Radio 3 Drama & Readings, 2008

General notes: As programming is generally scheduled around evening concerts, start times have been noted after the date; Repeats again not marked in listings so I've noted them when I remember; 'Sunday Feature' entries with elements of drama (or those with actors credited) are to be found in the 'Other' section at the foot of the page.

Barry Hodge

DRAMA ON 3:

Sunday evenings, times and durations as noted.

(06-01-2008; 20:00) The Picture Man (David Eldridge)
Neil decides he has been pushed too far by the uncaring and often callous behaviour he sees around him. But when he begins to intervene in incidents by taking pictures on his mobile phone, it has disastrous consequences. Introduced by the writer, David Eldridge. Neil - Martin Freeman, Janine - Heather Craney, Hussein - Emil Marwa, George - Peter Marinker, Man on Tube - Jake Harders, Polish Prostitute - Ania Sowinkski, Freddie - Bailey Pepper, Teenage Boy - Joseph Tremain. With Anna Bengo, Laura Molyneux, Alex Lanipekun and Ben Crowe. Directed by Sally Avens. (65m)

(13-01-2008; 20:00) Donation (Sean Buckley)
An innovative production from the Radio Drama department, devised through a series of workshops and recorded on location across London. Donation is a play about our bodies, the medical and spiritual implications of organ donation, what we wish for and what survives of us. Lisa - Laura Molyneux, Rachel - Joannah Tincey, Stella - Anna Bengo, Jacob - Alex Lanipekun, Paul - Sam Pamphilon, Natha - Lloyd Thomas, Jim - Peter Harding, Janitor - Leon Lissek. (75m)

(20-01-2008; 20:00) Baghdad Wedding (Hassan Abdulrazzak)
When members of a wedding party are killed in a random attack in Baghdad, the lives of three friends are torn apart with unimaginable consequences. Using startling poetic imagery together with brutal language and horrific realism, Iraqi writer Hassan Abdulrazzak shows how friendship can survive extreme adversity. Salim - Matt Rawle, Marwan - Nitzan Sharron, Ibraheem - Emilio Doorgasingh, Kathum - Silas Carson, Yasser - Cosh Omar, Luma - Sirine Saba, Omar - Daniel Hart, Melissa - Annie Hemingway. Directed by Lisa Goldman. (100m)

(27-01-2008; 20:00) All The Colours Of Love (Pat McCabe)
When Redmond is left by his wife and child, he resolves to get them back - whatever the cost. A dark tale of isolation and violence by the author of The Butcher Boy. Redmond - Dermot Crowley, Ned Strange - TP McKenna, Catherine - Karen Ardiff, Imogen - Sarah Dillon, Announcer - Mark Lambert, Piper Alpha - Kieran Lagan, Shop Assistant - Stella McCusker, Neighbour - Aine McCartney, Michael - Johnny Brennan. Fiddle music arranged and performed by Cathal Hayden. Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan. (90m)

(03-02-2008; 20:00) The Devil Was Here Yesterday (Colin Teevan)
Will civil servant Simon deliver the report the evidence appears to support or the report the minister seems to want the evidence to support? Inspired by a visit to South America last year, Colin Teevan's new play explores the political landscape of a country undergoing an oil-fuelled revolution. Simon - Owen Teale, Elisabet - Haydn Gwynne, The Minister - Greg Hicks, Hector/Profesor - Stephen Greif, Victoria/Firmina - Clare Higgins, La Guacha - Rufus Wright, Angel - Alex Lanipekun, Gregoria - Nadine Marshall, Willoughby/Woker - Martin Hyder, Linda/Gloria - Nancy Crane, Waitress - Laura Molyneux. Original music by Nikola Kodjabashia. Directed by Toby Swift. (90m)

(10-02-2008; 20:00) The Trial & Death Of Socrates (Sebastian Baczkiewicz)
A play focusing on the mystery surrounding Socrates's trial and subsequent execution, the reasons for which have long puzzled historians. Socrates has been found guilty of blasphemy and corrupting the youth of the city. On the eve of his execution his chief accuser Meletus is murdered. Josias, newly returned to Athens, is given the task of investigating the murder. Socrates - Joss Ackland, Thrasybulis - Michael Feast, Josias - Greg Hicks, Crito - David Calder, Anytus - Tim McInnerny, Meletus - Joseph Kloska, Xanthippe - Cait Davis, Almathea - Liza Sadovy, Euthyphro - Peter Marinker, Kastor - Trevor Allan Davies, Announcer - Ben Onwukwe, Lysander - Ben Crowe, Guard/Official - Chris Pavlo, Woman - Liz Sutherland. Directed by Jeremy Mortimer. (90m)

(17-02-2008; 20:00) The Cool Bag Baby (Katie Hims)
A coolbag containing a baby is left outside a cafe in the hope that owner will provide it with a loving home. But unexpectedly the cafe stays closed, with the result that the baby is undiscovered and lives across London begin to fall apart. Katie Hims' new drama is an investigation, a love story as well as a cry for help. Carol - Sophie Stanton, Joan - Rachel Davies, Stuart - David Schofield, Phil - Nicholas Gleaves, Jana - Larissa Kouznetsova, DI - Andrew Tiernan, Ted/PC - Mark Monero, Mehmet - Hemi Yeroham, Jack - Jamie F Glover. (75m)

(24-02-3008; 20:00) Girlfriend In A Coma (Douglas Coupland)
The first radio adaptation of a book by Douglas Coupland, author of Generation X and Microserfs, dramatised by Sony award-nominated Dan Rebellato. The date is 15 December 1979. Karen Ann McNeill goes into a deep coma after a teen party and remains in it until 1997. When she wakes up, the voices in her head keep telling her the world is about to end, but Karen doesn't believe them. Jared - Florian Hutter, Karen - Rayisa Kondracki, Wendy - Maggie Blake, Richard - Jason Durran, Hamilton - Simon Lee Phillips, Pamela - Heather Dann, Doctor - Peter Marinker, Megan - Julia Summer, Gloria - Buffy Davis. Music composed by Alice Trueman. (90m)

(02-03-2008; 20:00) The Adding Machine (Elmer Rice)
A work from 1923 by Pullitzer Prize-winning playwright Elmer Rice and considered to be an Expressionist classic. Mr Zero has spent the last 25 years adding up columns of figures and dreaming of advancement. But when the boss finally calls him into his office, Zero doesn't get the promotion he was expecting. Mr Zero - Nathan Osgood, Mrs Zero - Rebecca Front, Daisy - Gina Bellman, Shrdlu - John Rogan, Charles/The Head - Danny Sapani, One/Boss - Peter Marinker, Mrs One - Liza Sadovy, Two/Joe - Chris Pavlo, Mrs Two/Judy - Liz Sutherland, Young Man/Policeman - Ben Crowe. (75m)

(09-03-2008; 20:00) An Enemy Of The People (Martin Lynch)
Based on the play by Henrik Ibsen. A drama is set in contemporary Belfast, where the killing of a Catholic man leads to his own community struggling to come to terms with the truth. But one woman, Moya McGovern, is determined to get justice for her murdered brother-in-law - though at what cost? Moya McGovern -. Susan Lynch, Caroline McGovern - Seainin Brennan, Sean Gillen - Charles Lawson, Mr Gillen/Solicitor - Harry Towb, Dominic/Frankie - Patrick O'Kane, Manus - Lloyd Hutchinson, Mrs McGovern - Eileen Pollock. Director: Roland Jaquarello. (90m)

(16-03-2008; 20:00) Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Tennessee Williams)
An adaptation of Tennessee Williams's classic 1950s drama set in the plantations of the American Deep South. Hypocrisy, greed and secret passions threaten to tear apart a dysfunctional family as they fight over a dying patriarch's millions. Big Daddy - Joss Ackland, Big Mama - Gemma Jones, Margaret - Elizabeth McGovern, Brick - Marcus D'Amico, Mae - Alison Steadman, Gooper - Clive Carter, Rev Tooker - Roy Dotrice, Dr Baugh - Kenneth Jay, Lacey - Ben Onwukwe, With Polly Dartford, Christopher Earley, Zara Mandel, Tristan Pegg as the children. Director: Andy Jordan. (120m)

(23-03-2008; 20:00) Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand, trans Anthony Burgess)
Set in 17th century France, Rostand's play features the eponymous poet-swordsman with a misshapen nose who falls in love with the beautiful Roxane. She loves the dashing Gascon soldier Christian de Neuvillette and Cyrano finds himself writing love poems on his behalf. Cyrano - Kenneth Branagh, Roxane - Jodhi May, De Guiche - John Shrapnel, Christian - Tom Hiddleston, Rageuneau - Jimmy Yuill, Montfleury - Stephen Critchlow, Bellerose/Capuc - Hugh Dickson, Le Bret - Gerard Horan, Carbon/Cuigy - John McAndrew, Ligniere - Steve Hodson, Duenna/Marthe - Frances Jeater, Mother Superior - Susan Jamieson, Sister Claire - Joannah Tincey, Valvert - Oliver le Sueur. Director: David Timson. (135m)

(30-03-2008; 20:00) A Long Way From Home (Caryl Phillips)
Phillips' original drama imagines the conflicting forces in the iconic singer Marvin Gaye's life, including family, stardom, love, sex and drugs. The story focuses on his final years, when he was offered a lifeline in the unlikely setting of Ostend in Belgium, where he composed the song Sexual Healing before he returned America and was murdered by his own father. Marvin Gaye - O-T Fagbenle, Freddy Cousaert/Marvin Gaye Senior - Kerry Shale, Alberta Gay/Kimona - Alibe Parson, Beatrice/Karen - Rhea Bailey, Liliane - Rachel Atkins, Mitchell/Jimmy - Damian Lynch, Sam/Stu - Ben Onwukwe, P K - Major Wiley. Directed by Ned Chaillet. (90m)

(06-04-2008; 20:00; Rpt) Swan Song (Anton Chekhov, trans Michael Frayn)
As a tribute to the late Paul Scofield, another opportunity to hear his noted performance in this 2006 production. Following his final performance in a dingy provincial theatre, an elderly Russian actor confronts his ghosts. Did he ever really have 'talent'? The actor - Paul Scofield, The prompter - Alec McCowen. Directed by Martin Jenkins. (20m)

(06-04-2008; 20:20) Rudolpho's Zest (Tanika Gupta)
Rudolpho has a remarkable secret: although born in 1815, his body never ages beyond mid-life and at times has regenerated to youth. But when Rudolpho tells Mel about his immortality, he suddenly finds, at the age of 192, that his body begins to age rapidly and his zest for life is disappearing. Mel is desperate to find an answer to this conundrum before it's too late. Rudolpho - Ray Panthaki, Mel - Lyndsey Marshal, Susan - Adjoa Andoh, Sita - Manjinder Virk, Firoz - Paul Bhattacharjee, Mahesh - Paul Bazely, Charles Darwin - Geoffrey Whitehead, Alice - Clare Corbett, Ghandi - Sam Dastor, Nasreen - Sakuntala Ramanee, Lord Williams - Robert Maskell, Colonel Fitzherbert - Peter Marinker, Charles - Ben Onwukwe, Maid - Liz Sutherland, Babulal - Gagan Sharma, Young Rudolpho - Alex Miller. (90m)

(13-04-2008; 20:00) The Country Wife (William Wycherley, adap/dir David Blount)
Considered too obscene to be staged in its original form for nearly 200 years, William Wycherley's raunchy Restoration comedy tells the tale of Mr Horner - a notorious rake who spreads the false rumour that he is impotent in order to gain free access to other men's wives. Horner - Ben Miller, Pinchwife - Geoffrey Whitehead, Mrs Margery Pinchwife - Clare Corbett, Sir Jasper Fidget - Nigel Anthony, Lady Fidget - Celia Imrie, Harcourt - Jonathan Keeble, Alithea - Rachel Atkins, Sparkish - Mark Williams, Dorilant - Dale Rapley, Mrs Dainty Fidget - Sara Markland, Mrs Squeamish - Joan Walker, Old Lady Squeamish - Elizabeth Morgan, Lucy - Emma Kilbey, Quack - John Evitts, Boy - James Joyce. (135m)

(20-04-2008; 20:00) Yesterday An Incident Occurred (Mark Ravenhill)
Originally performed as part of the Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat cycle of plays at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2007 and then re-imagined for a special commission for BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival 2007. After an unprovoked attack takes place in a shopping centre, no one comes forward as a witness. How can justice be done? Performed and recorded with an audience at the Victorian Civil Court of St George's Hall, Liverpool. One - Ian Puleston-Davies, A - Kathryn Hunt, B - Sam Kelly, C - Gerard Kearns, Marion - Carla Henry. Directed by Kate Rowland. (55m)

(27-04-2008; 20:00) Professor Bernhardi (Arthur Schnitzler)
In Vienna in 1900, a distinguished Jewish doctor prevents a Catholic priest from administering last rites to a dying patient. His actions provoke a political witch-hunt, leading to the professor's trial and imprisonment. Adapted by National Theatre playwright Samuel Adamson, this new version of Schnitzler's play about prejudice in sophisticated society had been unseen in London for over 70 years and was produced for the stage by Dumbfounded Theatre Company in 2005. Prof Bernhardi - Christopher Godwin, Prof Ebenwald - Dale Rapley, Prof Pflugfelder - John Stahl, Minister Flint/Defence - Andrew Woodall, Prof Tugendvetter/Dr Lowenstein/Prosecution/Waiter - ball - John Dougall, Mr Hochroitzpointer/Kulka (journalist)/Questioner - Justin Salinger, Father Reder/Dr Schreimann - Andrew Havill, Dr Adler/Privy Councillor Winkler/Speaker - Mark Lockyer, Dr Oskar Bernhardi/Dr Feuermann/Waiter - restaurant/Foreman - Tom Godwin, Prof Cyprian/Bermann - David Horovitch, Prof Filitz/Judge - Geoffrey Beevers, Philomena/Housekeeper/Secretary (Ministry of Education) - Sophie Roberts, Frau Filitz/Nurse/Secretary (Elisabeth Institute) - Rachel Atkins, Crowd/Members of Parliament - Cast. (90m)

(04-05-2008; 20:00) Othello (William Shakespeare)
A production from London's Donmar Warehouse, featuring an award-winning performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role as the jealous Moor Othello, alongside Ewan McGregor as the scheming Iago. When the esteemed general Othello promotes Cassio to be his personal lieutenant, Iago, Cassio's bitter rival and friend of Othello, is envious and plots revenge. Iago manipulates and enrages Othello, making him suspicious of his wife Desdemona, ultimately bringing events to a tragic conclusion. Roderigo - Edward Bennett, Iago - Ewan McGregor, Brabantio/Gratiano - James Laurenson, Othello - Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cassio - Tom Hiddleston, First Officer/Messenger/First Cyprus Gentlemen - Alastair Sims, First Senator/Second Cyprus Gentleman - David Mara, Duke of Venice/Lodovico - Michael Hadley, Desdemona - Kelly Reilly, Montano - Michael Jenn, Emilia - Michelle Fairley, Bianca - Martina Laird. Music: Adam Cork. Director: Michael Grandage. (165m)

(11-05-2008; 20:00) The Leopard (Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, adap Michael Hastings)
Don Fabrizio, a member of the old Italian aristocracy, contemplates his obsolescence amidst the great social changes during the Risorgimento of the 19th century. The head of an opulent household in Sicily, he reflects nostalgically on the past as his family grows to maturity and Garibaldi's republican movement puts an end to the feudal system and the traditions of the old bourgeoisie. Don Fabrizio - Stanley Townsend, Princess Stella/Concetta at 70 - Julie Legrand, Concetta - Claire Price, Angelica - Hayley Atwell, Ciccio/Pallavicino/Priest - Joseph Alessi, Father Pirrone - James Hayes, Francesco/Carlo - Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Tancredi - Tom Hiddleston, Calogero/Chevalley - Anthony O'Donnell, Giovanni - Harry McEntire, Angelica at 70 - Claire Nielson. Director: Lucy Bailey. (95m)

(18-05-2008) No programme (The Chopin Experience coverage)

(25-05-2008; 20:00) The Vertical Hour (David Hare)
Nadia, an American war reporter-turned-academic, lives a settled life with her English boyfriend, but when she visits his home and meets his womanising father for the first time, her political opinions and her relationship come under great strain. Dennis Dutton - Joseph Kloska, Oliver Lucas - Anton Lesser, Terri Scholes - Wunmi Mosaku, Philip Lucas - Tom Riley, Nadia Blye - Indira Varma. Original music composed by Nick Powell. Director: Jeremy Herrin. (95m)

(01-06-2008; 20:00) Shylock (Arnold Wesker)
A new perspective on an age-old story by one of the foremost playwrights of his generation. Shylock's close friend Antonio needs a loan, but 16th century Venetian law discriminates against Jews. For Shylock's own protection, Antonio persuades him to agree a bond. They laugh as Shylock invents the absurd forfeit of a pound of flesh - but their mockery of the law may easily turn to tragedy. Shylock Kolner - Henry Goodman, Antonio - Ronald Pickup, Portia Contarini - Juliet Stevenson, Nerissa - Noma Dumezweni, Bassanio - Toby Stephens, Rivka - Sheila Steafel, Jessica - Lydia Leonard, Tubal di Ponti - Jonathan Tafler, Lorenzo - Geoffrey Streatfeild, Graziano - Nicholas Boulton, Rebecca da Mendes - Jennie Stoller, The Doge/Solomon Usque - Geoffrey Beevers, Roderigues da Cunha - Anthony Glennon, Singer - Annette Ross. Producer/Director: David Hitchinson. (120m)

(08-06-2008; 20:00) True West (Sam Shepard)
Screenwriter Austin's work on a film script is disrupted by the arrival of his elder brother Lee. The differences between successful, creative professional Austin and brutish, desert-living Lee could not be more marked. Or could they? Lee - David Soul, Austin - Richard Laing, Saul - Kenneth Jay, Mom - Liza Ross. Director Peter Kavanagh. (90m)

(15-06-2008; 20:00) Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe)
The classic play written in 1604 about a man who defies the authority of God by selling his soul to the Devil in return for 24 years of knowledge and power on Earth. Faustus - Paterson Joseph, Mephistopheles - Ray Fearon, Wagner - Toby Jones, Evil Angel - Janet McTeer, Good Angel/Duchess - Tanya Moodie, Lucifer - Julian Bleach, Old Man - David Bradley, Robin - Nicholas Burns, Rafe - Iain Robertson, Valdes/Pope - David Bamber, Cornelius - Paul Bazely, Emperor - Anton Lesser, Scholar/Horse-Courser - John Lloyd Fillingham, Scholar/Knight - Don Gilet, Scholar/Duke - Derek Riddell. Original music composed by Olly Fox. (100m)

(22-06-2008; 20:00) Bazajet (Jean Racine, trans Alan Hollinghurst)
In far-off Byzantium, in a harem deep within the Sultan's palace, Bazajet is told by the Emperor's wife that he must marry her or die. However, matters are complicated by the fact that he is already engaged to Atalide. Acomat - Michael Pennington, Osmin - Jonathan Christie, Roxane - Victoria Hamilton, Atalide - Claire Price, Zaire - Sophie Scott, Bajazet - Bertie Carvel, Zatime - Valerie Sarruf. Directed by Jane Morgan. (100m)

(29-06-2008; 20:00) The Wild Duck (Henrik Ibsen, trans Inga-Stina Ewbank & Peter Hall)
One of Ibsen's most powerful dramas, the play explores the tragic impact on the lives of a young girl and her family when an old friend insists on family secrets being told. Hialmar - Paterson Joseph, Gregers - Michael Maloney, Hedvig - Katie Griffiths, Mrs Sorby - Alexandra Mathie, Mr Werle - Russell Dixon, Old Ekdal - Gordon Langford-Rowe, Gina - Siobhan Finneran, Relling - Glenn Cunningham, Jenson - Malcolm Raeburn. (100m)

(06-07-2008; 21:55) Piper Alpha (Stephen Phelps)
On 6 July 1988, a North Sea oil rig was destroyed by a series of explosions and a massive fire, resulting in the death of 167 men. Based on Lord Cullen's Public Inquiry, the play chronicles the disaster minute-by-minute as it happened exactly 20 years ago. Performed by Ewan Bailey, Nigel Betts, Kenny Blyth, Mark Bonnar, Liam Brennan, Stephen Critchlow, Ben Crowe, Nyasha Hatendi, Chris Pavlo, Roshan R Rohatgi, John Rowe, Dan Starkey, John Kay Steel and Joan Walker. Produced and directed by Toby Swift. (95m)

(13-07-2008; 20:00) Blood Wedding (Federico Garcia Lorca, adap Ted Hughes)
An evocative meditation on fate, war, tradition, passion and repression, inspired by the true story of a fatal feud between two families in the Almeria province, high in the mountains of rural Spain. A version by Ted Hughes. Mother of Bridegroom - Barbara Flynn, Bridegroom/Woodcutter - Carl Prekopp, Bride - Sarah Smart, Leonardo - William Ash, Leonardo's Wife/Girl - Andrea Riseborough, Father of Bride - David Fleeshman, Beggar Woman/Neighbour - Mary Cunningham, Servant/Mother-in-Law - Ellie Haddington, Moon - Claire Benedict, Girls - Liz Carter, Woodcutter - Sam Curtis, Woodcutter - Chris Hannon, Littler Girl - Daisy Jones. Directed by Pauline Harris. (90m)

(20-07-2008) No programme (BBC Proms 2008 coverage)

(27-07-2008; 21:00) Two Men From Delft (Stephen Wakelam)
In 1675, at the time of the death of his close friend Johannes Vermeer, Antony Van Leeuwenhoek made an astonishing discovery. He was the first person to identity bacteria. Antony Van Leeuwenhooek - Stephen Tompkinson, Christiaan Huygens - Alex Jennings, Maria Van Leeuwenhoek - Emma Noakes, Elisabeth Vermeer - Alex Tregear. Music by Sylvia Hallett. Viol played by Vanessa Coode. Directed and produced by Jeremy Mortimer. (75m)

(03-08-2008) No programme (BBC Proms 2008 coverage)

(10-08-2008) No programme (BBC Proms 2008 coverage)

(17-08-2008) No programme (BBC Proms 2008 coverage)

(24-08-2008) No programme (BBC Proms 2008 coverage)

(31-08-2008; 21:45) Your Only Man (Annie Caulfield)
Brian O'Nolan was an Irish writer, columnist and civil servant who wrote novels such as The Third Policeman under the pen name of Flann O'Brien and popular satirical newspaper columns as Myles na gCopaleen, while at the same time working as a civil servant in Dublin under his real name. This play imagines what might have happened had the three of them got together on the day when O'Nolan was asked to leave his civil service post. Brian O'Nolan - Ardal O'Hanlon, Flann O'Brien - Dermot Crowley, Myles na gCopaleen - Dara O'Briain, Evelyn O'Nolan/Miss Fahy - Pauline McLynn, Eddie Fahy, the policeman and everyone else - Lloyd Hutchinson. Directed by Marilyn Imrie. (90m)

(07-09-2008) No programme (BBC Proms 2008 coverage)

(14-09-2008; 20:00) Blue Wonder (Ronald Frame)
This new play is a story of love and deception set during the Cold War in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Throughout this period 'Romeo spies' were operating, targeting bright and susceptible young women. Alice Reeves, a young secretary from London, unwittingly becomes romantically involved with Otto Hanhart - an East German spy. The encounter leads to unexpected consequences for both parties, changing their lives forever. Alice Reeves - Clare Corbett, Otto Hanhart - Jamie Glover, Ben Coombes - Nick Sayce, Henry Soper - Gunnar Cauthery, Mr Hodges - Stephen Critchlow, Tricia - Cressida Trew, Doctor - Dan Starkey, Mrs Crosby - Liza Sadovy. Producer/Director: David Ian Neville. (90m)

(21-09-2008; 20:00) A Disappearing Number (adap Simon McBurney & Ben Power)
Based on the stage play by the theatre company Complicite. An award-winning production exploring our relentless compulsion to understand, and which is a provocative meditation on the beauty of mathematics and the nature of creativity. It was inspired by the story of the collaboration between two of the 20th century's most notable pure mathematicians, Srinivasa Ramanujan, a poor Brahmin from South India, and Cambridge professor GH Hardy. Performed by David Annen, Firdous Bamji, Paul Bhattacharjee, Divya Kasturi, Chetna Pandya, Saskia Reeves and Shane Shambhu. With Mick Barnfather, Tamzin Griffin, Tim McMullan and Clive Mendus. (90m)

(28-09-2008; 20:00) Season Of Migration To The North (Tayeb Salih, dram Philip Palmer)
A dramatisation for Radio 3 of Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih's sensual and shocking thriller, often described as the most important Arab novel of the 20th century. (90m)

(05-10-2008; 20:00) Tulips In Winter (Michelene Wandor)
An exploration of the life of the enigmatic 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, whose ideas still influence present day thinkers. Michelene Wandor's play, inspired by various paintings and etchings, imagines a world in which Spinoza appears in Rembrandt's Night Watch and is courted by one of Cromwell's spies. Angel - Angela Pleasence, Baruch Spinoza - Ben Meyjes, Miguel Spinoza - Gabriel Woolf, Rebecca - Jasmine Hyde, Cromwell - Struan Rodger, Downing - John McAndrew, Rembrandt - Timothy Spall, Menasseh - Philip Voss, De Witt - Grant Gillespie, Morteira - David Horovitch, Da Costa - Nicholas Boulton, Joseph Prado - Thomas Howes. Directed by Jane Morgan. (90m)

(12-10-2008; 20:00) The Duchess Of Malfi (John Webster)
The Duchess of Malfi is one of the great Jacobean plays, and this new production focuses on the personal tragedies of a powerful family rent by lust and betrayal. When the widowed Duchess marries her steward Antonio, the choice challenges the accepted social order and established lines of power. It also brings her into direct conflict with her powerful brothers, the Duke Ferdinand and the scheming Cardinal, and tragedy ensues. The dark tale is enhanced by dark music written especially for the play. Duchess - Sophie Okonedo, Antonio - Rory Kinnear, Ferdinand - Jonathan Slinger, Bosola - Bertie Carvel, Cardinal - Oliver Senton, Delio - Oliver Le Sueur, Cariola - Becky Hindley, Julia - Rachel Davidge, Doctor - Michael Griffiths, Pescara - Paul Panting, Roderigo/Executioner - Nicholas Gadd, Grisolan/Servant - Francis Middleditch. Music by Arthur Ka Wai Jenkins. Adapted for radio and directed by Roy McMillan. (135m)

(19-10-2008; 20:45) Black Watch (Gregory Burke)
A radio version of the National Theatre of Scotland's award-winning theatre production, Black Watch is based on interviews conducted by Gregory Burke with former soldiers who served in the second war in Iraq. Hurtling from a pool room in Fife to an armoured wagon in Iraq, the action is viewed through the eyes of those on the ground and reveals what it means to be part of this venerable Scottish regiment and the war on terror. The play contains very strong language. Stewarty - Ali Craig, Fraz - Emun Elliott, Granty - Paul Rattray, Cammy - Brian Ferguson, Kenzie - Ryan Fletcher, Officer - Peter Forbes, Sergeant/Writer - Paul Higgins, Rossco - Jordan Young. Original music composed by Davey Anderson. Directed by John Tiffany. (90m)

(26-10-2008; 20:00) Caligari (Amanda Dalton)
Adapted from the 1919 film Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari, written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, and directed by Robert Wiene. Amanda Dalton's adaptation builds on the film's themes: the madness of society, the inner workings of the human mind and the paranoia of a country in the aftermath of a war. The story centres on Francis, who recounts the story of mesmerist Dr Caligari and his somnambulist slave Cesare, who appear to be responsible for a series of murders in Holstenwall. Franzis - Tom Ferguson, Allan - Luke Treadaway, Frau Beckmann - Eileen O'Brien, Jacob Straat - Peter Hamilton Dyer, Jane - Sarah McDonald Hughes, Dr Olfens - Malcolm Raeburn, The Police Inspector - James Quinn, Town clerk - Terence Mann, Cesare - Robin Blaze (countertenor). Music composed by Olly Fox and performed by Kate St John, Genevieve Wilkins, Sarah Homer and David Coulter. Directed by Susan Roberts. (90m)

(02-11-2008; 21:15) Free Thinking - 24 Weeks (Tony Marchant)
A new play about abortion by award-winning TV dramatist Tony Marchant, recorded yesterday in front of an audience in the Bluecoat arts centre. (75m) (NB: A part of the four-hour Free Thinking evening in which "Matthew Sweet presents an evening of programmes recorded for BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking festival of ideas in Liverpool".)

(09-11-2008; 20:00) All Quiet On The Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque, dram Dave Sheasby)
Considered one of the greatest war novels of all time, it is the haunting, comic, lyrical and desperate story of a group of young German soldiers enduring and coming to terms with the realities of the First World War. Paul Baumer - Robert Lonsdale, Kropp - Simon Trinder, Muller - Gunnar Cauthary, Leer - Llyod Thomas, Tjaden - Joseph Arkley, Katczinsky - Stephen Critchlow, Cook - Malcolm Tierney, Westhaus - Stuart McLoughlin, Captain Bertinck - Dan Starkey, Kemmerich - Luke Walker, Himmelstoss - Tim Treloar, Detering - Nick Sayce, Mother - Janice Acquah, French girl - Donnla Hughes, Erna - Jill Cardo, Mrs Kemmerich - Carolyn Pickles, Orderly - Inam Mirza, Mittlestaedt - Paul Rider, Major - Chris Pavlo, Nurse - Manjeet Mann. Directed by David Hunter. (90m)

(16-11-2008; 20:00) Tamburlaine: Shadow Of God (John Fletcher)
As war swirls around them, three of the most important figures in the history of the Middle and Near East are brought together in fierce debate: how can a successful society be built, and what does it need to do to endure? Ibn Khaldun - John Rowe, Tamburlaine - Jeffery Kissoon, Hafez - Conleth Hill, Mulk - Jonathan Taffler, Jahongir - Inam Mirza, Hosni - Stephen Critchlow, Vizier - Dan Starkey, Wife - Donnla Hughes, Other parts played by Chris Pavlo, Gunnar Cauthery and Robert Lonsdale. Directed by Marc Beeby. (90m)

(23-11-2008; 20:00) The Pattern Of Painful Adventures (Stephen Wakelam)
A new play in which Antony Sher portrays William Shakespeare. Business is going well, but the playwright urgently needs a collaborator for his latest work. His daughter is getting married, while his brother has a sick child and is in need of a job. It is 1607 and Shakespeare's life is at a turning point. William Shakespeare - Antony Sher, Jack Robinson - Will Keen, John Marston - Stephen Critchlow, George Wilkins - Chris Pavlo, Susannah Shakespeare - Helen Longworth, Richard Burbage - John Rowe, William Ostler/Robert Johnson - Robert Lonsdale, Edmund Shakespeare - Joseph Kloska. Produced and directed by Jeremy Mortimer. (90m)

(30-11-2008; 20:00) Shakespeare's Pericles (William Shakespeare)
A romantic adventure full of tyrants, incest, murder, knights, teenagers, pirates, brothels, sublime poetry, young love, a great hero and the goddess Diana. A multicultural cast, world music and the poet Benjamin Zephaniah give this timeless tale a contemporary twist. Pericles - Tom Mannion, Gower - Benjamin Zephaniah, Antiochus/Cerimon - Raad Rawi, Marina/Antiochus' daughter - Helen Longworth, Helicanus - Sean Scanlan, Master - Dermot Crowley, Fisherman - Paul Dinnen, Simonides - Lorcan Cranitch, Thaisa - Katherine Igoe, Dionyza - Adjoa Andoh, Cleon - Peter Gevisser, Diana - Sian Phillips, Bawd/Lychorida - Ayesha Antoine, Philemon/Bolt - Nick Sayce, Lysimachus - Ifan Meredith, Leonine - Delroy Brown. Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane. (100m)

(07-12-2008; 20:00) Great Escape (Andrew Whaley)
A satirical play set in Zimbabwe in 2005, and written in response to the Mugabe government's Operation Murambatsvina, in which thousands of illegally built dwellings were demolished, making thousands homeless. Two disenfranchised men desperately try to tunnel their way from Zimbabwe to freedom in the promised land of South Africa. But even with the help of their bizarre machine Son of the Soil - constructed with the remnants of the country's constitution - their task proves harder than they imagined. Osborn - Jospeh Mydell, Memory - Christopher Obi. Directed by Peter Leslie Wild. (80m)

(14-12-2008; 20:15) Samson Agonistes (John Milton, adap/dir John Tydeman)
A new production of Milton's dramatic poem, originally published in 1671, as part of Radio 3's celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the poet's birth. Written in the form of a Greek tragedy, with the chorus commenting on the action, the play follows the biblical story of the blind Samson wreaking his revenge on the Philistines who have imprisoned him. Samson - Iain Glen, Manoa - David de Keyser, Dalila - Samantha Bond, Harapha - Philip Madoc, Public Officer - Matthew Morgan, Messenger - Michael Maloney, Chorus 1 - Tim Bentinck, Chorus 2 - Simon Treves, Chorus 3 - Sean Barrett. (110m)

(21-12-2008; 20:00) The Cherry Orchard (Anton Chekhov, trans Sasha Dugdale)
A new production of Chekhov's timeless study of a Russian aristocratic family forced to sell their house and beloved cherry orchard during the great social transitions of the 19th century. Madame Ranevskaia - Sarah Miles, Gaev - Nicholas le Prevost, Varia - Anne-Marie Duff, Ania - Susannah Fielding, Trofimov - Gunnar Cauthery, Simeonov-Pishchik - Roger Hammond, Lopakhin - Matthew Marsh, Firs - Malcolm Tierney, Duniasha - Jill Cardo, Epikhodov - Stephen Critchlow, Yasha - Inam Mirza, Sharlotta - Hannah Nicholson. Music composed and performed by Olga Thomas-Bosovskaya. Directed by Peter Kavanagh. (120m)

(28-12-2008; 20:00) Beyond Words (Maurice Maeterlinck, adap Katie Hims)
Dr Patrick McGuinness introduces three short plays by a key figure in late 19th-century symbolist theatre. The Intruder: A family keep vigil together when one of their number is ill, but only the blind grandfather seems to see what is really happening. The Seven Princesses: The king and queen of an unnamed land wait on the terrace of a castle high above the sea for the return of their grandson. Interior: Two men, sent ahead to warn a family that their daughter has drowned, are stopped in their tracks by the sight of her household at peace through a window. With John Rowe, Lizzy Watts, Paul Rider, Trystan Gravelle, Sheila Reid and Manjeet Mann. Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Marc Beeby. (80m)

TWENTY MINUTES:

Various dramatic twenty-minute pieces that are used as mid-concert interval pieces during Performance On 3 and Opera On 3; Writer/reader credits have been noted where available; Documentaries/talks have been omitted.

(19-01-2008; 14:50; Rpt) Everything's OK (Daniela Crasnaru, read by Bill Nighy)
A poignant short story by one of Romania's most acclaimed writers. Conductor Gheorghe Iliu is on his international travels from concert to concert, when he receives a series of curious telegrams from his family back home. (30m) (NB: Repeated 'Interval' - ie, longer that the usual 20mins - from 12-08-2007.)

(23-07-2008; 20:50) The Bell (Iris Murdoch, read by Liz Sutherland)
To tie in with this evening's Prom re-creation of a concert programme from 1958, Liz Sutherland reads an extract from Iris Murdoch's famous novel of that year. It takes up the story, which is set in a lay community near a convent, when Dora and Toby hatch a bizarre plan to replace the newly-arrived bell in order to convince the residents of the existence of miracles.

(26-07-2008; 19:45) Pasternak & Creativity - Evening (Boris Pasternak, read by John Rowe) A prose poem about a young poet, found among other unfinished jottings long after the writer's death and translated for the first time into English by Angela Livingston, Research Professor at Essex University. Written in Moscow in 1910, nearly 40 years before Doctor Zhivago, Evening bears the influences of the impressionist paintings of Pasternak's father as well as the Symbolist movement in Russian poetry. It centres on a poet named Reliquimini - Latin for 'you are left behind' - and is said to suggest compassion for the things of the inanimate world which are neglected.

(26-07-2008; 20:35) On Life & Picnics, Part 2 (Jane Feaver)
Series on that most British institution - the picnic. A specially-commissioned short story by novelist Jane Feaver, exploring the disintegration of a family as seen through the eyes of a teenage girl during a long, uncomfortable summer holiday in the 1970s. Sent to spend the holidays with her grandparents while her mother has a baby, the narrator both relishes and feels trapped by the orderly life which her grandparents lead. After their picnic by a river, a dare almost leads to disaster. Scotch eggs will never taste the same again and the first phase of childhood is left behind forever. (NB: The other parts of the series were documentary based.)

(04-08-2008; 20:15) A Dill Pickle (Katherine Mansfield, read by Susannah Harker)
An excerpt from this famous story which describes two former lovers meeting again in a London restaurant.

(05-08-2008; 20:05) Rebellion (Joseph Roth, trans Michael Hoffman, read by Tom Goodman-Hill) An excerpt from Roth's novel set in Berlin after the First World War, it features the anti-hero Andreas Pum, who attempts to woo the widow Blumich with his barrel-organ.

(09-08-2008; 19:45) The Bargain (Truman Capote, read by Lorelei King)
A gem from an American classic, The Bargain takes us into the apartment of affluent New Yorker Mrs Chase. An old acquaintance is due to arrive for lunch and Mrs Chase is entertaining the possibility of purchasing a mink coat from her, for her forthcoming trip to Paris. But when her guest arrives, some remarkable revelations call up hitherto unstirred emotions.

(10-08-2008; 20:30) Proms Short Story - A Tale Told By Moonlight (Leonard Woolf, read by Alex Jennings)
An English novelist visiting Ceylon falls hopelessly in love with a beautiful native prostitute and buys her out of the brothel where she works in this acutely observed story of desire, expectation and colonial life at the beginning of the 20th century. (NB: Marked as a 'Proms Short Story' but performing the usual function.)

(22-08-2008; 21:10) Prayer (Istvan Orkeny)
Hungarian-born actress and writer Mia Nadasi introduces and reads her own translation of a moving short story by Istvan Orkeny, one of the most significant figures in post-war Hungarian literature. Prayer is a story told by a mother who must identify the body of her dead son, an emotional journey from denial to acceptance that unfolds with quiet passion.

(30-08-2008; 20:50) The End Of Summer (Helen Dunmore, read by Jonathan Firth)
This specially-commissioned story is set aboard a ferry where a young traveller on his way to Stockholm encounters the intriguing teenager Sophie, just as strange storm clouds begin to appear over the water. Does this just herald the end of summer or is there something more complex at work?

(08-09-2008; 19:50) Next Door (Kurt Vonnegut, read by Mark Bazeley)
Vonnegut's cautionary tale about the perils of eavesdropping. A work which exhibits its author's noted sardonic outlook on life, it centres on the chaos unleashed by the good intentions of a young boy who overhears the couple next door arguing.

(13-09-2008; 19:40) The Park (Deborah Moggach)
A new story by celebrated author and screenwriter Deborah Moggach, written especially to mark the occasion of the Last Night of the Proms. It is the morning after the Proms grand finale and a woman wanders through a London park, musing about a very different type of concert she attended at the Albert Hall 40 years before, when she was a young woman. When she discovers a forgotten mobile phone among the rubbish, she scrolls through the menu, piecing together information and forming a picture of its owner - a young woman who has a horse riding lesson later on that day. She contemplates tracking this stranger down and meeting up to find out what they both have in common. (NB: Not billed as a Twenty Minutes.)

(29-10-2008; 19:45; Rpt) The Bell (Iris Murdoch, read by Liz Sutherland)
(NB: Rpt of 23-07-2008 - see above.)

(21-11-2008; 19:50) Matryona's House (Alexander Solzhenitsyn, read by Stephen Critchlow)
No synopsis.

(04-12-2008; 19:30) The Postmaster (Alexander Pushkin, read by Jeremy Northam)
A poor Russian postmaster is left distraught when his beloved daughter runs away with a handsome hussar. He tracks her down, but finds her enjoying a life of wealth and privilege which she is loth to leave.

BETWEEN THE EARS

Saturday nights, and a couple of Fridays, times and durations as noted (often replaced by various things, including The Wire); Writer credits, and in some cases entry titles, aren't always given - and these 'experimental radiophonic features' appear from their synopses to be less and less drama-driven.

(05-01-2008; 22:00) Dream Astronomy -
In the early years of the 20th century, letters arrived at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California written by people from all over the world who wanted to tell the astronomers information about the universe that they had acquired without using the observatory's giant telescope. The letters contained details of experiments, observations and intuitions, and read like an alternative history of space. With John Moraitis, Kerry Shale, Barbara Barnes and Jennifer Lee Jellicorse, plus the music of Olivier Messiaen and Urmas Sisask. (30m)

(26-01-2008; 22:00) Behind God's Back -
Nagyrev was a sleepy village in a remote part of Hungary - until a spate of mysterious poisonings made it big news. Nearly 50 of the town's men lay prematurely dead in the cemetery. Their bodies were found to be full of arsenic - and the suspects were their wives. What caused the women of Nagyrev to poison their husbands? Was it, as commentators at the time suggested, the impact of World War I or of social change? Was it revenge for their husbands' drinking and violence? The programme reconstructs the facts of a baffling mass-murder with archives from the trial, press reports and the memories of one Nagyrev resident still living who remembers the case. (30m)

(02-02-2008; 22:30) The Wall Of A Million Bricks -
In September 1969, Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Freeland, the most senior figure of the occupying British Forces in Northern Ireland, said that peace lines - solid walls separating communities - would be a temporary affair. Today, despite relative harmony in Northern Ireland, there are over 40 peace lines keeping Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods apart. Belfast-born DJ and film composer David Holmes weaves a soundtrack through stories told by people on both sides of the ever-continuing divide. (30m) (NB: See 15-03-2008 below...)

(16-02-2008; 21:45) Mobius Strip & The Confidence Trickster -
Forensic Psychiatrist Anne MacDonald, architect Cecil Balmond and the fiance of a compulsive liar try to understand the process of psychological manipulation in humans using the mathematical concept of the Mobius Strip - a piece of paper with only one side. (30m)

(08-02-2008; 22:15) Symphonies Of Wind Turbines -
A sonic meditation on wind turbines and their place in today's environment, recorded in Norfolk and the Fenlands. Including contributions from poet Kevin Crossley-Holland, architecture critic Jonathan Glancey and local residents, along with music created from the sounds of the turbines themselves. (20m)

(15-03-2008; 22:30) The Wall Of A Million Bricks
(NB: Listed with the exact same synopsis as 02-02-2008, and considering the subject matter the original tx was probably postponed to this date.)

(10-05-2008; 22:00) Out Of The Mouths -
A soundscape of the acquisition of language from a baby's viewpoint, concentrating on the way in which cries become sounds, then babbles, words and then sentences. The programme features fly-on-the-wall observations of several children at various stages in their linguistic development alongside contributions from language and child experts. (30m)

(24-05-2008; 21:00) A Map Of Paradise -
An impressionistic feature on the notion of paradise - lost, sought and found. In 1442, a Venetian cartographer in 1442 firmly situated paradise at the most eastern edge of India. For a young film company location scout, it is indistinguishable from the beach at Applecross on the west coast of Scotland, whereas others recognise it in the English country garden at Sissinghurst, Kent. For one of the architects responsible for a new retail experience in Paradise Street, Liverpool, it can be glimpsed in the joy in existence he feels with each new dawn. (30m)

(31-05-2008; 21:15) The Wash -
Poet Laureate Andrew Motion explores the great wilderness on the east coast of the country, known as the Wash. (30m)

(07-06-2008; 21:30) Staring At The Wall -
Alan Dein captures the sounds and thoughts of everyday life just outside the walls of Pentonville prison in North London, building up a portrait of enclosure, freedom and imagination. He talks to Bob, who was born close to Pentonville and grew up in the area. Bob rented a flat across the road with his girlfriend, became an inmate himself and watched her comings and goings on the street outside. Now a free man for many years he lives just feet from the prison wall, but this time on the outside, staring at the wall first thing in the morning and last thing at night. (30m)

(14-06-2008; 22:30) UK Crossfade -
Charting a journey in sound through the UK, moving from west to east, and north to south, in a series of long, very slow and sometimes almost imperceptible fades from one location to another. At the heart of the programme are location recordings and soundscapes from a wide range of places across the country - from the morning boats in a Devon harbour to an evening on the seafront in Skegness, via the daytime streets and quads of Oxford and a street parade in Spalding, to the sounds of rural Scotland and urban Lancashire. The journey follows a simple pattern, which listeners are invited to puzzle out for themselves. (30m)

(21-06-2008; 20:30) Hearts, Lungs & Minds -
An experimental documentary by sound artist John Wynne, who spent a year as artist-in-residence with photographer Tim Wainwright at Harefield Hospital, one of the world's leading centres for heart and lung transplants. Using recordings of patients, the devices some of them were attached to, and the hospital itself, the piece weaves together intensely personal narratives with the sounds of the hospital environment, exploring the experiences of transplant patients and the important issues raised by this invasive, last-option medical procedure. (30m)

(16-08-2008; 22:15; Rpt) Symphonies Of Wind Turbines (NB: Rpt of 08-02-2008 - see above.)

(23-08-2008; 22:00; Rpt) Rock's DNA: Portrait Of A Guitar Chord -
Embedded in the riffs to Purple Haze and Foxy Lady there's a guitar chord that's saturated in the blues, that's jazz-inflected and inclined to funk but, above all, speaks of rock. The Jimi Chord, a conflicted major-minor chord with a flattened seventh, unlocks the window into the soul of rock music and much more besides. With contributions from famous axemen such as Steve Howe (Yes), Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake), and John Campbell (Are You Experienced?). (30m)

(05-09-2008; 22:00; Rpt) Behind God's Back (NB: Rpt of 26-01-2008, this time on a Friday - see above.)

(12-09-2008; 22:00; Rpt) Jazz Ghosts in the Bronx - A tour of the vast Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, which is the final resting place for numerous jazz luminaries including Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Coleman Hawkins, King Oliver and Max Roach. With contributions from historian Susan Olsen, novelist Laura Shaine Cunningham and musician Maxine Roach, daughter of Max Roach. Plus original music by Iain Ballamy and Ashley Slater. (30m) (NB: Another Friday repeat, from 15-12-2007.)

(22-11-2008; 21:30) When Silence Sings -
A sonic reflection on the city of Venice, which is portrayed through the ears of some of its residents, including Tonie, a Norwegian psychologist who has been deaf from birth. She leads us down alleyways and into hidden little pockets of the city, all the while meditating on what role not being able to hear has played in her life and, in turn, inviting us to reflect on how we listen to our everyday lives. (30m)

(29-11-2008; 20:30) Crossing The Same River Twice -
Dramatist and theatre director Lou Stein draws upon the many sound recordings he has made during his life in a distinctive audio journey that explores the tensions between selective memory and identity. It takes him from his South Brooklyn childhood to citizenship in the UK, via Belfast and the Outer Hebrides, to becoming the father of a child born with Down's syndrome. Randomly recorded sound, Lou has found, is an very precise trigger for memory. (30m)

(06-12-2008; 21:15) Mole Jazz -
A portrait of the late Ed Dipple, an obsessive collector who ran what has been described as the world's greatest second-hand jazz shop in a shabby corner of London's Kings Cross. Ed's widow Leni, a poet, interviews old friends such as saxophonist Bobby Wellins and drummer Spike Wells. (30m)

(13-12-2008; 21:30; Rpt) The Refuge Box -
Half way between Holy Island and the mainland of Northumbria, a flight of steps leads to a wooden cabin on stilts. It is the Refuge Box, built to save people cut off by the tide from being swept away and drowned. This is the focus of a new radio poem by Katrina Porteous, whose poetry, recorded all over Holy Island and in the Refuge Box itself, is interspersed with other voices, including island fishermen who remember rescues and tragedies, the coastguard and lifeboat crew, the bird warden, the Franciscan vicar of Holy Island, and a refugee who fled her West African homeland to seek sanctuary in Britain. Beyond the human voices is the poetry of the place itself, the seals singing, the wheeze of swans flying over Holy Island, sudden jet fighters protecting this sanctuary yet violating its peace and, always, the wind and the sea. (30m) (NB: Rpt of 09-12-2007.)

(20-12-2008; 21:15) In Memoria -
A sound-collage created by Edward Wickham and Anthony Pitts, originally inspired by a visit to the tunnels of the National Mining Museum near Wakefield. It includes early music group The Clerks performing inside Crossness Pumping Station in Bexley, as well as children's songs, poetry, real life stories, a new motet by Pitts for three pairs of two voices, and medieval motets by Ockeghem, Dufay, Obrecht and Josquin. (30m)

(27-12-2008; 21:00) Woven in Time -
An evocative and poetic story about black female identity as told through the words of poets Zena Edwards and Khadijah Ibrahiim, and the lives of women in an Afro-Caribbean hair salon: a place where women congregate over several hours to shape their outer selves with intricate new hairstyles of corn rows, dreadlock and weaves, and share their inner selves as they socialise and ponder the trials of life. Taking the themes of woven hair and woven lives, of history and culture, the programme explores the link between the changing politics of black female identity, notions of black beauty, and how this has been expressed through hair to the present day. Zena Edwards has been commissioned to write new poetic narratives for the programme. Producer: Ella-Mai Robey. (30m)

THE WIRE

Saturdays nights, times and durations as noted; The fewest number of new plays since the slot's inception, but the usual run of repeats during the Summer months.

(12-01-2008; 21:45) The Switch (Ali Smith)
Partly inspired by the magically romantic film musicals of Jacques Demy, this is the story of George, a young electrician from the north of England, told in a sequence of songs, with words written by Ali Smith to a diverse selection of library recordings. Accompanied by his French bride, George heads for the Scottish Highlands in the optimistic 1960s to set up in business. Forty years later, their daughter Genevieve remembers her parents and her childhood as she journeys by train from London back to Scotland. George - Nick Farr, Sidonie - Lucy Paterson, Genevieve - Gabriel Quigley. (45m)

(09-02-2008; 21:10) Moonmen (Jimmy McAleavy)
A space odyssey with a difference, Moonmen centres on a philosophical encounter between two isolated men - an astronaut and a CB radio enthusiast in rural Ireland. Are they polar opposites or kindred spirits locked in a mutual orbit? Moonman - Dermot Crowley, Spaceman - Nathan Osgood, Ground Control - Peter Marinker, Radio Announcer - Linda Wray, DJ - Paul Sheridan. Director: Eoin OCallaghan. (60m) (NB: Rptd 23-08-2008)

(01-03-2008; 21:15) Lullaby Of Shadows (Andrea Earl)
A psychological thriller about a mother who believes her husband is plotting to kill their newborn baby. Jenny - Lyndsey Marshal, Matt - Joe Caffrey, Sylvia - Olwen May, Doctor - Stephen Tomlin. Directed by Pauline Harris. (45m) (NB: Rptd 09-08-2008)

(19-07-2008; 21:00; Rpt) The Incomplete Recorded Works Of A Dead Body (Ed Hime)
Hime's comic fictional documentary combines a collage of deliberate recordings, from police surveillance tapes to an unfinished installation piece on pigeons, as it follows Babak Beyrouti, famous Iranian sound recordist and agoraphobic, as he braves London in his quest for lost love. Contains scenes that some listeners may find disturbing. Babak Beyrouti - Khalid Abdalla, Dale P Malone - Ameet Chana, Lily - Elaine Lordan, Vikram - Saikat Ahamed, Gurney - John Dougall, Gabrielli - Mark Straker, Staple 4 - Anthony Glennon, Simone - Jasmine Callan. Directed by Jessica Dromgoole. (60m) (NB: Rpt of 31-03-2007.)

(26-07-2008; 21:45; Rpt) My Glass Body (wri/dir Anna Furse)
A contemplation of the astonishing and brutally painful experience of infertility, taking listeners on a poetic journey inside and outside the protagonist's body as images, memories, future fantasies, rages and desires float in and out of a sea of consciousness. Furse collaborated with composer Graeme Miller, whose score wraps around the world created by the voices of Barbara Flynn, Jack Klaff and Becky Hindley. (45m) (NB: Rpt of 05-05-2007.)

(02-08-2008; 21:15; Rpt) Eye Witness (Tom Kelly)
This powerful and intensely personal piece digs deep into the author's brutalising experiences growing up on the streets of Belfast. Will life continue to be seen through the prism of that time, or can he find a future without the burden of the past? Eye - Michael Smiley, Other voices performed by Michael Colgan, JonJo O'Neill and Ciaran McMenamin. Directed by Toby Swift. (45m) (NB: Rpt of 07-07-2007.)

(09-08-2008; 21:00; Rpt) Lullaby Of Shadows (Andrea Earl)
(NB: Rpt of 01-03-2008 - see above.)

(23-08-2008; 21:00; Rpt) Moonmen (Jimmy McAleavy) (NB: Rpt of 09-02-2008 - see above.)

(06-09-2008; 21:45; Rpt) I Can See You (Sarah Naomi Lee) Dawn's parents are black and white, but nothing is for her. A savagely comic look at the pleasure and pain of being mixed race in Britain today. Dawn - Nadine Marshall, Mum - Elaine Lordan, Michael - Lloyd Thomas, Bev - Katy Cavanagh, Bunny - Joannah Tincey, Left - Laura Molyneux, Right - Ben Onwukwe, Tyrone - Alex Lanipekun, Dawn (aged 8) - Anna Bengo. Directed by Jessica Dromgoole. (45m) (NB: Rpt of 03-11-2007.)

(11-10-2008; 20:45) Random (Debbie Tucker-Green)
A radio production of Debbie Tucker Green's stage play, first produced at the Royal Court in March of this year. Nadine Marshall plays four characters in a family whose ordinary day is shattered by unforeseen disaster. The cast also includes Petra Letang, Richie Campbell, Manjeet Mann, Jill Cardo, Inam Mirza and Gunnar Cauthery. Directed by Debbie Tucker Green and produced by Jeremy Mortimer. (55m)

(18-10-2008; 21:00) Dirty White Girl (Louise Wallwein)
Louise Wallwein's first radio play is inspired by a young woman she met in a workshop, a teenage racist whose life was upset by her attraction to a young Asian boy on the same workshop. Life is hard for Katie, a young white girl on a rough inner city estate and, to make things worse, her older sister's boyfriend, Ian, has started showing an interest in her. At a local community development project, Katie meets Farooq and his friend Naz. But when Ian catches Farooq and Katie together, things get out of control. Katie - Jemima Foxtrot, Chantelle - Rachel Brogan, Ian - Ciaran Griffiths, Farooq - Mahmood Miah, Dawn - Louise Wallwein, Yasmin/Mam - Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi, Garibaldi Man - Oliver Lee, Nasir - Billy Sarfraz. Directed by Susan Roberts. (45m)

(25-10-2008; 21:00) Nowt To Look At (Valerie Laws)
A play about deformity and self-image, telling the tale of Annie, a rose-obsessed, disfigured recluse whose head now floats in a pathology museum jar, a spoilt boy and a shy flower of a girl. Annie - Pat Dunn, Roz - Christina Berriman-Dawson, Jon - Brian Lonsdale, Other voices: Janice Acquah, Gunnar Cauthary, Donnla Hughes, Manjeet Mann. Director David Hunter. (45m)

(01-11-2008; 21:30) 49 Donkeys Hanged (Carl Grose)
A peculiar comedy by Cornish writer Carl Grose, inspired by seeing a Johannesburg local newspaper headline about a farmer who hanged 49 donkeys from tree branches on his land. In Grose's play, Stanley Bray, a Cornish farmer, is compelled to hang donkeys and his wheelchair-bound wife Joy is desperate to get out of the house. Their way of life is fast disappearing, the farm is bankrupt and this is Stanley's bizarre response. Stanley Bray - Charles Barnecut, Joy Bray - Amanda Lawrence, Solomon Singo - Sibusiso Mamba, Sally Tregersick - Helen Longworth, Randy Tregersick - John Canford, Carl Grose - himself. Directed by Claire Grove. (60m) (NB: Rptd 18-07-2009)

OTHER

Pieces that don't fit within the usual slots:

(10-05-2008; 20:35) Minghella Remembered -
A tribute to the filmmaker and playwright Anthony Minghella who died in March 2008. Including Hang Up, Minghella's award-winning play first broadcast in 1987. Centred around a late-night phonecall between two lovers, the play is a study of lost innocence, deception and treachery. With Anton Lesser and Juliet Stevenson. Directed by Robert Cooper. Plus Work in Progress: Two episodes from the BBC Radio 3 series which featured Minghella discussing putting the finishing touches to his film The Talented Mr Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith's novel. The director muses on the painstaking process of developing a screenplay from a literary source, contrasting this with the 'carnival atmosphere' and camaraderie of directing. Minghella also explains the importance of music in his life and in his films. He talks about the score for The Talented Mr Ripley and his longstanding collaboration with Lebanese-born composer Gabriel Yared, as well as his belief that the composer should be part of the production process as early as possible. (30m)

(29-07-2008; 21:45) A Cloud In A Paper Bag -
This drama-documentary by biographer Richard Holmes tells the story of the first decades of ballooning 200 years ago. Today's sport was then a scientific revolution underwritten with poetry. Getting up and staying aloft was a huge challenge, and what the pioneer balloonists saw from their baskets changed the way we think about the world. In the race to be the first across the Channel, the age old rivalry between Britain and France was renewed. With Nicky Henson, John Lightbody, Peter Marinker and Eleanor Tremain. (45m) (NB: Rpt of 23-12-2007, when it was tx'd in the Sunday Feature slot.)

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