Marcy Kahan Radio Plays

The dramatist, Marcy Kahan, grew up in Montreal and is currently resident in London, England. Marcy is half-Canadian and half-American. She has a degree in English from Somerville College, Oxford, and trained in theatre in Paris with the LeCoq teachers, Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux.

Marcy writes for television, stage and radio.

She wrote Goldberg Variations, which was produced off-Broadway in May 1999 and directed by Alison Summers. Her screenplay ANTONIA & JANE , starring Imelda Staunton and Saskia Reeves, directed by Beeban Kidron, was the first BBC tv film to be given theatrical release by Miramax. Marcy's adaptation of Nora Ephron's WHEN HARRY MET SALLY premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 2004. She wrote and directed Ben Keaton's one-man show, INTIMATE MEMOIRS OF AN IRISH TAXIDERMIST , which won the Perrier Award at the 1986 Edinburgh Festival.

Marcy has written about twenty original plays for BBC radio including Everybody Comes to Schicklgruber's (1996), and The Uncertainty Principle (1999), a comedy about genetic forecasting set in Manhattan in 2099 and commissioned by BBC World Service to mark the beginning of the new century. She's also done radio adaptations, including a ten-hour version of Tolstoy's WAR & PEACE (co-writer Mike Walker); LITTLE WOMEN ;ANNE OF GREEN GABLES ;THE RAILWAY CHILDREN; THE WIZARD OF OZ and ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (a BBC/CBC Toronto co-production).

Marcy wrote for the long-running BBC World Service "soap", Westway. She has written a series of comedies about Noel Coward, starring Malcolm Sinclair as Coward and Eleanor Bron as his secretary: DESIGN FOR MURDER; BLITHE SPY; A BULLET AT BALMAIN'S, DEATH AT THE DESERT INN, OUR MAN IN JAMAICA.

OBJECT OF INSANE DESIRE was broadcast on the 4 Mar 2006 (BBC World Service Play of the Week, directed by David Hitchinson). TWENTY CIGARETTES was broadcast in mid-2006. OUR MAN IN JAMAICA, the final play in the "Noel Coward" quintet, was broadcast on 31 Mar 07.

Update, Nov 2017
.... Lots more since the above was written: several adaptations, including 'Psmith in the City'; five series of a lovely comedy-drama series 'Lunch' with Claire Skinner and Stephen Mangan (now available on CD), a sixth Noel Coward story to mark the 40th anniversary of The Master's death; a fifteen-episode dramatisation of a Jonathan Franzen novel, an adaptation of Timur Vermes' satire about Hitler waking up in 21st-century Berlin, and a dramatisation of 'Kitchen Confidential'.

Marcy has also recorded an interesting podcast about a writer's typical working week: see https://www.rlf.org.uk/showcase/wa_episode16/

UPDATE, June 2023
Many of Marcy's plays and dramatisations are now available via Audible - in compilations from the BBC Radio Collection:

The Noel Coward Quintet
Lunch Series 1 - 5
Incredibly Guilty
A Room With A View: Full-cast BBC Dramatisation [release date 29-06-2023]
War & Peace in the Leo Tolstoy BBC Radio Drama Collection
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain: BBC Radio Drama Collection
The Railway Children in the E. Nesbit BBC Radio Drama Collection
Oscar Wilde: The Warhol Years in Born To Be Wilde: BBC Radio Drama Collection
Ninety Minutes With Stanislavski in On the Edge and other Stories: 11 BBC Radio Thrillers
The Non-Entity in Hopes and Desires: Seven BBC Full-Cast Romantic Comedies

RADIO BROADCASTS - mainly BBC
04.12.84 The Wizard of Oz, dram; Children's Radio 4.
1985 The Contemplative Life* (R3)
1985 One last final fling*
1986 Viva*
1986 The transmogrification of Herbert Mellish*
c1991 Purgatory (R3)*
08.07.96 Everyone comes to Schickelgruber's*
28.12.97 War and Peace* (Tolstoy), dram, with Mike Walker
19.03.98 Salzburg in London
14.08.98 Victorville*
20.08.99 The Uncertainty Principle*
08.01.00 Design for Murder*
23.10.00 The DJ who used to be a nun's tale*
25.12.00 The man who came to dinner* (Hart & Kaufman), dram
27.10.01 Killing Katerina
22.06.02 Blithe Spy*
15.12.02 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* (Twain), dram, 3 x 60m
12.05.03 The Nonentity*, 30m
08.11.03 A bullet at Balmain's*, 60m
2003 ....Drop Dead Gorgeous* (New York Radio)
11.12.04 ....Death at the Desert Inn*
04.03.06 Object of Insane Desire (WS)
18.08.06 Twenty Cigarettes*
31.03.07 Death at the Desert Inn*
xx.11.07 Marvellous! (WS), 15m*
02.05.08 The Playwright & the Grammarian*
03.05.08 Black Cat Murder Mystery: Fitzrovia*
03.05.08 From Fact to Fiction*
19.09.08 Psmith in the City (Wodehouse), dram*
07.10.09 Life complicated, status pending*
01.01.10 Big in Samoa
14.01.11 Incredibly Guilty
15.05.13 Mr. Bridger's Orphan
15.07.13 Lunch,1 (5 x 15m)
22.09.14 Lunch,2 (5 x 15m)
05.01.15 The Corrections (Franzen, ad; 15 x 15m)
11.05.15 Lunch,3 (5 x 15m)
27.09.15 Look Who's Back (Vermes), dram
18.07.16 Lunch,4 (5 x 15m)
22.05.17 Kitchen Confidential (5 x 15m)
24.07.17 Lunch,5 (5 x 15m)
13.11.17 Five Lessons (play 2 in a series of 4 plays with Maureen Lipman)
10.12.17 Ninety Minutes with Stanislavski & Others; R3
17.11.18 The Warhol Years (on Oscar Wilde), 45m
23.08.20 Madam, Will You Talk? 2 x 55m, by Mary Stewart, dram. MK
21.05.23 Room with a View 2 x 55m, by E.M.Forster, dram. MK

*exist in collections within VRPCC

NOTES (latest at the top)

21 May 23: A Room with a View, 1
By E.M. Forster; dram. Marcy Kahan. Forster's witty, sunlit story of Lucy Honeychurch's trip to Italy accompanied by her conventional cousin Charlotte. Arriving at the Pension Bertolini they discover they have no view from their rooms; when another guest offers to swap rooms with them it sets off a train of events that causes Lucy to question the conventions of polite Edwardian society and open herself up to the passion and romance. Lucy ..... Rosie Day, Charlotte ..... Rosie Cavaliero, Reverend Beebe ..... John Heffernan, Mr Emerson ..... Gerard McDermott, George ..... Luke Thallon, Eleanor Lavish ..... Leah Marks, Reverend Eager ..... Ewan Bailey, Miss Alan ..... Jessica Turner, Carriage driver/vendor ..... Alessandro Dowling, Morgan Forster ..... Daniel Ings, Pianist ..... Peter Ringrose, Producer ..... Sally Avens.

28 May 23: Classic Serial slot: A Room with a View, 2
Lucy Honeychurch has returned from a transformative trip to Italy to her native Surrey and tradition and family. She is soon engaged to the son of a family friend. But he's not the right man, and she can't shake off the intensity of her experiences in Italy and her encounter with the unconventional George Emerson who swept her up in his arms on an Italian hillside. Lucy ..... Rosie Day, Cecil ..... Samuel Barnett, George ..... Luke Thallon, Mrs Honeychurch ..... Jane Booker, Reverend Beebe ..... John Heffernan, Charlotte ..... Rosie Cavaliero, Freddy ..... Will Kirk, Mr Emerson ..... Gerard McDermott, Miss Alan ..... Jessica Turner, Sir Harry Otway ..... Ewan Bailey, Morgan Forster ..... Daniel Ings. Pianist ..... Peter Ringrose. Producer ..... Sally Avens.

23 Aug 2020: Classic Serial slot: Madam, Will You Talk? - 1
By Mary Stewart, dramatised by Marcy Kahan from the novel, published in 1954.. Set in the South of France in the early 1950s, the heat is intense, roads are dusty and parched, cicadas are noisy, the coffee is strong and une omelette aux fines herbes at the local café is almost exotic. This is Charity’s dream holiday after the austere greyness of England and the death of her husband in the war. At her hotel, she meets David, a lonely English schoolboy there with his stepmother. She discovers that his father has been accused of murder and he is in France for his own safety. Charity Selbourne ..... Scarlett Courtney, Louise Cray ..... Esme Scarborough, David Bryon ..... Frankie Milward, Loraine Bristol ..... Harriet Collings, Paul Very ..... Sam Alexander, Mrs Palmer ..... Karen Ascoe, Richard Byron ..... Tim Dutton. Sound Engineer and Design: David Thomas. Production Co-ordinators: Sarah Tombling & Phoebe Izzard-Davey. Programme Illustration: Mahla Bess. Producer: Caroline Raphael. Indie (Pier Productions).

Alistair Wyper adds: .......I have been an admirer of Mary Stewart‘s novels since I was a teenager. This week I listened to both episodes of Madam for the third time since the original broadcast. This adaptation is wonderful. There is a fine line between perfectly executed hokum with incredible plots which hit every sweet spot and a drama which falls short. This hits the bull’s eye. The acting, the atmosphere and the pace are all superb. For example, the references to the Holborn Viaduct and the Pont du Gard early on, evoke for the listener both a lovely contrasting image but also transport us to Provence and its charms. (Jun 2022)

THE WARHOL YEARS....2018
Marcy Kahan's new play THE WARHOL YEARS (R4, 1415, 17 Dec 18) took a light-hearted look at the life of Oscar Wilde before he had written anything of note. Wilde has left University; he is in his early 20s, and he embarks on an American tour, determined to become rich and famous. He meets Sarah Bernhardt, Walt Whitman and Henry James, gives a series of lectures, and by the end of the tour, his reputation is spreading rapidly. The play was part of Radio 4's celebration of his life. Wilde was played by Max Bennett, his friend Charles Kitteridge by Liam Lau Fernandez and Speranza Wilde by Dervla Kirwan; the producer was Emma Harding. There was a play by Lavinia Murray, OSCAR AND CONSTANCY, also about Wilde, on the following day. (....ND, Diversity Website review, Dec 2018)

UPDATE: Marcy's effervescent 2018 play - Oscar Wilde: The Warhol Years - was repeated on Wednesday 7th June 2023 - a terrific production by Emma Harding. The author can be heard doing a turn on the ukulele accompanying a hostile band of Harvard students!

NINETY MINUTES WITH STANISLAVSKI [AND SEVERAL OTHERS]....2017
This was recorded on 22 Nov and is now scheduled for broadcast much sooner than expected - on R3, Sunday 10 December, 9pm. Excellent cast of comic thoroughbreds. Photograph below; click the thumbnail for full size picture. Colin Stinton as Bobby Lewis; Matthew Marsh as Harold Clurman; Maggie Steed as Stella Adler; Nicholas Woodeson as Lee Strasberg; and Bruce Alexander as Stanislavski, plus rising young star Norah Lopez Holden as the Actress in Despair.

Picture sent by MK and used by permission.

Five Lessons....2017
The five lessons referred to are piano lessons. Fascinating play for musicians and others.....R4, 11.30am, 13 Nov 17. Pianist: Peter Ringrose. With Maureen Lipman as the student and Julian Rhind-Tutt as the teacher. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

Kitchen Confidential,Vichyssoise ....2017
22 May 17; 15 minute drama. By Anthony Bourdain, ad. Marcy Kahan. An autobiographical book by a chef who knows the food trade inside-out; full of sharp little stories and handy advice about what to choose (or avoid) when you eat out. Anthony Bourdain ..... Michael Esper, Dimitri ..... Sargon Yelda, Mother ..... Barbara Barnes, Producer ..... Polly Thomas, Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore, Executive Producer: Robert Abel. Indie - Somethin Else production.

Episodes:
22 May 17:Ep.1: Vichyssoise
23 May 17:Ep.2: The Line
24 May 17:Ep.3: Owners
25 May 17 Ep.4: Cook's Talk
26 May 17 Ep.5: OK, I Lied

27 Sep 15: Classic Serial: Look Who's Back
By Timur Vermes, ep. 1 of 2. This is a satire; Hitler wakes up in 21st-century Berlin and decides it is time to retake control. Adapted for radio by Marcy Kahan. Hitler: David Threlfall, Fraulein Vera Kromeier: Alex Tregear, Frau Bellini: Caroline Berry, with Richard Mylan, John Norton, Sargon Yelda, Ben Crowe, Debra Baker, Leo Wan, George Watkins. Producer: Helen Perry. In the series "Reading Europe". BBC Wales.

4 Oct 15: Classic Serial: Look Who's Back,2
By Timur Vermes, ep. 2 of 2. In 21st-century Berlin, Hitler is the star of a TV show. As his rants increase in popularity, so does his power over the German people. Adapted by Marcy Kahan. Adolf: David Threlfall, Fraulein Vera Kromeier: Alex Tregear, with Ben Crowe, Caroline Berry, John Norton, Richard Mylan, Sargon Yelda, Debra Baker, Leo Wan, George Watkins. Produced by Helen Perry. In the series "Reading Europe". BBC Wales.

The Corrections:The Failure....2015
5 Jan 15; 15-minute drama. Jonathan Franzen's novel about a dysfunctional Midwestern family, dram. Marcy Kahan. First radio adaptation. Ep. 1: The Failure - Chip Lambert arrives at La Guardia airport, New York, to meet his parents, Alfred and Enid, and take them back to his Manhattan apartment for lunch. However, there are problems. Narrator ..... Richard Schiff, Enid Lambert ..... Maggie Steed, Alfred Lambert ..... Colin Stinton, Gary Lambert ..... Richard Laing, Chip Lambert ..... Julian Rhind-Tutt, Denise Lambert ..... Roslyn Hill, Julia Vrais ..... Kelly Burke, Eden Procuro ..... Elaine Claxton, Gitanas Misevicius ..... Sam Dale, Melissa Paquette ..... Bettrys Jones, Caroline Lambert ..... Jane Slavin, Caleb Lambert ..... Adam Thomas Wright, Jonah Lambert ..... Sean McCrystal, Producer..... Emma Harding.

Episodes:
5 Jan 15: Ep.1: The Failure
6 Jan 15: Ep.2: How Not to Get Tenure
7 Jan 15: Ep.3: Chip Lands a New Job
8 Jan 15: Ep.4: The Battle for Christmas
9 Jan 15: Ep.5: Alfred's Patent
12 Jan 15: Ep.6: The Dinner of Revenge
13 Jan 15: Ep.7: The Axon Road Show
14 Jan 15: Ep.8: At Sea
15 Jan 15: Ep.9: The Married Man
16 Jan 15: Ep.10: The Generator
19 Jan 15: Ep.11: Chip in Vilnius
20 Jan 15: Ep.12: The Large People of St. Jude
21 Jan 15: Ep.13: The Good Daughter
22 Jan 15: Ep.14: A Wonderland of Wealth
23 Jan 15: Ep.15: Corrections

MR. BRIDGER'S ORPHAN....2013
Fri 15 Mar 13; 45m. The play was commissioned to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of Noel Coward, and is the sixth play about The Master by Marcy Kahan. Mr Bridger's Orphan tells a surprising and little-known story from his life. It's 1968 and Coward is in Dublin to play the chief gangster in the film The Italian Job. But why has the urbane actor and playwright, in failing health, accepted the role?

The play tells the story of how his involvement in the movie emerged from a significant encounter during Coward's dynamic and humane twenty-year Presidency of the Actors' Orphanage, revealing the down-to-earth man behind the sometimes waspish and rarefied public persona.

Between 2000 and 2008 playwright Marcy Kahan wrote a quintet of comic plays about Noel Coward for BBC R4, each set in a different city at a different stage of his life. Design for Murder was a 1930s backstage murder mystery; Blithe Spy took him to New York on an wartime espionage adventure, consistent with his real-life work for British Security Co-ordination; A Bullet At Balmain's interrupted his 1947 Paris stage debut with the death of a fashion-house mannequin; Death At the Desert Inn distracted him from his 1955 Las Vegas cabaret debut with the death of a chorus girl; Our Man in Jamaica re-enlisted him as a spy in 1961, as part of his neighbour Ian Fleming's outlandish plot to destabilise Fidel Castro.

Mr Bridger's Orphan reunites the cast of the Coward quintet: Noel Coward is played by Malcolm Sinclair; his devoted secretary Lorn Loraine by Eleanor Bron; and his devoted Man Friday, Cole Lesley, by Tam Williams. And it also features young Finlay Christie, who's making a name for himself as one of our youngest stand up comedians, and who stars in the Radio 4 comedy series the Gobetweenies. The producer is Marilyn Imrie.

LUNCH....2013
15-19 Jul 13, 5 x 15m. Two friends who met at college a generation ago now meet up once a month for lunch, where they have a heart-to heart. A romantic comedy with Stephen Mangan and Claire Skinner. Producer Sally Avens.

15 Jul 13: 15 Minute Drama - Lunch, Reunion 1/5
By Marcy Kahan. A platonic romantic comedy: Bill and Bella haven't seen each other for years. They were great friends when they shared a flat, now they disagree about everything; it's the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Bill works as an economist in a right wing institute giving succour to bankers and businessmen. Bella teaches yoga, waters the plants in Canary Wharf and holds a Proust seminar for retirees. But years ago they shared a flat before Bill got married and moved to the States. Now he's back and he's feeling a little off kilter; his son's stopped talking to him, his wife's not interested, so he decides to hook up again with Bella. So once a month they meet for lunch, where they talk about everything; the one thing they don't talk about is how much they love each other. Bill - Stephen Mangan; Bella - Claire Skinner; Director - Sally Avens; Producer - Sally Avens; Writer - Marcy Kahan.

Note from ND ...... a wonderful series; you can feel the warmth and affection in the writing - a nice illustration of the way we need friends with different views from ours - and, of course, a good lunch!

16 Jul 13: 15 Minute Drama - Lunch, Takin' a Chance on Love 2/5
Bella has begun dating, whilst Bill is worried his wife is a racist.

17 Jul 13: 15 Minute Drama - Lunch, Carpe Diem 3/5 A health scare changes Bill's outlook on life, whilst Bella is having trouble deciding how to choose between the men she is dating.

18 Jul 13: 15 Minute Drama - Lunch, Like Moths unto a Flame 4/5 Bella is making the most of her new found libido whilst Bill is convinced he's being sabotaged at work.

19 Jul 13: 15 Minute Drama - Lunch, Send in the Clowns 5/5 Both Bill and Bella have dramatic news for one another. Could this be their last lunch or their first dinner together?

Several people have asked me to compile a complete listing of this excellent series; this is now complete and I'm putting it below:


Series 1: 15-19 Jul 2013
1.Reunion
2.Takin' a Chance on Love
3.Carpe Diem
4.Like Moths unto a Flame
5.Send in the Clowns

Series 2: 22-26 Sep 2014
1.Humiliation
2.The Wonderful Guy
3.The Spotlight
4.Other People
5.The Whole Enchilada

Series 3: 11-15 May 2015
1.The Old 5:2
2.Crazy Cat Lady
3.Fractured
4.The Introvert
5.What a Swell Party

Series 4: 18-22 Jul 2016
1.The Big Thing
2.The Unlived Life
3.Lose the Scarf
4.Truth Games
5.Huge News

Series 5: 24-28 Jul 2017
1.Everything's Fine
2.The Perfect Schnitzel
3.Alpha Female
4.The Tapas Confessions
5.Room Service

Cast: Ed Hanson ..... Stephen Mangan, Lucinda ..... Naomi Frederick, Penhaligon Rhinehart ..... Sean Baker, Marion Spooner ..... Joanna Monro, Sanjay Patel ..... Adeel Akhtar, Bella McFadden ..... Naomi Sheldon, Rhett Rhinehart ..... Lloyd Thomas, Nick ..... Iain Batchelor, Kitty ..... Deeviya Meir, Ed's Mother ..... Christine Kavanagh.

A BULLET AT BALMAIN'S....2003
Noel Coward stars in another murder mystery, played by Malcolm Sinclair: he's in post-liberation Paris, 1948, to play the lead, in French, in his own play "Present Laughter". But the muder of a promiscuous mannequin provides him with a crime to solve...also stars Eleanor Bron, Tam Williams, Linda Marlowe, Susy Kane, Jaimi Barbakoff, William Hootkins and Frances Jeater; dir. Ned Chaillet.

THE NONENTITY 2003
Set in Moscow: Dmitri once made a good living out of his writing: dull social-realist stories which pleased the ruling Communist Party. Now they've gone, and his work is no longer needed. Why has a young woman publisher flown all the way from London to meet him? With Kenneth Cranham, Eleanor Bron, Sylvestra Le Touzel and Stephen Critchlow. Produced and directed by Peter Kavanagh.

ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN 2002
Huck and his runaway slave companion Jim on their famous journey down the Mississipi on a raft. Surprised to hear this; rather politically incorrect these days; excellent listening nevertheless; put out as the Classic Serial. A joint project between the Beeb and CBC, who spend as much on radio drama as we do, producing plays rivalling the BBC's in quality. Three 60m episodes. Cast: Mark Caven as Mark Twain, Christopher Jacot as Huck, Martin Roach as Jim, Kay Hawtrey as Miss Watson, Sandy Webster as Judge Thatcher, with Elva Mai Hoover, Peter Oldring, Shawn Mathieson, Herbie Barnes, Les Carlson, Wayne Ward, Nicky Guadagni, Jack Nicholsen, Pierre Brault, Sam Malkin; directed by Ned Chaillet. Music specially composed by John Roby.

The CBC website gave the following information about the production, which I have paraphrased: "One of the great classics of American literature: A production of the British Broadcasting Corporation, with the technical support of CBC, and using an all-Canadian cast, broadcast during the last three weeks of December 2002, on Sunday Showcase and Monday Night Playhouse. Huckleberry Finn continues the adventures begun with Twain’s Tom Sawyer. Twain (the pseudonym for Samuel Clemens) began the sequel in 1876 and completed it in 1884. It is regarded by many critics as more accomplished and a more serious work of art, as well as a keener portrayal of the frontier experience along the Mississippi than Tom Sawyer. The novel was groundbreaking in its depiction of the horror of slavery and the mistreatment of blacks in that region".

The production features Christopher Jacot as Huck and Martin Roach as Jim. Other cast members include Hardee Lineham (King), James Kee (The Duke), and Peter Oldring as Tom Sawyer. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was produced at CBC’s Toronto studios by the BBC’s Ned Chaillet.

BLITHE SPY 2002
A sequel to "Design for Murder" mentioned above. Another interesting Noel Coward mystery play, with Malcolm Sinclair, Eleanor Bron, Elizabeth McGovern; directed by Gordon House. Rpt. 21 Aug 04, R4.

KILLING KATERINA 2001
A comedy of unpleasant manners; with Jane Bertish, Paul Bhattacharjee, Kerry Shale, Emily Raymond; directed by Marion Nancarrow.

THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER
The 30s comedy, adapted for radio by Marcy Kahan; a broken leg turns a visiting celebrity into an impossibly irritating house-guest who outstays his welcome many times over...with Simon Callow as Sheridan Whiteside, and Elizabeth McGovern, Conleth Hill, Cheryl Campbell, John Sessions; directed by Ned Chaillet.

THE DJ WHO USED TO BE A NUN'S TALE 2000
Part of the Chaucer 600th anniversary: "2000 Tales", where travellers who're stranded at a moterway service station because of appalling weather decide to tell each other stories to pass the time whilst waiting to be rescued...with Robert Glenister, Zita Sattar, Frances Tomelty, Carl Grosse, Eleanor Bron; directed by Jeremy Mortimer.

DESIGN FOR MURDER 2000
Noel Coward was good at everything he turned his hand to ... was the gap in his memoirs because he spent some time, unknown to others, as a spy? With Malcolm Sinclair as Coward, with Eleanor Bron, Kristin Milward; directed by Ned Chaillet.

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE 1999
The Uncertainty Principle by Marcy Kahan was set in 2099; a world where everyone knows his lifespan. People live at the appropriate pace; short-lifers are frenetic; short-attention-span, beer-swilling hedonists; long-lifers are more laid back: advocates of lifelong learning, retraining for different jobs each decade, and making long term investments. When a short-lifer overstays his welcome by not dying at the right time, why does it have to be kept secret? Kerry Shale and Clive Swift were Adam and Igor; Gordon House directed. Kahan also wrote "Everyone comes to Schickelgruber's" - the play about Hitler's long lost brother, discovered aged 90 running a cake shop and broadcast a couple of years ago; this effort was in the same class. With Kerry Shale, Clive Swift, Mia Soteriou; directed by Gordon House.(ND, VRPCC newsletter, Sep 99)

WAR AND PEACE....1998
Ten hour dramatisation of Tolstoy's masterpiece; co-writer Mike Walker. This won the 1998 Talkie award for Best Drama.

VICTORVILLE 1998
Three actors recreate a crucial hour in cinema history...when Orson Welles delivered his verdict on the screenplay for "Citizen Kane"...at stake is the credit for the film, being written by Herman Mankiewicz and overseen by John Houseman. Stars Stanley Kamel, David Ogden Stiers, William Hootkins; directed by Ned Chaillet.

SALZBURG IN LONDON 1998
Esther Salzburg is a screenplay writer who leaves New York to get some peace and quiet in a block of flats near the West End of London. It doesn't quite work out like that. With Tara Hugo, Robert Goodale, Marcella Riordan, Kerry Shale, Mis Soteriou, Kristin Milward, Carolyn Jones; directed by Gordon House.

WAR & PEACE 1997
Tolstoy's famous novel, dramatised in ten parts by Marcy Kahan and Mike Walker. Set in 1805, and Napoleon is threatening the peace of Europe. With Simon Russell Beale, Gerard Murphy, Richard Johnson; directed by Janet Whitaker.

EVERYONE COMES TO SCHICKELGRUBER'S 1996
Hitler's long- lost brother, discovered fifty years after the war, his cake shop, and his obsession with pastries. What a wonderful plot... (Monday Play, 80m).. with Kerry Shale as Nathan Waterstone, Clive Swift as Edward Schickelgruber, Lee Montague as Uncle Lou Wasserstien, Ann Beach as Sadie the widow, Bruce Purchiss as Jerome the cabbie, Alice Arnold as Julie, with Cyril Shaps, Wolf Morris, Timothy Bateson, David Kossoff as Max Kellenbaum (Schickelgruber's rival), Christian Millward, Kim Wall, Jane Whittenshaw, Keith Drinkel, Stephen Crossley. Music by Neil Brand; directed by Ned Chaillet.

PURGATORY (R3 1991?)
-starred Miriam Karlin and Bill Paterson in a metaphysical comedy about three people in a room after death. Directed by Marilyn Imrie.

THE TRANSMOGRIFICATION OF HERBERT MELLISH (R4 1986)
was one of that season’s commissioned Elephant Plays in which three playwrights were sent the same illustration by the Times cartoonist Peter Brookes, and asked to write a play inspired by the drawing. Directed by Cherry Cookson.

VIVA (R4, 1986)
-starred Alison Steadman as a student of English Literature at Oxford undergoing an oral examination to see if she is worthy of a first-class degree. Directed by Cherry Cookson.

Comment from ND - Lovely 30m play about a bright young student who's being grilled by a group of objectionable elderly dons about the exam she's just taken. Witty, humorous; excellent use of radio.

ONE LAST FINAL FLING (R4, 1985)
-starred Robin Bailey and Fabia Drake in a sexagenarian romantic comedy set in Paris. Directed by Jeremy Mortimer.

THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE (Radio 3, 1985)
Marcy’s debut radio play starred Alan Rickman as a homicidal Benedictine monk. Directed by Cherry Cookson.

THE WIZARD OF OZ....1984
Dram. by Marcy Kahan in three episodes; Maureen Lipman as the wicked witch. Children's Radio 4.

Compiled by Nigel Deacon. Some information supplied by M.K. and some supplied by Barry H.

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