James Fritz Radio Plays
James Fritz is a young British playwright living in South London. He has written a number of plays for stage, and some excellent radio plays, one of which won two awards - the Imison and the Tinniswood, in 2017. I won't attempt to use any of the superlatives beloved of drama reviewers (real people don't talk like that), but the quality of his radio work is such that you have to listen until the end. His work holds the attention; what more can you ask for?
Here is a list of his radio dramas, in reverse chronological order. That means the newest ones are at the top!
17 Jun 2026: Life and Time: 3-1: Three Days
A new series of the drama which illuminates what's going on in English prisons. Indidentally I notice in today's news bulletins (9 Jun 26) that many prisons are in crisis - they can't obtain the staff they need because of delays in the vetting process. I wonder if that will be mentioned ...... anyway, in the play, we follow the story of Lee, a prisoner from Series 1, who is mistakenly released.
Lee ..... Carl Prekopp,
Yas ..... Yasmin Mwanza,
Clare ..... Maddy Lenny,
Jenny ..... Emma Handy,
Carly ..... Laura Dos Santos,
Rihanna ..... Rebekah Murrell,
Prison Director ..... Ben Crowe,
The Box Officer ..... Harry Myers,
Toby/Reverend ..... Joe Jameson,
Minister ..... Ian Dunnett Jnr.
Produced by Tracey Neale.
SMs: Keith Graham, Sam Dickinson and Andrew Garrett.
Production Co-Ordinator, Ben Hollands. BBC.
10 Sept 2025: Life and Time - The Officers, 1: One Year
Prison Officer Michael Rose featured briefly in the first series and now he's back. He's good at his job. But experienced officers are leaving and not being replaced. Death by a thousand cuts. Life on the inside is as tough for the officers as it is for the prisoners.
Michael ..... Robert Glenister,
Rihanna ..... Rebekah Murrell,
Paul ..... Jason Barnett,
Jenny ..... Emma Handy,
Steven ..... Gabin Kongolo,
Toby ..... Chris Lew Kum Hoi,
Control Room/Officer Moritz ..... Ian Dunnett Jnr.
Produced and directed by Tracey Neale.
Technical Producer: Keith Graham.
Production Co-Ordinator: Ben Hollands.
[The first series of Life and Time was awarded Bronze at this year's Audio and Record Industry Awards].
11 Sept 25: Life and Time, 2: Thirty-Eight Weeks
By James Fritz, following on from yesterday. New Prison Officer Rihanna has been shown the ropes but it's not easy. She is the new key worker to Steven, a prisoner with challenging behaviour. The prison system is struggling to cope with overcrowding, under-staffing and lack of funding.
Michael ..... Robert Glenister,
Rihanna ..... Rebekah Murrell,
Steven ..... Gabin Kongolo.
Producer and Director: Tracey Neale,
Technical Producer: Keith Graham,
Production Co-Ordinator: Ben Hollands.
5 Nov 2024: Life and Time, 1: Fourteen Years
By James Fritz. Play set behind prison walls. Two prisoners are on ‘Imprisonment for Public Protection’ sentences. The first is a young man who has committed his first offence. The second is a returning prisoner who is now in his late 70s and struggling to cope with life in prison. Background: In 2002 the Home Secretary David Blunkett introduced a new type of sentence, intended to protect the public from those who had committed serious crimes. Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) gave judges the power to grant open-ended, indeterminate sentences to those regarded as too dangerous to be released when the term of their original sentence had expired. But theory and practice turned out to be different.
Martin ….. Connor Finch,
John ….. Kenneth Cranham,
Prison Officer Rose ….. Robert Glenister,
Kate ….. Kacey Ainsworth,
Sammy ….. Ty Tennant.
Producer.... Tracey Neale.
Sound Design, Keith Graham.
Production Co-Ordinator, Ben Hollands.
6 Nov 2024: Life and Time, 2: Forty Minutes
By James Fritz.Two prisoners are on ‘IPP' sentences. The first is a young man who has committed his first offence. The second, John, (a reoffender) is now in his late 70s; he has mobility problems and is struggling to cope with life in prison. In this episode, John's cellmate is on work duty, and John falls seriously ill.
Martin ….. Connor Finch,
John ….. Kenneth Cranham,
Prison Officer Rose ….. Robert Glenister,
Lee ….. Carl Prekopp,
Margaret ….. Tracy Wiles.
Produced by Tracey Neale.
6 Sep 23: The Test Batter Can’t Breathe
By James Fritz. It's a Test Match between Australia and England. But the commentary is interrupted by the disappearance of one of the English batsmen. The young cricketer has walked out of the match and no one knows where or why. He talks to a therapist; this is a play about a man who, because he's stressed, allows external events to overwhelm him. It must be said that top-level cricket has had a long-standing problem with poor mental health. Many prominent players have experienced drug abuse, anxiety, depression and other problems. Top-level sport involves close scrutiny of talent combined with extended periods away from home and family. The batsman out for a duck is left for days or weeks to stew on his failure. This is a worthy companion piece to "The Bully", a drama about OCD, (also produced by Tracey Neal) which was repeated recently.
The Batsman ..... Dan Parr,
The Dad ..... Ian Conningham,
The Ex Girlfriend ..... Melissa Vaughan,
The Bowler ..... Will Kirk,
The Therapist ..... Tracy Wiles,
The Test Commentator ..... Jonathan Agnew.
Produced by Tracey Neale.
(........ Diversity Website radio review)
17 Nov 22: Dear Harry Kane
By James Fritz. Story of a young Sri Lankan, Nisal, a Spurs fan, who travels to Qatar to work on building the World Cup Stadiums. The conditions of work there, unfortunately, are a disgrace.
Nisal ..... Hiran Abeysekera,
Nadeesha ..... Shalini Peiris,
Joseph ..... Jyuddah Jaymes,
Supervisor ..... Neil D'Souza,
Father ..... Amesh Edireweera,
Football commentary ..... David Hounslow.
Directed by Sally Avens.
DEAR HARRY KANE (R4, 1415, 17 Nov 22) was the story of a Sri Lankan Spurs fan who travels to Qatar to work on building the World Cup Stadiums. There is virtually no prospect of a job in his own country. When he reaches Qatar he finds he will be helping to build the stadium in which his footballing hero, Harry Kane, will play one day. But the working conditions are considerably worse than those in the job description, and the wages are nowhere near what he expected. Is this really how the Quataris treat their immigrant workers? Nisal was played by Hiran Abeysekera, Nadeesha by Shalini Peiris and Joseph by Jyuddah Jaymes. Football commentary was by David Hounslow and the producer was Sally Avens. (........ Diversity Website radio review, Dec 2022)
The Audio Drama Awards ceremony took place in the Radio Theatre at the BBC on Sunday 24 March 2024. Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s Chief Content Officer, introduced the proceedings, commenting that the BBC had championed radio drama for 100 years and was continuing to do so (at a time when commissioning drama has been reduced by 50% - Ed).
One highlight of the ADA event was Sally Avens, James Fritz and the team receiving the award for Best Original Drama for James's play 'Dear Harry Kane'. This was the story of a young Sri Lankan who travels to Qatar. Nisal is a Spurs fan, and when he reaches Qatar he's delighted at the propect of helping to build the stadium. But he discovers that there's nothing impressive about his working conditions. (....ND, Diversity Website review, Apr 2024)
2 Jan 20:Eight Point Nine Nine
By James Fritz and Becky Ripley. What if doping were allowed in athletics? How much faster could we go? And at what cost? A retelling of the Julian Mason scandal, a year after the closure of Project Hermes, the doping program which enabled Mason to run the 100m in under nine seconds. What drove the scientists at the heart of the project? What made the athletes sign up? And who was to blame when things went wrong? Drama-doc. Rpt. 12 Apr 21.
20 Apr 19: Saturday Play - Death of a Cosmonaut
By James Fritz, 45m. A monolgue which imagines the final moments of Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, who has to come to terms with the prospect of the mission ending in his death. Rpt. from April 2007. Julian Rhind-Tutt; produced by Rebecca Ripley.
5 Oct 16: Comment is Free
By James Fritz. A woman with an outspoken media-man as a husband goes through hard times after he goes one step too far on a television programme. Loosely based on what happens on social media and the superficiality of the conversations between Facebook "friends". Hilary Cooper: Rachael Stirling, Alistair Cooper (who hardly appears): Tobias Menzies. Produced by Becky Ripley. A few media personalities appear as themselves. Rpt. Jan 2017.
COMMENT IS FREE (R4, 1415, 5 Oct 2016) by James Fritz was a scathing comment on the superficiality of Facebook and other social media. I am a user of Facebook as a way of keeping in touch with friends and the radio drama world. However it has to be kept under control. People at the other end of the internet are an unknown quantity; they are not really friends, though obviously they may become friends if you meet them. Secondly, there's a lot of very useful information on Facebook and similar sites; it's a way of becoming better-informed about many topics, but the amount of superficial, ill-informed and spiteful comment also on there is enormous.
Anyway - to the play. A woman with an outspoken media-man as a husband goes through very hard times after he goes a step too far on a television programme and someone stabs him. The play then speculates about the sickly social-media aftermath to this event. You can imagine it ... platitudes plastered all over social media: comments like 'Love Matters', followed by the ubiquitous and mindless 'Share if you Agree'. (........ Diversity Website radio review, Dec 2016)
- UPDATE... AUDIO DRAMA AWARDS, 2017
.........As for the awards themselves, I have a few personal highlights, though there were some plays I missed. I liked James Fritz's play "Comment Is Free" which won both the Imison and Tinniswood Awards. The play examines (and is a scathing comment on) the dangers of social media and the way it can affect our lives. (........ Diversity Website radio review, Apr 2017)
ND / Diversity website
