Radio Plays - Blindness

5 Feb 2019: Blind School
By Mandy Redvers-Rowe and Sarah McDonald-Hughes. Nina joins Charlesworthy School for the Blind. Despite help from her new friend Laura, Nina struggles. Cameo parts by former MP David Blunkett, broadcaster Peter White and journalist Lee Kumutat. Other roles played by staff and students from New College, Worcester. Nina: Ellie Wallwork, Laura: Robin Kinnersley, Ms. Monroe: Gillian Dean, Nina's mum: Ellie Darvill, Ruby: Carys White, Milly: Amber Rogers, Jazz: Sarah McDonald-Hughes, Librarian: Mandy Redvers-Rowe, teacher: David Blunkett, rail announcers: Peter White and Lee Kumutat. Producer: Sharon Sephton. ...Thanks, Clive - ND


BELL IN THE BALL....2010
25 Jun 10; by Lloyd Peters. 45m, afternoon play. A man loses his sight... then he gets a chance to play blind cricket. He finds out that passions run as high as they do in the sighted game ...

ALMOST BLUE....2006
R4 Friday Play 10 Feb 06, from the Italian crime novel by Carlo Lucarellli, set in Bologna in 1992.


APOSTLE OF LIGHT....2002
Interesting biographical play about Louis Braille; his early life and his adoption of the military ciphering system which gave him the idea for an effective writing system for the blind.


THE LAST DARE....1996
By Paul Brennan, 23 Sep 96.


SLAUGHTER IN THE DARK....1996
R4, 29/2/96 - 21/3/96, 4 x 30min. By Marius Brill. A blind detective investigates bizarre cases.
1/4: Blind Mans Buff
2/4: Donne To Death
3/4: Blind Deviation
4/4: More Than Meets the Ear


MAX CARRADOS....1995
...the famous blind detective. By Ernst Bramar.


THE LUCKY ONE....1993
21 Jun 93. Saturday Playhouse; 90m. Dramatised by Rosemary Davis, from 'One of the Lucky Ones', by Lucy Ching, produced by Tracey Neale. Lucy Ching was an inspirational figure for the blind in Hong Kong. She died on 19 May 2011 in Los Angeles, USA. She was 75 years old.

Dr. Ching was the first blind social worker of the Hong Kong Government’s Social Welfare Department, devoting 30 years of her life to improving conditions for the blind and the attitudes of society in general towards the unsighted.

She was born in Guangzhou, Mainland China into a comfortable, traditional and stable family but became blind at six months of age. This did not stop her quest for knowledge and her determination to help and teach the visually impaired. Her autobiography, One of the Lucky Ones, has touched, comforted and encouraged many people. The book has been translated into several languages, as well as Braille, and a movie based on the book won top awards in Hong Kong.


BLADE OF THE POISONER .... 1992
BBCR5, June 92, 4 x 30min. By Douglas Hill, adapted by Wally K. Daly. Sword and sorcery tale in which a blind magician and an archer must save a boy from the evil clutches of The Poisoner.


TOUCHING THE ROCK....1992
This was a dramatisation of John Hull's book, Saturday Playhouse, 24.10.1992, 1430 hrs, 75m. John Hull is an Australian professor of Divinity who lives in the Midlands. His book, Touching The Rock' deals thoughtfully and thought-provokingly with how his perception of the world was changed as he lost his sight. How did he then relate to the world around him - the sound of the wind in the trees, hearing his children grow up, communicating with the people around him? How sight loss affected his faith... and so on.


Yabuhara The Blind Master Minstral....1991
Drama on 3, by Inoue Hisashi.


A DARKENING OF THE MOON....1986
James Follett's autobiographical play of loss of sight due to a childhood accident, and subsequent recovery after an operation. 90m. More details on JF's page.


DARK ENCOUNTER
With Richard ....., Petra Davies, Noel Johnson, Ronnie Williams, Sian Davies, D...... Owen, Myfanwy Talog, Frederick Taggert. Produced by Lorraine David. (my recording unclear - some of the names indistinct). Could easily be put in the "revenge" category. An unhappy marriage, and the husband begins to play away from home. But it doesn't go unobserved, and an unforeseen accident alters the 'balance of power'. This story, like all the best tales, isn't fully resolved...Clive Lever told me about this play - many thanks, Clive.

THE MOST WONDERFUL BEING....1980
R4, Jun 9 1980. 45m. "I seldom think of my limitations, and they never make me sad ... believe that all through these dark and silent years God has been using my life for a purpose I do not know. But one day I shall understand, and then I will be satisfied." Helen Keller , one of the most remarkable women of her time, was born 100 years ago this month. Blind and deaf from the age of two, she became a world-famous figure and a tireless worker for those w,ith handicaps similar to her own. Helen Keller: Helen Borton, Anne Sullivan: Margaret Robinson, Narrator: Gabriel Woolf. Other parts played by Russell Dixon, David Marlowe, Peter Wheeler. Written by Norman Swallow. Producer: Stanley Williamson. BBC Manchester. LW only. Recording has not (so far) turned up....


THE SLENDER VOICE....1979
By Leszel Prorok. 30 minute theatre. A sapper working on clearing mines steps on one ... and loses his sight.

Some time later he spends some time with a bunch of blind canoeists. He goes missing. As the search for him mounts, he comes across a woman in the reeds ...

With John Shrapnel [Frank Lapinski], Kate Binchy [The Girl], Eric Allan [The Instructor], Manning Wilson [The Director], and Peter Craze [Norman].

More information on the review page. Notes sent by Jim; many thanks.


BLIND MAN RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE ....1973
19 Sep; by Simon Gough. There may be two ways of running for your life .......... by running away. or by running towards something. Producer Margaret Etall. Cast: James .......... Kerry Francis, Nigel .......... John Bentley, Doctor .......... Clifford Norgate Sister .......... Sonia Fraser, Receptionist .......... Hilda Kriseman, Waiter .......... Sean Barrett. ....Thanks to Clive Lever for alerting me to this one.


THE PEACOCK SCREAMED ONE MORNING....1968
By R.C.Scriven, who lost his sight gradually because of glaucoma, in the days when it was more difficult to treat effectively. There's another play by Scriven which describes his eye operation called, if I recall correctly, The Seasons of the Blind.

I was struck by the intense visual quality of the writing when I listened to "The Peacock screamed one morning". It reminded it me of the Roy Hutchins play "Spacehoppers, clackers and really big fish", in the way it remembers a childhood from long ago, but Scriven's work is not humorous; it is evocative and poignant.

THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS....1957, 1968, 2001
The Day of the Triffids (Adapted for BBC radio in 1957; 1968 & 2001).


Clive Lever adds.....


YABUHARO KENYO
The play deals satirically with 18th-century Japanese life and how blind people were looked upon.


MOLLY SWEENEY
By Brian Friel. Details nk.


THE BLIND MAN....date nk.
Hitchcock, from the 'Unmade Movies' series. Date nk.

OTHER RELATED PLAYS
In Gideon Fell series starring Sir Donald Sinden, there was a story called The Blind Barber. There was also a thirty-minute theatre title Blind Man Running For His Life, by Simon Gough, R4 19.9.1973/1130 with Kerry Francis/John Bentley/Clifford Norgate. It is interesting to see the name John Bentley in the cast list. At that time, he was also playing Meg Richardson's husband, opposite Noel Gordon in Crossroads.

Nigel Deacon / Diversity website

Most of the above plays known to exist in VRPCC collections

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