Rare Blood
by Leigh Jackson
Leigh Jackson - Rare Blood
BBC Radio 4: The Monday Play
Broadcast: Monday 17th August 1981
Kate Fitzwilliam comes from one of the 'old' families of England but has never felt part of their old, dying ways. She broke away as soon
as she could to forge her own way in life, creating a successful career, without the help of her family. Though more or less estranged from
her family, she received an invite one day, while shooting a documentary in New York, to return to England to attend the sudden marriage of
her sister, Lucy, 12 years her junior, to a man 30 years older than Lucy whom Kate has never heard of.
Arriving the day before the wedding, Kate receives a call that night at 1:00 a.m. from her mother who sounds distressed.
Rushing over to the hotel where her dysfunctional parents are staying, Kate is told that Lucy has disappeared. She had left a note for her
roommate saying that she planned to throw herself in the river.
Her parents haven't called the police because they feel that Lucy has just run away, once again, from responsibility and will eventually
contact them, asking for money. They plan to go back home and will leave Kate to look into the matter, which she does. But Kate senses
her parents are hiding something, and so, it seems, everyone else she meets in her search for Lucy....
With Geraldine James [Katherine ('Kate') Fitzwilliam], Maureen O'Brien [Judith, Kate's Long-time Friend], George Baker [James
Bartholomew, Kate's Sister's Fiancé], Sam Dastor [Dr. Kahn], William Nighy [Peter Freeman, a Friend of Kate's Sister], Pauline Letts
[Kate's Mother], Stephen Murray [Kate's Father], Theresa Streatfeild [Ann, Bartholomew's Secretary / Woman at Dr. Kahn's Office],
Christopher Scott [Taxi Driver], John Webb [Bookstore Assistant / Tanner, a Worker at Judith's House], George Parsons [Jim (Voice on
Radio) / Police Officer], and Margaret Robertson [Ella, Kate's Boss].
Produced by Cherry Cookson.
Re-broadcast Sunday 23rd August 1981 on BBC Radio 4: Afternoon Theatre.
90 minutes.
Jim
