Berlie Doherty Radio Plays

For BBC R4 and BBC Radio Sheffield

1980 The Drowned Village
1980 Unlucky for Some (R.Sheffield)
1982 Requiem
1985 Sacrifice
1990 There's a Valley in Spain
1993 Dear Nobody
1994 The Snow Queen
1996 Heidi
1999 The Water Babies, by C. Kingsley (dram)

Plays for BBC Schools:
1979-1983 Short plays for Radio Sheffield
1982-1994 Short plays for Radio 4 (see below)

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Berlie Doherty writes:

My first plays were all for radio, and happened at about the time I began writing, in the late 70's. At the time I had been seconded to BBC Radio Sheffield to write and produce programmes for schools, and in those two years I learnt a great deal from the Education Producer Dave Sheasby about radio drama. I soon began writing plays for BBC Radio 4 as well, starting with original plays and then moving on to dramatisations of my own novels, then on to adaptations of children's classics. I think radio is a wonderful medium to write for, inviting as it does both writer and listener to use their imaginations, to 'see' with their mind's eye. Later I began writing for theatre and television too, and they all have their own challenges and excitements.

For BBC radio 4:

THE DROWNED VILLAGE BBC Radio 4 1980 My first radio play. This was a thirty minute play directed by Kay Patrick, and is a fantasy based on the drowned village of Derwent under Ladybower reservoir in Derbyshire.

REQUIEM BBC Radio 4 1982 Directed on location by Kay Patrick. This play began as a short story and later became a full-length novel (Penguin group). An Irish girl rejects her Catholicism, her home and her family as she tries to discover who she really is.

SACRIFICE BBC Radio 4 1985 Directed by Kay Patrick. Began as a short story for Radio 4. A group of young people hold a weekend party in remote Scotland. They intend to sacrifice a pig, but one of the children goes missing.

THERE'S A VALLEY IN SPAIN BBC Radio 4 1990 Directed by Kay Patrick. An adaptation from my theatre play RETURN TO THE EBRO, about a Manchester man, Sam Wild, who joins the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. As an old man, he looks back on what mattered to him in his life.

DEAR NOBODY BBC Radio 4 1993 A dramatisation from my novel.

THE SNOW QUEEN, directed by Janet Whitaker. With Diana Rigg and Dirk Bogarde. A dramatisation from the Hans Andersen story. BBC Radio 4 1994

HEIDI , directed by Janet Whitaker, dramatisation from the Johanna Spyri novel BBC Radio 4 1996

THE WATER BABIES directed by Janet Whitaker, with Tim West. Dramatisation from Charles Kingsley 1999

UNLUCKY FOR SOME BBC Radio Sheffield 1980

Numerous short plays for BBC Radio Sheffield schools from 1979-1982

For BBC schools radio:

HOME BBC
Radio 4 schools 1982 (published) Unwin Hyman Education Stage Write 1982

THE WHITE BIRD OF PEACE
BBC Radio 4 schools 1983

MORNING COACH TO MORGANTOWN
BBC Radio 4 schools 1983

A CASE FOR PROBATION
BBC Radio 4 schools 1983 Hutchinson Education 1986

MISS ELIZABETH
BBC Radio 4 schools 1985

THE MOUSE AND HIS CHILD
(dramatisation of Russell Hoban's novel) schools BBC Radio 4 1986

DREAM OF UNICORNS
(later my novel SPELLHORN) BBC Radio 4 schools 1988

THE SAD POET
BBC Radio 4 1982

CHILDREN OF WINTER
BBC Radio 4 schools 1988 (dramatisation of my novel)

GRANNY WAS A BUFFER GIRL
BBC Radio 4 schools 1990 (dramatisation of my novel).

DEAR NOBODY
BBC Radio 4 schools 1994

Berlie Doherty

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Information supplied by Berlie Doherty and used by permission.

Berlie's's website is at
http://www.berliedoherty.com/

where details of her other work (novels, plays, children's books and poems) can be found.

Nigel Deacon / Diversity website

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