Radio 3 Drama, 1993

In a bunker under Baghdad, the president's beautiful mistress soothes him with stories of a legendary Arabian Nights caliph and the poet who denounced his regime.
Director Richard Wortley
The President: Brian Glover
Caliph: Edward de Souza
Shahrazad: Jenny Funnell
Ishak: David Thorpe
Jafar: John Church
Masrur: Colin McFarlane
President's Wife: Jill Graham
Queen Zobeidah: Kate Binchy
Al-Zalamah: Steve Hodson
Al-Hadi: David Holt
Hairvili: Gordon Reid
Mizr Wadi Hathi: John Baddeley
Hassan: Keith Drinkel
Pervaneh: Federay Holmes
Rafi: James Telfer
Repeated 17th July 1994



7th March 1993:
21.15 :
Sunday Play: Silence in Blue by Sarah Woods.
Lisa escapes to Australia, but finds she is still haunted by the past. An Aboriginal woman tells the story of another woman traveller on walkabout, until the real and fictional journeys collide when the two women meet.
Original music composed by Dominique Legendre
Director Claire Grove
Lisa: Emma Chambers
Marian: Mona Hammond
Flight Officer: John Turnbull
Martin: David Holt
Paul: Peter O'Brien
Surfer: Christopher Simon
Tony: Michael McGrath
Roller: Jonathan Adams
Anti-abortionist: Jillie Meers
Nurse: Melanie Hudson
Air hostess: Federay Holmes



14th March 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: The Lovesong of Alfred J Hitchcock A "film for radio" by David Rudkin.
1957: Alfred Hitchcock is busy crystallising images and ideas that will ultimately become Vertigo, Psycho ... Thoughts, memories and obsessions haunt the film director and lead towards a frightening realisation about the meaning of his life's work. Director Philip Martin says the play is both a celebration of Hitchcock's art and an exploration of the dark loneliness of a fat man who used leading men like James Stewart and Cary Grant to enact his fantasies with stars like
Grace Kelly , Kim Novak and - the only actress to whom Hitchcock is known to have made a physical advance - Tippi Hedren.
Director: Philip Martin
Alfred Hitchcock: Richard Griffiths
The Camera: Michael Fitzgerald
Unknown: Alfred Hitchcock
Alma: Gillian Goodman
Screenwriter: Clark Peters
Jesuit: Frank Grimes
Mrs Hitchcock: Kate Binchy
Voices: Judy Bennett
Many Voices: Steve Nallon
LA Lawyer: Dominic Taylor
Produced at BBC Pebble Mill radio studios.
The broadcast won David Rudkin a Society of Authors Silver for best original script, and for Richard Griffiths a 1994 Sony Gold award for his magisterial and definitive performance.
Repeated 27th February 1994


21st March 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: The Hammer by Jonathan Holloway
A gothic thriller following the destinies of a clerk to Henry VIII, a Jacobean architect and a modern interior designer. Their paths converge and intertwine through hidden passages, maps, murder, love and obsession in the supernatural atmosphere of an old house.
Music: Adrian Johnston
Producers David Chilton and Nicholas Russell-Pavier
(An Essential production for BBC Radio 3)
Frederick: Martin Jarvis
Matthew: Tim McInnerny
Simon Skinner: Bill Nighy
Colin Stockbridge: Trevor Nichols
Gregory Linton: Joseph Bennett
Michelle Robinson: Saira Todd
Elizabeth Chynworth: Deborah Andlay
Sara Carter: Melinda Walker
Lord Chynworth / William Cecil: Crawford Logan
Repeated 1st May 1994


28th March 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Offa's Daughter by Adam Thorpe.
A golden bracelet with a king's face, a goblet of glass like stilled water, a promise to a servant, and a monk's scroll. Eadburgh, the wicked queen of legend.
Music Mia Soteriou
Director Jeremy Mortimer
Edward: Richard Johnson
Young Edward: Linus Roache
Eadburgh: Sian Phillips
Young Eadburgh: Tara Fitzgerald
Theya: Melanie Hudson
Brother Thomas: Matthew Morgan
Brother Gregory: Philip Anthony
Prince Beothri: Struan Rodger
King Of/a: Jonathan Adams
Char/emagne: John Church
Felix: David Thorpe
Retainer: James Telfer



4th April 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Yabuhara: The Blind Master Minstrel by Hisashi Inoue
A bawdy comedy charting the rise of a blind minstrel to the top ranks of Japanese society through murder, theft and extortion.
Translated and adapted by Marguerite Wells
Songs by Koichiro Uno
Additional music Mia Soteriou
Director Ned Chaillet
Storyteller: John Woodvine
Sugi no Ichi: Roger Allam
Oichi: Mia Soteriou
Also with David Bannerman, Ronald Herdman, Siriol Jenkins, Charles Millham, Joanna Myers,
Margaret Shade, Susan Sheridan, Auriol Smith and Andrew Wincott
(sound effects with the actors and making strong use of a chorus created from the acting company)
Repeated from 13th October 1991.



11th April 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Walker in the Night by David Calcutt.
On the eve of his battle with the dragon, Beowulf is still haunted by the spirit of the monster Grendel
The Christian and pagan elements at the heart of the greatest of all Dark Age epics.
Musical accompaniment by Sue Harris
Director Nigel Bryant
Beowulf: Stephen Tomlin
Grendel: Richard Avery
Wiglaf: David Holt
ScyldScefing: Martin Head
Grendel's Mother: Mary Wimbush
Hrothgar: Michael Lumsden
Wealtheow: Sandra Berkin
Aschere: Martin Reeve
Unferth: Richard O'Ryan
Woman at Lake: Tania Ison
Storyteller: Andy Hockley



18th April 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: The School for Scandal by Richard Sheridan
An old bachelor marries a young country wife, a comedy of gossip, scandal and injured reputation.
Director Michael Fox
Sir Peter Teazle: Paul Eddington
Lady Teazle: Geraldine Alexander
Sir Oliver Surface: John Moffatt
Joseph Surface: Malcolm Raeburn
Charles Surface: Neil Roberts
Mrs Candour: Ann Rye
Lady Sneerwell: Jane Cox
Crabtree/Moses: Robin Herford
Sir Benjamin Backbite: Peter Rylands
Rowley: John Church
Maria: Alison Reid
Careless: Richard Heap
Snake: John Lloyd Fillingham
Trip: Jonathan Tafler
Repeated from 28th June 1992


25th April 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
"Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy"
A co-production between Radio 3 and the Renaissance Theatre Company, using the full text of the play.
With
Music by Patrick Doyle , realised by the composer and John Powell
Textual adviser Russell Jackson
Directors Kenneth Branagh and Glyn Dearman
Romeo: Kenneth Branagh
Chorus: Ian Holm
Samson: Mark Hadheld
Gregory: Andy Hockley
Abraham/Balthasar: Richard Clifford
Benvolio: Simon Callow
Tybalt: Iain Glen
Capulet: Richard Briers
Capulet's wife: Shelia Hancock
Montague: Bernard Hepton
Montague's wife: Dilys Laye
Prince: Norman Rodway
Paris: Nicholas Farrell
Peter: Jimmy Yuill
Nurse: Judi Dench
Juliet: Samantha Bond
Mercutio: Derek Jacobi
Capulet's cousin/Apothecary: Maurice Denham
Page: Richard Pearce
Friar Laurence: John Gielgud
Friar John: Richard Vernon
With Citizens, musicians and members of the Watch played by Sean Barrett. Patti Holloway, Alex Lowe, Shaun Prendergast and members of the cast.
Repeated 2nd January 1994


30th April 1993:
22.30 :
A Sorceress of Her Time by Michael Bakewell. Alma Schindler married in turn to Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel, was one of the outstanding Viennese beauties of her day. She inspired either deep love or loathing in all who met her. After an eventful life, she died in California at the age of 85.
"My life was beautiful. God gave me to know the works of genius in our time before they left the hands of their creators. And if, for a while, I was able to hold the stirrups of these horsemen of light, my being has been justified and blessed". (Alma Mahler)
Director Rosemary Hart
Alma Mahler: Jane Lapotaire
Mahler: Robin Ellis
Oskar Kokoschka: Nicholas Farrell
Franz Werfel: Nikolas Grace
Friedrkh Torberg: Kerry Shale
Bertha Zuckerkandl: Mary Wimbush
Walter Gropius: Alan Barker
Gustav Klimt: David Goudge
Carl Mot: John Webb
Max Burckhard: John Fleming
Klaus Mann: Philip Anthony
Albrecht Joseph: Jonathon Adams
Alexander Von Zemlinsky: James Telfer
Mrs Arlt: Geraldine Fitzgerald
Repeated 27th August 1993



2nd May 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: The Ruling Class by Peter Barnes.
Because the 14th Earl believes the world should be based on love, he's thought to be insane. It's only when he becomes sadistic, malevolent and murderous that society believes him to be normal.
Music by Stephen Deutsch
Director Gerry Jones
Contributors
Unknown: Peter Barnes.
Music By: Stephen Deutsch
Director: Gerry Jones
Inspector Brockett.... Keith Drinkel
13th Earl of Gurney: Peter Jeffrey
14th Earl of Gurney: Simon Callow
Tucker: John Hollis
Sir Charles Gurney: Peter Bayliss
Bishop Lampton: Timothy Bateson
Dinsdale Gurney: Geoffrey Beevers
Lady Claire Gurney: Jillie Meers
Dr Paul Herder: Geoffrey Whitehead
Grace Shelley: Elizabeth Mansreld
Matthew Peakc: Christopher Good
MrKyle: Fraser Kerr
Mrs Trendwell: Jill Graham
Mrs Piggol-Jones: Joanna Wake
Kelso Truscott: John Baddeley
Repeated 26th March 1995


9th May 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: MacRune's Guevara by John Spurling.
When Edward Hotel embarks on a dramatisation of the life of Che Geuvara, based on the works of the mad Scottish painter
MacRune, not only do the cast try to take over the production - so too does the ghost of MacRune. Hotel is having none of this.
Music by Mia Soteriou performed by Tom Finucane, Robin Jones and the composer
Director Jeremy Howe
Che Guevara: Phil Daniels
Edward Hotel: John Moffatt
MacRune: Desmond Barrit
Joaquin, etc: Peter Polycarpou
Tania, etc: Mia Soteriou
Coco, etc: Matthew Morgan
Coque Lope, etc: Sean Barrett
Rosaura, Angelique, Mrs Rent etc: Geraldine Fitzgerald
Narrator, Julien Sorrel, etc: David Holt
Lieutenant, Frank Le Blanc etc: David Bannerman
Blackjack, etc: Keith Drinkel



16th May 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Early Morning by Edward Bond.
Disraeli and Prince Albert are planning a revolution. Queen Victoria is seducing Florence Nightingale. The heir to the throne is a Siamese twin. Adapted for radio by the author.
"A world of arbitrary, institutionalised cruelty, where cannibalism, metaphorical and later literal, is the order of the day, and ... people 'don't just hate their own life - they hate life itself. It's a matter of conscience, like duty in the blood.'"
This was the last play to be banned by the Lord Chamberlain before the abolition of his office in 1968.
Director David Benedictus
Contributors
Unknown: Edward Bond
Unknown: John Russell Taylor
Director: David Benedictus
Prince Arthur: Julian Rhind-Tutt
Prince George: Stephen Tredre
Albert: Frederick Jaeger
Disraeli: James Villiers
Gladstone: Ben Thomas
Lord Chamberlain: Moray Watson
Lord Mennings: John Baddeley
Len: Paterson Joseph
Corporal Jones/Officer: David Thorpe
Private Griss: James Telfer
Doctor: Jonathan Adams
Ned: David Holt
Queen Victoria: Margaret Courtenay
Florence Nightingale: Lucy Tregear
Joyce: Joan Sims



17th May 1993:
20.55 (30 mins) :
Cowboys 2 by Sam Shepard.
Cowboys 2 is a rewriting of an earlier play. Two young men nourish their imaginations on cowboy mythology, but will their make-believe survive against the real world?
Director Tracey Neale
Chet: Jack Klaff
Stu: Stuart Milligan
Man No 1: David Holt
Man No 2: David Thorpe



21st May 1993
21.10 (35 mins) :
Identical Twins by Caryl Churchill.
An Interior Duologue by Caryl Churchill.
Outwardly, Teddy and Clive look alike and they share a similar upbringing. But though they appear identical, they possess individual identities. Director John Tydeman
Clive / Teddy: Kenneth Haigh




23rd May 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Total Eclipse by Christopher Hampton.
' My search for universal experience has led me here. To lead an idle, pointless life of poverty, as the minion of a bald, ugly, ageing, drunken lyric poet, who clings on to me because his wife won't take him back.'
Paris, 1871. Into the precarious peace of Verlaine's marriage bursts Rimbaud - 16, aggressive, uncouth and a poetic genius.
Director Alison Hindell
Paul Verlaine: David Haig
Arthur Rimbaud: Richard Lynch
Mathilde Verlaine: Maggie O'Neill
Mme Maute de Fleurville: Elizabeth Morgan
M Maute de Fleurville: Sion Probert
Isabelle Rimbaud: Sue Jones-Davies
Charles Cros: Andrew Wincott
Etienne Carjat: Ric Jerrom
Barman / Ernest Cabaner: Simon Walter
Not credited on BBC Genome:
Sion Probert also played Jean Aicard
Elizabeth Morgan also played Eugene Krantz
(A film version was released in 1995, there were also earlier radio versions)

=====================

Marking the 400th anniversary of Christopher Marlowe's death:

30th May 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: (Two plays, BBC Genome gave the actors in a single list)
19.30 to 20.40
Dido, Queen of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe.
Marlowe's first play is based on Virgil's Aeneid.
Directors (both plays): Alan Drury and Michael Earley
Dido: Sally Dexter
Aeneas: Timothy Walker
Iarbas: Jeremy Blake
Achates: Ben Thomas
Anna/Juno: Teresa Gallagher
Sergestus/Hermes: David Thorpe
Jupiter/ Ilioneus: John Webb
Cloanthus: Philip Anthony
Ascanius: Ian Shaw
Venus: Diana Payan
Cupid: Andrew Wincott
Ganymede: Matthew Sim
[The character Mercury is not listed on BBC Genome]
20.30 to 20.40 Interval



30th May 1993:
20.40 to 21.40 The Massacre at Paris by Christopher Marlowe.
Marlowe's last play, based on the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of the Huguenots in Paris in 1572. A savagely comic account of political and religious strife.
Directors (both plays): Alan Drury and Michael Earley
Charles IX /Surgeon : John Webb
Anjou, later Henry III : Timothy Walker
Duke of Guise : Jeremy Blake
Queen Catherine : Sally Dexter
First Lord: Ian Shaw
Navarre, later Henry IV : Ben Thomas
Margaret /Duchess of Guise : Teresa Gallagher
Conde/Mugeroun /Son of Guise : Andrew Wincott
Apothecary /Dumaine /Joyeux : Matthew Sim
Admiral /Seroune /Pleshe : Philip Anthony
Gonzago/Loreine/Epernoun: Ian Shaw
Retes /Cardinal : David Thorpe
Old Queen /Seroune's Wife : Diana Payan
[A number of minor roles not credited in BBC Genome]

=========================


4th June 1993:
22.45-23.30 :
The Empty Jew (Part 1) by Frederic Raphael
"Spain in the early fifties was a source of dread and mystery. Bracketed behind the Pyrenees, its unliberated calendar lagged two decades - or was it two centuries? - behind ours ... To go there suggested a mixture of naivete, greed and ghoulishness...."
1954. A young man broods on the meaning of apparently casual encounters while travelling in Spain, which culminate in the garden of the Alhambra by moonlight with the Jewish ministers and philosophers of the Moorish era.
Producer Louise Purslow
Narrator: Frederic Raphael.
Man on the train: Edward de Souza
Alexander: Lou Hirsch
Alicia: Eleanor Bron
Narrator: Frederic Raphael
(Part 2 11th June 1993, same cast)
Repeated: Part 1-23rd August 1994, Part 2-25th August 1994)


6th June 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Edward II by Christopher Marlowe
Love and kingship, the burden of responsibility and the use and abuse of power.
Despite God's appointment of this mercurial king, the barons are spitefully aware of their own strength and determined to ensure that Edward fulfils their own power fantasies. Nothing annoys them more than Edward's uncertainty about what should take precedence - his own deep bond to his favourite Piers Gaveston or his duty to God and his country.
The director of this production, Clive Brill , says: "We've used a string quartet to drive the story forward, to underline the inner wranglings of the mind versus the need for political expedience, and to complement the tangled ambitions and complex emotions."
Music by Dominique Legendre played by the Ad Hoc String Quartet and Maclek Hrybowicz (percussion)
Director Clive Brill
Edward: Robert Glennister
Young Mortimer: Steve Hodson
Lady Margaret: Federay Holmes
Gaveston/Gurney: Robert Patterson
Queen Isabella: Adjoa Andoh
Young Spencer: David Holt
Lancaster/ Winchester: Keith Drinkel
Warwick/Matrevis: Mark Straker
Kent: Scott Cherry
Mortimer Snr/Arundel/Mower: Jonathan Adams
Canterbury / Levune / Hainault: John Webb
Baldock/Berkeley: David Thorpe
Edward III: Monty Allen
Pembroke/Rice Ap Howell: John Church
Coventry/Old Spencer/Leicester: Philip Anthony Lightborn: Jonathan Tafler



13th June 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: The Tragical History of Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
The year is 1537, and an inquiry is in progress into the horrifying death of Dr. Faustus and the rumours of his pact with the Devil.
With a specially composed score by Anthea Gomez played by the composer and Tim New.
Production By: Sue Wilson
Dr Faustus: Stephen Moore
Mephostophiks: Philip Voss
Robin, the clown: Barrie Rutter
Old Man: Maurice Denham
Lucifer: John Hollis
The Bad Angel: Michael Tudor Barnes
The Good Angel: Teresa Gallagher
Wagner/ Wrath/ Sir Rudolf: David Thorpe
The Emperor/ Covertness/ Ralph: Lawrence Evans
Voldes / Vintner/ Pride: John Webb
Beelzebub/ Gluttony: Jill Graham
She-devil wife/ Lechery: Liza Sadovy
Cornelius/ Scholar: David Monico
The Advocate: Keith Drinkel
The Pope/ Sloth/ Scholar: John Fleming
Envy: Lorna Laidlaw
Horse Coarser/ Scholar: John Baddeley
Archbishop/ Scholar: John Evitts


20th June 1993:
20.10 :
Sunday Play: The Building of the House by David Brett.
Following the death of their daughter, two musicians find that they are unable to continue their lives together until one of them, while working on The Magic Flute, discovers that the opera holds an unusual healing message for them.
Music performed by Stephanie Hughes
Director Eoin O'Callaghan
Contributors
Michael Scannell: Ian McElhinney
Eileen Scannell: Geraldine Fitzgerald
The child: Katy Gleadhill
Tommy O'Hare: John Hewitt
Sam McIlwaine: Mark Mulholland
Josh: Patrick Fitzsymons
Graham: Niall Cusack
Priest: John Guiney
Lecturer: John Keyes
Scots Ranter: Anne Lannan
Pamina: Nicola Ferner-Waite
Boy soprano: Ian Keatley




27th June 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Mrs Klein by Nicholas Wright.
What happens when you shut three psychoanalysts in a room and tell one of them her son has just died in mysterious circumstances? In 1934, the son of Melanie Klein, Britain's most controversial child psychoanalyst, was killed in a climbing accident. There were no witnesses.
Nicholas Wright 's highly successful stage play explores the effect of this shattering event on three remarkable women.
Director: Nicholas Wright
Mrs Klein: Sara Kestelman
Melitta: Juliet Stevenson
Paula: Deborah Findlay
Repeated from 29th March 1992
(There was a later version of this play on Radio 4 in 2008 directed by Alison Hindell)




4th July 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Burn the Aeneid! by Martyn Wade
What happens if an author gives instructions for his work to be destroyed when he dies? The likely answer is an unholy row involving literary executors, members of the family and other interested parties. It was even so in 19 BC in Brundisium, southern Italy, at the deathbed of Publius Vergilius Mara , alias Virgil.
Director Cherry Cookson
Varius: Clive Merrison
Tucca: Norman Rodway
Eros: James Grout
Probus: David Horovitch
Drusilla: Linda Marlowe
Proculus: Jonathan Adams
Mucius: John Webb
Envoy: Peter Gunn
Repeated from 12th July 1992



11th July 1993:
19.30-21.30:
Sunday Play: The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius dramatised by Peter Mackie
This comedy is the first of two collections of stories from The Golden Ass. Here Lucius is turned into an ass by a misplaced spell.
Director Philip Martin
Lucius: Richard Griffiths
Charite/ Goddess: Claire Faulconbridge
Granny/ First wife: Gillian Goodman
Fotis: Charlotte Martin
Thrasyllus/ Manager/ Pythias: Terry Molloy
Barbarus/ First guest/ Alcimus/ Meroe: Andy Hockley
Babalus/ Auctionner/ Traveller/ Councilor: Hu Pryce
Old man/ Father/ Priest/ Thyasus: Geoff Serle
Aristomenes/ Cook/ Bailiff: Tim Brierley
Demochares/ Philo/ Demeas: Alan Meadows
Boy/ Diophanes: Richard Allenson
Chryseroa/ Eunuch/ second guest: Rob Swinton
Pamphile/ Lady/ second wife: Avril Clark
First broadcast 30th October 1987, first repeated 11th August 1991,
A second drama taken from "The Golden Ass" was broadcast under the title "Cupid and Psyche" on 18th August 1991 and 18th July 1993.


17th July 1993:
21.40 :
Tales from the Hatbox of Benjamin Marcus by Gie Laenen, Translated by Gilberte Lenaerts.
Especially commissioned for BBC Radio.
In the hatbox are photos of the Warsaw ghetto. They were taken in 1941 by a German NCO. There are also toys and little musical instruments. Jonathan, foster son of Benjamin Marcus , tells the tales to exorcise his memories ...
Director Hamish Wilson
Jonathan: Finlay Welsh


18th July 1993:
21.10 :
Sunday Play: Cupid and Psyche by Lucius Apuleius (from The Golden Ass) dramatised by Peter Mackie.
In this tale Cupid falls in love with the beautiful mortal Psyche, arousing the wrath of his mother Venus.
Director Philip Martin
Cupid: David Learner
Psyche: Claire Faulconbridge
Venus: Kate O'Mara
Pleasure: Melanie Revill
Panthia: Patricia Gallimore
Byrrhaena: Hedli Niklaus
Priest: Andy Hockley
King: David Vann
First broadcast 18th August 1991


24th July 1993:
21.30 :
Headcrash by Michael Wall.
Boy claims that he was driving before he could walk, but perhaps he's been on the road so long it just feels that way. Driving with Yuka, picking things up from lost cities and knocking no-hopers off the road. But then something starts to happen. Boy starts using new words and it takes a handshake from his mother to get him back on the rails.
This play was recorded in 1986 but has never been broadcast until now. It has a bold use of sound and soundtrack.
Music by David Chilton and Mia Soteriou
Director Jeremy Mortimer
Yuka: Toyah Wilcox
Boy: Jeremy Flynn
The Controller: Frances Jeater
Controller's assistant: Susie Brann
Mother: Mary Wimbush
Other creeps: Tim Reynolds
Other creeps: George Parsons
Other creeps: Jonathan Tarer


25th July 1993:
21.40 :
Sunday Play: The Cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney, based upon Sophocles "Philoctetes"
Abandoned for ten years on an uninhabited island, obsessed by the wounds of the past, Philoctetes is forced to decide what is more important: his need for revenge or a possible future.
Music by Donal Lunny
Director Pam Brighton
Philoctetes: Stephen Rea
Neoptolemus: Brendan Gleeson
Odysseus: Ian McElhinney
Chorus: Anna Healy
Watchman: Lalor Roddy
Merchant: John Hewitt
First transmitted 1st September 1991


31st July 1993:
21.35 :
Testosterone I Sing by Steve May.
An inventive double setting mixes ancient Greek legend with a modern English amateur cricket team.
Director Richard Wortley
Ajax/Sulk: Anthony Jackson
Agamemnon/Skip: Bill Wallis
Menelaus/Breeze: Stephen Tompkinson
Odysseus/ Wheedler: Dominic Letts
Tecmessa/Janet: Jane Slavin
Other Captain: John Baddeley
The Chorus: Steve Hodson.
The Chorus: Keith Drinkel
[info: Tecmessa was the wife of Ajax- see "The Ajax of Sophocles"]



1st August 1993:
22.00 :
Sunday Play: King Oedipus by Sophocles, translated by W B Yeats.
The story of the mighty and much admired King of Thebes who tried to track down the cause of the plague that was ravaging the city. His relentless search revealed that he was himself the polluter: in ignorance he had killed his father, married his mother and had children by her.
Music by Christos Pittas
Singers Martyn Hill, Elizabeth Mansfield, Jozik Koc and Geoffrey Shaw
Andrew Lynwood (keyboard) Anne Collis (percussion)
Adapted and directed by John Theocharis
Oedipus: Robert Lindsay
Jocasta: Dorothy Tutin
Creon: Paul Daneman
Tiresias: Peter Vaughan
Corinthian: David Ryall
Theban: Cyril Shaps
Messenger: Karl Johnson
Priest PETER: Penry Jones
Chorus Leader: Jonathan Adams
Chorus: John Church,
Chorus: Keith Drinkel
Chorus: Peter Gunn
Chorus: David Learner
Chorus: Gordon Reid
Chorus: Matthew Sim
Chorus: Theresa Streatfeild
The children: Melanie Hudson
The children: Meunda Walker
First broadcast on 13th September 1992




27th August 1993:
22.30 :
A Sorceress of her Time by Michael Bakewell.
Repeated from 30th April 1993- pease see that date.




28th August 1993:
21.35 :
The Long, Hot Summer of '76 by Gabriel Gbadamosi.
For a group of six black and white South London teenagers, the summer of 1976 meant the Notting Hill Carnival and a heated August Bank holiday that exploded in a fierce riot, and clashes between police and thieves. This provocative memory play travels the route of the carnival, recalling through a montage of sounds, street language and action the calypso, reggae, betrayal and rage that still batter his memories of youth.
Director Michael Earley
Bags: Lennie James
Mac: Lee Ross
Maze: Pamela Nomvete
Fat Marie: Emma Smith
Edlamp: Fraser James
Abel: Mmoloki Chrystie



29th August 1993:
21.55 :
Sunday Play: Suffer the Little Children by Simon Gray
A Sunday afternoon in hell: that's what family gatherings often seem like, but for Jasper's family, it's only too painfully true. Tears are shed as they reveal their pain, but there are also some brilliantly funny moments.
Tenor John Bowley
Director Jane Morgan
Jasper: David Sinclair
Daisy (Nanty): Sian Phillips
Jenny: Caroline Mortimer
Margaret: Jennifer Hilary
Benedict: Steve Hodson
Henry: Clive Francis
Marianne: Angela Pleasence
Matthew: Ross Livingstone



5th September 1993:
21.40 :
Sunday Play: En Passant by David Benedictus.
All over the country, every weekend, a motley collection of harassed people, mainly men, make their way to a chess congress, and it is probably true that a fair proportion of them are mad.
Director: Faynia Williams
Groenmann: T P McKenna
Nevinsky: Dave King
Matt: Paul Copley
Phil: David Bannerman
Sherry: Melanie Hudson
Miss Curtis: Pauline Letts
Sherry's father: Eric Allan
Boris: Roger Griffiths
Charles: John Fleming
Sherry's mother: Alice Arnold
Young Groenmann: Sam Crane
Groenmann's mother: Kate Binchy




12th September 1993:
21.50-23.30:
Sunday Play: Playland by Athol Fugard, who talks to director Christopher Venning about his life and work, and sets the background to his latest play.
At a small travelling fairground in the Eastern
Cape, an ex-soldier has an encounter with the African nightwatchman. Playland is a microcosm of the political and social upheaval of the apartheid system drawn out as two men try to learn what it means to walk side by side.
Director Christopher Venning
Gideon Le Roux: Andrew Sachs
Martinus Zoeloe: Alton Kumalo
Baas Barney: David Thorpe
Also with Leonie Hofmeyr, Dominic Letts.
(One theatre listed the stage play- for a cast of two men- as having a running time of 90 minutes but an L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording is listed as 76 minutes - so perhaps the author's introduction was between ten and 25 minutes or so).



19th September 1993
22.45 :
Sunday Play: Blue written and directed by Derek Jarman.
"You say to the boy open your eyes. When he opens his eyes and sees the light You make him cry out. Saying O Blue come forth...." A unique collaboration between Channel 4 and Radio 3, this is a simultaneous broadcast of Derek Jarman 's latest film on Tv and radio. Blue is an account of the author's own experiences confronting HIV and Aids.
Music composed by Simon Fisher-Turner
Sound design by Marvin Black
A Basilisk production
Film producers Takashi Asai and James Mackay.
With the voices of John Quentin, Nigel Terry, Derek Jarman and Tilda Swinton
{Musicians: John Balance, Gini Ball, Marvin Black, Peter Christopherson, Markus Dravius, Brian Eno, Simon Fisher-Turner, Marden Hill, Tony Hinnigan, Danny Hyde, Jan Latham-Koenig, Momus, Vinin Reilly, Miranda Sex Garden (a London group- Katharine Blake, Trevor Sharpe, Ben Golomstock, Donna McKevitt), Kate St John, Richard Watson and Hugh Webb.}
[How did they broadcast a film on radio? The film was actually an unchanging blue screen- a radio play with a blank blue cinema screen. Senior colourist: Tom Russell. Derek Jarman was losing his sight, and was seeing blue.]
NB: The film which had no images was given a Certificate 15. Total budget estimated £90,000. USA box office $1.7 million gross.
Derek Jarman died in February 1994 and the soundtrack of the film was rebroadcast on 8th May 1994.



26th September 1993:
(Not as "Sunday Play")
19.30-21.20 and 21.30-23.10 (total 3hr 20m):
Tamburlaine the Great by Christopher Marlowe.
A verse epic.
Director Michael Fox
Tamburlaine: Michael Pennington
Zenocrate: Samantha Bond
Theridamas: Clive Rowe
Techelks: Louis Hilyer
Usumcasane: Peter Guinness
Bajazeth/Orcanes: Rudolph Walker
Mycetes/Calyphas: Timothy Walker
Callapine/King of Arabia: Sean Baker
Amyras: David Thorpe
Celebinus: Michael Onslow
Soldan/governor of Babylon: Frank Grimes
Cosroe/Sigismund/Captain: Stephen Tindall
Gazeius: Joanna Foster
Also With John Evitts, Gareth Armstrong, Steve Hodson, Dominic Letts, James Taylor, James Telfer, Rachel Atkins and Theresa Gallagher


3rd October 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe.
The assets of Barabas the Jew are stripped by Christians and he wreaks a terrible revenge. A savage "comic" tragedy of intrigue, murder and love.
Director Michael Fox
Barabas: Ian McDiarmid
Machevil/Ferneze: Ken Bones
Abigail: Kathryn Hunt
Ithamore/2nd merchant: Kieran Cunningham
Don Lodowick: Michael Grandage
Don Mathias: Neal Swettenham
Friar Jacomo/1st Jew: David Fleeshman
Calymath/Friar Bernadine/ 2nd Jew: Rod Arthur
Bellamira/Abbess: Sue Jenkins
Rika Barza/3rd Jew: Cliff Howells
Katherine: Delia Corrie
1st Officer: Robert Whelan
Martin del Bosco/ 1st Merchant/ Messenger: Oliver Beamish
1st Knight/2nd Knight/Slave Carpenter: Dave Bond
Repeated on 4th February 1996



9th October 1993:
21.30 :
Biological Radio by Mike Ladd.
A scientific love story. Varya always knows what is on Vyakov's mind - she is telepathic and knows he is in love with her even before he can tell her. But can love survive Stalin's purges?
Director David Hunter
Vyakov: Andrew Sachs
Varya: Emma Relding
Mother: Lynne Verrall
Pavlov: Geofrey Bayldon
Father: Gareth Armstrong
Aunt Tomashev: Tina Gray
Porter: John Evitts
Durov: Dominic Letts
Official: Lyndam Gregory
Eva: Oona Beeson
Yevgeny: Gregory Bradley
Rosa: Nadine Ballantyne



10th October 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Pioneers in Ingolstadt
by Marieluise Fleisser translated by Elisabeth Bond-Pable and Tinch
Minter.
Written in 1926, while she was Brecht's lover, the play records the effects of an army visit to a small German town.
Music by Stephen Warbeck
Director Kate Rowland
Berta: Sandy McDade
Alma: Teresa McElroy
Kart: Robert Bowman
Rosskopf: Russell Porter
Fabian: Simon Tyrell
Unertl: Godfrey Jackman
Policeman: Godfrey Jackman
Sergeant: Chris Campbell
Munsterer/ Bibrich: Billy Clark
Zeck/ Photographer: Gary Lydon
Jager/ Bunny: Will Barton
Repeated 25th June 1995



16th October 1993:
21.40 :
Studio Three: With a Nod and a Bow
by Simon Gray.
The facts are that George Blake , sentenced to 42 years' imprisonment, was "sprung" from Wormwood Scrubs by Sean Bourke , who subsequently visited him in Russia.
The play speculates on the curious association between such strange bedfellows.
Director Jane Morgan
George Blake: Jack Shepherd
Sean Bourke: Bill Nighy
[It was developed from a stage play on the same subject, called "Says He Says He", which later became "Cell Mates" when the author found this radio production as good as the original stage play- and decided to rework the stage version. "it’s a radio piece and I’ve done it on radio. It’s not, even yet, for the stage. The point being, I suppose, that if you can listen to the characters without feeling a need to see their faces, watch their movements, then on radio is where your play should be. So back to the drawing board."]



17th October 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Damned for Despair by Tirso de Molina, translated by Lawrence Boswell.
Paulo is a sanctimonious hermit; Enrico is a murdering gangster. The two men are thrown together and their destinies become strangely linked.
Music by Stephen Warbeck
Director Kate Rowland
Paulo: Timothy Walker
Enrico: Lorcan Cranitch
Pedrisco: Mark Sproston
Devil: Simon Gregor
Galvan: Mark Spalding
Anareto/Albano: John Branwell
Celia: Matilda Ziegler
Octavio/Cherinos: Malcolm Raeburn
Lisandro/Escalante: Peter Rylands
Shepherd boy: Ian Taylor
Governor/Judge: David Fleeshman
Lidora: Ayshe Owens
Repeated several times on BBC Radio 7
[de Molina is a pen-name for Fray Gabriel Tullez]
[original title: El Condenado por desconfiado]
[A recording of this broadcast exists]



23rd October 1993:
21.40 :
Studio Three: The Funeral by Tamara Griffiths
A bizarre black comedy: Judy - Bob's long-time mistress - is spared the rigours of the burial journey by being conveyed to his funeral inside the coffin. On arrival, the expectation is that she will join Bob in death.
Music Mark Vibrans
Director Kate Rowland
Judy: Margaret Robertson
Louis: Peter Marinker
Larry: Robert Whelan
Steve: Martin Marquez
Bill: Christopher Campbell



24th October 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Figaro Gets Divorced by Odon Von Horvath.
Taking as its starting point the Figaro household a few years after the happy finale of Beaumarchais' play The Marriage of Figaro, the German playwright Odon Von Horvath (best known for his Tales from the Vienna Woods) provides a 20th-century setting for Figaro and Susanne's marital disappointment.
The play was written in 1937, and set at that time, Von Horvath wrote, "because the problems of revolution and exile are first timeless, and second, especially relevant to our time".
A world order collapses. Figaro and his wife
Susanne help the Count and Countess flee the country after the revolution.
Othe parts played by members of the cast.
Music: Stephen Warbeck
Director Stephen Daldry
Figaro: John Sessions
Count Almaviva: Richard Mayes
Countess: Barbara Leigh-Hunt
Susanne: Diana Kent
PedriUo: Mark Spalding
Adalbert: Simon Linnell
Antonio: Daniel Webb
fosepha: Joanna Wake
Midwife: Christine Drummond
Fanchette: Cathryn Bradshaw
Cherubin: Keith Osborn
Caesar: Harry Peacock
Orphans: Jack Shute
Orphans: Nixi Rigel


31st October 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: The Wa' at the Warid's End by Joy Hendry.
William Soutar died 50 years ago this month.
Despite illness he had been writing for most of his life. He was a prolific diarist and prose writer as well as a poet of stature. By 1943 he had been bed-ridden for 13 years. In July he was told by his doctor that he had not long to live. His last diary, The Diary of a Dying Man, was started on the morning of that visit....
Music David Dorward
Director Hamish Wilson
Soutar: Allan Sharpe
Voice: John Buick
Margaret: Eileen McCallum
John Soutar: Gerard Slevin
Poetry Voice/Grierson/Morton: Iain Agnew
Jenny/Daisy/Dream Woman: Maureen Carr
Petty OfficerlMacdiarmid: Alexander Morton
Taylor/Tom Scott: John Yule
Evie/Mad woman: Monica Gibb
Girl/Dolly: Donalda Samuel
[ William Soutar, Scottish poet, socialist, and nationalist, 1898-1943, was the subject of a stage play also by Joy Hendry "Gang Doun Wi a Sang, a play about William Soutar" ]
[Joy Hendry was the editor of a literary magazine "Chapman" from 1975- it ceased publication in 2010]



7th November 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Genie and the Playwright by Karim Alrawi.
A satirical comedy about censorship. "Though this may seem strange," says the author, "most of what is in Genie and the Playwright is actually what happened to me after the Egyptian theatre censor banned a play of mine. All have done is bring out some of the idiotic implications of what happened to me. And the Genie? Well, there's always one popping in and out of a writer's head."
Director Janet Whitaker
Playwright: David Threlfall
Genie: Desmond Barrit
Censor: Tom Baker
Samia: Sophie Thompson
Mrs Anani: Elizabeth Bell
Cleric: Harold Innocent
Shoeshiner: Steve Hodson
Male friend: John Baddeley
Secretary: Jillie Meers
Also with James Telfer, Michael Onslow, Lala Lloyd and John Evitts



14th November 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play. Black Box by Amos Oz, dramatised by Guy Meredith.
The story is a correspondence between an Israeli, his ex-wife, their son, her new husband and a lawyer. It is the evidence, the "black box", for a catastrophe of human relationships.
Director Ned Chaillet
Ilana Sommo: Jill Gascoine
Alexander Gideon: Alfred Molina
Michel Sommo: Alan Palmer
Manfred Zackheim: Clive Swift
Boaz Brandstetter: Sean Gascoine
Also with David Thorpe, Teresa Gallagher,
Oona Beeson, Mia Sotehou and Ofer Faragi



21st November 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: The Slaughterhouse
by Slawomir Mrozek. Translated by Ralph Manheim.
Mrozek suggests that. "Killing is an art for all, an art for the masses. "
Yossi Zivoni (violin) Judith Pearce (flute)
Director Martin Jenkins
Violinist: Nigel Anthony
Flautist: Emily Richard
Violinst's mother: Patricia Routledge
Paganini/Butcher: Hugh Sullivan
President of the Philharmonic: Alan Dudley
Usher: Alan Rowe
Polish title: Rzeznia, dated 1971/3, written as a radio play (in Polish) and then adapted for stage.
This production first broadcast 11th February 1975.
First repeat 30th September 1975.


28th November 1993: No drama. The whole day was dedicated to the music of Monteverdi.



5th December 1993:
19.30 :
Mariage Blanc by Tadeusz Rozewicz
Translated by Adam Czerniawski and adapted for radio by Anthony Vivis
The pressures of adolescence in a turn-of-the-century household.
Sixteen-year-old Bianca is about to be married. Feeling threatened by male sexuality, she insists on her own terms.
Music by Dominique LeGendre
Musicians: Tricia Howitt, Julia Bradshaw and Andrew Orton
Director Kate Rowland
Bianca: Jane Hazelgrove
Pauline: Martine Brown
Mother: Sue Johnston
Father/Bullfather: Robert Whelan
Grandfather: Malcolm Hebden
Benjamin: Colin Kerrigan
Aunt: Romy Baskerville
Cook: Daryl Flshwick
Felix/Huntsman: Martin Reeves
Repeated 15th January 1995
[The translated title used here has a special meaning which not many will be aware of: in France a "mariage blanc" was an unconsumated marriage]
["Mariage Blanc" this is Biale Malzenstwo, "The White Wedding" also Boda Bianca and also White Marriage....]
[An adult themed play- "a young girl who is about to be married struggles with her sexuality while contending with her nymphomaniac sister, lecherous father, and repressed mother. Despite the mother's best efforts, the prim Victorian society of her orderly bourgeois household is constantly overwhelmed by eruptions of pagan sexuality" (theatremania.com)]



12th December 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: The Gigli Concert by Tom Murphy.
A despairing Irish millionaire meets a hapless English dilettante and together they explore the infinite possibilities of the human soul.
[Wikipedia: Seven days in the relationship between a quack self-help therapist and the mysterious Irishman, a property developer millionaire who asks King to teach him how to sing]
Director Pam Brighton
J P W King: Peter McEnery
Irish man: Tony Doyle
Mona: Noelle Brown
[Stage play: Irish premiere 1983; UK Premiere 1992. The running time: 3 hours 35 minutes long. The radio version is somewhat abridged.]


19th December 1993:
19.30 :
Sunday Play: Napoli Milionaria by Eduardo da Filippo, in an English version by Peter Tinniswood.
Richard Eyre's Royal National Theatre production of this study of Neapolitan life in the Second World War.
[Samuel French: Life is hard in Naples during World War II but Donna Amalia does her best to keep the family afloat by dealing on the black market. Amalia prospers while Gennaro, her law-abiding husband, goes missing and is presumed dead]
Directed for radio by Chris Barton
Producer Jeremy Howe
Gennaro Jovine: Ian McKellen
Amalia Jovine: Frances Barber
Maria Rosaria: Angela Clarke
Amedeo: Phil McKee
Adelaide: Antonia Pemberton
Federico: Russell Boulter
Errico: Mark McGann
Peppe: Ian Burf1eld
Riccardo: Richard Brenner
Sergeant Ciappa: Kenneth Cranham
Franco: Derek Hutchinson
Assunta: Geraldine Fitzgerald
Doctor: Crispin Redman
First broadcast 20th September 1992
[Napoli Milionaria- Millionaire Naples- was a 1950 Italian film, aka Side Street Story written by, directed by and starring Eduardo da Filippo. There was a later tv film in 2011.]


21st December 1993:
22.35 :
Arthur's Knight by Kevin Crossley -
Holland.
This series restores King Arthur to where he has always belonged - the world of the storyteller. Malory recalls moments in his life when he was told the magnificent stories which were later to make up his Morte D'Arthur.
1: Sir Gawain: Christmas Eve, 1429. With the snow waist-deep in the Derbyshire peaks, as a 13-year-old squire, Thomas Malory hears the story of Gawain and the Green Knight.
Director Nigel Bryant
Sir Thomas Malory: Richard Griffiths
Young Malory: Richard Pearce
Sir Nicholas: Norman Rodway
Lady Anne: Heather Barrett
Will: Philip Molloy
Margaret: Susan Jeffrey
[Most of the essential characters in these plays appeared in tales around 1000-1200 AD; Thomas Malory lived around 1415 to 1471 AD]]


22nd December 1993:
22.35 :
Arthur's Knight by Kevin Crossley-Holland: 2: Sir Bedivere 1436.
The Burgundians are bombarding Calais and, on the eve of Malory's first battle, the English commander inspires his men with the story of King Arthur's invasion of France.
Malory: Richard Griffiths
Young Malory: Peter Meakin
Mortain: John Nettles
Hugh: David Holt
Askton: Richard O'Ryan
Camoys: Simon Carter
[Bedevere is the Knight who returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake]


23rd December 1993:
22.40 :
Arthur's Knight by Kevin Crossley-Holland . 3: Sir Erec 1439.
In bed just after their wedding, Malory's wife shares with him the strange and magical romance of Erec and Enide - the story of a woman who proves her love by her disobedience.
Malory: Richard Griffiths
Young Malory: Peter Meakin
Grisel: Sandra Berkin
Jakke: David Holt
Annie: Susan Jeffrey
Pilch: Andy Hockley
[Basically a tale first told around 1170 AD]


26th December 1993:
18.30 :
Sunday Play: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
In a room of a country house in Derbyshire in April 1809 sit Lady Thomasina Coverly and her tutor; years later in the same room an academic investigation is underway.
Original Music: Jeremy Sams
Director: David Benedictus
Thomasina Coverly: Emma Fielding
Septimus Hodge: Rufus Sewell
Jellaby: Allan Mitchell
Ezra Owfer: Derek Hutchinson
Richard Noakes: Sidney Livingstone
Lady Croom: Harriet Walter
Captain Edward Brice: Graham Sinclair
Hannah Jarvis: Felicity Kendal
Chloe Coverly: Harriet Harrison
Bernard Nightingale: Bill Nighy
Augustus/Gus Coverly: Timothy Matthews
Valentine Coverly: Samuel West
Repeated 3rd April 1994
[There was a further production by Jessica Dromgoole in 2007]
[In 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named Arcadia one of the best science-related works ever written.]
[The title is an abbreviation of Et In Arcadia Ego]


28th December 1993:
22.45 :
Arthur's Knight by Kevin Crossley-Holland
4: Sir Accolon 1451.
On the run after killing a monk, Malory has a strange encounter with a conjuror who tells him of Merlin the sorcerer and of the dark forces - magical forces - that threaten to destroy the Round Table.
Malory: Richard Griffiths
Young Malory: Peter Meakin
Oliver Croo: Edward Petherbridge
Trouvere: Andy Hockley
Monks: Neal Foster
Monks: David Vann



29th December 1993:
22.30 :
Arthur's Knight by Kevin Crossley-Holland. 5: Sir Perceval 1461:
What is the Grail? Who will win it? Wounded in battle, Malory is carried to a nunnery, where the abbess tells him her extraordinary version of the Quest for the Holy Grail. It proves a revelation to them both.
Malory: Richard Griffiths
Young Malory: Peter Meakin
Mother Anne: Diana Quick
Sister Agnes: Rosalind Adams
Sister Eve: Gillian Goodman
[Perceval's tale comes from mid-12th C. Perceval's place in the Grail story was later taken over by Galahad]


30th December 1993:
22.35 :
Arthur's Knight by Kevin Crossley-Holland.
Conclusion: 6. Sir Mordred 1469
Embroiled against his will in a plot to betray the king, Malory hears the story of the betrayal and death of Arthur - and of his sleep beneath the earth, waiting to rise again.
Series producer Nigel Bryant
Producer: Nigel Bryant
Malory: Richard Griffiths
Duke of Clarence: Michael Maloney
Grisel: Sandra Berkin
Tom: Richard Pearce
Gweno: Susan Mansell
[Mordred appeared in the tales VERY early- 537 AD reference to a battle "in which Arthur and Mordred fell". Earlier works have a more positive view of him than later ones.]


END OF RADIO THREE 1993 LISTING











Thanks to Stephen Shaw for compiling the entries, and to Alison for doing the coding.

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