Radio Plays, 2012

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NOTICE: RADIO FORUMS
The Radio 4 forums are much missed since their closure last year. Could I encourage all those who used to visit the R4 messageboards to start using the alternative forums above? The more people who sign on and contribute, the better they will be. Let the rest of the forum know what you think about current output - and which older programmes you would like to see repeated.


DEAR ARTHUR, LOVE JOHN....2012
7 May 2012; another comedy drama by Roy Smiles about the friendship between Arthur Lowe and John le Mesurier and the making of the TV series 'Dad's Army'. In 1982, John writes a letter to Arthur saying how much he misses him. They were like chalk and cheese, personally and politically, but they would remain lifelong friends. Meanwhile there are flashbacks to the early days of the series, with very passable impersonations of the cast. We hear the first read through, the reaction to the show's enormous popularity, rivalry, affection, and the cast members gradually realising that it was the best time of their lives.

Cast: John le Mesurier - Anton Lesser, Arthur Lowe - Robert Daws, John Laurie - Kenny Ireland, James Beck - James Lance, Ian Lavender - Matt Addis. The producer was Liz Anstee.


THE BIGGEST ISSUES....2012
By Annie McCartney, 24 Apr 12. ...journalists remain an easy target, but the shock jock portrayed here is like a pantomime villain. All she's concerned about is her vile radio show and her listening figures. Her savage attacks upon the NHS and one cardiologist in particular come back to hit her in the chest....(Jane Anderson, RT, paraphrased by ND).

A listener to the radio show claims that her elderly mother died as a result of neglect at a local hospital. As we listen, we realise that this is far from the truth.

The cast: Eleanor Methven, Maureen Beattie, Conleth Hill, Stella McCusker, Ian McElhinney, Patrick Fitzsymons, Ryan McParland, Katy Gleadhill, Aine McCartney. Producer Eoin O'Callaghan.

Annie McCartney knows about radio stations; she was a radio D.J. in America for five years and she has also broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster and RTE. Her hilarious second novel 'Your Cheatin' Heart' is set on a radio station in Tennessee.


PANDEMIC....2012
By John Dryden, 26-28 Mar 2012; successive afternoon plays. Each play is self-contained, but the scenario begins like this: a microbiologist goes to Thailand to a medical conference; whilst he's there, 'flu breaks out. It rapidly escalates into a crisis, and he's unable to return home because all the airports close.

Play 2 is set several years later, when the population of the world has diminished by 50%. The political setup is quite different, and people who disapprove sometimes just disappear.

Play 3 is a 'prequel' which looks at events leading up the the pandemic. The action starts at a climate change conference, where a person daring to question the green movement's global warming propaganda rapidly finds himself in hot water.

These excellent plays were recorded on location, without using a studio, and consequently everything sounds real. The producer was John Dryden, under the 'Goldhawk Essential' label.


NOISE....2012
20 Mar 12. Written by Alex Bulmer, this is a story of a musician who has lost her memory as a result of severe hypothermia after being found unconscious in a local park one freezing February night. Kit, played by Effie Woods, is now recovering But a strange piano melody keeps creeping into her mind. Her weird boyfriend Dan is determined not to help; he doesn't even let her near the piano. Meanwhile her old music teacher keeps calling.

The idea for the thriller came to Bulmer, who is blind, at a weekend writers' workshop, run by Sparklab. During one exercise she worked with fellow writer Dan Rebellato, going out into the street with a recording device to collect sound and try to create a story out of it. 'It was so clear that he and I had a differing relationship with sound, mostly because I couldn't predict it,' she tells Ariel. 'Sound just hit me, then disappeared.'

Cast: Effie Woods, Jonas Khan, Sarah Waddell, Richard Teverson. Producer Polly Thomas; music by Alice Trueman.

Summarized from part of a review appearing in 'Ariel', Mar 2012


INTERIORS....2012
Based on a play by Johnny Vegas, Stewart Lee and Rob Thirtle. R4, 15 Mar 12.

JV welcomes you to the tasteful home of Jeffrey Parkin.

"Now you may notice as we begin our tour in earnest that there are some design initiatives around the house that aren't, strictly speaking, finished... I terms of the decor I've been playing around with some ideas. Not all the colour schemes have been finalised yet but I think you'd all agree, that's a veritable bonus. Most of the hard work's done so I'm basically handing you a colour-by-numbers dream home come true. You just paint in between the guiding lines that my vision has provided you with, and you're laughing."

Johnny Vegas as Jeffrey Parkin, with Ben Crompton, Jo Enright, Catherine Kinsella, Joe Ransom, Rachael McGuinness, Peter Slater.

Directed by Dirk Maggs, produced by Sally Harrison. A Woolyback Production for BBC Radio 4.


OUT OF THE HITLER TIME - WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT ....2012
11 Mar, R4. Story of how a nine-year-old's family fled from Germany in 1933. Classic Serial. Stars Lauren Mote as the child, with Hugo Docking, Adjoa Andoh, Paul Moriarty, James Lailey, Xenia Mainelli, Eleanor bron, Tracey Wiles, Sheila Steafel, Gerard McDermott, Christopher Webster, Alex Rivers. Three 55 min episodes. Producer David Hunter.


THE DIDDAKOI....2012
11 Mar R4 Extra; story by Rumer Godden about a girl brought up by her gypsy gran in Admiral Twiss's orchard. When her gran suddenly dies, her future looks uncertain.


THE CALL OF THE WILD....2012
11 Mar R4 Extra; well-known novella by Jack London dramatised by Robert Forrest, about the life of a dog who's kidnapped from a wealthy family home and sold to become a sledge dog in Alaska. Broadcast in two episodes.


LOVE VIRTUALLY....2012
8 Mar. Very affecting play by Daniel Glattaeur. A harmless exchange of emails between two bored employees threatens to consume them both. David Tennant as Leo, Emilia Fox as Emmi. Adapted by Eileen Horne; producer Clive Brill.


THE GREAT SQUANDERLAND ROOF ....2012
Another play by Julian Gough, 28 Feb. A parable of how our money is being wasted, even in these times of austerity. Not surprising... it's not their money they're chucking away........ I was surprised they didn't mention wind turbines.

The bankrupt republic of Squanderland devises a way of emerging from the banking crisis, to the horror of Europe's bankers, after a plan to place a roof over the EU henhouse escalates out of control. The play was in a similar style to Julian's recent 'Goat Bubble Crisis' play. With Rory Keenan, Dermot Crowley, James Lailey, Adjoa Andoh, Clare Corbett and Stephanie Flanders (as herself).


THOSE HARD TO REACH PLACES....2012
24 Feb, 1415. A former pillar of the community wishes to replace his devoted middle-aged cleaner with a younger model who does the hoovering in the buff. By Daniel Thurman. Geoffrey Whitehead, Anne Reid, Janet Dibley, Piers Wehner, Emerald O'Hanrahan. Producer Toby Swift. Excellent comedy-drama.


PRIVATE PEACEFUL....2012
4 Feb 2012; Saturday afternoon play; an evocative story by Michael Mopurgo about the First World War, from the perspective of a soldier in the trenches. Dramatised by Simon Reade. 90 minutes. Producer Susan Roberts.

LETTER IN RADIO TIMES, 18-24 Feb 2012
THE SOUND OF GOOD DRAMA
This week, while driving, cooking and ironing, I have listened to four remarkable Afternoon Plays on Radio 4 - the 'Lost Property' trilogy by Katie Hims, and Michael Morpurgo's 'Private Peaceful', set in my native Devon. 'Private Peaceful' reduced me to tears; 'Lost Property' made me smile.

It never ceases to amaze me that Radio 4 can produce over 300 plays of such originality and quality.

HG, Pett, East Sussex

An old man, happily married for fifty years, deserts his wife for a 24-year-old and elopes into Crowsfall Wood. She must be a witch.... but the old man has savage supernatural powers of his own. Palmer has been making libations to keep Tadek safe, but this year he forgot, and now powerful forces are awakening.... (paraphrased from Gillian Reynolds' review in RT)

.....an atmospheric piece which uses imaginative sound design to build the tension as this man's life unravels (Tony Peters, Radio Times)

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