Radio Plays 2008
SEPTIMUS GREABE....2008
13 Jun 08; by Mike Harris. This play is about Victorian hypocrisy; miserable do-gooders who create vices worse than the ones they try to repress. In the early 1800s, the Society for the Suppression of Vice, inspired by William Wilberforce, would stop at nothing to stamp out corruption and sin. The play invents a character to represent such 'forces for good': Septimus Greabe, whose target is prostitues, drunks, lechers, and others down on their luck. Stars David Troughton, Will Keen, Kellie Shirley, Paul Jesson, Nigel Cooke, Perdita Avery. Producer Clive Brill.
THE INCOMPARABLE WITNESS....2008
By Nicola McAuliffe, afternoon play 12 Jun 08; a drama about Sir Bernard Spilsbury, 'the father of modern forensics'. Cast: Edith (Narrator) ... Joanna David,
Bernard Spilsbury ... Timothy Watson,
Edith (1900-1910) ... Honeysuckle Weeks,
Willcox ... Dan Starkey,
Lord Chief Justice ... John Rowe,
Dr Pepper/Muir ... Sam Dale,
Turnbull ... Stephen Critchlow,
Tobin ... Chris Pavlo,
George ... Nyasha Hatendi,
Gertie ... Helen Longworth;
producer Sasha Yevtushenko.
- Background information:
Spilsbury was born in Leamington in 1877. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a BA in natural science in 1899. He then studied at St Mary's Hospital in London, specialising in the then-new science of forensic pathology.
The case that brought Spilsbury to prominence was that of Dr. Crippen in 1910, where he also gave forensic evidence in the trial about the likely identity of the human remains found in Crippen's house. Spilsbury concluded that a scar on a small piece of skin from the remains pointed to Mrs Crippen as the victim.
During his career Spilsbury performed thousands of autopsies, not only for murder victims but also of executed criminals.
He was first to recognize the signs of death by rapid drowning, the secrets held in blood spatters, and devised the best toxicological technique for revealing arsenic poisoning. Over the course of his career investigating English crimes, Spilsbury performed 25,000 autopsies and was an almost daily presence in newspapers. He was knighted in 1923.
Unfortunately for future forensic specialists, Spilsbury left few written records.
Spilsbury had one daughter and three sons with his wife Caroline Horton. Two of his sons died during the Second World War, one from ill-health and one during the Blitz.
The death of his children was a blow from which he never fully recovered. He committed suicide in December, 1947, in his laboratory at University College, London.
DROPPING BOMBS....2008
By Paul Cotter. Play about an ex-RAF pilot who goes to Germany sixty years after the war to apologise for dropping his bombs.But there is no politically-correct nonsense and no 'message'. It's pure comedy, and the humour is in the interplay between the old man, terminally stubborn and selfish, his long-suffering wife, and his young in-laws, the unpaid chauffeurs. Stars Nigel Anthony, Ivan Kaye, Rosemary Leach. Producer Toby Swift.
THE VERTICAL HOUR....2008
Radio 3 broadcast David Hare's latest play, The Vertical Hour, which had its London premiere at the Royal Court at the beginning of this year, starring Indira Varma as an idealistic Yale politics professor visiting her English boyfriend's cantankerous father, played by Anton Lesser. Nadia is an American war reporter-turned-academic. She lives a settled life with her English boyfriend, but when she visits his home and meets his father for the first time, her political opinions and her relationship come under great strain.
The play, which analyses British and American attitudes to the war in Iraq, premiered on Broadway in 2006 before completing a successful run at the Royal Court earlier this year.
25 May 08; cast: Joseph Kloska, Anton Lesser, Wunmi Mosaku, Tom Riley, Indira Varma. Music composed by Nick Powell. (Catherine Bailey Productions).
A WEDDING IN KRAKOW....2008
By Ewa Banaszkiewicz. May 08. Writers through the ages have said that being true to yourself gives the best chance of being happy. The subject of this play, a Polish worker living in Britain as a handyman, has reached middle age without learning this rather obvious truth. He's even told his brother living in Krakow (whom he hasn't seen for years) that he's an optician.
Then he's invited back to Poland to celebrate his daughter's wedding.
- This play attracted lots of comments on the BBC messageboard. Not all of them were about the drama; some listeners commen ted on three plays out of five that week being about foreigners or foreign countries, and one listener suggested that a better place to air these might be the World Service, not Radio 4.
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME....2008
Six 55m episodes, beginning 6 Apr 08. Dramatisation by Michael Butt. (previous dramatisation, produced by Graham Gauld 1979-1982, was in 26 episodes spread over four years and had a cast of about 250.) Narrated by Corin Redgrave. I haven't heard the Gauld version, but the first episode of this new production was entertaining and held my attention.
GOLDFISH GIRL....2008
2 Apr 08. By Peter Soutar, afternoon play. Frightening evocation of what memory loss can do. Ally and Joe were married; she cannot remember him. She asks who her friends are, and why they never visit; he says 'they do'. Two-hander with Juliet Stevenson and Alex Jennings.
CYRANO DE BEGERAC....2008
Sun 23 Mar 08; R3. Welcome repeat of the 1998 broadcast. Kenneth Branagh plays Edmond Rostand's romantic, poet, soldier, here and gentleman. For those who don't know the story, he has one great physical flaw - the size of his nose. Refer to it and a fight will start. In the words of Gillian Reynolds, look at it and it becomes all you see, not the noble nature behind it. It means his love for the beautiful Roxane is doomed, but he puts his devotion into helping the handsome Christian de Neuvillette to pusue her. The problem is that Christian is terribly dim. This is Anthony Burgess's translation; the whole thing is in verse, and it's wonderful. It flows just like speech, and Burgess has packed it with witty asides. Cast: Jodhi May as Roxane and Tom Hiddlestone as Christian. Producer David Timson, and the story is adapted by John Tydeman.
MR. STANDFAST....2008
Mar 08; classic serial in two 55m episodes. Adapted for radio by Bert Coules, with David Robb as Richard Hannay and Clive Merrison as Sir Walter. Producer Bruce Young.
The adaptation attracted favourable comment on the BBC messageboard; for example, from "j"...(which I've summarised and edited)
- Spiffing! Hannay once more fighting single-handed against the Fritzies, but now the moral rot in Britain seems to be caused by the Conchies instead of the dastardly Jews....
I believe he wrote propaganda in WWI, and this can be heard in the scripts. All the 'good sorts' who are invalided out can't wait to get back to the Front to give the Hun 'what for'.
Totally politically incorrect by today's standards; rampant stereotyping, oozing gung-ho, but such good fun!
Berts tells us that there's one more Hannay to be done - "The Island of Sheep". Let's hope he gets the job.
BLINDED BY THE SUN....2008
By Stephen Poliakoff. 90m Saturday Play. 8 Mar 08. "Some of his favourite themes are here - an institution under threat, the imperfection of recollection, a cabal of characters locked in against a demon svengali-esque character" (a quote from the BBC drama messageboard). It caught very acutely the claustrophobic mentality of some parts of the academic world. The science was a bit implausible, but Poliakoff isn't a scientist. Nevertheless it was a well-paced play, and it reminded me of the 'cold fusion' episode of a couples of decades ago, when no-one was quite sure whether or not we were on the brink of controllable nuclear fusion. For the radio 4 blurb, see the Bob Thirsk page for 2008.
WHEN GREED BECOMES FEAR....2008
Mar 08. By Dave Britton. A response, in drama, to the crisis affecting Northern Rock, and - probably - having an effect on all of us. Dave Britton: "When Greed Turns to Fear was the result of an unusual rapid-response process in which the script was begun relatively close to the broadcast date, and recorded in the week before it went to air. I found this an exciting way to work, especially since it is something radio can do more quicky and efficiently than any other dramatic medium.
- Like most writers, I'm also fascinated by timeless themes such as love, family dynamics and sacrifice. Weaving the immediate and the timeles together under the pressure of a short deadline was an exciting challenge. What drama does well is to give a human face to something which might otherwise seem remote, and that's what we tried to achieve.
Not surprisingly, some people prefer one side of the fact/fiction spectrum, some the other. One national newspaper commented that the play's account of the sub-prime crisis was probably easier to comprehend than some business journalism, while others were more interested in its dramatic style, which they described as pacey and feisty. " (summarised comments from the BBC drama messageboard, posted by DB)
Gillian Reynolds in the Telegraph: 'Maybe there'll be a sequel: what happens when governments buy up banks'!"
......other summarised comments from the messageboard ........ cliches in the plot but it got over a lot of explanation about the sub-prime property collapse which now seems to be ensnaring the entire world economy. Not too much heavy breathing, either.
.......very good the BBC can turn round something as up-to-date as this in such a short time.
Cold Blood....2008
BBC7 commission, Feb 08. Set in 2015, Nathaniel Tuft, winter commander of an Antarctic research base, is about face his worst fears as nature and science clash. A futuristic sci-fi horror tale, written by Simon Bovey, with Ndidi Del Fatti, Helen Longworth, Stuart McLoughlin, Tom Mannion and Tim McMullan.
WHO AM I THIS TIME?....2008
By Kurt Vonnegut, 21 Jan 08. Lovely afternoon play about an amateur dramatics group where the leading man doesn't realise the passion he evokes in a girl who's new to the town. Dramatised by Philip Goulding, with Lou Hirsch, Kerry Shale, Joanne Froggatt and Maureen Lipman. Producer Justine Potter.
FLYING DOWN TO GREENOCK....2008
21 Jan 08; Stanley Baxter Playhouse series. A Glaswegian centenarian remembers his early life and the Blitz as he goes in an aeroplane for the first time. With Stanley Baxter and Patricia Kerrigan. Producer Marilyn Imrie.
UNDONE....2008
This has been one of our most popular new commissions for the 7th Dimension. So I am delighted that we are able to commission a second series of Ben Moor's sci-fi comedy about London's parallel city. Edna Turner tries to make sense of reality without Undone and the missing Tankerton. Stars Ben Moor, Alex Tregear, Duncan Wisbey, Kevin Eldon, Sophie Duval. Directed by Colin Anderson. (BBC7 blurb, Jan 08)
.....Edna interrogates the prince, takes on the public information porn industry and learns more about her own powers. Starring Ben Moor, with Alex Tregear, Duncan Wisbey, Kevin Eldon and Sophie Duval. BBC7 newsletter, Feb 08
compiled by Nigel Deacon / Diversity website
