1997 Radio Plays
Cookbook of Apicius
By Jim Miller. Excellent light comedy series; several episodes - stars Keith Floyd as a Roman cook. Weekly, beginning 29 Jan. More information in REVIEWS section.
Waterland
by Graham Swift. A fenland story in three parts.
Shroud
by Robert Forrest. Multiple murder mystery involving
the Turin shroud.
The Hollow Man
by J.D.Carr. With Donald Sinden as Dr. Gideon Fell.
MY BELOVED HUSBAND....1997
Famous poisoning case. 5 Mar 97.
THE ALABAMA BELLE....1997
12 Mar 97, R4. For a short time in the late 1800s, the Florence Maybrick case made world headlines. Did she poison her husband?
Tower
by Greg Cullen. A colliery dispute in South Wales, but this
is treated in a way you never heard before.
TELLING THE SEA....1997
Following a divorce, a mother and her three young children move to rural Wales. 90m.
Rocco don't eat greens
by Nick Pullin. A very peculiar and original comedy. Nick
Pullin has written some interesting plays - does anyone know
anything about him?
Call from the Dead
by Carey Harrison. Unpleasant little play, 30m, with very
original use of a mobile 'phone. Gave me the creeps, but it's good radio.
Missing Mandy
by B. Dooley. 30m. Afternoon play. Peter is dumped by his
girlfriend - how will he cope? With Ian Dunn, Joanne Sheridan,
Val Lillee. Directed by Melanie Harris.
The Hydro
Superior "soap" set in a hotel. See Robert Frame page.
Diamonds
by J.Peacock. The story of a light Cape diamond. 3 self-contained, linked episodes of 45 minutes. Begins 19-5-97.
P.S.I Love You
by Graham Curry. A search for the rarest record in the world.60m. Saturday afternoon play, I think.
Fatherland
by Robert Harris. Weird story based on the premise that Hitler won the war. As far as I recall, 2 parts lasting around 2 hours.
The Flight of Eric Strapp
by Ronnie Smith. Comedy written for George Cole, where he plays the part he's famous for - a cockney rogue.
Black Narcissus
by A. de Angelis. Nuns in the himalayas.
Postcards from the swamp
by Y.Stajno. Light comedy set on safari.
Handel's Ghost
by Paul Barz. Handel meets J.S.Bach. Radio 3 play, of interest to musicians and to fans of JBS and GFH. No-one knows whether these two composers met - this play assumes they did, and we hear the encounter. Lasts about an hour.
Raising Patrick Docherty
by Jessica Townsend. 1 July 97. An Irish family
denigrate their dead patriarch's reputation, only to
be faced with his resurrection.
THE LITHIUM WALTZ
15 Jul 97. By Barry McKinley; with James Fleet as Billy. Question: You have just arrived in a mental asylum. Who do you ask for help when filling in the assessment form? Answer: The other inmates.
Barry McKinley adds (in 2009): "We didn't have a proper script for Lithium Waltz. The piece had been a 45 minute stage play, a prize winner in the society of Irish playwrights competition, 1994, I think. It was filled to the brim with profanity which we took a blue pencil to in the studio at broadcasting House. It was also quite static in nature, being set in a ward in a psychiatric hospital. For the radio version we took a walk through the basement at broadcasting House and recorded different characters, trying to give the listener a sense that we were moving further and further into the hospital, and possibly into the mind. The producer was Peter Kavanagh from Belfast.
We adapted on-the-fly. Depending on the actor's strengths and weaknesses, lines were added and lines were taken away. Despite this the radio actors remained totally professional and the experience I had with the adaptation is something I remember fondly."
................thanks, Barry, for taking the trouble to contact us - ND.
Cold Call
by Collin Johnson. Excellent play set in an advertising
agency call centre. 22.7.97.
THE HOUSE OF DOCTOR DEE....1997
29 Sep 97; Monday play. By Peter Ackroyd: dramatised by Alan Drury. Matthew Palmer is left an old house. Once owned by an Elizabethan scholar who was reputedly involved in black magic: the house hides dark and mysterious secrets. With Philip Glenister and Nigel Anthony. Director Claire Grove.
...remarks from ND: ....Curious fictional tale about an old house in Clerkenwell which was once inhabited by a black magician. The SMs had a lot of work to do in this production; the effect is slightly unsettling. You may have had the feeling of being watched, but when you turn around no-one is there. That's the atmosphere the play creates.
The Olivetti
By O.O'Neill. The story of how a typewriter changed a woman's
life. 2 Dec 97.
All of the above known to exist in VRPCC collections.
Nigel Deacon / Diversity website
