Radio Plays, 2010

Part of BBC blurb from Radio Times, by Claire Webb, edited slightly.....

Bugles at the Gate remembers the British Army's worst defeat in history when 16,000 soldiersperished fleeing Kabul in 1842. We share the bugler's horror on hearing the news and reading the diary entries of a rare survivor, the General's wife.

Miniskirts of Kabul is set in 1992; a western woman interviews President Najibullah as he shelters in a UN compound.

Honey is about a CIA agent who realises the folly of American disengagement.

In Canopy of Stars, two squaddies discuss chips, football and Taliban insurgents.

Very good cast, great voices. The play was advertised as a comic fairytale, but I found it quite scary at times. The Troll was awesome! The bit when the brother James told his side of the childhood encounter with the Troll was very touching.

......When Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood, they have taken it upon themselves to understand fully the implications. Therefore they must be listened to.

......I see nothing wrong with a professional trying to get someone who is refusing life saving treatment for purely superstitious reasons to see sense.

Other comments from the mb, edited slightly for clarity, follow. If you see your comment and would like it removed, please send me an email; I do not know how to contact you:

"forget-it":
Quite right - it is ridiculous commissioning new plays where an older one would still have done a better job - and it's unjust to rely on the amnesia of the listening public not to notice.

To me walking round and round the prison yard (while imagining being on the outside doing a round the world walk) - seems a little like a earthly purgatory - where having done the requisite number of turns ones penitence is done & one is then released to the real world - rather than a Dantesque paradise.

Dante at least met other people his way and learnt from them - Speer seemed a very solitary soul. Which made this latest play a bit eerie.


"dorabella"...I am glad to see this make an appearance on the messageboard. I thought this was absolutely one of the best things I've heard on the radio recently. It was intelligent, moving, dealt sensitively with its enormous and terrible themes. The Speer play was humbling in its cleverness and humanity. Far too much gets through into the afternoon slot that really don't deserve to be there. But a gem like this proves radio drama ought to be considered a major art form.

from the BBC messageboard: ......I see that Clive Merrison is again in the title role. He is absolutely brilliant as Sherlock Holmes - easily the best Sherlock on radio I have ever heard (they include John Geilgud, Basil Rathbone and Carlton Hobbs). Like the equally excellent John Moffat as Poirot, Merrison has made the role his own on radio.

Bert Coules replied: .....I hasten to second the praise for Patrick Rayner, whose contribution to the shows - and many, many others besides - has been vast and wonderful, and who unfailingly makes my scripts sound much better than they really are.

Yes, we've had two Watsons: in the Conan Doyle dramatisations the late and much lamented Michael Williams, whom one online commentator called "quite simply the best Watson there has ever been, in any medium", and in all of the Further Adventures his successor Andrew Sachs, who had large shoes to fill and did so superbly.

More from this exchange on Bert's page.

'anne-marie': .........."The play was based on the biography and David Tennant's portrayal took me in so very much - how true is it / was it? This man had such high ideals and morals in some ways and such low ones in others. But of course I suppose he's only human and the foereign office came off badly but nowadays the manipulation and goings on behind closed doors are almost normal. I enjoyed it very much."

'newlach' - This drama was very good, and David Tennent played the role well. At the back of my mind throughout the drama, however, was the thought that once a person decides to become an ambassador he signs away his right to act independently - many countries carry out torture and our government knows it.

The explanation offered for the injuries sustained to a man who was boiled alive in Uzbekistan was beyond belief - two men fighting over a samovar that exploded. Only 1 of the 23 or 24 charges brought against the ambassador was upheld (and at a later hearing was dismissed).


' heatherfeather': " I'd never heard of Craig Murray. But this radio play was fantastic and never dragged. I'm not the biggest David Tennant fan but he did an exceptional job. Very glad that his character's less than altruistic flaws (eye for the ladies) wasn't whitewashed. A topical story and happy that David Tennant could bring a wider audience to it.

and finally, 'thomas paine':

"Craig Murray has his own web-site. Find it on google. Well worth a visit for those still keen on freedom."

In January 1959 the Minister of Supply announced that the TSR-2 would be built by Vickers-Armstrongs working with English Electric; the initials coming from "Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance, Mach 2".

Prior to the TSR-2 effort, the British Royal Air Force had deployed the English Electric Canberra bomber, capable of flying at high altitudes and relatively high subsonic speeds. The Canberra carried no defensive weapons and relied on its high performance to allow it to avoid defences, but as the performance of the Soviet interceptors grew, the Canberra grew increasingly vulnerable.

The introduction of the radar-guided surface-to-air missile changed the situation. They attacked in a straight line from below, and had speed and altitude performance greater than any aircraft. The Canberra, and most other planes were extremely vulnerable to these weapons.

The solution was to fly lower. An aircraft travelling just under Mach 1 will cover this distance in a little over two minutes, giving the missile site very little time to prepare for an attack.

Like so many projects, this one was wrecked by the politics. It was scrapped by the Labour government in 1965.

Nigel Deacon / Diversity website

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