BERNARD KOPS RADIO PLAYS
BBC BROADCASTS
09.07.58 Return to Stepney Green
21.07.59 The Street Game -A ballad of London, with music by Alexander Goehr
15.08.62 Home Sweet Honeycomb; rptd 1963 (Third Prog)
16.08.63 The Lemmings (Third Prog)
01.05.64 The Dark Ages (Third Prog)
21.10.64 A Matter Of Life And Death
05.04.65 The Hamlet Of Stepney Green: Sad Comedy with Songs
10.12.78 Just Before Midnight: Antlanta
02.06.79 Bournemouth Nights SNT
23.06.79 I Grow Old, I Grow Old - Just Before Midnight
28.01.80 Book at Bedtime: The World is a Wedding (10 parts)
11.10.80 Over the Rainbow SNT
07.05.81 Drama Now: Ezra rpt 1982, 1991 Drama Now
03.05.82 Simon at Midnight AFT
04.10.82 Over the Rainbow AFT
30.09.84 Trotsky Was My Father AFT
05.09.88 Kafe Kropotkin
25.07.90 Colour Blind
11.09.90 Congress in Manchester TMT
30.09.93 Soho Nights (5 parts)
11.09.94 Sailing With Homer, 60m; rpt 1995
28.11.96 The Lost Love of Phoebe Miles AFT
23.12.96:The Jericho Players -Rogues and Vagabonds; rptd 1998, 1999
18.07.98 The Jericho Players
03.06.99 Monster Man
26.07.00 Falling in Love Again
30.10.00 Anarchist Bed and Breakfast
28.11.08 Whitechapel Dreams
02.06.10 Harry and the Angels
SNT=Saturday Night Theatre, AFT=Afternoon Theatre
NOTES
BOURNEMOUTH NIGHTS....1979
With Warren Mitchell, Maria Charles, Joe Melia.
OVER THE RAINBOW....1980
Comedy drama by Bernard Kops, produced by Cherry Cookson. 11 Oct 80, SNT. Rpt. 4 Oct 82, AFT.
Sandra is a bookkeeper with a penchant for married men. She also has a flair for the dramatic, which she indulges with her equally movie-mad gay best friend, Stanley. Her family would prefer to see her with a widowed accountant named Derek. Where does her happiness lie?
Cast:
Stanley......................Peter Woodthorpe
Sandra.......................Maureen Lipman
Malcolm......................Derek Fowlds
Sidney.......................Neville Jason
Henry........................Leonard Fenton
Jeanette/Gloria..............Sonia Fraser
Uncle Harold.................Brian Haines
Derek........................William Eedle
Marie........................Eva Stuart
Joe..........................Manning Wilson
SIMON AT MIDNIGHT....1982
With David Swift, Doreen Mantle, Susan Engel, Petra Davies
EZRA....1991
8th Oct 1991, 9.20pm. A play the BBC Genome OCR'd rather badly and left without a title and
listing a misnamed author; part of the "Drama Now" cycle on BBC Radio 3.
The play was written in 1981 and is referred to elsewhere as just "Ezra" - not referring to the author but to Ezra Pound. The "Jewish Chronicle" (16th May 2014) writes of the play: "Kops sees mental illness as a form of imprisonment, most notably in his 1981 play, Ezra, which has poetic-genius-turned-wartime-antisemitic-propagandist Ezra Pound ranting inside a literal cage."
SAILING WITH HOMER....1995
With Leo McKern, Michael Sheen
THE JERICHO PLAYERS....1998
Set in 1881: A group of Russian actors fleeing the pogroms
plans to perform in London. Stars Timothy West, Amanda Root,
Mark Bonnar, dir. Peter Kavanagh.
MONSTER MAN....1999
A play about the sad life of the creator of "King Kong", Willis O'Brien. With
Garrick Hagon, Lorelei King; dir. Mark Burman.
FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN....2000
The inspiration in Jill's life is the lunatic poet Tom
Garland. She has just moved to Bournemouth after a failed
relationship. She meets..... -with Stephanie Cole and
Frederick Treves; dir Peter Kavanagh.
THE ANARCHIST BED & BREAKFAST....2000
A couple of anarchists are surprised to learn they they have been
left a bed & breakfast business ...in Westcliffe on Sea. With Freddie
Jones, Richenda Carey; dir. Peter Kavanagh.
WHITECHAPEL DREAMS....2008
Following the closure of the Whitechapel Library, the "University of the East End", one of
its users, Bernard Kops, goes into its cellar and tells us a story about a retiring librarian, the poet
Isaac Rosenberg, and a young Muslim woman seeking refuge. With Bernard Kops, Edward Halsted, Ruth
d'Silva, Gunnar Cauthery, Paul Bhattacharjee. Producer David Hunter.
©Nigel Deacon, Diversity website, with thanks to Stephen Shaw for a big update on the play list in 2024.
Info on 'Ezra' from Steve Shaw - thank you.
