Travel and Tourism: Radio Plays
The best travel play in my book is the one by Dave Esson, broadcast in 1992 - you'll never go to Spain again....
Here are my top plays involving travel or tourism, in year order. As usual, there are some notes lower down the page.
2005 Travel Sick*, by Lock and Devillart
2004 Temperatures Rising*, by S. Warne
2003 The little photographer*, by D. du Maurier, dram. M. Wandor
2002 Testimonies*, by C.H.Evans
2002 Mr. Bensley's Pram
1999 Skeggy*, by Chris Thompson
1992 Travel after Spanish Sighs*, by Dave Esson
c1985 Sardine Burial*, by Catherine Czerkawska
1984 Casa Clara*, by Dawn Lowe-Watson
1979 Professional Foul*, by Tom Stoppard
c1970 See the pretty lights*, by Alan Plater
NOTES
See the pretty lights....c1970(?)
Date not known at time of writing but appears to be late 60s /early 70s. Two lonely young people meet, on holiday, outside a discotheque somewhere on the coast. The companion plays are COME TO THE FAIR, by Norman Smithson, and THE PETITION, by Len Rush. All of these plays are in VRPCC collections.
PROFESSIONAL FOUL....1979
See Tom Stoppard page. Well known play set in England and Czechoslovakia. Stars
Peter Barkworth.
CASA CLARA ....1984
By Dawn Lowe-Watson... a couple on holiday; he with a relentlessly shrewish wife; she with a too-demanding female friend....
SARDINE BURIAL....c1985
A heartwarming play about a holiday romance. Two women in Spain: one vivacious and the other a rather timid teacher...will either of them find a handsome Spaniard, or will they be stuck with Derek and Colin for the week? With Petra Markham as Marianne, Arturo Venegas as Manuel, and Kay Stoneham as Anita, with Ken Cumberledge and Philip Sully as the ignorant Englishmen. Directed by Jeremy Mortimer.
TRAVELS AFTER SPANISH SIGHS....1992
Wonderful, hilarious, nailbiting play about a couple who go for a holiday
to Spain on the cheap.
SKEGGY ....1999
A play by Chris Thompson about three couples staying in the infamous holiday resort...with Norman Bird, Susan Brooke, Alison Carney. Dir. Peter Leslie Wild
Mr. Bensley's Pram....2002
By Dylan Ritson;
Saturday Play,
23rd November 2002.
Testimonies....2002, 55m
P. O'Brien, dramatised by C.H.Evans. A sad tale set in rural Wales. An Oxford prof. goes to stay in his holiday cottage and falls ill. A local farmer's wife puts him up and helps him recover. All would be well were it not for the visit of a pompous, sexually-frustrated priest.
The Little Photographer....2003
See Michelene Wandor's page. Afternoon play, 45m; excellent story and dramatisation.
Travel Sick....2005
By Trevor Lock and Sam Devillart.
A hypochondriac Englishman journeys across Peru in search of true love
and himself. William Hart has his western mindset melted by the
seemingly crazy, fuzzy logic and unpredictability of everyday life in
Latin America, and his heart melted by a lovely South American girl
he may never see again. Producer Helen Williams; stars Trevor Lock.
Almost but not quite a monologue.
You might also be interested in a travel book by Roy Hounsell and published
recently by Yiannis books. It's called "The Papas and the Englishman" and is a brilliantly written
tale about the move he and his wife made to Zagoria (Greek mainland) after 8 years in Corfu. A
wonderful story of integration into Greek village life.
Nigel Deacon / Diversity website
Asterisked plays known to exist in VRPCC collections
