Peter Tegel Radio Plays
Peter Tegel is a playwright and novelist. He has also done a number of translations, some of which have been broadcast. He works for Pier Productions, based in Brighton, a major supplier to BBC Radio 4, which also makes programmes for BBC Television, BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3. (The Company is based in Brighton where it has its own editing suites, studios and production offices.) Richard Wortley, producer of 3,000 radio plays, gives the following information in his "Reflections of a Lifetime in Radio":
- Peter Tegel has his multi-focus European background, his dramatic escape from Sudetenland as a Czech-German boy of six, fleeing to Britain from the Nazis with his hat-making mother and Jewish step-father. Next stop the graduate in modern languages from Balliol College, Oxford, then the translator of German and French writers, then the increasing interest in Russian literature and now Board Member of the Pushkin Club. It accounts for a continental flavour to his radio plays but not the masked passages of autobiography. Master race ideology came to the front in his play ‘The Well of Life’ - Caucasian women battery- farmed for breeding purposes.
RADIO PLAYS
(normally directed by Richard Wortley)
Turn for the Worse....1975
21.9.75 with Elizabeth Spriggs (also stage)
ROCKLIFE....1977
Drama on 3, 26.9.77. With Stephen Murray as Leo, Pauline Letts as Sybil, Steve Hodson as Alex, Lesley Dunlop as Helen; music by David Cain, director Richard Wortley. An aging British couple live on a (?) Greek island and are invaded by two youngsters. (BL Ref TI700BW)
Choice....1978
9.10.78 with Jennifer Piercy/Mary Wimbush/Geoffrey Beevers
The Liberation....1981
12.1.81 (BL Ref. T3636BW) Brenda Kaye/Margery Mason/Edward Kelsey/Diana Olsson.
The Broken Neck....1981
3.8.81
The Well of Life....1986
8.9.86. Deals with the Nazi "Lebensborn" programme, and its tragic effects on some of the hapless children unfortunate enough to have been involved with it. Monday Play. (in BBC archive)
Raisel....1987
24.11.87 A survivor of Auschwitz is dying in London and her few friends and relatives collect to see what will happen to her fortune.James Laurenson, Lynn Farleigh, Pauline Letts, Michael Tudor Barnes, Joan Matheson, Laurence Payne, producer Richard Wortley.
Floreana’s Barrell....1989
6 Jun 89. In the 1930s the eccentric Dr Ritter from Germany sets up a ‘paradise’ community on the Galapagos Island of Floreanna. A surrealistic comedy about escape from civilization. Frances Jeater and John Rowe. Produced by Richard Wortley.
Against the Grain....1990
(from Huysmans) 3.7.90
Return to Krnov....1993
31?.1.93 with Hugh Dickson, Pauline Letts
RETURN TO KRNOV ....1993
R3, 31 Jan 93. The hero returns for the first time to the Czechoslovakia where he was born before the War. Now he's in search of his father. With Hugh Dickson, Pauline Letts, Sean Barrett, Garard Green, Julian Rhind-Tutt. Director Richard Wortley.
Happy Depths of a Homophobe....1995
5.2.95 with Derek Jacobi, Philip Voss. Richard Wortley again:
- ‘The Happy Depths of A Homophobe’ took in two sun-filled days in the garden of my partner and myself - rented accommodation in Islington - where else? The rueful, elegiac story provided a setting for homosexual yearning and nude male bathing at Hampstead ponds - ah, the flexibility of radio as the cast soaked in the skills of Philip Voss and Derek Jacobi. For those who enjoy the court circular, please note that Mr Jacobi was knighted a month later.
Genome notes: The Monday Play: Happy Depths of a Homophobe
Peter Tegel 's lyrical study of male desire at a public bathing pond.
Mark: Derek Jacobi,
Harold: Philip Voss,
Fernando: David Thorpe,
Joe: Dominic Letts,
Jock: Gareth Armstrong,
with Pauline Yates , Colin Pinney ,
John Baddeley , John Evitts , Philip Anthony and William Wortley. Producer: Richard Wortley.
TRANSLATIONS
Brecht’s Baal....1963
- Phoenix 1963
Erdman’s The Suicide
(BL Ref. WORKS-FILE)
Thomas Bernhard’s A Party for Boris
Kleist’s Kate of Heilbron....1975
By Heinrich von Kleist, 1807. romantic drama, translated and adapted for radio by Peter Tegel. Broadcast 20.1.75, with Nigel Stock, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, Janet Maw, Robert Eddison dir. Ian Cotterell (BL Ref. T4226/7BW); also performed at Half Moon Theatre. R4 broadcast was the first English production of this work. Rpt. 9 Jul 91. In BBC archive.
Stig Larsson’s Sisters and Brothers....1996
- Gate 1996
Duras’ Days in the Trees....1997
26.5.97 with Rachel Kempson and Corin Redgrave, R4. (BL Ref H8837/1)
? Ass in Search of Privilege ?
STAGE PLAYS
Blim at School + Poet of the Anemones (double bill) - Royal Court 1969
So What Club - Royal Court 1978
Hours of Life
Hinkemann
Rat Hunt
Machine Wreckers
Duck Shoot
The Licence E
asy Money
Franziska
Her Last Good Years
Closing Down
Madame Voltaire
Mandate
Men’s Group
Moving Out
Researched and compiled by Mike Lloyd, VRPCC / Diversity Website
