Unidentified Radio Plays

I am often contacted by listeners of radio plays who ask me to identify something they heard years ago from a description (which they supply) of the plot, and ask whether a recording is available.

By definition, these plays are exceptional - otherwise they wouldn't have been remembered so vividly.

Here are some of the queries which have arrived. I am stumped by a few of them ... please email if you can help.


Nigel Deacon, Diversity website



do you recall.......

SERVANTS CARRY ON WORKING AFTER DEATH
I'm not sure if you can help, but there is a lot of info on your website, so I wondered .... A play I listened to on Radio 4 back in 1990s' about a husband/butler and wife/cook die, but carry on working for their masters in the big house. They don't notice what has happened. It was a lovely funny play but with a point. I have no recollection of the name of it, or if it is still out there. Thank you for your time. GT

Hi GT ....It sounds like the play by J.R.Jones.... I remember it as distinctly odd: THE QUICK, THE DEAD AND THE UNDECIDED, from 3 Mar 92. "Starkey has always been the perfect butler, but recently, his standards have been slipping - to a dangerous degree. Comedy by J.R.Jones, with John Warner, Elizabeth Morgan, Bernard Latham. Producer Jane Dauncey. 30m." - ND.

Wow! That is fantastic, why on earth didn't I find you before to ask? Thank you so much. / GT

PLAY INVOLVING HEAD INJURY & THERAPY
Broadcast as Monday Play, early-mid 1990s.About a boy who sustained a serious head injury who ended up spending the rest of his life in an asylum. The play starts in the present; he is a man in therapy chatting to his consultant, until there's a flash-back, and he's once more a child, which provides much of the backdrop for the play. We follow his journey through the events leading up to his accident, his admission to the institution and his subsequent reabilitation.

Prior to his accident, he meets a strange man who lives in a shack on a remote hill, much like the Bird Man on the Isle of Sampson in Morpurgo's "Why The Whales Came."

There's also a tree which the man calls the "Hanging Tree", now home to a given breed of bird, which is crucial to the story in a sinister sort of way. It's possible these birds might figure in the title, or the hill upon which the tree stands.

Clive L

A CRIME DRAMA SERIES
I have been trying to remember a crime drama series, r4, broadcast in the last 5 years. I think it was set post-WW2 and featured two ladies who solved crimes. They have a male assistant and it is fairly upbeat. I think there were 6 episodes and I think it was written for radio.

M.W.

Hi M.W. .... This sounds like Daunt & Dervish, by Guy Meredith. The male assistant was played by Bill Paterson. I think you'll find it was longer than 5 years ago - or perhaps you heard a repeat?


You hero! Thank you so much.

M.W.

THE NATURE OF TIME
You seem to have an immense knowledge of radio plays and wonder whether you know a play from Radio 4 in the 2000s about the nature of time. There were only two characters, both men. One person had come to Wales from London in order to synchronise all the clocks in preparation for the building of the railways. He speaks to a person working in the fields. They debate various matters including time. It was a brilliant play.

Christiane

Hi Christiane - this Only a Matter of Time, by Alan Plater. There was a sequel called Time Added On For Injuries about a year later. They both starred James Bolam and Alun David. You'll find it described on this page:

www.suttonelms.org.uk/AP.HTML

HE'LL BOUNCE AND HE'LL BLEED
In 1979 I heard a Radio 4 drama that had a repeated sentence in it, crucial to the story, it went: "We’ll push him and he’ll bounce and bleed’". I cannot track down the title for this play, so was wondering if anyone you knew, knew?

JE, BBC.

Dear JE - this sounds like A Dream of Murder, by James Brook. A demonic child, a railway bridge -"he'll be hit by the train, and we can watch...."

JE: "Yes that’s it! I recall the railway bridge bit now! Amazing - that part of the quote brought it all back!"

JE had a second question - which I can't answer at present:

A story set in Bath, amongst a group of anti nuclear weapons protestors. It seemed to centre around the wife of someone who worked in the weapons industry. I think it dates from early 90s.

Any suggestions?

TIME DIFFERENCE BETWEEN USA AND ENGLAND
A play which begins with a telephone call; guy in the UK finds himself speaking to a chap in the USA where it's many years earlier.

(from Morris B)

Dear M - This sounds like "The Loop", by Nick Perry. This is what I wrote about it at the time:

THE LOOP (R4, 1415, 18 Nov 09), by Nick Perry, was a little gem of a play, possibly the best of the year, described on the BBC messageboard as 'faultless'. A man finds himself talking on the telephone to someone in America but ... it gradually transpires that over there, it's fifty years earlier. This bizarre beginning sets in motion a whole train of events which goes around in an enormous circle. Directed by Toby Swift, it starred Ivan Kaye, Edward Hogg, Peter Marinker, Emerald O'Hanrahan, Rhys Jennings, and Melissa Advani. I hope this item is entered for the Imison Award - it would qualify, because it's Nick Perry's first radio play. .......(ND, Diversity Website review, Dec 2009)

The play won a Sony Radio Academy bronze award.

TWO LOVERS ON THE SCAFFOLD (1950s-early 1960s)
Two lovers on the scaffold during the Reign of Terror about to be executed, telling each other they will meet again. The executioner mockingly saying yes, when the bells of ***** ring again. The particular bells had been lost, or hidden for safety, many years before during troubled times and their location had been lost.

In modern time the bells had been unexpectedly recovered, rehung, and were to peal again at an appointed hour, the first time in 200 or 300 years. At about that time a disused well had been accidentally exposed in a small courtyard. A young man (a sailor?) was warned of the danger, but answered that he already knew of the well, yet how could he, it had only just been rediscovered. But he and the girl had been reincarnated to meet again in accordance with the executioner’s unintended prophesy.

INVENTOR WITH SICK CHILD (1950s-1960s)
An inventor with an ailing child had discovered a way of transferring a period of life allotment from other people to extend the life of his own child. The sceptical donors must first agree, and are told the lost time will be repaid to them later. To their surprise, a sudden aging is apparent in the donors, sufficient for their friends to make mention of it. When comes time to repay the borrowed time something goes wrong with the process, the recovered time is unreliable, and unexpected sudden changes of personal appearance create unfortunate consequences for the donors.

A FACE AT EVERY WINDOW (1950s-1960s)
A comedy-drama. A middle-aged woman is to be married in a northern town (she has most of the funny lines) and because of her age, certain aspects of the marriage process are less comfortable for her than would be the case with a younger woman. Her forthcoming marriage ceremony is presented as something she, as someone well past the blush of youth, would rather forego, but had to reluctantly and stoically get through in order to move on to the next phase of her life. Her lines include: (re her unsupportive uncle) ‘You too, Uncle Brutus’ and (regarding a nosy neighbour across the street) ‘There’ll be a face at every window - and they’ll all be hers’.

The play has a feeling of a Don Haworth play but I couldn’t identify it in the list of his titles.

These three summaries are from Tony N, 19 Apr 18 - ND

..... a play that I thought was called Johnny Valentine. It was slightly comic I think.... about a girl who works in a dry cleaners and a gangster brings in a jacket to be cleaned and is then knocked over by a car. He never returns to collect his jacket and she finds something intriguing in a pocket. I think it was a matchbook from a nightclub - then she gets a job at the nightclub... memories of this play has stayed with me for all these years and I would like to find out what it was as I enjoyed it so much. (BL)

Hi BL - I think this is it ... COPS AND ROBBERS, by Katie Hims. 30 Apr 01, afternoon play, rpt 3 Apr 03. A dry-cleaner's assistant falls for a customer who chats her up and then, on leaving, is knocked down. How can she ever forget him? Marion ...... Amanda Root, The Inspector ...... Philip Jackson, Jonny Valentine ...... Nicholas Boulton. Producer Peter Kavanagh.

....Thank you so much.... you are brilliant!! - BL

TWO IDENTICAL HUSBANDS
I have been a long time wondering about a radio 4 afternoon play I heard in the early 1980's when I should have been studying at University. I recall a woman in her home when her scientist husband returns a little early from work, particularly cheerful because the teleporter experiment he had been working on had worked. He goes upstairs to change and a few minutes later his wife hears him arriving home again, this time in a bad mood because his teleporter experiment had not worked. The wife is confused as to how he had gone outside again and come back with a somewhat different version of events only for them all to discover soon enough that there were now two husbands. Not surprisingly they didn't like each other very much...I can't remember what happened next but it was a particularly gripping play., any ideas?

SB, London

Dear SB - originally this didn't ring any bells - but then it occurred to me - could this be 'Timeslip' by Wally K Daly? The date is about right, I think.

.......That's exactly it, your knowledge is extraordinary. I managed to find a basic synopsis - it descended into more of a farce than I remembered but still it provided an amusing hours break.Thanks ..... SB

MOTORISTS STUCK IN THE SNOW
John E asks.....

"I’ve been searching on and off of years for a horror play I heard on radio 4 in the 80’s.

It was winter time, possibly Christmas time; the play involve some motorists who set off on their journeys and end up getting stuck in snow as the weather closes in. I think there were 2 or 3 cars, who were stuck; the daylight starts to fade and as darkness falls they hear strange sounds. One by one they are picked off by a creature who comes out of the night."

ND replies..... My friend A.D. recognised this as "The Horn" by Stephen Gallagher, broadcast in 1989 in the 'Fear on Four' series, produced by Martin Jenkins.

TWO 'TIMESLIP' PLAYS
...... a supernatural play about timeslips in radio/telephone communication. Some 'timeslips' are already listed in your pages, but this one had a modern-day woman making a phone call and getting through to a military officer in a war bunker during the Battle of Britain. Can't remember the rest of the story very clearly.

Another was a sci-fi time loop story. A traveller from the future comes back to our time after an international scientific teleport experiment to transfer two cities into each other's space goes wrong. Our city is replaced by what turns out to be a nuclear blast area. The husband of the modern-day family gets involved; future traveller rings doorbell ('ding dong'), husband answers it ('I'll get it'); gets involved in an adventure to save the situation and remove the bomb before detonation. The attempt fails! 'Ding dong' 'I'll get it' - we're in a time loop as the traveller goes back to his first meeting with the husband for a second attempt! And so on ...!

(from Pic B)


FOUL PLAY ON A SCHOOL TRIP
....a school trip to the Cutty Sark (or some other preserved vessel). One of the children is found dead, apparently having fallen down a hatchway. There is an investigation.

It is suspected that the boy was abused by one of the teachers and killed himself. However it later emerges that that a different boy was involved with a teacher and threatened to talk about it, and the other boy killed him to keep him quiet.

The boy murderer climbs on to the school roof with the intention of throwing himself off, but is talked down.

Laurence T

ND replies..... Greg Linden recognised this as "Death Drop" by B.M.Gill, dramatised by Jill Hyem. Summary of BBC info: Saturday Playhouse, 20 June 1992... 12-year old David falls to his death during a school outing. The headmaster calls it a tragic accident. David's father sets out to investigate the true cause.With Kenneth Cranham, Gemma Churchill, Peter Penry-Jones, Irene Sutcliffe, Keith Drinkle, Mark Murphy, Melinda Walker, Gordon Reed and Gary King. Producer Cherry Cookson. 90 min ......and..... I've just realised that we've had this query before - scroll down the page!


BODY ORGANS TALKING TO EACH OTHER
About 20 - 30 years ago, I head a play on BBC Radio 4, about the inner workings of the human body. All the body's parts had names such as Brain and Eyes, Nose, Ears, Left Arm etc, and they all spoke. Each morning Brain would start shouting at Eyes telling them to wake up. This would usually end in them having an argument between each other until someone like Mouth or Tongue intervened. Throughout the day, as the person who owned the human body moved about and did their everyday things, the internal body parts would talk to each other. The play was funny and really clever.

Mark E.

ND replies - this sounds like Giving Up by J.C.W.Brook.


SPOOKY PLAY
......which frightened the life out of me, about a man and his wife and his daughter living in a new house, continuously disturbed during the night by frightful noises coming from under the floorboards - like pipes banging together. As far as I can remember, at the end, it turned out that his family were not actually there and he had buried them under the floorboards.

Steve O.

ND replies - I don't remember this, but my friend Dave says that it sounds like 'The Antagonist' by Roger Lambert. World Service, date unknown, but billed as 'a ghost story for Christmas', sometime in the mid-1980s........ thanks Dave. My recording gives the cast as follows: Graham Roberts, Carole Hayman, Helen Worth, Peter Wheeler, Geoffrey Banks, SM Peter Barker, producer Tony Hawkins - ND.

ND UPDATE..... The play has been identified by Tim Kemp. It is "The House On Pale Avenue", http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wr8s9. It is occasionally repeated on Radio 4 Extra. Thanks, Tim.


PLAY NARRATED BY A HOUSE
Around 1976. The programme reproduced fragments of conversations and sounds which had become part of the fabric of the building. I remember discussing it with people at work. The only piece of 'dialogue' I recall (imperfectly) was the repetition of something along the lines of 'Nine-five, breakfast time'.

Elaine M.

ND replies - my friend NM tells me it's 'August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains' by Ray Bradbury. It used the resources of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop under the direction of Malcolm Clarke.... thanks Norman.


HOLE APPEARING IN THE GROUND
David S asks: ....a play set somewhere in the northern isles and about a hole appearing, possibly in a farmyard? It turns out to be an entrance into a refuge from a much earlier time, reflecting the current threat of a nuclear war, repeating the far distant past.

ND replies..... possibly "Tremor", by John Tarrant. There is a minor earthquake, and afterwards, a mysterious hole in the ground has appeared. Broadcast sometime around 1981; 30 minute theatre....


ENDLESS CORRIDORS
...and another query from David S: .....a play about an entrance in an ordinary house that goes deep into the earth and is partly explored. The scene is one of endless corridors or halls and many flights of steps.

ND replies..... this one is much more recent; Mike Walker's superb sci-fi dramatization of 'Recordings Recovered from the House of Leaves'. Here's part of what I wrote about it when it was broadcast on 28 Oct 2011: ........"an amazing tale by Mark Danielewski. Will Navidson and his family discover a labyrinth behind a door which suddenly appears in their home.

Navidson, celebrated adventure photographer, is fascinated. His partner Karen senses danger and insists that the door be kept permanently locked. But one night after a row, Navidson unlocks the door, opens it, and goes through. He finds rooms beyond rooms, all windowless, all unlit, and corridors which shrink and grow and sometimes disappear".


UNIDENTIFIED PLAY ABOUT CHESS
An email from Jon G has arrived .... it concerns a radio play about chess, which has stuck in his mind for thirty years:

...........I must have been between about 7 and 15 years old, so the broadcast date would be sometime between 1975 and 1983. It was probably on Radio 4, but it could have been Radio 3. I can't remember what day of the week or time of day it was on.

The plot concerned a man (a teacher?) who was given a talking chess computer as a retirement gift. He became more and more obsessed with beating it, to the exclusion of everything else. If he tried to cheat, it would respond with the phrase "That is an illegal move, George", in a robotic-sounding voice.

Eventually, in desperation, he attempted to unplug the machine, but somehow was killed by electrocution. As he died, he heard the words "That is an illegal move, George" from the computer.

Any ideas, anyone?

Alistair W suggests "Checkmate" by Hazel Barker; not a drama but a short story read by Gerald Cross. However the memory can play tricks; I've mistaken readings for drama before ... R4, 27 Oct 1980. No recording, so can't confirm.

Simon P emailed me as follows:
sounds like Julie and the Prince by Louis Robinson, a one hour R4 play, produced in Birmingham and directed by Peter Leslie Wilde. The date was 28 Feb 2004 according to your lists......

thanks Simon.......ND

Les Smith emailed me as follows: "The play is not by Tinniswood, but by Louis de Bernieres and is called 'Sunday Morning in the Centre of the World'.

Steve Shaw adds: I now have the BBC World Service production of 3/2/87 of "Dear Brutus" - directed of course by Gordon House- excellent quality- the part of Dearth is played by Bernard Hepton (who went on to tv producing). No Scofield.As usual abridged to fit the POTW one hour slot.

I can't find any version with Paul Scofield, but he did play Oberon in a 1964 Shakespeare Recording Society LP of Midsummer Night's Dream- six sides, subsequently rereleased on tape and then CD.

D.G, Salisbury, emailed as follows:

I also heard this frightening play as a child. No radio play has ever made a bigger impression on me. I think it is “The Raven” by Alfonso Sastre broadcast on Saturday Night Theatre on the 31st of Dec 1966.

The play takes place in the winter when a group gathers in a house where the previous year the lady of the house had been murdered by a man who had knocked at the door. Everybody has a strong feeling of déjà vu and one of the group comments how snow had fallen on him from a tree just like it had done the year before. After rising tension the woman who had been murdered the year before walks down the stairs and joins the group as if nothing had happened. She asks why everybody looks as if they have just seen a ghost! Then somebody knocks at the door and, although everybody is aghast, the woman opens the door and history repeats itself.....................(many thanks - ND)