Nesta Pain Radio Plays
Radio producer, writer, director, author and journalist
"Independent" obituary: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-nesta-pain-1593411.html
Nesta Pain, born Nesta Taylor, the Wirral, 27 July 1905, died London 23 July 1995.
She wrote, produced and directed many programmes for BBC radio and television. She also adapted works of fiction for radio, notably a production of William Golding’s The Spire, for Network Three in 1965.
Nesta Pain joined the BBC in 1942. She had already written a play while at Oxford, this play was performed by a professional company in London. She was initially hired on a temporary contract to write for the newly created Features Department in Bush House. She worked for many years on features before commissioning her first radio play: John Mortimer’s Dock Brief in 1958.
A search on BBC Genome produces over 500 entries for Nesta Pain. Her first radio programme was broadcast on BBC Home Service Basic on 1 July 1943. It was a programme for schools: SENIOR HISTORY: South Africa: General Botha. The last entry for her work on BBC Genome is a dramatisation of Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert. It was first broadcast on Radio 4 as Crime at Christmas on 28 December 1987 and was directed by Glyn Dearman. Her last documentary, about flies, was broadcast on 31 March 1982 on BBC Radio 4: ‘Flies’ Narrator: Michael Hordern. Directed by John Theocharis with music by Antony Hopkins.
Her breadth and depth of talents and interests have led her to be described as a ‘cultural translator’ or even a ‘transmedial cultural translator’. I understand these terms to mean that she successfully ‘translated’ her talents in radio writing, producing and adapting to other fields: as a journalist and author and to stage and television production.
NOTES ON SOME OF THE RADIO WORK
LOUIS PASTEUR...1945
Home Service 11 May 1945. A dramatic portrait, with a commentary by Sir Alexander Fleming. Dramatic sequences and production by Nesta Pain.
FOCUS ON THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE…1948
6 July 1948 The Light Programme. Written and produced by Nesta Pain.
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway…1955
BBC Home Service Basic 13 March 1955. Production by Nesta Pain.
THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER by Allan Sillitoe …1961
The Third Programme 26 April 1961. Adapted from the short story for broadcasting and produced by Nesta Pain.
A PRESENT FROM VENICE...1961
BBC Home Service Basic 19 September 1961. Written by Simon Raven. A six part serial. A story about smuggling which begins, improbably enough, with a young couple about to set out on their honeymoon. Produced by Nesta Pain.
THE SPIRE...1965
Network Three 12 May 1965. An adaptation of William Golding’s novel, which Nesta Pain also produced. With Michael Hordern, Barry Foster and John Stride.
STAY OF EXECUTION… 1965.
The Light Programme. From 3 October to 7 November1965. A serial in six episodes by Michael Gilbert with Maurice Denham and Barry Foster. Produced by Nesta Pain.
WHAT SHALL WE TEL CAROLINE?...1966 by John Mortimer
10 June 1966 Network Three. Caroline is the object of endless admonition, reminiscence, and warning from her father and mother and from a master in her father's school. But are they really talking for Caroline's benefit? With Jill Bennett, Stephen Murray and Barry Foster.
Adapted and produced by Nesta Pain.
I THAT AM BORN A KING… 1975
In two parts: 2nd and 9th July 1975 Radio 4 FM. The Private Life of George III. 'In a most affecting manner. he complained to me of the situation of a King in a Strait Waistcoat’. Producer John Theocharis. Written by Nesta Pain.
Alistair Wyper, August 2021.
