BBC Radio Plays, radio 4, 2000

Afternoon plays, Saturday plays and Classic Serials now complete. (ND, 17 Jun 2012). Recordings of most of these exist in VRPCC collections.



AFTERNOON PLAYS (including Classic Serial and Saturday Play)

1 Jan: The Saturday Play: Learning to Swim
Clare Chambers' book, winner of the Romantic Novel of 1999, is dramatised by Catherine Czerkawska. Abigail believes that she has banished the ghost of her first love affair and the catastrophe that ended it, but 13 years later a chance encounter forces her to acknowledge that the spell is far from broken. With Emily Bruni and Oliver Milburn. Producer: Marilyn Imrie.

2 Jan: (Sunday) - no drama.
National Service of Thanksgiving, from St. Paul's Cathedral

3 Jan: Afternoon Play: The End of the Affair
Graham Greene's story of the loss of love and one man's losing battle with his own agnosticism. Dramatised for radio by John Harvey. With Alex Jennings as Bendrix, and Emma Fielding as Sarah. Producer: Sally Avens. Repeat.

4 Jan: The Sicilian Fairy and the Irish Giant
By Nicholas McInnerny. In 1824, the skeleton of the smallest girl in the world is exhibited beside that of the tallest man. How did she come to be in the Museum of Anatomy? With Siriol Jenkins, Denys Hawthorne and Richard Elfyn. Producer: Alison Hindell.

5 Jan: A Catapult and a Lady's Spin
By Sheila Goff. Forty-year-old James lives with his mother and dances twice a week at the Lizard Lounge. He meets Frances, a recently divorced headmistress in search of a social life. With Roger Walker, Elizabeth Bell and Sandra Voe. Producer: David Hunter.

6 Jan: Prize Fighting
By David and Caroline Stafford. The judges of a prestigious international book prize bicker among themselves, jockeying for position. Then one Det Insp Pearce announces that terrorists have planted a bomb under the Bank of England which will be detonated unless their own populist choice of book is announced as the winner. What to do? With Helen Atkinson Wood and Isla Blair. Producer: Marc Jobst. Repeat .

7 Jan: Before Beeton - the Eliza Acton Story
By Jyll (Jill?) Bradley. A compendium of the life and reputation of England's finest cook. With Clarissa Dickson-Wright, Sarah Freeman, Delia Smith, Marcia Warren and Liza Sadovy. Producer: Jonquil Panting.

8 Jan: The Saturday Play: Design for Murder
A Noel Coward Murder Mystery, by Marcy Kahan. Actor, playwright, songwriter, Producer and star, Noel Coward never quite added sleuth to his astonishing achievements. But just before the war with Hitler, there is a gap in his memoirs - is there a murder mystery in those days? With Malcolm Sinclair, Eleanor Bron and Kristin Milward. Producer: Ned Chaillet.

9 Jan: The Classic Serial: The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood's chilling vision of 21st-century America is dramatised in three parts by John Dryden. 1: In an age of plummeting birth rates - the result of chemical pollution, nuclear accidents and toxic spillages - this is the diary of a young woman recruited for reproductive purposes by a totalitarian regime that uses religion as a tool of state repression. With Marsha Dietlein and Christopher Burns. Producer: John Dryden.

10 Jan: Baldi
Six murder mysteries by Barry Devlin, set in Dublin. 1: `The Prodigal Son'. Paolo Baldi, Franciscan priest and philosophy lecturer, accidentally becomes involved in solving a murder at an Italian chip shop. With David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher and T P McKenna. Producer: Lawrence Jackson.

11 Jan: Bluethroat Morning
The first of two plays by Tony Ramsay. A bluethroat morning: a combination of mist and onshore breeze that brings migrating bluethroats ashore. Set on the Norfolk marshes, where enthusiasts gather to sight rare birds. With Ronald Pickup, Alison Pettitt and Sean Baker. Producer: Janet Whitaker.

12 Jan: Bluethroat Morning
The second of two plays by Tony Ramsay. A hundred years ago on the Norfolk marshes the Rev Marchant arrives seeking a bluethroat for his collection, at any cost. With Ronald Pickup, Alison Pettitt and Sean Baker. Producer: Janet Whitaker.

13 Jan: Recapturing Colours
By Char March. Two old friends - Pam who is blind, and Jess who has a broken heart - help to bring back a little colour into one antoher's lives. With Ellie Haddington, Imogen Stubbs and James Quinn. Producer: Lindsay Leonard.

14 Jan: Writing Home
By Manny Draycott Lai. Jane Lapotaire plays the mother of two daughters living in very different parts of the world in the early 1920s. They correspond with her as she sits alone in England, a long way from her homeland of Trinidad, trying to come to terms both with her isolation and the recent death of her husband and son. With Indra Ove and Elizabeth Conboy. Producer: Cherry Cookson.

15 Jan: The Saturday Play: Catholics
By Brian Moore, dramatised by Bill Taylor. What happens when elderly Irish monks living in an isolated monastery on one of the most windswept islands off Ireland defy the Catholic leadership in Rome and continue to say mass in Latin? An engaging tale of a modernising young American priest who pits his wits against the wisdom of an aged and cynical abbot. With Gerard Murphy, Tim Beckman and Geoffrey Banks. Producer: Polly Thomas.

16 Jan: The Classic Serial: The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood's chilling vision of 21st-century America, dramatised in three parts by John Dryden. 2: Offred is sent to a new household to begin her third posting as a handmaid - a state-controlled breeding machine. With Marsha Dietlein and Leslie Hendrix. Producer: John Dryden.

17 Jan: Baldi
Six murder mysteries set in Dublin. 2: `Keepers of the Flame' by Simon Brett. Paolo Baldi, priest, philosophy lecturer and accidental sleuth, is caught up in solving the murder of a leading academic. He follows a trail leading into the past of one of Ireland's most cherished literary figures. Created by Barry Devlin. With David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher and T P McKenna. Producer: Lawrence Jackson.

18 Jan: Like the First Dewfall
By David Britton, from a story by Elizabeth Jolley. It is September 1939, and a last-minute seaside holiday raises questions of responsibility for a Quaker family. With Amanda Gordon, Rachel Atkins and Andy Hockley. Producer: Alison Hindell. Repeat.

19 Jan: Stay!
A romantic comedy by Georgia Pritchett. Lonely Lizzie runs a dog kennels. Her teenage daughter is aiming for sainthood. Tim the kennels handyman strives daily to avoid the small calamities that seem to seek him out. But romance is in the air when the new doctor arrives... With Sophie Thompson, Duncan Preston and Sheridan Smith. Producer: Marilyn Imrie.

20 Jan: The Trinity New Series
A three-part drama documentary series exploring how our perceptions of the past, present and future change our lives. 1: `The Bell-Ringer and the Bivalve' by Sarah Woods. A geologist travels back through time accompanied by a bell-ringer, a bivalve and a ghost. With Victoria Worsley, Simeon Defoe and Poppy Ellen. Producer: Sarah Woods.

21 Jan The Prince
By Niccolo Machiavelli, dramatised by Peter Wolf. With Ciaran Hinds as Niccolo. This classic 16th-century treatise on the nature of power and statecraft is performed for the first time as a monologue with dramatised illustrations. Machiavelli, often identified as Satan, uses his brilliance and cunning to explain how power can be created and sustained. With Christopher Godwin and Philip Voss. Producer: Cherry Cookson.

22 Jan The Saturday Play: The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale, dramatised by Stephen Sheridan. With Malcolm Tierney as Auguste Dupin, the world's first fictional detective. With Mark Bonnar, David Timson and Peter Ellis. Producer: David Blount.

23 Jan The Classic Serial: The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood's chilling vision of 21st-century America is dramatised in three parts by John Dryden. Offred's life with former television evangelist Serena Joy and the Commander becomes increasingly difficult. Final part. With Dermot Crowley, Marsha Dietlein and Leslie Hendrix. Producer: John Dryden.

24 Jan Baldi
Six murder mysteries set in Dublin. 3: `Miss Lonelyhearts' by Barry Devlin. Paolo and Tina investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the tragic death of a nurse at an old people's home and uncover an unlikely case of voyeurism. With David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher and T P McKenna. Producer: Lawrence Jackson.

25 Jan Mr Loveday's Little Outing
By Evelyn Waugh, dramatised by Jonathan Holloway. When Angela Moping visits her eccentric father in the asylum, she is curiously affected by the situation of his very loyal secretary, Mr Loveday. With Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Charlotte Attenborough and Stephen Thorne. Producer: David Hunter. Repeat.

26 Jan The Rocks Below
By Beatrice Colin. On a small Scottish island in the 1950s, identical twins Rose and Lily are confronted with a long-concealed secret. With Deirdre Davis, Mairi Gillespie and Derek McGhie. Producer: Gaynor Macfarlane.

27 Jan The Trinity
A three-part drama documentary series exploring how our perceptions of the past, present and future change our lives. 2: `The Early Birds' by Sarah Woods. Early one morning a little girl finds a body in a wood. With Victoria Worsley, Simeon Defoe and Poppy Ellen. Producer: Sarah Woods.

28 Jan American Beer
A northern comedy drama by Steve Timms. Funny, fast and razor-sharp dialogue between Judy and Amanda, two young women stuck in a flat in Oldham. Their lives are about to change for ever, but one of them is terrified. With Ann-Louise Grimshaw and Michelle Holmes. Producer: Melanie Harris.

29 Jan The Saturday Play: Go Ask Alice
By Annie McCartney. When Alice, an asthma sufferer, starts angling for special attention, it does not seem to be anything unusual. But before long her parents find themselves reeling in disbelief as their lives start to unravel before their very eyes. With Ellie Beaven, Georgie Alexander and Amanda Root. Producer: Eoin O'Callaghan.

30 Jan The Classic Serial: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde's famous novel is dramatised in two parts by Nick McCarty. `If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old... I would give my soul for that.' The story of a gilded and spoilt hedonist who, Faust-like, makes a foolish wish - the granting of which destroys him. Part 1. With Jamie Glover, Ian McDiarmid and Steven Pacey. Producer: Gordon House.

31 Jan Baldi
Six murder mysteries set in Dublin. 4: `The Emerald Style' by Simon Brett. Paolo's attempt to wine and dine his spiritual Producer Fr Troy at a leading Dublin hotel is interrupted by a murder. With David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher and T P McKenna. created by Barry Devlin. Producer: Lawrence Jackson.

1 Feb Have I Enough
By Carmen Walton. A warm-hearted story exploring the cultural mix of a British-Iranian marriage, its difficulties and delights. Through letters, poems and diary extracts it tells of a surprise birthday party for an Iranian man living in Dorset with his British family. With Paul Bhattacharjee, Noreen Kershaw and Michelle Holmes. Producer: Pauline Harris.

2 Feb About Colin
A comedy by Robert Shearman. Two very different ladies keep meeting for lunch in a variety of restaurants - their only link being Colin. With Linda Marlowe and Gemma Saunders. Producer: Janet Whitaker.

3 Feb The Trinity
The last in a three-part drama documentary series exploring how our perceptions of the past, present and future change our lives. `Fat Cheeks and the Lion' by Sarah Woods. A stormy day prevents Tanya and Andy from crossing to Holy Island - until they meet Lama Yeshe. With Victoria Worsley, Simeon Defoe and Poppy Ellen. Producer: Sarah Woods.

4 Feb The Pitch
By Jeremy Front. Howard wrote some of the great vintage sitcoms, but no-one is buying his ideas any more. When he is offered a new commission, there is a catch... With Richard Briers, Maureen O'Brien and Rebecca Front. Producer: Peter Kavanagh.

5 Feb The Saturday Play: My Brother Michael
Mary Stewart's postwar revenge thriller is set in the hills around Delphi, where holidaying classics teacher Camilla Haven meets a man who is intent on uncovering the mystery of his brother's death during the Second World War. With Alison Darling, Tristan Gemmill and Eve Steele. Producer: Michael Fox.

6 Feb The Classic Serial: The Picture of Dorian Gray
The conclusion of Oscar Wilde's novel in Nick McCarty's two-part dramatisation. As the years pass, though he lives entirely for his own gratification, Dorian retains his extraordinarily youthful beauty. His picture in the attic, however, tells a very different story. With Jamie Glover, Ian McDiarmid and Steven Pacey. Producer: Gordon House.

7 Feb Baldi
Six murder mysteries set in Ireland. 5: `Death Cap' by Simon Brett. At a monastic retreat far out in County Cork, a sudden death among the Franciscan brothers causes Paolo to suspect foul play. With David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher and T P McKenna. Created by Barry Devlin. Producer: Lawrence Jackson.

8 Feb Baldi
Six murder mysteries set in Ireland. 5: `Death Cap' by Simon Brett. At a monastic retreat far out in County Cork, a sudden death among the Franciscan brothers causes Paolo to suspect foul play. With David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher and T P McKenna. Created by Barry Devlin. Producer: Lawrence Jackson.

9 Feb Better to Have Loved
Three dramatised short stories on the subject of love and loss by women writers. 1: `Stone Trees' by Jane Gardam, dramatised by Eric Pringle. With Anna Massey as Lou and Stella Gonet as Anna. Lou's husband has died suddenly, leaving her with an overwhelming sense of loss. But lurking deep beneath the idyllic picture she paints of her marriage are dark shadows. Producer: Cherry Cookson.

10 Feb Better to Have Loved
Three dramatised short stories on the subject of love and loss by women writers. 2: `The July Ghost' by A S Byatt, dramatised by Eric Pringle, starring Kate Buffery as Imogen and Clive Owen as the man. With Gavin Muir and Oliver Cookson. Producer: Tracey Neale.

11 Feb Better to Have Loved
Three dramatised short stories on the subject of love and loss. 3: `The New People' by Rose Tremain, dramatised by Eric Pringle. With Ursula Howells as Millicent and Eleanor Bron as Alison. Millicent finds it difficult to come to terms with her diminishing success as a poet and is moving to Italy to start a new life with her partner Alison. But there are ghosts and memories from the past that still haunt her. Producer: Cherry Cookson.

12 Feb The Saturday Play: Challenged
By Don Haworth. Set in a remote part of the Pennines, this atmospheric play charts the developing relationship between a widow, her son and a recently hired worker, Tom. The son, who has learning difficulties, is described by his school as challenged. With Tom's encouragement, the son learns more than he ever did at school. However, this new-found confidence brings its own conflict to the trio. With Brigit Forsyth, Paul Copley and Matthew Booth. Producer: Pauline Harris.

13 Feb The Classic Serial: Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph
By Frances Sheridan, adapted in two parts by Louise Page. 1: The exuberant Lord Bidulph deems his friend Orlando Faulkland the perfect marriage partner for his shy young sister Sidney. But even he is not prepared for the skeleton in Faulkland's cupboard. With Emilia Fox, Joanna David and Simon Treves. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

14 Feb Baldi
The last of six murder mysteries set in Ireland. `Devil Take the Hindmost' by Annie Caulfield. Paolo and Tina investigate the death of a student on campus, following the trail to an arrogant clique that dabbled in the occult. Is there a rational explanation, or was the Devil really involved? With David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher and T P McKenna. Created by Barry Devlin. Producer: Lawrence Jackson. Last in series.

15 Feb Gaston du Vallon - Channel Swimmer
By Stephen Fielding. A mysterious swimmer emerges out of the sea to make waves in the heart of a teenage girl. With Douglas Hodge, Ellie Bevan and Tom George. Producer: Claire Grove.

16 Feb The Protege
By Jan Hartman. Cambridge, 1913. A maths don receives a notebook of theorems and a letter entreating his help from an impoverished young man, Ramanujan, in Madras. It is clear that the young man is a genius, and he travels to England to begin a collaborative partnership which will have wide-reaching consequences. With Shiv Grewal, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Alex Jennings. Producer Kristine Landon-Smith.

17 Feb Taming the Wart
By Colin Haydn Evans. The true story of the discovery - and loss - of an alternative cure for cancer. With Andy Hockley, Simon Armstrong and Dewi Rhys Williams. Producer: Alison Hindell

18 Feb A Seer of Sorts
By Charlotte Jones. In 1860 in the hallowed quarters of Dr Isaiah Kindle, celebrated and mysterious eye doctor of Shoreditch, a beautiful young woman shares a terrible secret. With Emma Fielding, Philip Voss and Jonathan Coy. Producer: Claire Grove.

19 Feb The Saturday Play: Daughters of the Vicar
By D H Lawrence, dramatised by Jane Beeson. Louisa and Mary, daughters of the impoverished vicar of Aldecross, see marriage as the only means of escape from their routine lives. The arrival of a new young curate fills them with anticipation, but will his intellectual qualities match up to the more physical attractions of Alfred Durant, the son of a local miner? With Rachel Atkins and Cathy Sara. Producer: Peter Leslie Wild.

20 Feb The Classic Serial: Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph
By Frances Sheridan, adapted in two parts by Louise Page. 2: Tricked by her husband's conniving mistress into meeting her former fiance, Sidney has been banished from her home and children. Will anyone accept her now? With Emilia Fox, Joanna David and Jeremy Swift. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

21 Feb Passing
By Lin Coghlan. What happens if you fall in love with the wrong person? A romantic comedy about mistaken identity set in contemporary London. With Esther Coles, Nick Fletcher, Phyllis Logan and Gabrielle Reidy. Producer: Gaynor Macfarlane.

22 Feb The Mantle of the Earth
By Graeme Curry, starring Samantha Bond as Marianne North. In present-day Kew Gardens, a small gallery is devoted to the work of the Victorian artist Marianne North, who travelled the world to paint plants in their natural environment. This is the story of her life and her remarkable journeys. With John Rowe and Gemma Saunders. Producer: Cherry Cookson.

23 Feb Hanna, I'll Find You By Frances McNeil. Half-sisters Ushi and Hanna are parted during the war - Hanna has to flee Austria because of her Jewishness, and the girls lose touch. Believing that Hanna escaped the Nazis, Ushi searches obsessively for her after the war. But did Hanna escape? And what secrets might be revealed should Ushi find her sister? With Jan Ravens and Lou Gish. Producer: Andy Jordan.

24 Feb The Road Back
By Gordon Cruikshank. A moving account of how a man came to terms with his new identity as a tetraplegic after a road accident. Gordon Cruikshank begged nurses to attach a stick to his hand so he could tap out his innermost thoughts on to a laptop computer. The result was a unique diary of nearly 25,000 words. With Peter Capaldi. Producer: Pete Atkin.

25 Feb Dirk Bogarde on 4
James Fox narrates a tribute to the late Sir Dirk Bogarde with repeats of two of the readings and dramas he recorded for Radio 4: `A Short Walk from Harrods' and `The Round Dozen' by Somerset Maugham. With Michael Williams and Joanna David. Including Bogarde's poem `Steel Cathedrals', written in 1943.

26 Feb The Saturday Play: Opening Night
By Ngaio Marsh, dramatised by Michael Bakewell. When a leading actor is found gassed in his dressing room, it looks like suicide. But it transpires he was so detested that everyone had a motive for his murder. With Jeremy Clyde, Tim Treloar and Beth Chalmers. Producer: Enyd Williams.

27 Feb Classic Serial: East of Eden
By John Steinbeck, dramatised in three parts by Shaun McKenna. 1: Adam Trask thinks he can escape the painful memories of life in the army when he discovers the beautiful Cathy Ames on the doorstep of his Connecticut farm. But this is only the beginning of a story of sibling rivalry, love, adultery and revenge which will span two generations. With Henry Goodman, Lorelei King, William Roberts and Tony Doyle. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

28 Feb The Charm Factory New Series
Sue Teddern's four-part drama, set in 1954, follows the lives of four young actors fresh from charm school. 1: `Happy Days and Lonely Nights'. As Irene struggles with a career at home, Alex seems to be turning into the bad boy of Hollywood. With Tabitha Wady, Giles Thomas and Charlie Simpson. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

29 Feb The Figurehead
By Ted Moore. Merchant seaman Danny is certain that his wife Beth has been having an affair with her professional dancing partner. The battle to save his marriage leads him into uncharted waters. With Emily Woof, Trevor Fox and Carole Copeland. Producer: Michael Fox.

1 Mar The Bull beneath the Earth
By David Calcutt. Archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans uncovers the lost remains of the palace of Knossos on Crete. He discovers the ancient mysteries of the Minoan people and the legend of the Minotaur, but can he penetrate the mysteries of the human heart? With Russell Dixon, Geoffrey Banks and David Bannerman. Producer: Michael Fox.

2 Mar A Passionate Dance
By Jennifer Curry. Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran was best known for his seminal work `The Prophet', a moving poem about love which was inspired by his relationship with an older American woman. With Alex Jennings, Gayle Hunnicutt and Valerie Sarruf.

3 Mar The Young Ornithologist's Guide
By Jyll Bradley. Matilda prefers birdsong to conversation, then she sees something she shouldn't. An ornithological detective story. With Rosie Cavaliero, Bernard Cribbins and June Barrie. Producer: Jonquil Panting.

4 Mar The Saturday Play: The Hardest Thing
By Frank Vickery. Moving to Canada should be a positive step for the Pearces after the loss of their daughter, but Wendy is finding it very hard to part with Katy's belongings. With William Thomas, Rhian Morgan and Shelley Rees. Producer: Alison Hindell.

5 Mar Classic Serial: East of Eden
By John Steinbeck, dramatised in three parts by Shaun McKenna. 2: Sam Hamilton has foreseen the darkness which is about to fall on the Salinas Valley - and it begins with Cathy. With Henry Goodman, Tony Doyle, Lorelei King and William Roberts. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

6 Mar The Charm Factory
Sue Teddern's four-part drama, set in 1954, follows the lives of four young actors fresh from charm school. 2: `Secret Love'. As Hugh struggles with a reputation for being a confirmed bachelor, Betty struggles with her acting career now that blondes are out of fashion. Maybe they can be of use to each other? With Charlie Simpson, Tabitha Wady and Jan Goodman. Producer: Mary Peate.

7 Mar Our Nig
Harriet E Wilson's novel, the first by a black American writer, was lost for over 100 years. A tense drama examining the blurred region between enslavement and liberty, it tells the story of a young girl's life as an indentured servant in a liberal New England household. Dramatised by Cheryl Martin. With Janice Acquah, Liza Ross and Mary Wimbush. Producer: Pam Fraser Solomon.

8 Mar Sabina!
A romantic comedy by Chris Dolan. Plain Sandra Hamilton from Glasgow bets her flatmate that she will have more luck with the opposite sex if she pretends to be the exotic Sabina Vasiliev, the raven-haired temptress from Eastern Europe. With Fiona Bell, Cara Kelly, Liam Brennan and David Nisbet. Producer: Bruce Young.

9 Mar David's Birthday
By Gillian Plowman. Maggie and Liz have conflicting feelings about their younger, handicapped brother. As they all meet to celebrate his twenty-fifth birthday, the prospect of his return to the family brings back memories of the past which will threaten their relationships with their respective partners. With Amanda Root, Clare Holman and Richard Curnow. Producer: Sue Wilson.

10 Mar Postcards from Shannon
By George Rosie. Shannon Davis was a 19-year-old student at Syracuse University in upstate New York. At the end of 1988 she had been studying in London and travelling around Britain and Europe. On the afternoon of Wednesday 21 December, she was one of 259 people who boarded Pan Am flight 103 bound from London to New York. With Theresa Reid, Mark McDonnell, Willie Johnston and Jane Davis. Producer: Dave Batchelor.

11 Mar The Saturday Play: Celtic Tiger Tattoo
By Rebecca Barlett. (Rpt) A young couple on the move in Dublin buy a spacious apartment in a Georgian house. Through a chance meeting they learn of its history during the lockout of 1913. With Luke Griffin, Eva Birthistle and Tony Tormey. Producer: Pam Brighton.

12 Mar Classic Serial: East of Eden
The conclusion of John Steinbeck's novel in Shaun McKenna's dramatisation. 3: As Adam is freed from the tyranny of his love for Cathy, so his son's battles with life are just beginning. With Henry Goodman, Tony Doyle, Lorelei King and William Roberts. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

13 Mar The Charm Factory
Sue Teddern's four-part drama, set in 1954, follows the lives of four young actors fresh from charm school. 3: `Answer Me'. Phyllis Dent has finally achieved star status, but husband Eddie is not doing so well. In debt and out of friends, managing the Hi-Hat jazz club is his last chance. With Luisa Bradshaw White, Hugh Quarshie and Ben Crowe. Producer: Mary Peate.

14 Mar The Lost Journals of Marina Tsvetayeva
Alan Pascoe's play for radio is based on the life of the Russian poetess Marina Tsvetayeva, who went into exile after the Revolution. Following her return to Russia in 1939, her husband was shot, and she committed suicide in 1941. With Diana Quick. Producer: Ned Chaillet.

15 Mar In the Treacle Well
By Patricia Hannah. When she discovers that her husband is having an affair, a genteel Edinburgh housewife seeks guidance from two unlikely sources: Bette Davis and Celia Johnson playing their respective roles in `All about Eve' and `Brief Encounter'. With Leigh Biagi, Robert Paterson and Nora Elwell Sutton. Producer: David Jackson Young.

16 Mar The Journey
By Pearse Elliott. When Lily wins a thousand pounds at bingo she decides that she and her daughter should take a trip out of Ireland. With Eileen Pollock, Julia Deardon and Jim Duran. Producer: Pam Brighton.

17 Mar The Wasting Game - Living with Anorexia Nervosa
Philip Gross gives a father's perspective on his daughter's near-fatal struggle with anorexia in a frank and moving sequence of poems. Five sufferers - Julie P, Justine, Brian, James and Julie H - describe their own differing experiences.

18 Mar The Saturday Play: The Sisters
By Myron Brining. Chronicling the professional, personal and romantic awakening of three sisters raised in a raw, adventurous Montana mining town at the start of the 20th century. With Irene Dunne and David Niven. Original Producer: Cecil B De Mille. Producer for Radio 4: Toby Horton.

19 Mar Classic Serial: In a Grove
By Ryunosoke Akutagawa, adapted by Kevin Fegan. Who killed the young samurai warrior from Kyoto? Why does every witness have a different story to tell? A classic tale about a murder investigation which becomes an examination of the nature of confession and truth. With Gerard Murphy, Jack Davenport and Natascha McElhone. Producer: Melanie Harris

20 Mar The Charm Factory
The final instalment of Sue Teddern's drama about four young actors fresh from charm school in 1954. 4: `I Still Believe'. Alex returns from Hollywood, missing Irene, behaving badly and besieged by fan mail. Then a letter arrives which forces him to change direction. With Giles Thomas, Tenniel Evans and Tabitha Wady. Producer: Marion Nancarrow. Final part.

21 Mar The King of Edge Hill
By Karen Brown. A play about a 19th-century Robin Hood, Joseph Williamson - a self-made businessman who employed soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars to build hundreds of tunnels stretching for miles underneath the city of Liverpool. With John McArdle and Paula Simms. Producer: Polly Thomas.

22 Mar The Art Class
By Neil Brand. In 1942 New York physicist Lisa Reubens is transferred to work on the highly secret Manhattan Project. Her particular skill is in using the metaphors of art and music to explain the complexities of nuclear fission. But not even she has imagined the true application of the work in which she is involved. With Kristin Marks, Nathan Osgood and Ed Bishop. Producer: Eoin O'Callaghan.

23 Mar No Signposts in the Sea
By Vita Sackville-West, dramatised by Jill Hyem (Rpt). Starring Ronald Pickup as Edmund and Kate Buffery as Laura. An eminent journalist learns that he has only a short time to live. He decides to embark on a sea voyage in the company of a widow he has always admired. With Geoffrey Whitehead, Frances Jeater and Harry Myers. Producer Cherry Cookson.

24 Mar That Fateful Day
A drama documentary researched, written and compiled by the Royal Court Young Writers' Group, which looks at the human stories behind the events unfolding of the world stage on 24 March 1999 - the day on which NATO dropped its first bombs on Belgrade. With Julia Ford, Neil Dudgeon and Goran Kostic. Producer: Ola Animashawun.

25 Mar The Saturday Play: He Who Whispers
By John Dickson Carr, dramatised by Peter Ling. Dr Gideon Fell becomes involved in the mystery of a seemingly supernatural murder in which the victim was found entirely alone at the top of an isolated medieval tower in France. With Donald Sinden and John Hartley. Producer: Enyd Williams.

26 Mar Classic Serial: To the Lighthouse
By Virginia Woolf, dramatised in two parts by Eileen Atkins. The story of the Ramsay family holidaying in Scotland before the First World War, which is dominated by Woolf's wonderful portrait of the beautiful Mrs Ramsay. 1: The expedition to a nearby lighthouse proves to be a symbolic and emotional journey. With Vanessa Redgrave, Juliet Stevenson and John Wood. Producer: Cherry Cookson.

27 Mar Beyond the Canvas
The first of three drama documentaries this week looking at the creation of specific paintings. `Judith Beheading Holofernes'. Lucy Gough's drama reflects on the problems of being a female artist in 17th-century Florence. With Anna Chancellor, Susan Jeffrey and David Perks. Germaine Greer discusses Artemesia Gentileschi's interpretation of the apocryphal story of Judith's seduction and decapitation of the enemy leader Holofernes.

28 Mar Beyond the Canvas
Three dramas about the creation of paintings. 2: `Nocturne in Blue and Gold' by Geoffrey Beevers. Whistler's painting of Old Battersea Bridge prompted Ruskin to accuse the artist of `flinging a pot of paint in the face of the public'. A libel case ensued which many believe changed the course of art history. With James Jordan, Ian Brooker, David Timson and David Holt. Richard Dorment examines the painting.

29 Mar Beyond the Canvas
Three drama documentaries about the creation of paintings. 3: `Nevermore'. Nicholas McInnerny's drama tells the story of Gauguin's painting, a response to the death of his wife's baby. Gauguin responded with one of his most striking paintings, depicting his wife as a nude Venus in a tropical setting, with a raven gazing over the scene. With Anton Lesser and Inika Leigh Wright. The painting is discussed by Prof John House.

30 Mar Tell Jake to Sleep on the Roof
By Alison Joseph. In 1914 Margaret Sanger, the rebel and campaigner for birth control, embarked on a relationship with eminent Fabian and sexual campaigner Havelock Ellis. It was to shake his free-love marriage for ever. Using letters and autobiographies, this drama recreates that year and questions whether history can tell the truth. With Briony Glassco, David Collings and Richenda Carey. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

31 Mar Room of Leaves
Using poetry and prose, Amanda Dalton's poignant story tells of how a jilted 70-year-old woman is found dead in a room of leaves, with supermarket eggs clustered in the grass of her garden and pink ribbon everywhere. With Emily Woof, Christopher Eccleston and Ann Rye. Producer: Susan Roberts.

1 Apr Saturday Play: Daisy Miller
Henry James's novella describes the confrontation between newly independent American girl Daisy Miller - charming and unpredictable - and the social codes of 19th-century European society. With Elizabeth McGovern, Maureen Lipman and Constance Cummings. Adapted and Produced by Bill Bryden.

2 Apr Classic Serial: To the Lighthouse
The conclusion of Virginia Woolf's novel, dramatised in two parts by Eileen Atkins. Ten years on, the Ramsay family makes a second visit to Scotland. There are poignant memories of those who have died in the intervening years. As Lily Briscoe watches on the shore, the promised visit to the lighthouse is finally achieved. With Vanessa Redgrave, Juliet Stevenson and John Wood. Producer: Cherry Cookson.

3 Apr The Voyage of Discovery
By Fraser Harrison, adapted from the journals of Captain Meriweather Lewis and Captain William Clark, who in 1805 led an expedition to find a navigable route across America from east to west. The diaries record their encounters with a bruising Arcadia - the wild rivers and marauding bears - as well as with the friendly natives. With Kerry Shale and John Guerrasio. Producer: Tim Dee.

4 Apr Noisy Bodies
By Clare McIntyre. Peter is forced to confront what is really wrong with him. But to what end? With Bill Nighy, Amanda Root and James Laurenceson. Producer: Celia De Wolff.

5 Apr In Care Shauna, at 13, knows it all. Jamana Prem, 50 years older, has a lot to learn. Does wisdom come from experience, or vice versa? With Charubala Chokshi, Cathy Purcell and Zita Sattar. Producer: Sue Wilson. Repeat.

6 Apr English Rose
By Jenny Mitchell. London, late August 1958. Crooner Rose Tremaine has her first hit record. But a few miles away the streets of Notting Hill are beginning to burn with racial tension. And the fire is closer than she thinks. With Diane Parish, Tom Mannion and Angela Wynter. Producer: Jonquil Panting.

7 Apr The Packer
A monologue by Peter Tinniswood written for Michael Williams who stars as Gladwyn Jebb, a man who sees his job as a vocation, his craft as an art and his lies as truths. Producer: Enyd Williams.

8 Apr The Saturday Play: A Marble Woman
By Louisa May Alcott, dramatised by Lavinia Murray. Sexual repression, opium addiction and love collide in this gothic tour de force. Recently orphaned Cecilia Stein turns up at the door of brilliant sculptor Bazil Yorke. Jilted by the child's mother many years ago, Yorke decides to use the daughter to punish the sins of the mother. With Bill Paterson, Amanda Root and John McArdle. Producer: Pauline Harris.

9 Apr Classic Serial: Cousin Bette, the Poor Relation
By Honore de Balzac, dramatised in three parts by James Friel. 1: `The Wedding and the Betrayal'. Paris, 1838. The faithless Baron Hulot is in financial difficulties. His daughter needs a dowry and a husband, and his saintly wife has nothing more he can pawn. Cousin Bette proposes a solution to the family's dilemma and a bizarre revenge for her own betrayal. With Alison Steadman and Leslie Phillips. Producer: Marilyn Imrie.

10 Apr Elsie and the Child
A week of stories by the Potteries novelist Arnold Bennett. A child's affection for Elsie, the housemaid, turns the conventions and etiquette of an Edwardian household upside down. With Gerry Hinks, Victoria Finney and Alice French. Dramatised and Produced by Michael Fox.

11 Apr The Limits of Dominion
The second of five stories by the Potteries novelist Arnold Bennett. A young engineer is offered the chance to make his fortune, but his father stands in the way. With Gerry Hinks, Stefan Escreet and Rachel Smith. Dramatised by Elizabeth Baines. Producer: Michael Fox.

12 Apr The Fish
Comedy set in a West End theatre. The third of five stories by novelist Arnold Bennett. Dramatised by Dominic Power. Actor Reginald Sark finds fame and fortune when he attracts the attention of doyenne Emily Flyfax. But can he repay the favour he owes her? With Gerry Hinks and Gabrielle Drake. Producer: Michael Fox.

13 Apr Mr Jack Hollins against Fate
The fourth of five stories by the Potteries novelist Arnold Bennett. Dramatised by Don Haworth. Minnie and her young soldier husband defy the wishes of her father, a wealthy businessman. He moves quickly to disinherit them, until fate intervenes. With Gerry Hinks and Gordon Langford Rowe. Producer: Michael Fox.

14 Apr Last Love
The last of five stories by the Potteries novelist Arnold Bennett. Dramatised by Ted Moore. Piano teacher Miss Osyth fears she has missed the opportunity for love. The arrival of young Alexis Beaumont in the solitary village kindles her passion. With Gerry Hinks and Meriel Scholfield. Producer: Michael Fox.

15 Apr The Saturday Play: Walking to Africa
Arthur has always been difficult. When he smilingly begins to destroy everything he has ever owned, neither his neighbours nor his granddaughter have the faintest idea why. With Roy Hudd and Rudolph Walker. Written and Produced by Don Taylor.

16 Apr Classic Serial: Cousin Bette, the Poor Relation
The novel by Honore de Balzac, dramatised in three parts by James Friel. 2: `Spinning the Web'. Bette's niece has married Wenceslas and is about to be betrayed by him. Valerie Marneffe's Brazilian paramour returns to throw her two other rival lovers into jealous despair. Bette weaves a web to trap them all and to secure a wealthy marriage settlement for herself. With Alison Steadman and Leslie Phillips. Producer: Marilyn Imrie.

17 Apr The Blue Man
By Gillian Clarke. An Egyptian grave god who smiles when you turn him is not an ordinary gift. But the Finches are not ordinary women, at least not for Catrin. With Siriol Jenkins, Margaret John and Jennifer Hill. Producer: Alison Hindell.

18 Apr From Galway to Graceland
By Sue Teddern, based on a song by Richard Thompson. In a remote Irish village Marie becomes increasingly fixated with the music of Elvis Presley. One night, after a bitter row, she walks out of her home and sets out on a journey to Graceland. With Marcella Riordan, Struan Rodger and Clare Cathcart. Producer: Paul Dodgson. Repeat.

19 Apr Another Shakespeare
Comedy by Martyn Wade, based on the real-life story of an 18th-century forger. In order to convince his father that he has great literary skills, the forger provides him with a number of Shakespearean documents, including an exciting new and undiscovered play. With James Grout and Julian Rhind-Tutt. Producer: Cherry Cookson.

20 Apr Power
By Elizabeth Baines. Ten-year-old Sarah and her sister Anne believe that their cat has magic power, and that only he can save their daddy from the evil spell which has befallen him while working away from home. With Alice French, Alice Fox, Kathryn Hunt and Ian Shaw. Producer: Michael Fox.

21 Apr A White Velvet Nightcap in Florida
A play by Stephen Mollet, inspired by the letters of the Hungarian writer Tibor Dery. A young wife tries to help keep the truth of her husband's imprisonment from his elderly mother, but can their trust and love survive? With John Rowe and Tracy-Ann Oberman. Producer: Penny Leicester. Repeat.

22 Apr The Saturday Play: The ABC Murders
By Agatha Christie, dramatised by Michael Bakewell. The arrival of an anonymous letter telling Hercule Poirot to look out for Andover of the 21st of the month and signed ``Yours ABC,'' spells the beginning of one of the Belgian sleuth's most enigmatic and disturbing cases. With John Moffat, Simon Williams and Philip Jackson. Producer: Enyd Williams. Producer Cherry Cookson.

23 Apr Classic Serial: Cousin Bette, the Poor Relation
The conclusion of James Friel's three-part dramatisation of the novel by Honore de Balzac. `The Price of Love'. Adeline makes a last bid to save her family's honour, Bette loses her chance to marry into money, death claims both sinners and the saintly, and virtue, it seems, has no reward. With Alison Steadman and Leslie Phillips. Producer: Marilyn Imrie. Last in series.

24 Apr The Deep Blue Sea
Terence Rattigan's play exploring the damaging effects of repressed emotions and unrequited love. Hester Collyer, wife of Sir William Collyer, is discovered slumped, apparently dead, in front of a gas fire in her dingy West London flat. With Alexandra Gilbreath and Adam Kotz. Producer: Mary Peate.

25 Apr The Reaper's Year
The old secrets of a horseman clash with the power of the tractor in the years just before the Second World War. With William Haden and Alex Harland. Written and Produced by Ivan Cutting.

26 Apr Not like Enid Blyton
A play for all the family by Val Syms. It's 1956, and 11-year-olds Brenda and Pat are planning to spend Sunday having adventures. But Pat's mum insists they take baby Dominic along... This never happened to the Famous Five! With Natalie Lynch, Victoria McGovern and Melissa Sinden. Producer: Chris Wallis.

27 Apr Something of the Night
A play for all the family by Jenny McDade. A bad dream, ley lines, the marsh mist, or simply an overactive imagination? With Leonard Kirby as Dean Batty, and John Challis as Inspector Andrews. Producer: Celia de Wolff. Repeat.

28 Apr So Long Life
A dark comedy by Peter Nichols. An elderly woman is forced to endure her birthday party surrounded by her argumentative family. Set in Bristol, the play looks at the competing egos in a family which regularly seems to do all the right things for all the wrong reasons. With Constance Chapman and Alison Steadman. Producer: Andy Jordan. Repeat.

29 Apr The Saturday Play: Into the Mystic
By Annie McCartney. Following regression therapy, Susan Sinclair throws her family into turmoil when she accuses her brother of abusing her as a child. The family recoils in anger and disbelief until a shattering incident gives them all pause for thought. With Samantha Bond, Ron Cook and Sophie Thompson. Producer: Eoin O'Callaghan.

30 Apr Classic Serial: Confessions of a Justified Sinner
By James Hogg, dramatised in three parts by Don Taylor. Lady Dalcastle's two sons could not be more different: the amiable George and the intense Robert have an uneasy, and occasionally violent, relationship. It is a relationship which has to be questioned when one of them is brutally murdered. Part 1. With Edward Petherbridge, James Cosmo and Stella Gonet. Producer: Don Taylor.

1 May The Owl Service
By Alan Garner, dramatised by Matthew Bailey. When Alison traces owls from the pattern on a dinner service, the paper owls disappear and the plates go blank. Mysterious events turn frightening in this classic reworking of the Welsh Blodeuwedd myth. With Siriol Jenkins, Steven Meo and Garrie Harvey. Producer: Alison Hindell.

2 May Barnes and Molly
By Ray Brown. Love and mathematics combine in this true-life story of a secret romance between Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb, and his 17-year-old cousin. Starring Samuel West, Emilia Fox and Mary Stopes-Roe. Producer: Pete Atkin.

3 May The Book of Secrets
By M G Vassanji, dramatised by Tanika Gupta. The long-vanished world of colonial East Africa is brought to life through the discovery of an old diary. The book belonged to a British officer and its pages begin to yield the secrets of the past, so the connections between the past and present become apparent. With Tim Pigott-Smith and Nadim Sawalha. Producer: Mark Rickards.

4 May Journey with a Golden Lady
By Ellen Phethean. Newcastle's city streets are forgotten in this magical trip to the department store of every woman's dreams. The mythical Golden Lady and guardian of the clocks takes a retired actress, her optician daughter and a `Big Issue' seller on the fantastical shopping spree of a lifetime, in this exploration of how women cope with age and ambition. With Charlie Hardwick and Judi Earl. Producer: Polly Thomas. Repeat.

5 May Cuban Solo
By David Pownall. The tragic story of the murder of Caturla, one of Cuba's most influential composers. He was the first to combine black and white Cuban music, paving the way for today's famous Afro-Cuban sounds. The play is based on new evidence found after investigative research in the north of the country. Starring Robert Glenister, Gerard Murphy and Jenny Jules. Producer: Martin Jenkins. Repeat.

6 May The Saturday Play: The Black Angel
A 1948 American radio production of the novel by Cornell Woolrich, a bleak and brooding murder mystery about the sleaze behind the tinsel of 1940s Hollywood. `Black Angel' was published in 1943 and made into a feature film in 1946. This radio version by William Spiers incorporates into the plot many real-life figures from the Hollywood of the time. It has been remastered for Radio 4 by Toby Horton. With June Havoc, Wally Mayer and the Suspense Theatre Company.

7 May Classic Serial: Confessions of a Justified Sinner
By James Hogg, dramatised in three parts by Don Taylor. 2: Mrs Logan and Bell Calvert discover the true circumstances of George's murder and learn for the first time the danger presented to Robert by his mysterious friend Gil Martin. With Edward Petherbridge, Cal Macaninch and Paul Higgins. Producer: Don Taylor.

8 May Contemplating Adultery
By Michael Butt. A factually based story from the book by Lotte and Joseph Hamburger. Sarah Austin, a married and thoroughly respectable Victorian translator, conducts a passionate relationship by letter with a raffish German prince. With Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy. Producer: Claire Grove.

9 May Before Your Very Eyes
By David Pownall. Georges Melies, the father of film fantasy, paved the way for modern cinema back in 1890s Paris. In his most famous film, a spaceship in the shape of a cannon shell lands in the eye of the man in the moon. A colourful new play that looks at this dazzling innovator and compulsive seducer who typified the belle epoque. With Henry Goodman and Julian Rhind-Tutt. Producer: Graham Frost.

10 May Ladies' Night at Finbar's Hotel
Written by Maeve Binchy, Clare Boylan, Emma Donnohue, Deirdre Purcell, Anne Haverty, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and Kate O'Riordan, dramatised by Dermot Bolger. An imaginative Irish comedy that divulges the hidden secrets of each guest staying at Finbar's Hotel - a hotel where just about anything can happen. With Sorcha Cusack, Dermot Crowley and Marie Jones. Producer: Gemma McMullan.

11 May Return to Lyonesse
The true story of the brief and happy courtship and miserable forty-year marriage of Thomas Hardy and his first wife, Emma Gifford. The poet David Constantine visits Cornwall, where the couple fell in love, following the journey Hardy made after Emma's death. Starring Oliver Ford Davies and Jane Gurnett. Repeat.

12 May M for Mother
By Marjorie Riddell, dramatised by Gabrielle Lloyd. 1954, Wether Bilbury, Cheshire. Mrs Wordsley is coping as best she can with her daughter's move to London. Not that she would seek to intrude. Well, only for Sarah's good. With Jennifer Dundas Lowe, Rosalind Ayres and Miriam Margolyes. Producer: Pete Atkin. Repeat.

13 May The Saturday Play: Touch and Go
Elizabeth Berridge's novel set in the Border country, dramatised by Alison Joseph. An unexpected inheritance allows Emma Rowlands to return to her roots and renew her career as an artist. But when her mother comes to visit, a surprising discovery is made. With Rachel Atkins, Phyllida Law and Ifan Meredith. Producer: Jocelyn Boxall.

14 May Classic Serial: Confessions of a Justified Sinner
The conclusion of Don Taylor's three-part dramatisation of the novel by James Hogg. Gil-Martin's influence over Robert increases, and Robert finds himself cast out by all levels of society. He gradually comes to realise the terrifying truth of who, or what, Gil-Martin is. But is it too late? With Edward Petherbridge, Cal Macaninch and Paul Higgins. Producer: Don Taylor. Final part.

15 May Work in Progress
By Gary Brown. Tom Morton is an actor of limited achievement and even more limited prospects. So the chance to work with award-winning Producer Jim Marshall, with his improvisational rehearsal method, is irresistible. The process may be tortuous, embarrassing and even incomprehensible, but is it worth it in the end?

16 May Zero Tolerance
By Lloyd Evans. With trade advantages, increased tax revenue, and a handy mathematical superiority over the Pope's insistence on Roman numerals, should the doge of Venice declare war on the Vatican, particularly considering the doge's interest in his mathematician's wife? With Nicky Henson, Ronald Pickup and Tom George. Producer: Ned Chaillet.

17 May The Teahouse Detective: `The Body in the Barge.'
Based on the stories of Baroness Orczy, dramatised by Michael Butt. When a rotting body is found on a potato barge on the Thames, a blackmail victim appears to have the motive - but the truth is more complex and sinister. With Suzanne Burden and Bernard Hepton. Producer: John Taylor. Repeat.

18 May Who Shot Shelley?
By David Britton. 1812. Tremadoc in north Wales is not ready for the arrival of the radical young poet who preaches free love and atheism. And the authorities want him silenced too. With Philip Madoc, James Loye and Siriol Jenkins. Producer: Alison Hindell.

19 May Little Angels
By Vivienne Allen. In the Armstrong household, all ears are tuned to the radio to hear the progress of Ruth Ellis's appeal against a death sentence for murder. For young Helen, these events are part of a sinister world that threatens to encroach on a homely Norfolk childhood. With Lisa Ellis, Marlene Sidaway, Simon J Williamson, Maria McClagon and Maryann Turner. Producer: John Taylor. Repeat.

20 May The Saturday Play: Good Queen Bess and the Dastardly Don
By George MacDonald Fraser. It is 1599, and unless a compromising letter can be recovered, Elizabeth's reputation as the Virgin Queen will be in tatters. Time to call in Phoebe Fosdyke, secret agent. With Vivienne Dixon, Crawford Logan, Katherine Igoe and Mark McDonnell. Producer: Patrick Rayner.

21 May Classic Serial: The Song of Hiawatha
By Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. Timothy West tells the legendary story of Native American hero Hiawatha. With Timothy West, Chris Garner, Burt Caesar and Sam Fry. Abridged by Tom Holland.

22 May The Girl From Clare
By Patricia M Cobey. A young student in a small Irish town becomes pregnant. Her boyfriend and parents react with horror, but when her baby is born, she changes all their lives for the better. With Cathy Belton, Luke Griffin, Geraldine Plunkett and Pat Laffan. Producer Pam Brighton.

23 May The Art of Love
By Robin Brooks. The poet Ovid roams the streets of ancient Rome and offers us his ultimate guide to seduction - a guide which will lead to immortality and to political disaster. With Bill Nighy, Anne-Marie Duff and David Horovitch. Producer: Clive Brill.

24 May The Teahouse Detective:`The de Genneville Peerage.'
Based on the stories of Baroness Orczy, dramatised by Michael Butt. Polly is shattered by an appalling murder, but the man in the corner's efforts to shed light on the mystery meet with her furious resistance. With Suzanne Burden and Bernard Hepton. Producer John Taylor. Repeat.

25 May Looks like Rain
By Jimmie Chinn. Following their mother's funeral, Joyce and Stan unearth some decidedly dodgy skeletons. With Dora Bryan and Bernard Cribbins. Producer: Martin Jenkins.

26 May The Hunt for Billy Casper
By Jeff Young. A mix of drama, interviews and train journeys in a story of one writer's obsession with the fictional creation of another. With contributions from Ken Loach, Dai Bradley and Barry Hines. With Andrew Schofield, Elisa Cowley and William Dixon. Producer: Melanie Harris. Repeat.

27 May The Saturday Play: A Far Cry from Kensington
By Muriel Spark, dramatised by Jennifer Phillips. A witty slice of 50s London is evoked by the eccentric and engaging occupants of a rooming house near South Kensington station, and the charming gentlemen and ladies of the shabby but genteel world of publishing. With Celia Imrie, Sorcha Cusack and Bill Wallis. Produced by Viv Beeby. Producer Cherry Cookson

28 May Classic Serial: A High Wind in Jamaica
By Richard Hughes, dramatised in two parts by Bryony Lavery. 1: `The Innocent Voyage'. The Bas Thornton children live an idyllically carefree life in mid-19th-century Jamaica. When a hurricane hits the island, they are sent home to England where, it is thought, they will be safer - that is, until their ship is captured by pirates. With Robert Glenister, Hatty Jones and Kiera Knightley. Producer: Catherine Bailey.

29 May The Secret Parts
A murder mystery by Eve Brook, dramatised by David Edgar. When she finds the body of one of her colleagues lying in a council house corridor, councillor Helena Kerr has immediate suspicions about the identity of the murderer. She suspects her main political opponent and sets out to prove it. With Celia Imrie, Nathaniel Parker and Frances Barber. Producer: Jonquil Panting.

30 May Danny's Wake
An award-winning black comedy by Jim Sweeney, from the 1999 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Two old school friends meet for the first time in nearly 30 years to attend the funeral of a mutual friend. With Jim Sweeney and Steve Steen.

31 May The Teahouse Detective: `The Dublin Mystery'.
Based on the stories of Baroness Orczy, dramatised by Michael Butt. A dying Dublin businessman appears to have settled his will, but revenge wreaks havoc in the family. With Suzanne Burden and Bernard Hepton. Producer: John Taylor. Repeat.

1 Jun The Errant Gene
By Rukhsana Ahmad. A geneticist who is developing a new drug is haunted by a ghost from her past. With Parminder Nagra, Paul Bhattacharjee, Tessa Worsley and David Allister. Producer: Claire Grove. Repeat.

2 Jun A Visitation
By Don Taylor. Victor is ashamed of an event in his past life. But when that event takes human form, he is forced to re-examine everything - even his shame. With John Wood, Julian Glover and Prunella Scales. Producer: Don Taylor.

3 Jun The Saturday Play: The Swami and Winston
By Mahesh Dattani. A case for the intrepid Uma Rao, daughter-in-law of Bangalore's deputy commissioner of police, and wife of the superintendent. Lady Montefiore, an English aristocrat, has been murdered outside a Hindu temple. An Burberry raincoat and a mischievous dog provide the only clues about the identity of the murderer. With Priyanga Elan, Shiv Grewal and Andrew Wincott. Producer: Jeremy Mortimer. Producer Cherry Cookson

4 Jun Classic Serial: A High Wind in Jamaica
By Richard Hughes, dramatised in two parts by Bryony Lavery. 2: `An Ordinary Little Girl'. The four Bas Thornton children have been captured by pirates on their voyage from Jamaica to England. But who is capturing whom? With Hatty Jones, Edward Bertram and Harry Broughton. Producer: Catherine Bailey.

5 Jun Child of Our Time
Five dramas about extraordinary children. 1: `Child of the Border: Sia Mia's Story' by Gill Adams. Thirteen-year-old Sia Mia is orphaned during the war in Sierra Leone. She lives in the Massakundou refugee camp on the border between Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Each day is a challenge, but she has the support of her beloved caretaker, Mamma Ballu, as she struggles to come to terms with her past. With Bemnet Tadesse. Producer: Kate Rowland.

6 Jun Wind of Change
By Helen Brandom. For Kathleen Fox, dinner with her husband's managing Producer and his wife is a chore in itself. When Lavinia, the fawning secretary, is invited as well, Kathleen begins to lose her reason. Something has got to change. Starring Alison Steadman as Kathleen. Producer: Eoin O'Callaghan. Repeat.

7 Jun The Teahouse Detective: `The Edinburgh Mystery'.
Based on the stories of Baroness Orczy, dramatised by Michael Butt. When an attractive woman is hired to take care of Lady Donaldson's ingenuous son, events lead to betrayal and murder. With Bernard Hepton and Suzanne Burden. Producer: Celia de Wolff.

8 Jun Gray's Elegy
By Stephen Wyatt. How far did a passionate quarrel with Horace Walpole influence Thomas Gray's much-loved poem, `Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard', first published nearly 250 years ago? With Michael Maloney and Anton Lesser. Producer: Martin Jenkins.

9 Jun Men Are From...
By David Stafford. Trish and Phil have the perfect relationship, and now Trish is writing her own self-help manual centred around her perfect life, using the dysfunctional lives of her closest friends as subject matter. With Lesley Manville, Stephen Moore and Douglas Hodge. Producer: Marc Jobst.

10 Jun The Saturday Play: Each Way Yankee
Comedy about a man who has a passion for sport and enjoys the odd flutter, and his wife who prefers to tune into her favourite daily radio soap opera. But when she discovers she has a talent for betting, their two passions collide in the most unexpected way and their lives are transformed. With Paula Wilcox, Philip Jackson and Royce Mills. Written by Valerie Weyland and Produced by Jane Quill. Producer Gordon House

11 Jun Classic Serial: Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky's romantic thriller about guilt and redemption, dramatised by Mike Walker. Young Raskolnikov is determined to put to the test a horrific theory. With Barnaby Kay, Robert Lang, Oliver Milburn. Producer: John Taylor (1/3).

12 Jun Child of Our Time
Five dramas about children from around the world. 2: `Child of the Snow: Matti's Story' by Lee Hall. The story of a 14-year-old Sami, or Lapp, the last nomadic tribe in Europe, living 250 miles inside the Arctic Circle. Matti is a modern boy, who loves messing about with computers and hates pollution, drugs and Ginger Spice. With Ben Tibber. Producer: Kate Rowland.

13 Jun Silver Whale Fish
By Zinnie Harris. In the Museum of Scotland, an extraordinary woman plunges the relationship between two curators into crisis. Fiona and Martin live together and are getting along fine - until Carrie arrives. With Robin Cameron, Carol Ann Crawford and Wendy Seager. Producer: Gaynor Macfarlane. Repeat.

14 Jun The Teahouse Detective
Based on the stories of Baroness Orczy, dramatised by Michael Butt. `The Brighton Mystery'. An American heiress begins to get blackmail letters from the husband she thought was dead. With Bernard Hepton and Suzanne Burden. Producer: John Taylor.

15 Jun Thin Woman in a Morris Minor
By Sarah LeFanu. In 1947 writer Rose Macaulay was a curiosity - an elderly Englishwoman driving alone down the coast of Spain in her ancient Morris. Stopping to indulge in her passion for swimming, she encounters the mysterious Senor Simon, one of the many ghosts who haunt her journey. With Maureen O'Brien, Cornelius Garrett and Claire Marchionne. Producer: Felicity Goodall.

16 Jun Age Gap
By Peter Tinniswood. So what is age? It is the individual's private horror, personal, merciless and relentless - and sublimely comic. With Phyllida Law and Imelda Staunton. Producer: Enyd Williams.

17 Jun The Saturday Play: The Luck of the Bodkins
By P G Wodehouse, dramatised by Patricia Hooker. Farcical goings-on aboard the luxury liner the Atlantic, involving mistaken identity, thwarted love, broken engagements, a smuggled pearl necklace and a plush brown Mickey Mouse toy. With Nicholas Boulton, Jonathan Firth and Eleanor Tremain. Producer: Gordon House. Producer Gordon House.

18 Jun Classic Serial: Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky's romantic thriller about guilt and redemption, dramatised in three parts by Mike Walker. 2: In a fever of guilt, Raskolnikov finds himself pursued by unnaturally cunning investigator Porfiry Petrovich. With Barnaby Kay, Poppy Miller and Jim Norton. Producer: John Taylor.

19 Jun Child of Our Time
Five dramas about extraordinary children from around the world. 3: `Child of the Suburbs: Milton and Sylvio's Story' by Katie Hims. The story of identical twins growing up in Belford Roxo, one of Brazil's most dangerous suburbs. They belong to the Candomble religion, brought to Brazil by the slaves, and they find escape from the violence around them by flying their kites. With Ike Hamilton and Bradley Martin. Producer: Kate Rowland.

20 Jun A Higher Education
A comedy by Lloyd Peters set in a university drama department. A drama lecturer locked in a studio, a shy student, a real gun and a copy of `Hamlet' are just some of the ingredients that guarantee one head of department a particularly awful day. With Rik Mayall and Helen Lederer. Producer: Polly Thomas.

21 Jun The Teahouse Detective
`The London Mystery'. Based on the stories of Baroness Orczy, dramatised by Michael Butt. A gambler accused of murder seems to have the perfect alibi. With Bernard Hepton and Suzanne Burden. Producer: Celia de Wolff.

22 Jun IQ - the Affair of the Yellow Dress
By Paul Celeste. Psychotherapist Amanda Mace and philosopher O'Toole take time off from academic pursuits to solve a mystery of adultery, sexual blackmail and a particularly dodgy brand of whisky. With Bill Paterson and Frances de la Tour. Producer: John Taylor.

23 Jun High in the Clouds
By Don Haworth. A humorous story of enterprise, aviation and friendship in a small Lancashire community in the last days of the 1930s - a time when innocence and hope flourished, only to be rudely shattered by the onset of the Second World War. With Stephen Thorne, Christian Rodska and Brigit Forsyth. Producer: Polly Thomas. Repeat .

24 Jun The Saturday Play: The Ballad of Billy Rainbow
Tony Ramsay's play is a darkly comic detective story set against a background of witchcraft in Elizabethan Norfolk. With Michael Maloney, Daniela Nardini and Trevor Peacock. Producer: Janet Whitaker. Producer Gordon House.

25 Jun Classic Serial: Crime and Punishment
The conclusion of Fyodor Dostoevsky's romantic thriller about guilt and redemption, dramatised by Mike Walker. 3: As the policeman Porfiry Petrovich closes in, a desperate Raskolnikov finds an unexpected source of hope. With Barnaby Kay, Poppy Miller and Jim Norton. Producer: John Taylor.

26 Jun Child of Our Time
Five dramas about extraordinary children from around the world. 4: `Child of the City: Wou Suk's Story' by Stephen Butchard. At nine, Wou Suk is a child genius in maths and computer studies and a violin virtuoso, but he still finds time for `Pokemon' and `Harry Potter'. However, he believes he has a bigger responsibility - to develop biotechnology to make a difference. Starring Jae-woo James Rhee as Lee Wou Suk. Producer: Kate Rowland.

27 Jun Night Visit
Jean Binnie's play is based on the legendary 1945 meeting which took place in Leningrad between the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova and a young British diplomat, Isaiah Berlin. With Sarah Badel and Robert Glenister. Producer: Martin Jenkins.

28 Jun Pause between Acts
By Mavis Cheek. When Joan's husband leaves her, she hardens her heart against men. But then she meets Finbar, who seems very, very different. With Nichola McAuliffe and Simon Armstrong. Producer: Alison Hindell.

29 Jun A Womb with a View
A monologue for two, adapted by Simon Brett from his stage play. Felicity Goodson plays both the mother-to-be and the extremely articulate embryo in a comedy of development and deliverance. Producer: Simon Brett.

30 Jun Gin and Rum
By Philip Palmer. Every weekday Judy and Bob meet on the roof of a London office block for their lunch break. This romantic ghost story scratches beneath the surface of two lonely lives, offering a tantalising glimpse of the secrets of the city. With Caroline Catz and Philip Whitchurch. Producer: Toby Swift.

1 Jul The Saturday Play: The Secret Summer of Daniel Lyons
By Roy Apps. In the exciting days of the early British film industry, Tom dreams of a career in films when he leaves school. However, his strict Methodist parents strongly disapprove. With Nick Robinson, Robert Glenister and Sophie Carlton. Producer: Celia de Wolff. Producer Gordon House

2 Jul Classic Serial: Moby Dick
F Murray Abraham stars in David Zane Mairowitz's three-part adaptation of Herman Melville's novel. The struggle between man and beast becomes a compelling tale of camaraderie, fate and megalomania. 1: Ishmael's adventure begins in the eerie town of New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he meets the enigmatic Queequeg and embarks on a remarkable friendship. With Fritz Weaver and Olivia Leavanae. Producer: Bill Raymond.

3 Jul Child of Our Time
`Children of the Rain' by Lee Hall, starring Ben Tibber and Sita Patel. The last of five dramas about extraordinary children presents the thoughts and opinions of British children about children in other parts of the world. Interviews with classes of children from the north of England help explore the contradictions, difficulties and joys of being a child in our time. Producer: Kate Rowland.

4 Jul Don't Forget to Breathe
By Debbie Kent. Jez livens up his job as a telephone-sales operator by breathing down the phone at a nuisance caller. But the response he gets is not quite what he expected. With Benedict Sandiford, Lucy Punch and Carolyn Jones. Producer: Peter Kavanagh.

5 Jul Slow Train to Woking
A touching comedy written and performed by Michael Mears, who plays all 28 characters. Daniel's biggest headache in life is his dear old mother Lil. With her eccentric demands and obsession with hymn-singing, he dreads the routine of his weekly visits. That is why he always takes the slow train. Producer: Enyd Williams.

6 Jul A Slight Tilt to the Left
Written and performed by Michael Mears. Lenny has a problem - his father's headstone, near the racecourse he loved so much, is tilting, ever so slightly, to the left. Producer: Enyd Williams. Repeat.

7 Jul The Vidocq and the Last Right Conan Doyle Week
By R J Gallagher. Paris, 1821. Former convict Eugene Vidocq is hired by the police to invent the science of detection. When a priest dies mysteriously in prison, all of Vidocq's skills are put to the test. With John Labanowski, Patrick Brennan and Simon Armstrong. Producer: Alison Hindell.

8 Jul The Saturday Play: Murder on the Home Front
By Michael Crompton, adapted from the book by Molly Lefebure. 3: `The Wigwam Murder'. Spring, 1942. Molly continues her work as assistant to the Home Office pathologist, Hardcastle. The stresses of wartime life begin to affect them both, and the discovery of a body on an American army base brings new dilemmas for each of them. With Mary MacLeod, Emily Bruni, Kevin Whately and Joseph May. Producer: John Dove.

9 Jul Classic Serial: Moby Dick
F Murray Abraham stars in David Zane Mairowitz's three-part adaptation of Herman Melville's classic novel. 2: The Pequod is charged with excitement as whaling gets under way. Yet as Ahab forges on in search of the elusive Moby Dick, the crew's high spirits are replaced with foreboding. With Fritz Weaver and Oliva Leavanae. Producer: Bill Raymond.

10 Jul The Songs That Houses Sing
Four plays set in houses which sing their secrets. 1: `DIY' by Hattie Naylor. Daniel is willing to tear his beautiful house apart to create the right decor for Frances. The harder he works, the more clearly the past emerges. The story the house has to tell is not a happy one. With Jade Williams, Rosie Cavaliero and Alistair Galbraith. Producer: Jeremy Mortimer.

11 Jul The Songs That Houses Sing
Four plays set in houses which sing their secrets. 2: `The House in Tamworth Park' by Josephine Corcoran. Alice, a writer, lives in a flat in a big old house. All the tenants receive an offer to move out, but Alison stays and begins to trace the story of a couple who lived in the house nearly 100 years ago - a story of buried treasure. With Mia Soteriou, Sarah Rice and Joshua Towb. Producer: Josephine Corcoran.

12 Jul The Songs That Houses Sing
`The Currs' by Kate Clanchy. The third of four plays set in houses which sing their secrets. Tasmania, 1832. Edward Curr, master of the Van Diemen's Land Company, tries to gain control of his wife, his convict stonemason and the wild landscape in this harsh outpost of the Empire. With Julia Ford, Garry Cooper and Colin Tierney. Producer: Mary Peate.

13 Jul The Songs That Houses Sing
`Kissing Shadows' by Rachel Joyce. The last of four plays set in houses which sing their secrets. Following a painful separation from her husband, Holly and her sister Frankie rent a country cottage where she can recuperate. They discover that the house has a story of its own. With Emma Fielding, Matilda Ziegler and Ewan Hooper. Producer: Mary Peate.

14 Jul Erskine May
By Dan Rebellato. A humorous look at the 19th-century rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament, combining history and fiction. Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin work at opposite ends of the architectural spectrum. But when Parliament explodes and Big Ben rockets into the sky, they have 12 hours to rebuild it before Queen Victoria arrives for the opening. With Alex Jennings and Ewan Hooper. Producer: Polly Thomas.

15 Jul The Saturday Play: The River
Rumer Godden's classic autobiographical novel is dramatised by Judy Allen. Harriet writes poems to preserve eternally the summer of her blissful childhood in India. But when Captain John, injured in the Great War, comes to stay with the family, Harriet knows that life is about to change for ever. With Phyllida Law, Gemma Padley and Nicholas Rowe. Producer: John Taylor.

16 Jul Classic Serial: Moby Dick
F Murray Abraham stars in the conclusion of David Zane Mairowitz's three-part adaptation of Herman Melville's classic novel. As the Pequod closes in on its prey, Captain Ahab's obsession spirals out of control. With Fritz Weaver and Oliva Leavanae. Producer: Bill Raymond.

17 Jul Double Acts
A week of new collaborative plays by writers new to radio. 1: `That's Not a Name I Know' by Alice Barry and Claire Bennett. At a critical point in her career, a Birmingham businesswoman who 26 years ago gave up her baby for adoption is forced to reassess her life. Meanwhile, in Cork, Mairead prepares for marriage. With Eileen Walsh and Jillie Meers.

18 Jul Double Acts
A week of collaborative plays. 2: Two plays about isolation and loss. `The Gathering Wave' by Isabel Wright, starring Lisa Malcolm. On the east coast of Scotland nine-year-old Alex is having to grow up fast. Producer: Gaynor Macfarlane. `The Wide Open Sea' by Don McCamphill, starring Gayanne Potter. On the north coast of Ireland ten years later, Alex struggles to survive loneliness and self-doubt. Producer: Lawrence Jackson.

19 Jul Double Acts
`Cottage Industry' by Carl Grose and Eryl Roderick. Welsh farmer Rita and Cornish fisherman Reg plan an unusual form of revenge on irresponsible tourists. With Di Botcher and David Shaw. Producer: Alison Hindell.

20 Jul Double Acts
A week of new collaborative plays by writers new to radio. 4: `Cardamom' by Leila Aboulela and Sarah Phelps. A thirtysomething London couple holiday in Egypt and return with a female djinn who has been trapped for 900 years in a jar of cardamom seeds. With Adjoa Andoh and Lisa Coleman. Producer: Bruce Young.

21 Jul Double Acts
`Making Waves' by Sol B River and Gee Williams. The Rev Benjamin Stevens, a Jamaican minister, revitalises his new Welsh congregation and digs up the floor of the church to make a baptism pool. A leading member of the church and chair of the circuit committee fights him all the way. Who will win? With Burt Caesar and Christine Pritchard. Producer: Polly Thomas.

22 Jul The Saturday Play: Becoming the Rose
By Bridget O'Connor. Ever since she was a child, Breda has dedicated herself to a single challenge - winning the Rose of Tralee, an annual contest for Irish girls the world over. With Jim Norton and Elizabeth Conboy. Producer Bridget O'Connor.

23 Jul Classic Serial: Torquemada
By Benito Perez Galdos, John Clifford. Torquemada is named after the Grand Inquisitor by those he brutally exploits. His story is one of evolution in reverse and of absolute corruption. Love of money first isolates him and then destroys the one thing that has any meaning in his life. (1/2)

24 Jul That Fateful Day
A drama documentary researched, written and compiled by the Royal Court Young Writers' Group, which looks at the human stories behind the events unfolding of the world stage on 24 March 1999 - the day on which NATO dropped its first bombs on Belgrade. With Julia Ford, Neil Dudgeon and Goran Kostic. Producer: Ola Animashawun.

25 Jul Summer Sectioned
By John Binnie. An elegiac and moving encounter with the woman who was the muse of playwright Tennessee Williams - his sister Rose. With Lorelei King and Colin Stinton. Producer: Gaynor Macfarlane.

26 Jul Falling in Love Again
By Bernard Kops. The great inspiration in Jill's life has always been the lunatic poet Tom Garland. She has just moved to Bournemouth after a series of dysfunctional relationships. And who should she run into during her first week there? With Stephanie Cole and Frederick Treves. Producer: Peter Kavanagh.

27 JulThe Writer's Block Workshop
By Yana Stajno. Suzanne and Hannah decide the only way to meet interesting, male literary types is to run a workshop for writers suffering from creative block. But they know nothing about writing! With Sylvestra Le Touzel and Sara Crowe. Producer: Peter Kavanagh.

28 Jul American Beer
A northern comedy drama by Steve Timms. Funny, fast and razor-sharp dialogue between Judy and Amanda, two young women stuck in a flat in Oldham. Their lives are about to change for ever, but one of them is terrified. With Ann-Louise Grimshaw and Michelle Holmes. Producer: Melanie Harris.

29 Jul The Saturday Play: Go Ask Alice
By Annie McCartney. When Alice, an asthma sufferer, starts angling for special attention, it does not seem to be anything unusual. But before long her parents find themselves reeling in disbelief as their lives start to unravel before their very eyes. With Ellie Beaven, Georgie Alexander and Amanda Root. Producer: Eoin O'Callaghan.

30 Jul The Classic Serial: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde's famous novel is dramatised in two parts by Nick McCarty. `If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old... I would give my soul for that.' The story of a gilded and spoilt hedonist who, Faust-like, makes a foolish wish - the granting of which destroys him. Part 1. With Jamie Glover, Ian McDiarmid and Steven Pacey. Producer: Gordon House.

31 Jul Baldi
Six murder mysteries set in Dublin. 4: `The Emerald Style' by Simon Brett. Paolo's attempt to wine and dine his spiritual Producer Fr Troy at a leading Dublin hotel is interrupted by a murder. With David Threlfall, Tina Kellegher and T P McKenna. created by Barry Devlin. Producer: Lawrence Jackson.

1 Aug The Block
By Alex Lowe. Paul's 15 minutes of fame arrive when a documentary crew attempts to make a feature about his management of the local residents' association. But it soon becomes apparent that the task is becoming too much for our hapless hero. With Alex Lowe, Mary Wimbush and Chris Pavlo. Producer: Sally Avens.

2 Aug Jeff's Kingdom
By Martin Smith. Jacobs and Parr is a business full of deception. Manager Jeff Darlow has a secret which could well cause his downfall - unless he can expose someone else first. With Terry Molloy, Sunny Ormonde and Ian Brooker. Producer: Rosemary Watts.

3 Aug Bucket... and the Whited Sepulchre
A comedy crime thriller by Oscar-winning writer James Hendrie, based around a detective who first appeared in Dickens's `Bleak House'. Inspector Bucket, a sort of Victorian Columbo, has an unusual approach to solving the crime of a murderous, pleasure-seeking vicar - he appears so bumbling and incompetent that his suspects drop their guard. With Tony Haygarth and Neil Pearson. Producer: John Dryden.

4 Aug Raising the Sage
By Peter Roberts. In the late 60s, Alex `The Sage' Vaughan, was a brief publishing phenomenon. His book `Utterances' was for many the key to life. After a few years associating with rock stars and enjoying celebrity status, he disappeared from public view. Thirty years later, two Californian academics travelled to England to search for the forgotten master of the philosophical soundbite. With Dorien Thomas. Producer: Peter Leslie Wild.

5 Aug FEATURE involving Nick Darke, Playwright:
In Quest of Joseph Emidy
Joseph Antonio Emidy was an African slave who became a violinist in the opera orchestra in Lisbon. Enslaved again by the British Navy, he fought in the Napoleonic Wars until put ashore in Falmouth, where he became a successful composer. Playwright Nick Darke pieces together his remarkable story. With contributions from historian Richard McGrady, composer Tunde Jegede, slavery expert Nancy Naro and the descendants of Emidy.

5 Aug The Saturday Play: Losing Rosalind
By Ellen Dryden. When Edmund decides to bring all the friends and lovers of his youth together for an early-retirement party, he has no idea how dangerous it might be. How will his three wives cope when they meet each other? How will his son react? And can the romantic memories of his 20s survive now that he is in his 50s? With Michael Pennington, Eleanor Bron and Joanne Pearce. Producer: Don Taylor.

6 Aug Classic Serial: Room at the Top
By John Braine, dramatised in two parts by Gary Brown. 1: A postwar classic about Joe Lampton's ruthless fight out of the back streets of Northern England and the two women he must choose between to find room at the top. With David Threlfall, Diana Quick and Sarah Parish. Producer: Lindsay Leonard.

7 Aug The Bed and Breakfast Star
By Jacqueline Wilson, dramatised by Amanda Swift from the award-winning children's novel. Loveable, loud-mouthed, joke-cracking ten-year-old Elsa becomes the heroine of the hour as she triumphs over parental misunderstandings, hard times and danger. With Victoria O'Donnell, Tony Curran and Julia Ford. Producer: Marilyn Imrie.

8 Aug The Midnight Fox
By Betsy Byars, dramatised by Judith Adams. Tom is fed up because he has to go and stay on a boring farm when his parents go on holiday. But when he arrives, he sees a rare black fox - the trouble is that Tom's uncle wants to kill it. With Buffy Davis, Barclay Wright and David Hallissy. Producer: Gaynor Macfarlane.

9 Aug The Growing Summer
By Noel Streatfeild, dramatised by Julie Wilkinson. Summer 1965. When their father falls dangerously ill, the young Gareth children's lives are about to change for ever. Sent to stay with their eccentric great-aunt Dymphna in her crumbling mansion on the west coast of Ireland, they face dangers and adventures they could hardly have imagined. With Ann Rye, Holly Grainger, Will Haigh and Emily Fleeshman. Producer: Sue Sutton Mayo.

10 Aug The Fast Gentleman
By Keble Howard, adapted by Jeremy Nicholas. Leonard is a stranger to fast cars, fast women and boats. His attempt to captain the Naughty Nymph with a crew of family and friends leads him into deep waters. With Michael Maloney and Christopher Villiers. Producer: Jane Morgan.

11 Aug Place of the Invalids
By Lynne Truss. There is medical mayhem in the home as Mick and Hilary discover that coughs and sneezes spread marital discord. With Michael Maloney and Haydn Gwynne. Producer: Brian King.

12 Aug The Saturday Play: The Perfume of the Lady in Black
A murder mystery by Gaston Leroux, dramatised by Stephen Sheridan. The most dangerous man in France is finally laid to rest. But who is the mysterious woman at his graveside? With Nicholas Boulton and Charles Simpson. Producer: David Blount.

13 Aug Classic Serial: Room at the Top
The conclusion of John Braine's postwar classic, dramatised in two parts by Gary Brown, sees Joe Lampton's ruthless fight out of the backstreets of Northern England and the two women he must choose between to find room at the top. With David Threlfall, Diana Quick and Sarah Parish. Producer: Lindsay Leonard.

14 Aug Parachutes
By John McGahern, dramatised by Patricia Cobey. After his girlfriend ends their relationship, a man tries to drown his sorrows in the sharp and funny pub world of 1950s Dublin. With Brendan Gleeson, Pauline McLynn and Mark Lambert. Producer: Pam Brighton.

15 Aug Summer of Love at the Buena Vista, Margate
By Chris Thompson. It's 1967, and the whole world seems to be going to California in search of sunshine - except Col. He is going to the Buena Vista Hotel in Margate, where he and his mate Pete have landed summer jobs. While Pete has no problem attracting girls, Col is more sensitive. Then the unusual wedding anniversary celebration of the hotel's German chef changes the course of the summer. Producer: Peter Leslie Wild.

16 Aug The Last Piano Player
By Eric Pringle. It is 2020, and technology rules supreme. One of its successes is `The Simon Swain Show', in which contestants fight for survival in a desperate bid to justify their existence. Meanwhile, in an empty Norfolk seaside resort, a lone piano player plays to his dead wife. His life is transformed when he is invited on to the show. With Bernard Cribbins and Philip Jackson. Producer: Cherry Cookson.

17 Aug On the Rob
In a blend of drama and documentary by Rachel Bentham, four former shoplifters tell their poignant real-life stories. Gillian, a fictional character, dreams of angels, cathedrals and a dragon's lair of treasure. What is she concealing and will anyone ever find out? With Anna Massey and John Telfer. Producer: Liz Taylor. Repeat.

18 Aug Zentulli and Son
By Jerome Vincent. Italian cafe owner Arturo Zentulli reviews his life in England and struggles to come to terms with his only son's ambitions - which do not include serving cappuccinos. With Kenneth Haigh and Geoffrey Whitehead. Producer: David Blount. Repeat .

19 Aug The Saturday Play: A Confirmed Bachelor
By Arthur Schnitzler, dramatised by Vanessa Rosenthal. As middle-aged spa doctor Emil Graesler tries to come to terms with his sister's suicide, he meets the pure-spirited Sabine and imagines that she would make the perfect wife. But just as he is deciding where to take the relationship, a chance encounter with a coquettish shop girl pushes his life in a different direction. With Keith Drinkel, Cathy Sara and Jo Rafferty. Producer: Peter Leslie Wild.

20 Aug Classic Serial: As I Lay Dying
By William Faulkner, dramatised by James Friel. Successive episodes in the death and burial of Addie Bundren are recounted by various members of her family circle, as they cart her coffin to Jefferson, Mississippi, in order to bury her among her own people. With Lorelei King, Mary Ellen Ray and Bob Sherman. Producer: Eoin O'Callaghan.

21 Aug Small Parts
By Juliet Ace. Patricia Hodge stars as Mattie in the first of two plays written specially for her. Seduced by the theatre, Mattie joins a repertory company in Wales where she finds that the quick-change artistry of bit parts is a kind of preparation for life. Producer: Ned Chaillet.

22 Aug The Captain's Wife
By Juliet Ace. Every two years, there is a new captain - and a new captain's wife. Mattie, played by Patricia Hodge, is there for them all, moving, over the years, from the centre of the table to the captain's side. She observes the Navy at play and provides exotic relief - until she is ready to change herself. Producer: Ned Chaillet. Repeat.

23 Aug The Amazing Ratman Story
By Dave Sheasby. An old man has a tale to tell about a piper, a mare and a town plagued with rats, but no one wants to listen unless his story makes good television. With Bernard Cribbins, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Colin Salmon. Producer: Pam Fraser Solomon.

24 Aug Calcutta Kosher
A haunting play by Shelley Silas, set among the Indian Jewish community in Calcutta. An old woman on her deathbed summons her two daughters from abroad to be with her in her last hours. The girls are not prepared for the family secrets that are about to be revealed. With Surendra Kochar, Shobu Kapoor and Sudha Bhuchar. Producer: Kristine Landon-Smith.

25 Aug Dogged Persistence
A comedy by Martyn Wade, written specially for actresses Joan Sims and Elizabeth Spriggs. A relationship develops between two women brought together by a troublesome dog. All Veronica's experiences as a dog-trainer are needed to curb the vicious beast bequeathed to Maureen by her late husband. With David Thorpe and Richenda Carey. Producer: Cherry Cookson.

26 Aug The Saturday Play: Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Bryony Lavery's witty, moving dramatisation of Kate Atkinson's 1995 Whitbread award-winning first novel follows Ruby, the unloved youngest child of the chaotic Lennox family in York, as she traces her past and finally unlocks the terrible family secret that has blighted her childhood. With Katherine Dow Blyton, Janice McKenzie and Malcolm Scates. Producer: Polly Thomas.

27 Aug Classic Serial: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
By Laurie Lee. A special adaptation of Lee's celebrated journey from his Cotswolds home to southern Spain in the mid-1930s. The 19-year-old Laurie sets out on the open road with a vague idea of reaching London and his American girlfriend. The book has been adapted by playwright Christopher Denys and features recordings made in Spain. With Jonathan Keeble, Ian Brooker and Alison Carney. Producer: Peter Leslie Wild.

28 Aug Forty Years On
A new production of Alan Bennett's acclaimed satirical comedy. The retiring headmaster of Albion House is outraged by the school's traditional end-of-year play, which is being produced by his successor. The headmaster can only see his own beloved standards being mocked. Yet within the parody lies painful nostalgia for a more peaceful, vanished age. With Alan Bennett and Eleanor Bron. Producer: Gordon House.

29 Aug A Country House
Shortly after the First World War, in an isolated country house, a lonely young woman practices the piano. She finds her relationships with her husband and a young engineer strangely influenced by the music of Chopin and the ghostly presence of Chopin's lover, Georges Sand. Producer: Marc Beeby.

30 Aug Desire Lines
By Amanda Dalton. It is 2am in a small town in the Pennines. Three strangers, each intent on a journey, share the night, carrying desires - and a secret which torments them. With Valerie Edmond, Antony Booth and Barbara Marten. Producer: Susan Roberts.

31 Aug Fantastic Symphony - an Episode in the Life of an Artist
By John Foley. When Hector Berlioz saw Harriet Smithson play Ophelia for the first time in France, he was captivated both by Shakespeare and by her. Passionate letters failed to woo her, so he composed his `Symphonie fantastique' instead. But she was not that easily won. With Henry Goodman, Andrew Wincott and David Thorpe. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

1 Sep A Woman's Walk Is Never Done
By Alex Ferguson. The first programme in the `Walks of Protest' series. Jessie Lincoln is left holding the baby when husband Tom joins the Jarrow March. But as Tom marches in one direction, headstrong Jessie marches in another - and takes the road to independence. With Janine Birkett, Trevor Fox, Carol McGuigan, Peggy Shields and Jack McBride. Producer: Lindsay Leonard.

2 Sep The Saturday Play: the Red House Mystery
By A A Milne, dramatised by Sue Rodwell. A country house party turns into a murder trial for amateur sleuth Antony Gillingham and his willing Watson, Bill Beverley, as they investigate the mysterious disappearance of their host. With Alex Jennings, Jonathan Firth, John Telfer, Christian Rodska, Jenny Coverack, David Lloyd, Nicole Arumugam and Angela Newmarch. Producer Sara Davies.

3 Sep Classic Serial: the Grass Is Singing
By Doris Lessing, dramatised by Tina Pepler. Mary Turner is found murdered on the verandah of her farmstead, her houseboy having confessed to the crime. But he seems to have no motive. A powerful exploration of 1940s Rhodesia. With Alison Pettitt, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Miles Anderson. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

4 Sep Murke's Collected Silences
By Jonathan Holloway. Adapted from an original story by Heinrich Boll, and translated by Leila Vennewitz. Murke is a radio producer obsessed with silences who constantly seeks the spiritual - even in the clanking of the paternoster lift. With Dominic Letts, Jeremy Wilkin and Roger Walker. Producer: David Hunter. Note....there's another version of this done in the 80s by Alison Leonard....ND

5 Sep Matthew, Mark, Luke and Rachel
By Jeremy Thomas. A comedy drama about two very different middle-aged men trying to bring up their teenage children in the same household. With Christopher Scott, Andrew Wincott, Tom George, Alison Pettitt, Suzanna Hamilton and Tracy Wiles. Producer: David Hunter.

6 Sep Founders Day
By Vanessa Rosenthal. Mitzi Lucas and Meera Bhima are worlds apart - the middle-aged successful feminist writer and the 12-year-old environmentalist. What binds them is their school - when Mitzi returns to face her demons as honorary guest speaker, her encounter with Meera is an unexpected boost for both. With Brigit Forsyth and Siara Mian. Producer: Polly Thomas.

7 Sep Lulu
By Katie Hims. Meet Lulu, the tallest girl in the world, aged six, 12 and 18. She has grown up with a terrible secret. She made a wish one day on the way to the beach, and it came true. She wished something would happen to her sister Angela - and it did... With Polly Lister, Daniel Poyser, Nicola Millington, Holly Grainger, Christine Mackie and Rob Pickavance. Producer: Melanie Harris.

8 Sep The Salt March
By Nasser Memarzia. The second programme in the four-part `Walks of Protest' series. On 12 March 1930, Gandhi and 78 volunteers set out from Sabarmati Ashram to walk the 240 miles to Dandi in protest at the British-imposed salt laws. This bid to unite the Indian independence movement meant some difficult decisions for those in the villages en route. With Paul Bhattacharjee, Josephine Welcome and Kulvinder Ghir. Producer: Toby Swift.

9 Sep The Saturday Play: A Flame in Your Heart
By Andrew Grieg and Kathleen Jamie, marking the 60th anniversary of Battle of Britain Day. It is 1940. France has fallen and the war between England and Germany takes to the skies. A young fighter pilot and a nurse meet at a local dance and their love deepens as the war intensifies. With Emma Fielding, Tom Goodman-Hill and Crawford Logan. Producer Gaynor Macfarlane.

10 Sep Classic Serial: the Grass Is Singing
By Doris Lessing, dramatised by Tina Pepler. In appointing Moses - the native Mary whipped - as their new houseboy, Dick is unknowingly sealing her fate. Final part. With Alison Pettitt, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Andrew Scott and Nicholas Beveney. Producer: Marion Nancarrow.

11 Sep Written to Death
By Lesley Glaister. A dark comic tale of middle-aged and recently widowed Ellen, who finds that joining a writers' group provides greater solace than punching cushions. But fiction can be more revealing than she intends. With Sheila Donald and Sarah Collier.

12 Sep Soft Stones
By Peter Spafford and Mary Cooper. When Daniel dies young, Paul wonders how he can commemorate their relationship. He joins a tour of Leeds' statues and his meditation begins. The story of a 20-year friendship and a poetic tour around a city. With Alex Jennings and Sarah Parks. Producer: Susan Roberts.

13 Sep Breakfast in Brighton
Stephen Tomkinson stars in Nigel Richardson's dramatisation of his bestselling novel. Blending fact and fiction, its is a funny and surreal tribute to the technicoloured town of Brighton. Featuring Peter Gunn, Joanne Goode, Maggie McCarthy and Denys Jameson. With cameos from Julie Burchill, Derek Jameson and Simon Fanshawe.

14 Sep Pot Shot
By Jennie Buckman. Hannah and Martin are trying for a baby. Unfortunately Hannah is trying rather harder than Martin whose behaviour becomes ever more strange the further down the road to fertility treatment the couple goes. With Katy Cavanagh and Jonathan Coy. Producer: Toby Swift.

15 Sep The Dead House at Para
By Michael Hastings. The third programme in the four-part 'Walks of Protest' series. A poor Brazilian family joins a peasant march to reclaim unused farm land. But can they occupy a haunted house? With Jim Norton and Jonathan Meades. Producer: Peter Kavanagh.

16 Sep The Saturday Play: Falk
Joseph Conrad's short story, dramatised by Robert Forrest. Terrible events at sea come back to haunt a tugboat captain working out of Bangkok harbour. With Crawford Logan, Allan Sharpe and Steven McNicoll.

17 Sep Classic Serial: Daughters of the Vicar
By DH Lawrence, dramatised by Jane Beeson. For Louisa and Mary, daughters of the impoverished vicar of Aldercross, marriage is the only possible means of escape from their routine lives, so the arrival of a new young curate fills them with anticipation. With Rachel Atkins, Cathy Sara and Robert Pickavance.

18 Sep Plum's War
By Michael Butt. Soon after his internment in wartime France, PG Wodehouse begins, inexplicably, to broadcast on German radio - a phenomenon which provokes his contemporary, George Orwell, into a complete intellectual upheaval. With Benjamin Whitrow, Nicholas Farrell and Henry Goodman. Producer John Taylor. Repeat.

19 Sep A Love Song to the Buses
Written and Produced by Sarah Woods. Dimitris, a young autistic man, travels on the West Midland buses. With Victoria Worsley and David Reubin. Repeat.

20 Sep Dead Men Tell No Tales
In Kelvin Segger's version of three tales by Emile Zola, a dead man watches in horror as everyone around him prepares for his funeral, another man is killed by advertising, and a third postpones his dream for too long. With Norman Bird, Michael Maloney and Struan Rodger. Producer Peter Leslie Wild. Repeat.

21 Sep Trooping with Crows
By Kelvin Segger, based on bizarre short stories by Emile Zola. In 19th-century Paris, devious entrepreneur Durandeau hits on the idea of marketing ugliness - but he hasn't bargained for the guile of the Comtesse de Trouville. With Trevor Peacock, Ian Pepperell and Tina Gray.

22 Sep Walk against Fear
By Sol B River. James Meredith believed he should enjoy the same rights as everyone else in Mississippi, and his long walk on Highway 51 was a simple statement of freedom that even bullets couldn't stop. With Clarke Peters, Don Gilet and Geoff Burton.

23 Sep The Saturday Play: Green Fingers
By Kevin Wong. When Lucy inherits her grandfather's allotment, she knows nothing of horticulture, but soon she is treating crysanths and marrows with tender loving care. With Jane Hazelgrove, Roy Hudd and Jason Done.

24 Sep Classic Serial: Esmond in India
By Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, dramatised in two parts by Nandita Ghose. In post-independence Delhi, two influential families now have very different lives. Between them moves Esmond, the enigmatic Englishman, with his love-hate attitude to India. 1: Esmond meets the idealistic Shakuntala. With Nina Wadia, Roshan Seth, Simon Armstrong, Nadim Sawalha and Mina Anwar. Part 1 of 2, Repeated Saturday.

25 Sep Aire and Angels
By Louise Gooding. The 17th-century poet John Donne's earliest love poems were inspired by his longings for the young niece of his employer. Their secret romance was to suffer many separations and setbacks. With Samuel West, Alison Pettitt, John Rowe and Michael Cochrane. Producer Cherry Cookson. Repeat.

26 Sep Breakfast
Funny and sharp portrait of life in the catering trade, by Julia Schofield. Tasty Toasty is a naive breakfast chef working in a seaside-town hotel kitchen, ambling innocently through staff intrigue, naked ambition and drunken chefs. Featuring Michael Begley, Denny James Smith, Daon Bruni and Graeme Hawley. Repeat.

27 Sep Good Samaritan
Stephen Wakelam's comic, warmhearted and moving play about a shy young clergyman who, on arrival at a Cambridge college, has his life invaded by an extremely eccentric, lovable man. With Alec McCowan, Charles Kay, Adam Kotz, and Mark Tandy.

28 Sep The Man Who Knew Everything
By Robin Brooks. Jack Klaff stars at George Lewis, the famous 19th-century lawyer who defended the indefensible and never lost. 1: Madame Rachel and the Waters of Life. Several impressionable women have been robbed and defrauded at a fashionable bathing house. With Estelle Kohler, Julian Wadham and Jane Gurnett. Part 1 of 4.

29 Sep A Soldier's Debt
By Nick Warburton. A missing recording of `Macbeth' creates a unique tie between three people in war-torn West Africa. With Amanda Root, Paul Rhys and Burt Caesar. Producer Sally Avens. Repeat.

30 Sep The Saturday Play: Fumers
By David Pownall. Grandad decides that his son's family must give up smoking, even though it's too late for him. With Alec McCowen, Pip Donaghy and David Thorpe.

1 Oct Classic Serial: Esmond in India
By Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, dramatised in two parts by Nandita Ghose. 2: Shakuntala has joined Esmond's guided tour of the Taj Mahal. Har Dayal's dilemma over his daughter's proposed marriage deepens. With Nina Wadia, Roshan Seth, Simon Armstrong, Nadim Sawalha and Mina Anwar. Second of two parts, Repeated Saturday .

2 Oct Stone Memories
By Rebecca Bartlett. It is 1950s Donegal and the man of the house, while working in England, has met someone else. The deserted wife struggles with her own anger as she tries to find a way of explaining the situation to her daughter. With Brid Brennan, Kathleen Bradley, Owen Roe and Dessie Gallagher. Repeat.

3 Oct Three Chickens
By William Stanton. On a magic island in Brazil, the Englishman William Marlow is seduced by tales of witchcraft. In a story about three chickens, he finds uncanny and uncomfortable echoes of a life he thought he had left behind him. With Anton Lesser, Valerie Braddell and Suzanna Hamilton.

4 Oct The Centurions
Three sharp, humorous portraits of old timers, centurions who have grown old disgracefully, by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan. 1: The Outlaws. With Don Fellows and Kate Harper. 2: The Survivor. With Geoff Hinsliff. 3: The Medium. With Olivia Jardith. Part 1 of 2.

5 Oct The Man Who Knew Everything
By Robin Brooks. Jack Klaff stars at George Lewis, the famous 19th-century lawyer who defended the indefensible and never lost. 2: Virginia Crawford swears she has been seduced by Sir Charles Dilke, a prominent politician. The accusation could wreck his career, changing the face of British politics. With Nicholas Woodeson, Ruth Platt and Ron Cook. Part 2 of 4.

6 Oct Ice Mountain
By Hattie Naylor. Five women have climbed K2, but none have survived. The death toll rings in her head as Beth packs for her trip to climb the cruellest mountain in the world. But first she must say goodbye to her young daughter. The play includes interviews with real climbers and their families. With Louise Beattie, Jennifer Lee Jellicorse and Gaynor Faye. Repeat.

7 Oct The Saturday Play: Hotel Europa
By John Dryden. A psychological thriller about Eastern European refugees working in a London hotel. Australian receptionist Kate gets drawn in to what she thinks is a harmless scam involving jobs for illegal immigrants. But she soon discovers that there is something deeply shocking going on. With Kerry Fox, Roshan Seth and Rad Lazar.

8 Oct Classic Serial: His Natural Life
By Marcus Clarke, dramatised in three parts by Joe Dunlop. The epic story of a man falsely accused of murder and sentenced to be transported to Van Diemen's Land, the former name of Tasmania. Part 1: the Sea Voyage. With Owen Teale, Nicholas Boulton, Terence Edmond and Sarah Badel. Produced by Jane Morgan. Part 1 of 3, Repeated Saturday.

9 Oct A to Z
By Lucy Catherine. It is 1936 and Phyllis Pearsall has had enough of getting lost in London because all the maps are out of date. So she begins the arduous task of walking 3,000 miles and mapping 23,000 streets, in order to fulfil her dream of producing the first A-Z of London. With Catherine McCormack, David Thorpe, Phyllida Law and Gavin Muir.

10 Oct VHF
By Nigel Karikari. Leo is admitted to hospital with a fractured skull. On coming round from the anaesthetic, he finds that he has a metal plate in his head, and that it picks up radio waves. With Maynard Eziashi, Claudette Williams and Suzanna Hamilton. Produced by Claire Groves.

11 Oct the Centurions
By Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan. Three sharp, humorous portraits of old timers, centurions who have grown old disgracefully. 1: The Gambler. With Don Fellows. 2: The Patient. With Andrew Sachs. 3: The Actress. With Miriam Karlin. Produced by Susan Roberts. Second of two parts.

12 Oct The Man Who Knew Everything
By Robin Brooks. Jack Klaff stars at George Lewis, the famous 19th-century lawyer who defended the indefensible and never lost. 3: The Pimlico Poisoning. The young and glamorous Adelaide Bartlett's husband has died of chloroform poisoning: is it suicide or murder? With Julie Cox, Jonathan Firth and Jasper Britton. Produced by Clive Brill. Part 3 of 4.

13 Oct Oscar's Mother
By Joy Melville. Living in penury while awaiting the outcome of her son's trial, Lady Jane Wilde recalls another trial 30 years before, when she was in court in Dublin, defending the reputation of her husband - eminent surgeon Lord William Wilde - who was accused of rape. With Ronnie Masterson, Eamonn Morrissey and Joan O'Hara.

14 Oct The Saturday Play: Cherries Hung with Snow
By Ronnie Smith. Fulham, 1958. It's over five years since Tommie was demobbed after National Service. Now he's come back in search of some familiar faces. With George Cole, David Thorpe and Becky Hindley.

15 Oct Classic Serial: His Natural Life
By Marcus Clarke, dramatised in three parts by Joe Dunlop. Part 2: Marooned. Rufus Dawes has spent six terrible years in the penal settlement at Macquarie Bay for a crime he did not commit. With Owen Teale, Nicholas Boulton, Terence Edmond and Sarah Badel. Produced by Jane Morgan. Repeated Saturday.

16 Oct Static
By Chris Thorpe. A woman stands in a field, traumatised by the killing of her boyfriend. And her image is beamed into the living room of a bored young man. With Jon Spooner and Julia Ford. Produced by Mary Peate.

17 Oct Dorothy, a Manager's Wife
Peter Tinniswood's acerbic tale of a wife who has always supported her football manager husband in his successful career, while secretly loathing both him and the game. With Pauline Collins, Timothy West and David Thorpe.

18 Oct Goan Flame
By Bettina Gracias. When Maria retires as a GP in England, she travels to Goa for the first time to find her father's house, but unearths some cold facts about Goan history. With Josephine Welcome, Kaleem Janjua and Renu Setna.

19 Oct The Man who Knew Everything
By Robin Brooks. Jack Klaff stars as George Lewis, the famous 19th-century lawyer. 4/4: The Ghastly Mordaunt Business. Lady Harriet Mordaunt refuses to name the father of her illegitimate child. Her husband demands a divorce and the case threatens to involve the Prince of Wales and Queen Victoria herself. With Emily Hamilton, Charlie Simpson and Jonathan Firth. Produced by Clive Brill.

20 Oct Robin Hood's Revenge
By Richard Bean. Comedy drama charting the highs and lows of a pub quiz team as they make their way towards the grand final. Captain Ted has an obsessive need to win. With Sam Kelly, Frances Tomelty and Tony Turner.

21 Oct The Saturday Play: Dead Men's Shoes
Romantic comedy by Melissa Murray. Simon, the office manager, is unexpectedly left in charge of his former boss's software company. Can he cope with some unexpected business and personal revelations and deal with the demands of three very different women? With David Bamber, Samantha Spiro, Celia Imrie, Clare Corbett and Ioan Meredith. Produced by Cherry Cookson.

22 Oct Classic Serial: His Natural Life
By Marcus Clarke, dramatised in three parts by Joe Dunlop. Part 3: Redemption. Rufus Dawes has faced injustice all his life, but the denial of his love and care for Sylvia is the cruellest. With Owen Teale, Nicholas Boulton, Jasmine Hyde and Crispin Redman. Produced by Jane Morgan. Repeated Saturday .

23 Oct 2000 Tales
When a group of travellers take shelter from a storm in a motorway service station, they soon find that everyone has a story to tell. All this week, 21 writers celebrate Chaucer on the 600th anniversary of his death. `Prologue' by Sebastian Bacziewicz; `The Funeral Orator's Tale' by Christina Reid; `The Fisherman's Tale' by Nick Darke; `The Disc Jockey who Used to Be a Nun's Tale - Prologue' by Marcy Kahan. With Robert Glenister, Zita Sattar, Frances Tomelty, Carl Grosse and Eleanor Bron. Produced by Jeremy Mortimer.

24 Oct 2000 Tales
Stranded at a service station, the travellers hear tales of treachery, death, magnificent gods and an old lady who helps a prince. `The DJ who Used to Be a Nun's Tale' by Marcy Kahan; `The Old Wife's Tale' by Peter Sansom, `The Banker's Tale' by Rukhsana Ahmad; `The Old Girl's Tale' by Kara Miller. With Zita Sattar, Eleanor Bron, Elizabeth Spriggs and Priyanga Elan.

25 Oct 2000 Tales
In the middle of the night, with no light and no heating, the travellers hear a ghostly moral tale, a story of 50s racketeering, and how a playground fight reveals a shocking truth about a grandmother. `The Teacher's Tale' by Glynn Maxwell; `The Quiet Gentlemen's Barber's Tale' by Jeremy Front; `The Slapper's Tale' by Sarah Daniels. With Zita Sattar, Joseph Fiennes, Warren Mitchell and Lesley Manville. Produced by Mary Peate.

26 Oct 2000 Tales
Stories of bewitched computers and theatrical ghosts are told to the travellers sheltering overnight in a service station. `The Politician's Tale' by Kara Miller; `The Editor's Tale' by John Mortimer; `The Good Woman's Tale' by Lin Coghlan. With Zita Sattar, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Mary Wimbush and David Swift. Produced by Jeremy Mortimer and Tracey Neale.

27 Oct 2000 Tales
The travellers hear stories from a rector, a publicist, and a woman who is obsessed with celebrity magazines. `The Pleasurewear Sales Rep's Tale' by Gill Adams; `The Rector's Tale' by Andrew Rissik; `The Publicist's Tale' by Sebastian Baczkiewicz. With Jessica Stevens, Joss Ackland, Henry Goodman and Pip Donaghy. Produced by Mary Peate.

28 Oct The Saturday Play: A World Full of Weeping
A thriller by Jon Sayers. A mysterious Irish girl enters the lives of a couple just a few months before the arrival of their first child. They have little warning of the tragedy that this apparently gentle soul will cause them in the months to come. With Jemma Redgrave, David Threfall, Tom Georgeson and Niamh Linehan. Produced by Andy Jordan.

29 Oct Classic Serial: The Singapore Grip
By JG Farrell. Young Matthew arrives in Singapore to join the family rubber-producing firm. The threat of Japanese assault seems more remote than the persistent romantic attentions of Joan, his business partner's daughter. With Robert Glenister, Jonathan Cake, Samantha Spiro and David Thorpe. Part 1 of 3, Repeated Saturday .

30 Oct The Anarchist Bed and Breakfast
By Bernard Kops. A couple of old anarchists are appalled to learn that they have inherited a B & B. In their view, property is still theft, particularly when it is located in smart Westcliffe on Sea. With Freddie Jones and Richenda Carey. Produced by Peter Kavanagh.

31 Oct Taking the Waters
By Harry Quinn and Colin Douglas. Yugoslavia, 1944: Captain Evelyn Waugh and Major Randolph Churchill are part of the Allied mission to the Balkans. Their friendship is tested when Waugh finds himself at odds with the Allied policy of supporting Tito's emerging Communist regime. With Robin Thomson, Simon Tait and David Thorpe. Produced by David Ian Neville.

1 Nov Only a Matter of Time
First in a pair of linked comedies, by Alan Plater. When time-telling was standardised in the 19th century, not everyone was convinced of the benefits created by this stride in human progress. With James Bolam and Alan David. Director Alison Hindell. Second play on Thursday. Repeat.

2 Nov Time Added On for Injuries
By Alan Plater. Following on from yesterday's comedy, descendants of Fanshawe and Meredith meet on a train, and discover the story that linked their families 150 years earlier. With James Bolam and Alan David. Directed by Alison Hindell.

3 Nov Ellen Brassheart's Obduracy
By Jennifer Howarth. Bernard Shaw and his favourite actress, Ellen Terry, exchanged a series of intimate and revealing letters over the years without ever meeting face to face - and when they eventually did, it was, perhaps, a little too late for both of them. With Cherie Lunghi and Lorcan Cranitch. Directed by Viv Beeby.

4 Nov The Saturday Play: Stage Fright
By Gillian Linscott, dramatised by Michael Bakewell. The combination of a beautiful young suffragette sleuth, George Bernard Shaw and a very theatrical murder prove more dramatic than even the great playwright could have foreseen. With Susannah Corbett, Nigel Anthony, Connie Walker and Andrew Wincott. Directed by Enyd Williams.

5 Nov Classic Serial: The Singapore Grip
By JG Farrell. Life for ex-pats in Singapore in 1942 is as luxurious as ever. But for Matthew Webb, the recently arrived heir to the biggest rubber business, those rumblings from the East bespeak war. With Robert Glenister, Jonathan Cake, Samantha Spiro and Su-Lin Looi. Part 2 of 3, Repeated Saturday.

6 Nov In the Absence of Angels
By Linda McLean. The death of her husband causes Greta to be accused by her children of being unable to keep her feet on the ground. This becomes literally true when she starts to float several hundred feet in the air. With Paul Blair, Neil McKinven, Gabriel Quigley, Ann Scott-Jones and John Stahl. Directed by Gaynor MacFarlane.

7 Nov Walking De Niro
By Carmen Walton. Ex-social worker Jools, now a professional dog walker, can manage dogs and read their owners like easy books. When she meets Jeff, the spitting image of her screen idol, Robert De Niro, her world takes on a brighter hue. With Emma Wray, John Griffin, John Lloyd Fillingham and Andrew Schofield. Directed by Pauline Harris.

8 Nov Hold That Dream
Father-and-daughter journalists Sam and Abi Maguire uncover more crime in Brighton. When someone starts buying up elderly residents' homes on the cheap, Abi gets on the trail of a property scandal. With Frank Windsor, Emma Fielding, Jimmy Yuill and Joe Caffrey. Directed by Jonquil Panting.

9 Nov The Silence of Memory
By Tina Pepler. On 11 November 1920, the Unknown Warrior - representing all those whose loved ones were missing, presumed dead - was buried in Westminster Abbey. This drama documentary follows three men on the day of the funeral as they try to come to terms with their loss. With Michael Williams, Daniel Jackson and Michael Wilson. Director Kate McAll. Repeat.

10 Nov The Peacock Path
By Jennifer Curry. A portrait of war artist Paul Nash, who struggled for most of his life with the asthma which prevented him from achieving his life-long ambition: to learn to fly. But his personal life was enriched by a passionate affair with Surrealist painter Eileen Agar. With Alex Jennings, Samantha Bond, Lorna Heilbron and Terence Edmond.

11 Nov The Saturday Play: Reconstructing Louis
By John Sessions. At Vailima, his home in Western Samoa, Robert Louis Stevenson attempts to dispel some of the romantic myths which have built up around him, as he looks back over his life. This play marks tomorrow's 150th anniversary of Stevenson's birth. With John Sessions, Phyllis Logan and Paul Young. Directed by Bruce Young.

12 Nov Classic Serial: The Singapore Grip
By JG Farrell. As the Japanese invasion of Singapore looms, the attentions of the young heir to the island's rubber industry are being directed to the two beautiful women in his life. With Robert Glenister, Jonathan Cake, Samantha Spiro and Su-Lin Looi. Final part, Repeated Saturday.

13 Nov The Bridal Suite
By Michael Butt. Albert has worked in the same seaside hotel for over 50 years. He is a bachelor, but he has had offers, one of which now weighs on his mind. He considers three couples' stories from the bridal suite, as he searches for a way forward. With David Horovitch, Lizzy McInnery, Jonathan Coy, Penny Downie and Paul Bazeley. Directed by Claire Grove.

14 Nov Listen to Your Parents
By Benjamin Zephaniah. The story of a ten-year-old boy from Birmingham who lives with a violent father, coping only with the aid of his talents for poetry and football. With James Smith, Charlie Ryan, Flo Wilson and Burt Caesar. Directed by Pauline Harris.

15 Nov Don't Die Wondering
By Emma Donoghue. Saoirse Allen's private life is her own affair, until she comes home to Ballyagen. The folk of her home town can't cope with a lesbian in the kitchen at Doheny's bar, and Saoirse is forced to embark on a one-woman protest. With Pauline McLynn, Frances Tomelty, Gary Whelan and Tony Rohr.

16 Nov A Good Place for Fishing
By Richard Lumsden. Following the death of her husband, Joan is holidaying with her son. She reflects on life, and is forced to confront not only the treacheries of her husband, but also her own secrets. With Anne Reid, Russell Dixon, Alison Pettitt and Peter Gunn. Directed by Gillian Bevan.

17 Nov Square Circle Triangle
By Carolyn Scott-Jeffs. When Davor, a Croatian asylum seeker, finds himself alone in Birmingham, he discovers an unlikely friend in Sarah, a married middle-aged library assistant with literary aspirations, and their friendship turns into romance. With Sara Weymouth, Dragan Micanovic and Peter Meakin. Directed by Peter Leslie Wild.

18 Nov Arthur in Bournemouth, or `Many Arrived Around' (7 Letters)
A romantic comedy with clues, by Jim Eldridge. A lonely Bournemouth widower compiles crosswords for his local paper. His life is changed forever when a widow challenges him to help her prove that King Arthur came to Bournemouth. With Wendy Craig, Geoffrey Palmer, Bruce Alexander and John Rowe. Directed by Marilyn Imrie.

19 Nov Classic Serial: Shadow of the Sickle
Adaptation of Islwyn Ffowc Elis's Welsh-language novel set in postwar Wales, dramatised by Sion Eirian. Harri rejects his father's traditional attitudes, tempted instead by the vision of a socialist future, as preached by his passionate comrade, Gwylan. With Christian Patterson, William Thomas, Tonya Smith, Christine Pritchard and Alys Thomas. Directed by Alison Hindell. Repeated Saturday.

20 Nov Sea-Bathing and Stilton
By Greg Lyons. It is 1760, and two young women, fresh from the workhouse, seek their fortunes in a rapidly changing Britain. With Rachel Atkins, Gemma Saunders, David Thorpe and Alison Pettitt. Directed by Janet Whitaker.

21 Nov The Visitors' Book
By Stephen Mollett. When workmates Izzy and Gina take a holiday cottage in St Ives together, Gina seems to attract men like bees to a honey pot. Izzy, however, finds her own seaside romance in the visitors' book. With Siobhan Stamp, Gemma Saunders, Alastair Danson and Kenny Blyth. Directed by David Hunter.

22 Nov The Rabbits of Godalming
By Peter Morgan. In 1726, fashionable London was buzzing with the news that Mary Toft of Godalming had given birth to 14 rabbits and three cats. With Lynne Seymour, Simon Armstrong, Richard Tate and Brendan Charleston. Directed by Alison Hindell.

23 Nov Love to Hate
By Wally K Daly. A stalker and his victim confront one another in court. During the course of the trial, they each relive years of fear and rejection. With Andrew Sachs, Cathy Tyson, Natasha Pyne, Becky Hindley, Gavin Muir and Garard Green. Directed by Pam Fraser Solomon.

24 Nov Cruel Sunset
By Sebastian Baczkiewicz. Mary Jane Cooper, from Appleton, Alabama, wins a trip to 50s Hollywood to meet her favourite film star. But Mary has a secret that threatens to eclipse both of them. With Madeleine Potter, Ian Porter, Kerry Shale and Walter Lewis. Directed by Claire Grove.

25 Nov The Saturday Play: Who Killed Stephanie?
By Elspeth Sandys. Stephanie's adored husband of 17 years, Keith, faces the challenge of a lifetime: playing Leontes in a production of `The Winter's Tale'. And the events of his own life begin to mimic the narrative of the play. With Jenny Howe, Julian Wadham, Daniel Brocklebank and Susan Wooldridge. Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan.

26 Nov Classic Serial: Emma
April de Angelis' two-part adaptation of Jane Austen's comedy of love and marriage. Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, is a young woman so blessed that she declares she will never marry. However, she is determined to find a match for her new friend, Harriet. With Eve Best, Norman Rodway, Robert Bathurst, Marcia Warren and Patience Tomlinson. Directed by Jonquil Panting. Repeated Saturday .

27 Nov Ruth Ellis - the Son's Story
By Vivienne Allen. After claiming sole responsibility for murdering David Blakely, Ruth Ellis was executed. Later, her son Andy would die by his own hand. Directed by Peter Kavanagh. Repeat.

28 Nov House
By Sheila Goff. Emma buys a house very like the one in which she grew up. When she buys a doll's house a local craftsman has made in its image, subsequent events make her look at her life, past and present, from an entirely new perspective. With Jasmine Hyde, Julia Ford and David Thorpe. Directed by David Hunter.

29 Nov Purvis
By Nick Warburton. A kindly vicar appoints an accident-prone widower as church safety officer. With Peter Sallis. Directed by Peter Kavanagh.

30 Nov Snapper
A play about photography and truth by Char March. Helene Nanterre is a war photo-journalist who has changed her identity. Her father, George, is a wedding photographer in West Yorkshire. But whose pictures tell the greater lie? With Sarah Parish, John Griffin, Russell Dixon and Barbara Marten. Directed by Lindsay Leonard.

1 Dec Foreign Bodies
Three plays for World AIDS Day.
Asia: `Kulsoom's Story', by Wasif Syed. A young wife in Karachi faces terrible consequences when AIDS hits her family. Africa: `Amadi's Story', by Cajetan Boy. A Nairobi teenager struggles to keep his family together. Europe: `Erik's Story', by Coen Antonisse and Andre Witbreuk. After many year on triple therapy, Erik has some unenviable decisions to make. With Saman Nasir, Kashif Khan, Edson Lidonde, Caroline Odongo and Xander Straat. Directed by Turan Ali.

2 Dec The Saturday Play: Singh Tangos
By Bettina Gracias. Anxious to immerse themselves in British culture and shake off their Indian roots, Mr and Mrs Singh take up ballroom dancing. Mina is entranced, and determined that they enter a competition. But Harry's enthusiasm wanes when he discovers her plans for his costume. With Nina Wadia. Directed by Rosalynd Ward.

3 Dec Classic Serial: Emma
April de Angelis' two-part adaptation of Jane Austen's sparkling comedy of love and marriage. With Eve Best, Norman Rodway, Robert Bathurst, Marcia Warren and Patience Tomlinson. Directed by Jonquil Panting. Repeated Saturday.

4 Dec Into the Ether
By Andrew Dallmeyer. At the height of the Cold War, American and Russian scientists lined up their psychics and telepaths in the service of the military. Ballistic missiles pale beside the power of the human mind at the beginning of the 90s, in this chilling drama. With John Sharian and Holley Chant. Directed by Ned Chaillet.

5 Dec Plays of the Severn: A Magnificent Prospect of the Works
By Peter Roberts, with poetry by Alex Jones. The first of three plays charting the course of Britain's longest river through history and landscape. An artist looking for inspiration clashes with an obsessed inventor at the dawn of the steam age. With Jane Lapotaire, Stephen Tomlin, Nick Fletcher and Jeffery Dench. Directed by Peter Leslie Wild.

6 Dec Plays of the Severn: Just Another Tunnel
By Christopher Denys, with poetry by Alex Jones. The second of three plays charting the course of Britain's longest river through history and landscape. Boatman Skiff Morgan respects the river that gives him his livelihood. But debts tempt him to join the gangs excavating the Bristol tunnel. With Jane Lapotaire, John Duttine, Sion Probert and Lennox Greaves. Directed by Sue Wilson. Note that Alex Jones is the actor who plays 'Clive Horrobin' in "The Archers".

7 Dec Plays of the Severn: A Little Bit o' Bacon Fat
By Martyn Read, with poetry by Alex Jones. The last of three plays charting the course of Britain's longest river. To Davey Sabin, the river `Sabrina' is his friend and confidante. Each year she yields up her elvers into his waiting nets, but will she demand a sacrifice in return? With Jane Lapotaire, James Grout, Shaun Curry and Theresa Gallagher. Directed by Sue Wilson.

8 Dec The Starving Girl of Llanfihan
By Mary Cooper. It is 1869, and in a remote Welsh farmhouse a 12-year-old lies decked in a crown of flowers. Pilgrims come to see the marvellous girl who takes no food or drink, and an ambitious minister investigates. With Phillip Joseph, Nia Jermain, Mathew Morgan and Siriol Jenkins. Directed by Claire Grove.

9 Dec The Saturday Play: The Missing Wife
A play by thriller writer Peter Whalley. A man's wife goes missing... Has she walked out on him, or has she come to harm...? Directed by Pauline Harris.

10 Dec Classic Serial: Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There
By Lewis Carroll, dramatised in two parts by Hattie Naylor. Alice leans too close to the mirror and finds herself in a back-to-front world, where flowers can talk, queens can run and a life-size game of chess might lead to her becoming a queen. With Natasha Barnes, Bernard Hepton, John Bird and John Fortune. Directed by Marion Nancarrow. Part 1 of 2, Repeated Saturday .

11 Dec Marcus Mundy's Change of Life
In Alexandra Caddell's comic play, which takes place in real time, Marcus Mundy has 44 minutes in which to park his car, get to the theatre and propose to his girlfriend. But a lot can happen in 44 minutes... With Simon Pegg, Jasmine Hyde, William Hope, Andrew Wincott and Helen Ayres. Directed by Marion Nancarrow.

12 Dec Hanging from the Sky
Drama-documentary by Rachel Bentham which imagines how Stone Age people would have prepared for the first solstice ceremony at the megalithic circle of Stonehenge 5,000 years ago. With Kathryn Hunter, Mark Meadows, Daniel Fineman and Lisa Coleman. Directed by Kate McAll.

13 Dec The Bridge at Cookham
By Sheila Goff. Three couples from three different generations spar in three simultaneous plays - `Ice Cream', `Swans' and `Sunburn' - all set in the vicinity of the bridge over the Thames at Cookham. With Helen Ayres, Thomas Arnold, Jasmine Hyde, Kenny Blyth, Claire Corbett and Alex Trinder. Directed by David Hunter.

14 Dec McLevy
David Ashton's Victorian detective story, based on the memoirs of a real-life Edinburgh policeman, the imposing and tenacious Inspector James McLevy. The death of an evangelical preacher leads McLevy to a den of iniquity, ruled over by a queen of crime. With Brian Cox, Phyllis Logan, John Paul Hurley and Eliza Langland. Directed by Patrick Rayner. Repeat.

15 Dec Toad
By Pat Rowe. Minnie, an elderly Polish wartime emigre, begins a new friendship with a little toad that skips in from the garden which offers her a delightful way back into her romantic memories of the past. But for her daughter Sylvia, this is the last straw - Minnie seems to be going mad. With Ruth Posner, Imelda Staunton, Rachel Gaffin and Nitzan Sharron. Directed by Penny Gold.

16 Dec The Saturday Play: Ernest's Tower
By Don Haworth. Ernest is a fairground stallholder living in the baleful shadow of his Uncle Leo. Leo allows him to lease a small stall or two, but Ernest dreams of owning the tallest fairground tower in the country. With Paul Copley, Stephen Thorne, Robin Herford and Elizabeth Bell. Directed by Gordon House.

17 Dec Classic Serial: Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There
By Lewis Carroll, dramatised in two parts by Hattie Naylor. Alice is still playing a bizarre game of chess and needs to escape the fearful Jaberwock to reach the eighth square and become queen. With Natasha Barnes, Ken Campbell, Bernard Hepton, Joanna Wake and Brian Murphy. Directed by Marion Nancarrow. Second of two parts, Repeated Saturday.

18 Dec Sweetly Sings the Donkey
A powerful and quirky insight into childhood and religion, by Shelagh Delaney. A girl, teetering between childhood and adult life, is convalescing by the sea in postwar Blackpool, her only companions fellow invalids, the nuns in charge of them - and the waves. Directed by Polly Thomas.

19 Dec Man in Snow
By Israel Horovitz. Under the Northern Lights, halfway up the highest mountain in Alaska, David Kipling is in charge of 20 honeymoon couples busy trying to conceive. In solitude, he rings his wife and seeks to conjure up the son who died two years previously. With Israel Horovitz, Marcia Warren, Dick Vosburgh and Burt Kwouk. Directed by Ned Chaillet.

20 Dec The Secret
Ruth Thomas' novel, dramatised by Tanika Gupta, is the story of a single parent who makes a terrible mistake which leaves her two children isolated, hungry and afraid. With Louise Jameson, Sakuntala Ramanee, John Hartley and Danielle Fraser Solomon. Directed by Pam Fraser Solomon.

21 Dec McLevy
A four-part series of stories about David Ashton's Victorian detective based on a real-life Edinburgh policeman, Inspector James McLevy. 1: For Unto Us. It may be Christmas, but the principle of goodwill seems not to apply to the criminal fraternity of Leith. With Brian Cox, Siobhan Redmond, Michael Perceval-Maxwell and Stuart McQuarrie. Directed by Patrick Rayner.

22 Dec The Tunnel under the World
Frederick Pohl's influential science fiction tale, dramatised by Mike Walker. Guy wakes each morning from the same terrifying dream, but each day it is soothed away by special offers and an abundance of consumer goods. Then, one day, he begins to recall a little more. With William Hope, Bob Sherman, Laurel Lefkow and Beth Chalmers. Directed by Ned Chaillet.

23 Dec The Saturday Play: Charley's Aunt
By Brandon Thomas, adapted for radio by Jonathan Hall. The much-loved energetic farce, recorded before a packed audience at Manchester Grammar School. With John Griffin, Morgan George, Chris Langham and Rina Mahoney. Directed by Polly Thomas.

24 Dec No drama... A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

25 Dec The Echoing Waters: A Cheshire Mystery Cycle
By Alan Garner. Pagan folklore, local mythology and Christian tradition intertwine in a potent retelling of the story of Christ's birth and death, transposed to Garner's native Cheshire. With Dave Hill, Patrick Bridgeman, John Lloyd Fillingham and Gillian Kearney. Directed by Wils Wilson.

26 Dec Holiday Home
By Elizabeth Baines. An idyllic holiday cottage on a Welsh mountainside is symbolic of a marriage restored through a long, hot summer. But then the rains come, and the cracks start to appear. With Mark Chatterton, Deborah McAndrew, Martine Brown and Jack Townley. Directed by Michael Fox.

27 Dec The Hunting of the Snark
By Lewis Carroll, dramatised by Dylan Ritson. A surreal odyssey in which a bizarre group of characters set off in search of the elusive and mysterious Snark. With Nigel Anthony, David Bamber, James Fleet and Jasmine Hyde. Directed by Karen Rose.

28 Dec McLevy
A four-part series of stories about David Ashton's Victorian detective based on real-life Edinburgh policeman, Inspector James McLevy. 2: The Trophy Club. Blocked at every turn in his efforts to solve the murder of a young prostitute, McLevy decides to bend the rules. With Brian Cox, Siobhan Redmond, Michael Perceval-Maxwell and Steven Atholl. Directed by Patrick Rayner.

29 Dec Skellig
By David Almond. The compelling, prize-winning story of what happens when a Newcastle boy discovers a dying angel in the tumbledown garage of his new home. With Adam Ironside, Christopher Connell, Trevor Fox and Janine Birkett. Directed by Pam Wardell.

30 Dec The Saturday Play: The Flump
A touching comedy from Marcel Pagnol, produced for the first time in English. Percy S Smith is obsessed with becoming a great tragic actor. When, as part of a practical joke, he gets a walk-on part in a film, he finds himself an overnight star as, not a tragedian, but a comic. With Johnny Vegas, Jimmy Tarbuck, Laura Shavin, Paul Kember and Charlotte Coleman.

31 Dec The Classic Serial: Hawksmoor
Nick Fisher's adaptation of Peter Ackroyd's acclaimed 1985 novel, starring Philip Jackson as both Dyer, the 18th-century architect whose work reflects his obsession with the old religion, and the modern detective Hawksmoor, who is investigating murders which mirror the sacrifices which took place 300 years earlier. With Norman Rodway, Richard Johnson and Miranda Foster. Directed by Janet Whitaker. Part 1 of 2.

Back to top