton to the Victorians. Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw ******Using the story of Androcles, Shaw examines true and false religious exaltation, combining the traditions of miracle play and Christmas pantomime into a philosophical farce about early Christianity. The play's central theme, recurrent in Shaw's plays, is that one must have something worth dying for--an end outside oneself-- to make life worth living. Androcles, a Christian fleeing persecution in Rome, befriends a lion after pulling a painful thorn from its paw. Captured by Caesar's men, Androcles is sent to the Colosseum to face the lions along with other Christians. They include Ferrovius, a fierce fighter who rejects forgiveness to slay the lions; Lavinia, a beautiful aristocrat who is determined to die for her faith; and Spintho, who seeks martyrdom but dies accidentally, in a cowardly fashion. Androcles enters the ring to be sacrificed but is recognised and warmly received by the lion that he had helped. This is a shortened version of the play by George Bernard Shaw, first performed in Berlin in 1912. Sons and Lovers 1 of 3 by D H Lawrence Sons and Lovers 2 of 3 Sons and Lovers 3 of 3 ******Torn between his passion for two women and his abiding attachment to his mother, young Paul Morel struggles with his desire to please everyone--particularly himself. Lawrence's highly autobiographical novel unfolds against the backdrop of his native Nottinghamshire coal fields. Anna Karenina 1,4 by Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina 2,4 Anna Karenina 3,4 Anna Karenina 4,4 ******Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's translation of Anna Karenina is quite simply the most faithful rendering of Tolstoy's words ever accomplished. Winners of the PEN/Book- of-the-Month Club Translation Prize for their translation of The Brothers Karamazov, Pevear and Volokhonsky bring the same literary and cultural fastidiousness to one of the greatest novels ever written, making Tolstoy accessible to a whole new generation of readers. The Last of the Mohicans - 1 of 2 by James Fenimore Cooper The Last of the Mohicans - 2 of 2 ******Chingachgook and Uncas are the last living members of the great Mohican tribe. Hawkeye, a colonial scout, is their companion and loyal friend. In the midst of the French and Indian War, the three take great risks to lead the two daughters of a British colonel to safety through the battle-torn northern wilderness. When the girls are captured by the vicious Huron tribe, Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hawkeye risk their very lives to rescue them. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1.2 by Victor Hugo The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2.2 ******The story of Quasimodo, the hunchback bellringer of Notre-Dame cathedral and his devotion to the beautiful gypsy dancer Esmeralda. When the demented archdeacon Frollo sets out to abduct Esmeralda, he uses Quasimodo to do the evil deed on his behalf. However, Quasimodo turns from captor to saviour. Swan Song by Anton Chekhov - with Paul Scofield ******Anton Chekhov's first play is a one-act sketch titled "Swan Song," which he wrote in 1887. It is about an actor and a prompter who find themselves locked inside a theatre late at night, discussing the actor's past in his career. Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw ******the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Shaw studied the transcripts and decided that the concerned people acted in good faith according to their beliefs. He wrote in his preface to the play: "There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all [there is] about it. It is what men do at their best, with good intentions, and what normal men and women find that they must and will do in spite of their intentions, that really concern us." A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas ******“Thomas single-handedly revived poetry as a spoken word art” (Talking Book Reviews ) Ivanov by Anton Chekhov ******"Ivanov, a driving force in local government and a visionary landowner, feels burnt out at thirty-five. Once the pioneer of scientific farming methods and of education for the peasants, he now drowns in bureaucracy and debt, apathetic to the welfare of his large estate and neglectful of Anna, his terminally ill wife. Sasha, a young educated woman, falls in love with Ivanov and determines to save him." Set in a country suffering from political, ideological and spiritual stagnation, Chekhov's compelling early play anticipates the explosive revolutionary atmosphere of Russia at the turn of the century. Mrs Lirriper by Charles Dickens. ******First published in serial form in 1863-4, the short stories All the Year Round. Mrs Lirriper’s Lodgings and Mrs Lirriper’s Legacy were not published in a single volume until 2005. Three 60-minute episodes. Part 1 - How Mrs Lirriper Carried on the Business. Mrs Lirriper has an eccentric collection of lodgers who rent rooms from her, one of whom leaves behind more than anyone could have expected. Part 2 - How the Parlours Added a Few Words. With Jemmy away at school, the Major and the lodgers join forces to send him their favourite stories. Part 3 - Mrs Lirriper's Legacy. Jemmy returns from school for the holidays just in time to join Mrs Lirriper and the Major on a trip to France in search of a mysterious benefactor. When they eventually track him down, he turns out to be the last person anyone could have expected. Marley Was Dead by John Nicholson and Richard Katz. ******A Christmas Carol, but not as you've ever heard it before. A surprise all-star cast gather to bring Dickens' timeless classic to life. Introduced by Jonathan Dimbleby. The play is devised by one of the UK's most exciting touring comic theatre companies, Peepolykus (pronounced: people-like-us). "Peepolykus should receive subsidy from the NHS to tour the country and bring a delight to audiences with shows that dispel stress, anxiety and depression" The British Theatre Review "In comedy terms, what Peepolykus can do is limitless" Variety. The Scoundrels Return - A History of Lifemanship by George Poles ******Ian Carmichael leads the way in George Poles's comedy, adapted from the Upmanship books by Stephen Potter. He revisits the infamous School for Scoundrels - which taught the most deliciously caddish ways to get one-up in any given situation. With: ----- Ian Carmichael Richard Wilson Colin Baker Paul Darrow Lewis Macleod Michael Maloney Tracy Wiles What Went Wrong with the Olympics 1.4 by Ian Hislop & Nick Newman What Went Wrong with the Olympics 2.4 What Went Wrong with the Olympics 3.4 What Went Wrong with the Olympics 4.4 . ******Spoof documentary set in 2014, looking back at the fiasco that WAS the London Olympics. The preparation for the London Olympics is a huge and very funny developing story. Eleven thousand people are now employed on the Olympic site to ensure everything is in place, on time. One and a half million tons of East End soil have been washed. Lorries, arriving on site at the rate of one per minute, are subjected to the same rigorous timetabling that applies at Heathrow Airport. Visitors undergo extensive security checks and are issued with a list of over sixty prohibited items (amongst them, animal stunners, icepicks and blowtorches). It's an exciting race against time; the most important race of all being the one to get a memorable Olympic programme on air. Introduced from the standpoint of 2014 by controversial reporter Sylvester Halloran (Kevin Eldon), 'What Went Wrong With The Olympics?' combines contemporary news reports, archive footage, stupid "audio graphics", live interviews and fisticuffs in the studio with the key figures responsible. We sift through the cock-ups and the conspiracies in a tough and revealing probe into the reality of what makes Britain run - not very fast. The World Will Thank Me 1.2 by J. P. Rooney The World Will Thank Me 2.2 ******The story of the complex relationships between the poet W. B. Yeats, his poetic muse, and his lover Maud Gonne McBride (plus a few other flames!). The Marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais ******As a prelude to The Genius of Mozart, Radio 3's major new season in the new year, a rare chance to hear Beaumarchais' original play. Bristling with social and political conflict, behind the comic intrigues of da Ponte's libretto lies a drama that was considered too dangerous to be allowed to be performed in its own time. It is edgy, political, dealing with class and stroppy servants sensing the smell of Revolution in the air. The author, Beaumarchais, led a life as colourful as the world of his plays. At the height of the French Revolution, as he had been a royal servant, he was brought before the Revolutionary council. His life was spared when he declared in his defence that he was the creator of Figaro. This character epitomised the underdog striving to be free and was hugely popular with the revolutionaries. Napoleon realised its power when he declared it to be 'the Revolution in action'. LBJ - The Great Society 1.2 by Mike Walker LBJ - The Great Society 2.2 LBJ - Some Kind of Monument 1.2 LBJ - Some Kind of Monument 2.2 *******"Power at its coarsest and most complex, at the beginning of the Vietnam War." Pat and Margaret by Victoria Wood ******"When you deal with me, Claire, think icon." Pat is the glamorous face of an American soap opera; Margaret, a waitress in a motorway cafe in Lancashire. Sisters who've not seen each other for 27 years. Brought together in the glare of a popular TV show, they have no choice but to seem thrilled. But a darker past lies behind their reunion. Scramble 1.3 by Martin Kiszko Scramble 2.3 Scramble 3.3 ******Science-fiction thriller. In the future, music has been banned by Britain's totalitarian government and now lies at the heart of a battle between good and evil The Phone - Tourist Trap by Jon Sen ******A series of late night thrillers, each connected by a mysterious mobile phone. When Charlotte picks up the wrong suitcase at the airport, a mini-break on a Greek island soon becomes a holiday from hell. Close Enough To Touch by Fred Lawless. ******The brand-new HM Submarine Thetis went down in Liverpool Bay on 1 June 1939. Only four of the 103 men on board survived. What went wrong? Ann Veronica by H G Wells ******Headstrong,reckless and fiercely independent, Ann Veronica Stanley is determined to be a 'Person', to work, love and, above all, to live. Walking away from her devoted father and the social conventions and obligations of her time, she embarks upon a course of study and encounters an unknown world of suffragettes, Fabians and free love. But it is only when she meets the charismatic Capes that she truly confronts the meaning of her new found freedom. Ann Veronica caused a sensation, damned in the press and preached against from the pulpits when it was first published in 1909 due to Wells' groundbreaking treatment of female sexuality. The Executioner 1.5 by Don Pendleton The Executioner 2.5 The Executioner 3.5 The Executioner 4.5 The Executioner 5.5 ******Time Bomb He calls himself the Ghoul, a sociopath whose ego rivals his capacity for slaughter. A genius with explosives, he's unleashed a campaign of anarchy and bloodshed that's left thousands of innocent Americans dead and hundreds more wounded. The Ghoul has a unique delivery system for his bombs: vulnerable young women abducted and subjected to months of mind-altering narco-conditioning that molds them into unwitting instruments of death and destruction. Mack Bolan has seen the worst humanity can offer and the Ghoul ranks high among them. The Executioner has to stop this madman's killing spree now. And there's only one way: Identification. Target acquisition. Annihilation. Approximate Running Time: 5 hours Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (2010) ******Dramatisation by Donna Franceschild of John Steinbeck's seminal 1937 novel about migrant workers in 1930s California whose dream of one day owning a place of their own is tragically destroyed. George ...... David Tennant Lennie ...... Liam Brennan Big in Samoa by Marcy Kahan. ******Dog walker Caleb's life is about to change - an album he cut in his twenties and forgot about now has a huge online following. Crown Matrimonial by Royce Ryton ******Set in London's Marlborough House between 1936 and 1945. The focus is Edward VIII's abdication & exile, and the Queen's hatred of Wallis Simpson. The Nazi business isn't addressed, but then, in the 1970s most of the papers were still hidden away. Come to that, most of them still are. Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh ******From the leading lady's liaison to the harassment of an aging juvenile lead -- there's never a dull moment, darling, at the Vulcan Theatre. But vanity and hysterics, suspicion and superstition, brandy and jealousy, are upstaged by a death on opening night. Was it really suicide? Or a macabre encore to a long-ago murder in the same backstage room? Scotland Yard's Inspector Alleyn sets to work assembling a cast of suspects for the final curtain. The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett ******Adapted by the author from his autobiographical memoir, "The Lady in the Van" tells the story of Miss Mary Shepherd, whom Bennett first came across when she was living in the street near his home in Camden Town. I, Claudius 1.6 (2010) by Robert Graves - Augustus I, Claudius 2.6 - Tiberius I, Claudius 3.6 - Sejanus I, Claudius 4.6 - Caligula I, Claudius 5.6 - Claudius I, Claudius 6.6 - Messalina ******Despised for his weakness and regarded by his family as little more than a stammering fool, the nobleman Claudius quietly survives the intrigues, bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the imperial Roman dynasties. In I, Claudius he watches from the sidelines to record the reigns of its emperors: from the wise Augustus and his villainous wife Livia to the sadistic Tiberius and the insane excesses of Caligula. Written in the form of Claudius' autobiography, this is the first part of Robert Graves's brilliant account of the madness and debauchery of ancient Rome, and stands as one of the most celebrated, gripping historical novels ever written. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis (4 hours) ******Join Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace on an exciting sea voyage that will take you to an encounter with a gigantic sea serpent, to a land of darkness where nightmares come true, and even to an island where a boy is turned into a dragon! This is a faithful adaptation of the classic Chronicles of Narnia novel by C. S. Lewis. Recorded in London with some of England's finest actors, it includes film-style sound effects and a rich musical score. Losing Lottie by Sue Glover ******Exploring the impact and implications of a marriage breakup on different members of one family. A Small Town Murder s03e01 by Scott Cherry A Small Town Murder s03e02 A Small Town Murder s03e03 A Small Town Murder s03e04 A Small Town Murder s03e05 ******Crime mystery featuring police family liaison officer Jackie Hartwell DC Jackie Hartwell wants to know who Melanie was about to marry on the day she died. Habakkuk of Ice by Steve Walker ******Extraordinary wartime tale of inventor Geoffrey Pyke's battleship - made of ice. stars Tim McInnerney. Wallace & Gromit Anoraknophobia by Tristan Davies part 1 Wallace & Gromit Anoraknophobia part 2 Wallace & Gromit Anoraknophobia part 3 Wallace & Gromit Anoraknophobia part 4 ******Wallace's Ping Pong O'Matic Automated Home Leisure System has hiccuped badly during field trials. Then, when the pigeons next door ruin Gromit's washing, man and dog face a hefty bill. So when they see an invitation to attend an Invention Convention-with a big cash prize for the best invention-they have no choice but to enter. So begins Anoraknophobia, which brings the pair face-to-eyepatch with the sinister Herr Doktor Count Baron Napoleon von Strudel, inventor of the Acme Utility Anorak, and his scary, spider-taming wife, Queenie. The so-called von Strudels seem strangely familiar to Wallace, however. And our heroes soon find themselves entangled in Operation S.P.A.R.R.O.W, a diabolically evil plan to brainwash the cream of British brainpower-with serious implications for the future of table tennis and other indoor sports. Kepler by John Banville ******An exploration of the clash between two of the 17th century's leading astronomers - the assured, prickly and self-mocking Johannes Kepler, and the aristocratic, overbearing and secretly insecure Danish nobleman, Tycho Brahe. Sherlock Holmes - the Incredible Murder Of Cardinal Tosca by Alden Nowlan and Walter Learning (2 hours) *******Dr. Alden Nowlan and Dr. Walter Learning came into possession of the papers on which they have based their highly successful play The Incredible Murder of Cardinal Tosca. Those papers had been entrusted to the heirs of a certain illustrious client until such time as they might be made public, in whole or in part, "without shaking the Christian Church to its foundations and threatening the existence of dynasties which have flourished for a thousand years." Even today, the case involves such political, religious and human ramifications that Drs. Nowlan and Learning have felt it their duty to withhold or disguise certain details— as, for example, the real name of Cardinal Tosca and the true cause of his eventual death. Neither Dr. Nowlan nor Dr. Learning will entertain speculation as to the identity of the illustrious lady for whose house they, like Holmes, have been privileged to perform some small services, in recognition of which they have been entrusted with these priceless documents. We now entrust you with this priceless play as it was earlier entrusted to the Actors Theatre of Louisville, where its success was quite extraordinary. As a famous Holmesian in the audience was heard to exclaim—"Good show!" Producer Elizabeth Fox Produced at CBC HALIFAX 06/06/1978 OAD07/31/1978 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Total 0 folder(s); 105 file(s) Total files size: 1411 MB; 1411193 KB; 1445061291 Bytes ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^