Nick Fisher Radio Plays
1982 Street Taste
1982 The Cask of Amontillado
1984 Another Applicant*
1985 Albert`s Extra-Parliamentary Activities*
1986 When taps run dry*
1988 The turning of the tide*
1988 Flowers for Jeanne
1989 No crime like the present*
1990 R3 Louis 14th's intestine*
1992 The ballad of Johnny Reece*
1994 Julie Enfield:Terminus*. Serial thriller.
1994 Playing with Dracula*.
1994 Losing Contact*.
1996 King Solomon's Carpet (B.Vine, aka Ruth Rendell), dram, 4 x 30m
1996 Julie Enfield: Net & The Canal*. Serial thriller.
1997 Julie Enfield: Leaves of the Dead*. Serial thriller.
1997 Chimes of Midnight*.
1997 Finding Fellows*
1997 R3 Vox Humana*
1998 Shadow of Mir*
1998 And the birds are still singing*
1999 Julie Enfield*. Short stories.
1999 Where a wall once stood*
2001 The Wheel of Fortune*: R3/4 Configurations 1,2 and 3
-Interactive Drama
2003 Under the Net* (Iris Murdoch), dram, 2 x 60m
dates nk:
Speed and Silver in Stained Blood
Asterisked plays are known to exist within VRPCC.
NOTES ON SOME OF THE PLAYS
THE TURNING OF THE TIDE....1988
A successful businessman and his wife travel to see an old friend for
the evening, in his house on the edge of the Norfolk marshes. But
all is not what it seems... and some people have long memories. The ultimate
revenge story: starring Kim Wall, Brett Usher, and directed by
Martin Jenkins.
THE BALLAD OF JOHNNY REECE....1992
Johnny Reece begins as a fruit picker; he becomes an entrepreneur. The play charts the joys and sorrows of a couple's journey through life.
PLAYING WITH DRACULA....1994
An effective modern vampire story.
LOSING CONTACT....1994
A tale about some extremely unusual contact lenses ... a little
like Daphne du Maurier's "The House on the Strand".
KING SOLOMON'S CARPET....1996
Exciting four-part adaptation of the thriller by Barbara Vine. A young female musician becomes involved with a street musician who is never going to make the grade either as a citizen or as a serious musician. Then she meets Axel, a wealthy go-getter. Is he what she needs?
This play is full of references to London's subway system (which is the modern day "magic carpet" of King Solomon - hence the title) and the old 'ghost' stations which are no longer used. There are also parallels between this tale and Nick Fisher's excellent 'Julie Enfield' stories, which are done in a similar way and which show an intimate knowledge of the geography of London.
THE CHIMES OF MIDNIGHT....1997
Horror story originally from the "Fear on Four" series, involving
an ancient clock.
FINDING FELLOWS....1997
Nick Fisher's play Finding Fellows (R4 1402 11 December)
was an interesting speculation on the possibility of connecting a
computer directly to the human brain. With the current pace of
technological advance, we may live to see it. (VRPCC newsletter,Dec 97)
- There is a lot more to this play....but to describe it would constitute a 'spoiler'.
THE LEAVES OF THE DEAD....1997
Exciting thriller serial starring Nick Fisher's lady detective Julie Enfield. A maniac is at large in and around the British Museum, committing gruesome murders, Ancient Egyptian style. With Imelda Staunton, Geoffrey Matthews, Ross Livingstone, Janet Moore, Christopher Scott, Alex Lowe, Shelley Dixon, Stephen Thorne, Colleen Prendergast, Euan Meredith, Hugh Dickson, Tracey-Anne Obermann. SMs Richard Beadsmore, Anne Bunting and Charlotte Hulme. Producer Richard Wortley.
THE SHADOW OF MIR....1998
"The Shadow of Mir" (R4 2100 8 May) was the first of 3 plays by
Nick Fisher scheduled for broadcast in May. A middle-aged Russian
bureaucrat is sent into space to check the viability of the space
station. But this is not her real motive........Fisher's plays are
always interesting though sometimes rather macabre.
(VRPCC newsletter, 1998)
Where A Wall Once Stood....1999
With Douglas Hodge and Britta Gartner.
Director: Marion Nancarrow.
Originally broadcast 5 Nov 1999,
repeated on BBC7 5 May 2004.
When successful businessman James Arden goes missing,
his distraught wife is determined to find him, despite
a lack of clues. A darkly disturbing story of bluff
and counter-bluff, set against the backdrop of a post-
Communist Berlin.
JULIE ENFIELD....1999
The 'Julie Enfield Investigates' thrillers are a BBC Radio 7 staple. This week we have the four Murder West One stories, all stand-alone tales. The first, A Cure for Death, is a saga of corrupt Harley Street doctors, drug-dealing and the trade in body parts.
The plots are proficient if not remarkable, but writer Nick Fisher's dialogue is crisp; it enables us to work out what is happening rather than having it spelled out. Imelda Staunton brings a refreshing briskness to her role as Enfield; she may have a demanding elderly father waiting for her at home, but she's still tougher and more dogged than her male colleagues, even after they've all had a big night out.
Matters are wrapped up quickly in the final minutes ....... as entertaining radio drama, Julie Enfield and company do a very professional job.
Camilla Redmond reviewing the 2010 repeats on BBC Radio 7, Guardian, 20 Jan 2010, summarised by ND
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE....2001
Can the professor and his friends find a way of beating the roulette
wheel? Bet now....
.........excerpt from the VRPCC newsletter: Nick Fisher's experimental play The Wheel of Fortune was broadcast as "interactive drama" in three separate "Configurations". I and II went out simultaneously on radio 4 and radio 3 (2330, 19 Sept 01). The next evening, II and III went out similarly. A gambler, a young lady, and the Professor decide to take on the casino and win. The Prof. has a computer program capable of working out which numbers to back based on the position of the roulette wheel and the little ball and a video camera in his pocket . The only thing is - will it work? The "interactive" element requires the listener to stay with the channel, or switch over, when the roulette wheel spins and he hears the words "bet now", which occur about 20 times in the half hour. Recording something like this presents a few difficulties because of synchronisation; I would have throught doing it on a single network and switching off either the left or right channel might be better....anyway, Configuration I worked well in its own right, and lacking the motivation to spend half my time switching, I found Configuration II equally good on listening to it the next day.
UNDER THE NET....2003
Two part dramatisation of the story by Iris Murdoch; classic serial.
R4. 11 Oct 03 and 18 Oct 03. Rather daft tale about the kidnapping
of a canine superstar, with other bits and pieces thrown in. With
Simon Day, Lloyd Hutchinson, Adrian Scarborough, Hugh Bonneville,
Roger Allam, Janie Dee, Sarah Badel, Tom George, David Shaw-Parker
and Clare Clifford. Music by Howard Davidson.
