Jan Needle Radio Plays
Jan Needle was born in 1943 on the South Coast. He moved to the north-west at the age of twenty to join the Daily Herald. He was a full-time journalist until the age of 25, when he left to take a degree at Manchester University. He started writing plays for stage and radio, followed by short stories and novels. Later he did more journalism, radio and television plays, and some drama criticism. His novels are ALBESON AND THE GERMANS (1977), MY MATE SHOFIQ and A FINE BOY FOR KILLING. He is also writing some nautical historica fiction and has done a young person's version of MOBY DICK and DRACULA, also some TV scripts for "Thomas the Tank Engine" and "Sooty and Sweep".
The plays I've identified are listed below. Those with asterisks are known to exist in VRPCC collections.
BBC RADIO PLAYS
1976 Celebration for a million deaths, 60m*
1978 The Incendiarist, 90m
c1985 Men of Violence*, 60m
NOTES ON THE PLAYS
CELEBRATION FOR A MILLION DEATHS....1976
16 May 76, R4. Curious tale of a journalist who travels the world, his journeys invariably being followed
by disaster. With Colin Edwin, Brian Pringle, Ann Cunningham,
Edward Wilson, David Marlow, Judith Barker, David Ross. Produced
and directed in Manchester by Tony Cliff.
THE INCENDIARIST....1978
30 Sep 78, SNT. John Carson & Michael Deacon.
MEN OF VIOLENCE....c1985
Rather sobering tale of an elderly thug who gets a little more
admiration than he's due when his fishing boat gets marooned on the
rocks. With Leslie Sands as Arthur Winterbottom, Eric Allen, Amanda
Murray, Kenneth Cranham, Bill Monks, Norman Shelley, Betty Hardy,
Kenneth Shanley, John Vine, Tim Bentinck. Directed by Michael
Bartlett.
Nigel Deacon / Diversity Website
