Radio Plays with same / similar titles

These plays are listed alphabetically by title. For the purposes of indexing, "a" and "the" are ignored.

ALIBI
The Alibi, by Daphne du Maurier, 2 versions:
1. The Alibi Saturday 4 May 1974, in a series 'The World of Daphne du Maurier'; ep. 6: adapted and produced by Derek Hoddinot .
2. The Alibi, AP, Tues 8 May 2007; Vanessa Rosenthal's dramatisation of the short story.
We also have Alibi (no definite article) by Geoffrey M. Matthews; MWT Wed 6 Feb 74 , rpt as AT Thur 7 Feb 74. "A safe is broken into. The police suspect it was the work of two well-known characters, but their alibi was cast-iron....or was it?"
(...all these noted by Alistair Wyper; thank you.)

AFTER THE FUNERAL
By Peter Barnes; also by Agatha Christie.

ALL THE BIRDS OF THE AIR
Friday play by Kate Clanchy.

ALL THE BIRDS OF THE AIR
Saturday Night Theatre by Joe Sheffield.

BARNSTABLE....1986 and 1992
One play by James Saunders, c1986; the other by Neil McKay, 1992. I think one of them is spelled 'Barnstaple".

BLIND MAN'S BUFF
The title has been used in The Price of Fear series (Wm. Ingram?) and for the first of the four stories in the series Slaughter in the Dark by Marius Brill.

THE CAT
Dramatisations of that title, rather than original plays: One of a story by W. B. Yeats, the other of a work by Colette. One version of the Collette aired in 1962, the other as a Friday play in either the late nineties or early 2000s. Also a Simenon story 'The Cat'

CLEAN SLATE
Plays by Sally Griffiths and (thirty minute theatre) by Tracy Aston.

COLD CALL....1997
By Collin Johnson. R4,22 Jul 97; excellent play set in an advertising agency call centre.

COLD CALLING....2003
By Lynne Truss (see her page). Play based in a call centre. (ND)

A DANGEROUS GAME
WS dramatization of a novella by Friedrich Durrenmatt; Shirley Cooklin also wrote a play of that name.

DAVID....1997
Both Nick Warburton and Sebastian Bacziewicz have written plays based on the life of the biblical King David. Nick's two plays (both 60m) went out in 1997 on radio 4; no other details at present. Sebastian's series was broadcast in 2002 under the title "Kings" and consisted of five plays. See his page for full information. (CL) An unrelated play, I am David, about a refugee child looking for his mother, by Ann Holm, dramatised by John Peacock, was broadcast on two successive days in late October 2004.

DEAD IMAGE....1967, 1981
Dead Image by Graham Kent, 1967; The Dead Image by J.P.Rooney, Giles Cooper award 1981.

DEATH DUTY
Michael Butt’s Death Duty, alongside Death Duties by Frederick Bradnum.

The Deep End....1989
By Alan Downer. Recorded in studio B10 from 31/1/89 to 2/2/89. The cast: Neil Dickson, Rosalind Adams, Benjamin Ramsland, Dominic Rickhards, Cara Kelly, Reginald Marsh, Petra Davies, Ian Michie, Michael Deeks, Philip Sully, and Ken Cumberlidge.
Thanks, Ken, for sending this information ....ND

THE DEEP END....1999
Radio always has the potential of making magic, and Pete Lawson's second play for radio did just that. In an ordinary city street, in a municipal swimming baths, he finds a secret world and invites the listener to share it. Leni is a woman with powerful yearnings, swimming relentlessly to submerge the memories of a lost child. Her yearnings echo, underwater, and reach the world of merman and mermaids, summoning a magical relationship that might spare her more worldly pain. Michelle Holmes is Leni, exchanging the "soap" world of Emmerdale for the cleansing depths of the deep end, recorded in the swimming baths of Kentish Town, in London, Autumn 1999.....(taken from Ned Chaillet's intro. to the BBC7 repeat)


DISTANT ECHOES....2005
Not to be confused with DISTANT WHISPERS. Both of these thrillers involve the re-opening of an unsolved murder case a generation later. 'Distant Whispers' is by Garry Lyons and 'Distant Echoes' is by Val McDermid, dramatised by Bert Coules.


THE DOGS
By Carol Freeburn; plus Dogs by Gerald Kelsey.

The Doppelganger....1977
Creepy tale of the supernatural by JCW Brook; stars Jack May. See JCW's page.

The Doppelganger Machine....1974
Story in which a plane takes off in 1933 and lands in the 70s - only not the 70s we know. By James Follett. (ND)

DUMBSTRUCK....1995
14 August 95. When a young boy disappears from home, his parents are fraught. But when he is found, he cannot speak about what happened or what he was running away from. With Alison Steadman and Philip Jackson. Produced by Cherry Cookson.

Do not confuse this play with "Dumbstruck" by Nick Darke - the true story of his recovery from a stroke...see Nick's page.

END OF TERM....1975
By E.H.Hendry (a pseudonym - guess who ...). Comedy set in a failing private school. Peter Sallis, Richard Briers. See 1975 page.

END OF TERM....1987
Play by Frances McNeil (see Frances' page)

THE ENGLISHMAN ABROAD
Both Alan Bennett and Christopher Douglas have used this title; Bennet's play is about the world of spies, if my memory serves correctly; Christopher Douglas is writing about cricket - Douglas Jardine's 'bodyline' tour of Australia.

FACE
This was an afternoon play in the early 2000s by Rastafarian poet Benjamin Zephaniah, while The Face was a dramatization of the Fred Benson spine chiller in the Fear On Four series.

A FAIR HEARING....1980
By J.C.Wilsher.

A FAIR HEARING....1997
By Steve May. Radio 3.

FATHER FIGURE
c 1980; by Dawn Lowe-Watson. A well-known ballerina temporarily retires from dancing to have a baby. She and her husband are horrified when a newspaper publishes a librarian's claim that he is the father of her expected child. With Lorna Heilbron as Natalie, Michael Cochrane as James; also stars Frances Jeater, Gwen Cherrell, Lionel Hunter, Christopher Scott, John Webb, Colin Starkey, Margot Boyd. Directed by Cherry Cookson.

The title 'Father Figure' is also the title of a 4-part sitcom series beginning 4 Feb 2012 on Radio 2 by Jason Byrne.

FATHERLAND....1997
Dramatisation of the Robert Harris novel by Ellen Dryden. We also have Fatherland by Murray Watts (1992) and The Fatherland by Josh Mabhena.

FEVER....1990s
.....part of a late night series in the early 1990's, about rock and roll stars who are no longer with us but who left their mark on pop music. I know I have them all, but don't remember the title of one of them. Fever was about "Little Willie John". Another play of the same title has been broadcast. Not sure of date (....CL)

FIREFLIES....2009
3 Sep 09; by Tena Štivicic. Chance encounters and strange revelations abound as six people wait in a weather-stricken airport. Cast: Martin....James Fleet, Clara....Helena Breck, Olga....Lizzy Watts, Oliver....David Hargreaves, Jeanne....Annabelle Dowler, Nate....Stephen Hogan, Customs Officer/Felipe (bartender)....Benjamin Askew, Loud speaker announcer/Charles....Philip Fox. Music composed and peformed by Russell Taylor and Steve Cooke. Directed by Peter Kavanagh.

FIREFLIES....2009
22 Jan 90, by Karim Alrawi. Six people wait in a weather-stricken airport. 'Uranium is the Third World's revenge. British companies mine it in Africa. They're paying us back for what we've done.' Cast: Brian Miller , Susan Sheridan , Shaun Prendergast , Ben Onwukwe , Kathleen Helme ,Souad Faress, James Garbutt , George Irving, Sue Broomfield , Alex Tetteh-Lartey, Peggy Phango, Alix Refaie, Sheila Tate. Producer Janet Whitaker. Recorded on 11 Dec 89.

FOSSILS
One play by Colin Haydn Evans, 30m; another by Andy Rattenbury, 60m.

THE GOVERNOR
By Christopher Salkeld; also by Steve May. We also have The Governor's Consort by Peter Tinniswood (1993).

HAIR OF THE DOG
Radio plays by Katie Hims and Lesley Davies.

HANDS
Hands by Cortia Newland (Thirty Minute Theatre) and The Hands by Hilda Lawrence , 14 Aug 75.

HOOKED
Nick Darke wrote a play with this title; it's also the title of Peter Turnbull's P Division Code 4 series 6 episode 2.

Ice....1979
By Max Williams. Play set in a newspaper office. A cleverly plotted murder - but where's the weapon?

Ice.....1986
By James Follett. Classic sci-fi; part of the polar icecap is melting. An iceberg as big as a country is heading for America. (ND)

THE KISS....
Both Katie Hims and Rod Beacham have used this title. Katie Hims: Five interlinked dramas for Woman's Hour around Valentine's Day. 11-15 Feb 08. The meaning of kissing, with illustrated examples - a boy and girl's goodbye kiss, an old lady's first kiss, an imagined kiss, a father who never kissed his son, and how every girl in the class wants to kiss the class hunk. Rod Beacham's story is from 1994 and is a rather odd play where a young man tries to sign up an elderly, arrogant actor for a part. The resolution is very unexpected.

LISTENER
The Good Listener by Neil Brand (Afternoon Play 12.06.03); also The Good Listener by Fin Kennedy (AP Wed 13 Aug 2014) - a play in a series with the overall title "The Good Listener" which deal with GCHQ, Cheltenham. See http://finkennedy.co.uk/The-Good-Listener. Also The Listener by Julian Simpson.

THE LOOP
R4, 1415, 18 Nov 09, by Nick Perry... A man finds himself talking on the telephone to someone in America but ... it gradually transpires that over there, it's fifty years earlier. More on the science fiction page. The same title was used by Chris Harrald for his spooky tale (R4 extra, not sure of date, but around 2012 I think) of an archeological dig where something nasty is hidden in the darkness, swallowing up anyone who goes too close for too long...

MISER
The Miser, by Carlo Goldoni, 6 Jul 95, and by Moliere, 6 Jan 92.


MAN IN THE MOON
Plays by Janet Smith, Richard Lumsden and recently Linda Marshall Griffiths.

LAST OF THE MOHICANS
Plays by Ted Moore and James Fenimore Cooper. I don’t think the Ted Moore bears direct relation to the American classic by Cooper, which has been broadcast as a classic serial.

OFFSHORE
By Simon Passmore (24Jan08) and by Penelope Fitzgerald, dra, Michael Butt (30Mar19).

THE MONUMENT
Plays by Eduardo de Filippo, David Cregan, Henry Reed and Alan Berrie.

NEMESIS
By Agatha Christie; also Shelagh Stevenson.

NIGHTMARE....1979
By R.D.Wingfield. Just Before Midnight.

NIGHTMARES
By Dave Simpson.

The Colour Norman....1995
Science student Norman invents a new colour, and is besieged by all and sundry, anxious to get their hands on it. A superb comedy by Stephen Dinsdale and Jerome Vincent.

Norman....2004
By Mike Stott. One of the best comedies of the year. Directed by Bruce Hyman; stars Johnny Vegas.

"Norman Conquest"...various dates
The series of plays "Table Manners" by Alan Ayckbourn has a character "Norman Conquest"; nothing to do with the detective play "Conquest Marches On" and others. (CL)

NOTHING HAPPENED
One play by Shelley Silas and Luke Sorber, the more recent other, by Nick Hoare, broadcast late in 2013.

NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS
Radio plays by Roddy Doyle and Jonathan Myerson.

OFFSHORE
Radio plays by Simon Passmore and Penelope Fitzgerald

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY
Title used by Martyn Wade (biog of Percy Grainger, 27 Dec 82) and by Ivor Wilson, 20 Jan 71.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME....1988
Title used by Sean Moffatt and also by Jhumpa Lahiri. No details, unfortunately, of either play.

OVER THE RAINBOW....1982
By Bernard Kops, 4.10.82. With Peter Woodthorpe, Derek Fowlds, Maureen Lipman.

OVER THE RAINBOW....1992
By Colin Morton and Harry Sear, 25.6.92; rpt 4.3.93. Comedy; chaos descends on the Crumley household when daughter Alma (Siriol Jenkins) is approached with an offer to appear on television.

OVER THE RAINBOW....1995
By Humphrey Carpenter; about the life of Judy Garland. 16.9.1995; with Sasha Pick, Matt Zimmerman.

PARADISE
A title used by Barry Keefe; also by Nick Warburton, 9 Jul 01.

PLAYING WITH FIRE
Stage plays by August Strindberg and by David Edgar, both of which have been adapted for radio.

PS I LOVE YOU....1997
By Graeme Curry, (R4 1430 5 July) set in the world of secondhand record shops. Gwen's husband has just died; she discovers that he had a secret life....not a secret lover, however, as her husband had been on the track of what could have been the rarest record in the world..........Gwen & Eddie take up the search. Philip Jackson & Celia Imrie take the lead parts. Title from Lennon/McCartney.

PS I LOVE YOU....2005
By Cecilia Ahern & Wendy Oberman: Saturday play, 13.08.05.

REVENGE
The Revenge by Andrew Sachs (play with no dialogue)

RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL
Return of the Prodigal by St.John Hankin, and The Return of the Prodigal Son by Tim Jackson. Prodigal Son was also the title of Baldi S1E1 by Barry Devlin.

RIPPLES....1976
By Maisie Moscow. 90m, 8 Feb 76. Years ago I was offered a copy of this play by a relative of the playwright, but unfortunately it never materialised...

RIPPLES....1983
By Gurmeet Kasba. 1 Jun 83. Tilly Vosburgh, Chris Chescoe, David Milner.
comment from Simon Palmour:

I do not have a recording of the play, but can tell you a bit about it. I worked with Gurmeet, who died in 1990. The play concerned a failing relationship between a disabled man and his girlfriend, who was leaving for university. Ripples is the name of a piece of music that runs through the play - it's also rhyming slang, raspberry ripple = cripple - fortunately a term we no longer hear.

The play was quite autobiographical. Gurmeet went on to write a TV movie with Faye Dunaway - called Raspberry Ripple.

RIPPLES....1993
4.9.93, by Maggie Allen; with Kenneth Haigh, Victoria Carling and Albert Welling.

RIPPLES....2001(?)
By Debbie Kent. 8 Feb 01. Fay adores a good bath, where she does most of her thinking. Joe prefers a quick shower. Will this affect their relationship?

SAY IT WITH FLOWERS....1999
By Kevin Wong. R4 5 Feb 99. Light-hearted drama. 45m, afternoon play.

Saying It with Flowers ....1997
Thirty Minute Theatre: By Julia Stoneham. When Mr Jennings has an accident, Rhoda and Nicola take on the role of Good Samaritans. But Mr Jennings is not all he seems. With Lynn Farleigh, Tamsin Heatley and Graham Padden. Director Brian Lighthill. (CL)

SPITFIRE
By Martyn Reid and also by Mike Walker.

STAR DUST
7 Dec 92, by Roger Stennett, about the disappearance of Glenn Miller.

STARDUST
21 Nov 07,afternoon play by Gwyneth Lewis: A Love Story Narrative drama about particle physics: a day in the life of a young woman who lives in a flat in Cardiff. (thanks CL)

SWAN SONG
By Agatha Christie, also Anton Chekhov and David Greig.

TEMPTATION
Radio plays by Nick Dear and Dermot Bolger.

THE TENTH MAN
Three noted so far: by Paddy Chayevsky, Graham Greene and W. Somerset Maugham.

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
In A Glass Darkly (30-minutes, part of Agatha Christie series of non-detective works) and Through A Glass Darkly (Shelagh Stevenson – r3 – A woman collects letters and diaries of Lady Collingwood, wife of painter John Collingwood, and uncovers dark family secrets).

A VISITATION....1998
By Don Haworth. 06 Jun 98. Prunella Scales stars in the Don Taylor play, and her son, Samuel West, in the Don Haworth. In this play, a son is forever trapped with his elderly mother.

A VISITATION....2000
By Don Taylor. A respectable middle-aged man behaved despicably, just once, to a young lady he knew whilst a student. Twenty years later, he receives a 'phone call from her. This was a subtle story of love and revenge. John Wood was Victor (not an apt name, in the circumstances), Prunella Scales was Artemis, and Don Taylor was the director. (CL)

A VISITATION....c2002?
By Steven Sharkey.

Who goes here?....1991
By Bob Shaw, dir. Glyn Dearman. It's AD 2386 and Warren Peace has joined the Space legion to forget something. He can't remember what. 55m.

Who goes there?....2002
By John W. Campbell, adapted by Mike Walker. 30m. Six men are trapped in an Antarctic research station by a snowstorm. They allow a strange creature they have found to thaw out. It's an alien. Dir. Rachel Horan; executive producer Ned Chaillet. (ND)

VISITING TIME....date nk
By David Constantine; a love story. It is 1933 and 18-year-old Thomas Patterson is lying in Salford Royal Hospital with his eyes bandaged. Visits from his girlfriend Connie and his mother and father underline his need for freedom and from what he needs to escape. Director David Hunter.

For Thomas, lying in his Hospital bed, music and visits from his girlfriend offer him hope that he may see again. The play has undertones of DH Lawrence about it: a violent drunken father, a mother racked with grief for the loss of one of her other children, and a son who doesn't want to settle for a dull menial job but to become a pianist instead. The would-be musician is lying in hospital with his eyes bandaged, hoping to regain his sight. The visits from his parents soon reveal them to be, metaphorically, as blind as their son, able to see the past only through its horrors: the First World War for the father, Thomas's dead twin sister for the mother. But the visits from his girlfriend, Connie, and the ragtime music he associates with her, offer up hope that this young man will escape the legacy of his parents and leave hospital with both eyes wide open.

VISITING TIME....2004
2 Jun 04. By Aileen Ritchie. A drama about the friendship developing between two middle-aged carers who meet in hospital while visiting their elderly mothers. Produced by Lu Kemp.

The play is a love story with a difference, for the two main characters, Doreen and Calum are neither attractive nor do they have wonderful careers. They do however share some common bonds: they're middle-aged, they care for their ageing mothers who are both in a big city hospital, and they love the effect of an electric blanket in a bed. There are some funny lines, like Calum's description of his relationship with his mother as akin to "being fond of Mrs Thatcher; not easy" - but the constant reality checks mean you won't ever find yourself roaring with laughter. They finally accept that they need to think more for and about themselves, which will ring true with any carer of an elderly parent. (Summarised from Jane Anderson's remarks, RT; info sent by Alistair Wyper)

Clive Lever, Alistair Wyper & Nigel Deacon / Diversity website

Most of these plays known to exist in VRPCC collections

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