2006 Radio Plays
THE WICKEDEST MAN IN THE WORLD .... 2006
R4, 8 Nov 06. Story of a German war criminal, one of the
Esterhazys, who lived the last 30 years of his life as a recluse in
England, under a different name. 45m.
BORN FOR WAR....2006
24 Oct 06. By David Pownall. Two plays marked the invasion of the Suez Canal in 1956. Born For War
featured Mark Arens as an angry young man as the big news event of the day highlighted uncomfortable
divisions in his family. Tilly Black’s Sand was set in Port Said where a ten-year-old English girl
played by sweet-voiced Holly Bodimeade unconsciously echoed the patronising cliches of the ex-pat community.
short excerpt from review by Moira Petty, in "The Stage", Oct 06.
THREE DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD....2006
R4, Friday play, 20 Oct 06.
Dram. Penny Gold. This is about the attempted coup
against President Gorbachev in 1991, complied from his
wife's diaries and from news reports of the time.
John Shrapnel stars as the Russian leader, and Frances Jeater
plays his wife, Raisa. 55m.
BOOKS....2006
by Tessa Hadley. 19 Oct 06. On a recurring Radio 4 theme. The
heroine, Terry, has never read a word of her stepfather's fiction, so
his books and papers don't mean much to her. She's trying
to clear the house and sell it. A young academic,
however, values it all - even the dross. Produced by
Tim Dee. Music by Geoff Nichols; played by Imogen Triner
(oboe) and John Welch (piano).
KEEPING THE SCORE .... 2006
29 Aug 2006; another cricket play by Jane Morgan, passionate
follower of the game; written by Martyn Wade. Gerald's winter refuge is the
score box at the village cricket ground, where he's the official scorer in
the summer. His wife doesn't know this, and he's determined she won't
find out. Then one day a man turns up to disturb him with an important
message. Stars David Troughton as Gerald, Sam Kelly asDerek, and the music was
written and played by Neil Brand.
LONG ROAD TO IONA .... 2006
30 Aug 06. Interesting play about an inveterate walker, an elderly
widow who is not prepared to sit out the rest of her days at home
just to please her relatives. She embarks on some serious long
distance walking. Stars Ann Scott-Jones as Jean; produced by Ian Neville.
DARKNESS .... 2006
31 Aug 06. A surgoen who's been on duty in Iraq learns that he's losing his
sight. He volunteers for a dangerous experiment. With Steffan Rhodri; produced
by Kate McAll.
THE LITTLE QUEEN OF ENGLAND .... 2006
By Rob John; 1 Sep 06. Amusing light comedy - drama about a woman who lives
in a fantasy world and never tells the truth to her daughter. But after
a series of misadventures and let-downs, there's a pleasant ending.
Stars Elana Binysh, Victoria
Hamilton, Lee Ross, Jon Glover; produced by Roland Jacquarello.
A TIGER FOR MALGUDI....2006
9 Oct 06; by R.K.Naryan; ad. Ronald Frame. This tale was last dramatised
by Bill Ash in the early 90s, as a 90 minute play. Ronald Frame's treatment
is quite different, at half the length. It's told from the point of view of an old tiger
who was captured by humans many years ago and is little more than a house pet.. He
observes the behaviour of his Indian masters with wry detachment, and goes back over
his past. Then an old man talks to him....
COELOCANTH....2006
Oct 06; by Ben Moor. Set in the fictional world of professional
tree-climbing, this highly entertaining monologue contained lines
reminding me of Milton Jones. His voice also sounds very like that of
Stefan Buczacki, of "GQT" fame. The plot is this:
Ben finds love with a tree climber,
loses it, and finds happiness again, and there are bizarre happenings
on the way.
The title comes from a creature rediscovered a little over 100 years ago,
thousands of years after if was believed extinct. It had passed
through the whole of recorded time without realising that human life
existed. Its integrity, like Ben's love for his girl, was immune to
the passage of time.
THE MIRONOV LEGACY .... 2006
By Helen Dunmore. 5 Sep 06. Based on the letters of Helen
Mirren's grandfather, Pyotr Mironov, a military attache cut off by the
Russian Revolution in England from family, friends, and the country he loved.
Geoffrey Whitehead played grandfather, and Helen Mirren played
her own aunt Lena, writing to him about the death of his mother, the changes
in the country, and in their circumstances.
The old man grumbled that the play-acting of his grand-daughters
would come to nothing, and that a profession was what mattered because no-one could
take it away. He tries to tell them about his own history,
about where their family home used to be, how wolves would come out of the forest
at night, and how nightingales would sing.
This was a beautiful, moving play, produced by Mark Smalley.
VOICES FROM THE GRAVE....2006
Four chilling dramas inspired by existing ghost stories from around Britain. The cast includes Lesley Ash, Janet Brown and Geoffrey Beevers. These original plays are directed by Gemma Jenkins and Luke Fresle. Commissioned by BBC 7.
The Lie
by Lynn Ferguson
7 Mar 06. Buildings should consist of "beauty, utility and firmness". Angela says the same about people. Lose one and it all falls apart.
The Parson
by David Varela
8 Mar 06. Back from missionary work abroad, Reverend Martin Stokes stumbles into a nightmare of biblical proportions.
50 Berkeley Square
by Dylan Ritson
9 Mar 06. The setting is Victorian England and a house, rumoured to be the most haunted in London, is about to give up its dark secret.
Middlewitch
by Lucy Catherine
10 Mar 06. It's midsummer in North Wales and an old woman waits for the curse of Aberthol Christmas to strike her village once more.
THE POWDER .... 2006
R4, 1415, 16 Feb 06, by Adam Thorpe. The play is about
Jack, a young demobbed soldier, returning to the family farm. He saw some
horiffic things in the war, when he was part of a tank crew. Back home, his
father has rented their best field to a person who's growing barley, a crop which
normally doesn't thrive there. It's actually an experiment with weed killer,
developed with a manufacturer involved in concentration
camp exterminations. Cast - Dominic Curran, Jason Done,
David Fleeshman, Angela Curran. Chris Wallis was the
director. (Adam Thorpe also did a couple of plays about Thomas Hardy a year
or two back).
DEATH OF A SALESMAN....1993, rpt. 2006
Rpt. R4, 11 Feb 06, as the Saturday Play - on the first anniversary of
Arthur Millers's death. This is the John Tydeman production, made for the
writer's 80th birthday in 1993. It stars Timothy West and Rosemary Leach; casting which pleased
Miller (G. Reynolds, Daily Telegraph). He heard the version, and approved
of it greatly.
EX LIBRIS....2006
by Nicholas McInnerney, R4 1415, 31 Jan 06, attracted interesting comments on the Radio 4 messageboard. “It was a gripping journey through a matrix of affairs of the heart; it didn't wallow or focus on grief but took the reader on a fantastic journey through a huge gamut of emotional experiences. The academic context was spot-on, too, and readily accessible to the average listener.” (C.H.)
“From the opening strands of Bach´s cello suites to the last this drama had class written all over it”. …just the tonic I needed clearing up after last night´s New Years´Eve bash. Lets hope this sets the trend for the year ahead. (‘penguin’, a frequent contributor to the R4 messageboard).
Nigel Deacon / Diversity website
Most of the above plays known to exist in VRPCC collections
