Radio Plays Directed or Produced by Marilyn Imrie
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Date first broadcast
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Play
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Author
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Cast
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Synopsis Awards
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Station Series
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20 October 1989 (Recorded on 28 September 1989)
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Pratt's Fall
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Stewart Parker
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Michael Williams, John Moffatt, Kerry Shale, James Greene, John Bull, David King, Isla Blair, Dermot Crowley, Diana Payan, Maurice Roëves, Susan Wooldridge, Robert Mcintosh and Karl James
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If you were an attractive, strong-minded female academic, and a Glaswegian ex-monk sporting a small gold earring offered you a map proving that the Irish discovered America in the 9th Century, would you fall for it?
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BBC Radio 3
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13 March 1990
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Fair Kirsten
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Kaj Nissen translated by Julian Garner
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Gerda Stevenson and Jane Gingell
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Young Kirsten, the King's sister, heavy with child, is destined to dance through the night with 12 men. None of them can weary her, but the 13th, the King, ends the dance forever.
The original Danish version of this play won the Prix Futura Berlin 1989.
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BBC Radio 3
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4 May 1990 – 8 June 1990 (Recorded on 19 March 1990 – 2 April 1990)
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Far from the Madding Crowd[9]
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Thomas Hardy dramatised by Nick McCarty
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Janet Maw, Christopher Scott, Richard Tate, William Eedle, Hetty Baynes, James Greene, Danny Schiller, Michael Kilgarriff, Stephen Garlick, Paul Downing, Roger Hammond, Penelope Lee, David Burke, Tim McInnerny, Emily Morgan and Garard Green
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Thomas Hardy's Wessex tragedy sees the emancipated Bathsheba Everdene inherit her father's farm, and change the lives of 3 men.
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BBC Radio 4
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9 May 1990 (Recorded on 17 January 1990)
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Bright as a Light, Simple as a Ring
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Catherine Czerkawska
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Pauline Letts, Richard Tate, Joe Dunlop, Emma Bunton, Jenny Howe, Tara Dominick, Tom Wilkinson, Barbara Atkinson, Eva Haddon, Kelda Holmes, Nicholas Gatt and Sebastian Brennan
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Joanna replies to Raoul, imprisoned in Chile. He never replies – but what will happen when he is released?
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BBC Radio 4
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11 June 1990
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Blood and Ice
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Liz Lochhead
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Jack Klaff, Tilly Vosburgh, Peter Kelly, Stella Gonet, Gerda Stevenson and Stephen Boxer
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In 1816 Mary Wollstonecraft eloped with her lover Percy Shelley to the shores of Lake Geneva into a villa close to Lord Byron, where she created Frankenstein.
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BBC Radio 4 The Monday Play
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9 July 1990 (Recorded on 1 May 1990)
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Cloud Cuckoo Land
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Catherine Czerkawska
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Brian Miller, Ronald Herdman, Stephen Tompkinson, David Bannerman, Ben Onwukwe, Burt Kwouk, Vincent Brimble, Jenny Howe, Paul Downing, Sue Broomfield, Megumi Shimanuki, Noriko Aida and Mun Wong
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Japanese girl Mitsuko falls in love with British boy Leon. In colour, race and custom, they are worlds apart.
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BBC Radio 4 The Monday Play
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13 August 1991 (Recorded on 15 May 1991)
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Purgatory
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Marcy Kahan
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Stuart Milligan, Auriol Smith, Miriam Karlin and Bill Paterson
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Three very different people meet in purgatory and discover that the hereafter isn't quite what they imagined.
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BBC Radio 3
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26 November 1992 – 31 December 1992
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Little Women[10]
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Louisa M Alcott dramatised by Marcy Kahan
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Buffy Davies, Jemma Redgrave, Anne-Marie Zola, Gayle Hunnicutt and Kara Zediker
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Louisa M Alcott's endearing novel of four sisters growing up in 19th century New England. The girls are each given some money for Christmas and are anxious to spend it.
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BBC Radio 4
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11 February 1993 – 18 March 1993
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Good Wives[11][12]
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Louisa M Alcott dramatised by Marcy Kahan
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Buffy Davies, Jemma Redgrave, Gayle Hunnicutt, Anne-Marie Zola, Martin Jarvis and Marcus d'Amico
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Louisa May Alcott's classic sequel to Little Women.
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BBC Radio 4
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29 December 1997
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A Christmas Card
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Paul Theroux dramatised by Nick Warburton
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Michael Maloney, Christopher Wright and Rachel Atkins
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A snowbound family is given a Christmas card by a mysterious old man. The card is both a map and a talisman which illuminates the meaning of Christmas for the children and their parents.
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BBC Radio 4
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21 February 1998
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Beatrix
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Beatrix Potter adapted by Patrick Garland and Judy Taylor Music composed by Carl Davis
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Patricia Routledge Music performed by Osian Ellis and Philippa Davies
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The real-life story of the much-loved children's writer Beatrix Potter.
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BBC Radio 4
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27 April 1998 – 1 May 1998
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Postcards: "Sunblock"
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Ginnie Hole
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Teresa Gallagher, Colleen Prendergast and Russell Boulter
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Chalk-and-cheese sisters Kirstie and Zo spend a week at the Porthant Bay Hotel, tracing their family roots and reconciling their considerable differences.
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BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama[13]
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6 July 1998 – 10 July 1998
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"What's Inside a Girl?"
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Mike Walker based on the original story by Michele Hanson
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Paola Dionisotti, Edna Doré and Luisa Bradshaw-White
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Gillian and her friends tackle middle age head-on – with varying degrees of damage – as they wrestle with VPL and HRT.
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BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama
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26 January 1999 – 2 March 1999
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"Coming Alive"
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Jim Eldridge
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Karl Howman, Phyllis Logan, Ben Crowe, Tilly Gaunt and Elizabeth Conboy
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An ex-con gets a chance to prove himself and find his feet again by reviving a run-down community centre with assistance from a social worker who has a warm heart and an unhappy past.
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BBC Radio 4
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16 May 1999
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"The Perfect Days"
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Liz Lochhead
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Siobhan Redmond, Anne Kidd, Ann Scott-Jones, Jon Kazek, Vincent Friell and Enzo Cilenti
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A sharp and poignant comedy about how romantic love, mother love and friendship, affect one woman as she goes about trying to get what she really wants.
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BBC Radio 4
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12 June 1999
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"The Summer of a Dormouse"
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John Mortimer
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Paul Scofield, Alex Jennings, Imelda Staunton and Gemma Jones
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An elderly man stands in the darkening garden of a vicarage by the sea and looks back on a life which seems to have passed as swiftly as Lord Byron's dormouse summer.
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BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play[14]
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25 October 1999 – 3 December 1999
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Nicholas Nickleby[Note 1][15]
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Charles Dickens dramatised by Mike Walker and Georgia Pritchett
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Oliver Milburn, Alex Jennings, Nicola Radcliffe, Ken Campbell, Anna Massey, Richard Johnson, Tom Baker and David Bamber
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The story is of Nicholas's triumph against adversity: he defeats his wicked Uncle Ralph and the loathsome Squeers to carve out a life for himself, his family and the pitiful boy, Smike. Eventually he wins the hand of a beautiful girl, Madeline Bray.
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BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama
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18 December 1999
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The Children of Green Knowe
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Lucy M Boston dramatised by Brian Sibley
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Patricia Routledge and Dominic Childs
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The story of Tolly, who has been sent to spend his Christmas holidays with his great grandmother in an old fenland manor house which is full of secrets, friendly ghosts and children from another time. As Christmas approaches Tolly draws nearer to their world, and magically, is able to become part of it.
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BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play
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19 January 2000
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Stay![16]
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Georgia Pritchett
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Sophie Thompson, Duncan Preston and Sheridan Smith
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Lonely Lizzie runs a dog kennels. Her teenage daughter is aiming for sainthood. Tim the kennels handyman strives daily to avoid the small calamities that seem to seek him out. But romance is in the air when the new doctor arrives...
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play[17]
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9 April 2000 – 23 April 2000
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Cousin Bette, The Poor Relation
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Honoré de Balzac dramatised by James Friel
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Alison Steadman and Leslie Phillips
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Paris, 1838.
The faithless Baron Hulot is in financial difficulties.
His daughter needs a dowry and a husband, and his saintly wife has nothing more he can pawn. Cousin Bette proposes a solution to the family's dilemma and a bizarre revenge for her own betrayal.
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BBC Radio 4
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26 July 2000 – 30 August 2000
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Coming Alive (series 2)
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Jim Eldridge
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Karl Howman, Phyllis Logan, Ben Crowe and David Holt
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Light-hearted story of Terry "Silver Tongue" King, the ex-con released into the community. Terry King continues his battle to breathe new life into the Grove Hill Farm community centre. But will he face a return to jail after an assault charge? And will his tentative romance with social worker Sandra blossom?
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BBC Radio 4
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11 February 2001
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Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off
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Liz Lochhead
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Myra McFadyen, Gerda Stevenson, Siobhan Redmond, Bill Paterson, John Kazek, Daniel Brocklebank, Forbes Masson and Jon Glover
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A darkly comic portrayal of the life and times of Mary, Queen of Scots. Premiered during the 1987 Edinburgh Festival, the play looks at Mary's legacy through the eyes of Corbie, a carrion crow who is her unseen attendant through life and death.
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BBC Radio 4
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24 June 2001
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My Last Duchess
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Robert Browning dramatised by Martyn Wade
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Roger Allam, Emily Mortimer, Tim McInnerny and Robert Hands
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Inspired by a fresco portrait of the Italian Duke of Este's first wife, who died young in suspicious circumstances, Browning wrote his poetic masterpiece My Last Duchess. This dramatisation solves the mystery posed by the poem.
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BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial[18]
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21 September 2001
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The Alien Sister[Note 2]
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Judy Upton
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Joel Samuels, Laura Sadler, Duncan Preston, Tessa Peake-Jones, Frankie Carson, Jessie Harris and Jon Glover
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Darkly comic drama about what happens to the family of a teenage computer whiz when his elder sister suddenly returns home four years after she went missing. With the help of a chemistry set and some interrogation techniques cribbed off the internet, Connor sets out to prove she's an alien.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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19 October 2001 – 16 November 2001
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Coming Alive (series 3)
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Jim Eldridge
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Karl Howman, Phyllis Logan, Ben Crowe, Sandra Voe, Sean Baker, Jennifer Wheelan, David Holt, Clare Corbett and Ewan Bailey
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Ex-con Terry "Silver Tongue" King has reached a crossroads. Will he get to stay with Sandra or will he have to let go?
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BBC Radio 4
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24 August 2003 – 31 August 2003
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The Book of Love
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William Hazlitt's Liber Amoris dramatised by Martyn Wade
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Tim McInnerny, Claire Skinner, Alison Steadman, Imelda Staunton, Julian Wadham, William Houston and John Bett
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The artist, admirer of Napoleon, theatre and literary critic and essayist William Hazlitt was 43 when he fell passionately and obsessively in love with Sarah Walker, his landlady's daughter, a young woman half his age. He became paranoid, jealous and totally single minded in pursuit of her.
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BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
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24 September 2003
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"Rumpole and the Primrose Path"[19]
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John Mortimer
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Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Michael Cochrane, Nigel Anthony, Sophie Thompson, Joanna David, Carole Boyd and David Shaw-Parker
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Rumpole exposes criminal practices at the nursing home where he has been sent to recuperate after a heart attack, which has left him in dire need of claret, cheroots and good company!
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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1 October 2003
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"Rumpole and the Scales of Justice"[20]
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John Mortimer
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Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Michael Cochrane, Geoffrey Whitehead, Ewan Bailey, Ian Masters,[Issue 1] David Shaw-Parker and John Rowe
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When Rumpole is called upon to defend a senior member of the police force in court, his relish for the tragedy of Shakespeare's Othello, and his old acquaintances among the south London criminal fraternity prove very useful, and help him balance the scales of justice in favour of the oft maligned defence barrister.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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8 October 2003
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"Rumpole and the Vanishing Juror"[21]
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John Mortimer
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Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Bruce Alexander, Sophie Thompson, Marlene Sidaway, David Holt, Sean Baker, Ewan Bailey, Ian Masters,[Issue 1] David Shaw-Parker and Hetty Baynes
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Rumpole's admiration for the integrity of the Old Bailey jury is legendary, but in this story he encounters a juror in a murder trial who has a very personal and very dramatic agenda.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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15 October 2003
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"Rumpole Redeemed"[22]
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John Mortimer
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Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Sophie Thompson, Bruce Alexander, Nigel Anthony, Nicholas Le Prevost, Karl Howman, Stephen Critchlow, Frances Jeater and Richenda Carey
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Rumpole solves the conundrum of an ex-con who seems to have been redeemed, and one who evidently hasn't, and also seeks redemption for his own sins of omission at the Lysander health club! In passing, he also bestows redemption on several of his associates who, in various preposterous ways, are in dire need of it!.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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2 January 2004
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Lie Down Comic
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John Mortimer
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Sinéad Cusack, Tom Hollander, Alison Pettit and Tilly Gaunt
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A stand-up comic finds himself befriending a beautiful, defiant and feisty woman author who is a fan of his, and who is dying, and raging against it. The two find themselves initially at odds, but eventually find support and affection in one another's company.
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BBC Radio 4 Friday Play[23]
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11 September 2004
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Hill of Rains
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Colin MacDonald
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Lorelei King, Bill Paterson, Stuart Milligan, Debora Weston, Stuart McQuarrie, Sean Scanlan, Tracey Wiles, Sally Kinghorn and Ed Bishop
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Cathy travels 3000 miles from Staten Island to Argyll, to look for the truth in an old story. She leaves her heart there, but discovers that real love always follows you home.
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BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play
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23 December 2004
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Ancient and Modern
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Sue Gee
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Juliet Stevenson, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Stephen Rashbrook, Amelia Williams, Matthew Marsh, David Shaw-Parker, Vivienne Rochester, Ajax Kentish and Harriet Cook
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Alison is one of London's many hidden, lonely people, working, coping, being brave. A chance encounter at a Christmas church service brings her a new understanding of what love means.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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21 March 2005 – 25 March 2005
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Only in London[Note 3]
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Hanan Al-Shayk dramatised by Shelley Silas
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Suzanna Nour, Tom Beard, Shappi Khorsandi, Nitzan Sharron, John Rowe, Nick Maloney, Helen Schlesinger, Daryl Moore, Nadim Sawalha and Nina Wadia
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As a flight from Dubai touches down in London, three people from different corners of the Arab world are thrown together: beautiful, lost Lamis; the lively Moroccan Amira, and her new friend Samir, who, like her, loves not wisely but too well.
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BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama
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6 April 2005
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Baggage: "Midsummer Mayhem"[24]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Robin Cameron, Holly Wagner and Stuart McQuarrie
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It's Edinburgh. It's Midsummer. Caroline is having a very bad time for the very first time, not helped by Fiona taking up residence in her bath and made much worse by Ruth just being Ruth.
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BBC Radio 4
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13 April 2005
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Baggage: "Festival Flatmates"[25]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Robin Cameron, Stuart McQuarrie and Moray Hunter
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It's Edinburgh. It's the Festival. Our Celtic trio do an all-nighter, but what with dumped husbands, floundering new romances and half-drowned teenage boys – an early night might have been a better plan.
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BBC Radio 4
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20 April 2005
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Baggage: "Halloween Havoc"[26]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Peter Capaldi and Moray Hunter
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At the castle's Halloween Ball, Caroline turns into Cinderella, and her ex-husband turns into a toad. Ruth and Fiona turn up to pick up the pieces.
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BBC Radio 4
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22 April 2005
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Alias George Eliot
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Martyn Wade
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Deborah Findlay, Adrian Scarborough, John Rowe, Nicholas Le Prevost, John Bett and David Collings
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Marian Evans took the pseudonym George Eliot when she started her now famously successful career as a novelist. But she was dismayed to discover that someone else was claiming to have written her work. This is the story of her impostor, a certain Mr Joseph Liggins.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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27 April 2005
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Baggage: "Fireworks and Funerals"[27]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Stuart McQuarrie, Holly Wagner and June Watson
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It's Edinburgh. It's Bonfire Night. Caroline is spoilt for choice; attending her boyfriend's mother's funeral or attending to Fiona's fugitive mum? Either way, its fireworks all round.
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BBC Radio 4
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4 May 2005
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Baggage: "Christmas Crises"[28]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Stuart McQuarrie, Holly Wagner, Peter Capaldi, Moray Hunter and Gordon Kennedy
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It's Edinburgh. It's Christmas. It's a relaxed partner-free zone. Throw in a goose, a ghost and a garrulous whippet and you're all set. Unless of course, Fiona is in charge.
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BBC Radio 4
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11 May 2005
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Baggage: "New Year, New Life"[29]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Peter Capaldi and Stuart McQuarrie
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It's Edinburgh. It's Hogmanay. It's time for resolutions. Caroline is determinedly moving on, Fiona may be moving back and Ruth is definitely staying exactly where she is.
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BBC Radio 4
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21 November 2005 – 25 November 2005
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Constance
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Julie Fraser
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Joanna David, Tina Gray, Flora Dacherty, David Shaw-Parker, Martin Hyder, Maria Aitken, Colleen Prendergast, Marcella Riordan, John Rowe, Geoffrey McGivern, Susan Wooldridge, Jenny Howe, Debora Weston, Eric Loren, Tracy Wiles and Flora Docherty
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Renowned 20th century florist Constance Spry was inspired by childhood walks in a bluebell wood in Ireland. Later, as a young bride, she created her first rose garden there, and escaped her loveless marriage by fleeing to England and a new life with her young son.
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BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama
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12 June 2006
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "Cold Call"[30][31]
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David Holt
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Stanley Baxter, Pam Ferris, Sophie Thompson and Stephen Critchlow
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Gordon Mackenzie is a wealthy pensioner with a penchant for drama and a sudden yen for a conservatory. Will his tyrannical cleaning lady agree to wield her duster over a million new window panes or will he find a new lady in his life?
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BBC Radio 4
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19 June 2006
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "First Impressions"[32][33]
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Rona Munro
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Stanley Baxter, Colette O'Neil, Hilary Maclean, Stuart McQuarrie, Hilary Lyon and Gordon Kennedy
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Charlie and Sylvia are lifelong friends. She depends on him in a thousand little ways and adores his talent for doing impressions. Charlie has loved her all his life, but he discovers that there are still some things he doesn't know about her.
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BBC Radio 4
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26 June 2006
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "Mortal Memories"[34][35]
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Liz Lochhead
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Stanley Baxter
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Jack and Nettie prepare to celebrate Burns night, and two very different people unite over an immortal memory.
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BBC Radio 4
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3 July 2006
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "Wheeling Them In"[36][37]
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Rona Munro
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Stanley Baxter, June Watson, Sharon Maharaj, Meg Kubota, Robin Cameron, Mark Bonnar and James McPherson
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Archie has been a hospital porter for 38 years. Suddenly everything he values seems to be in the balance, but in the end he reaps the rewards of years of kindness.
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BBC Radio 4
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13 July 2006
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Kelso – Overdue South
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Jules Horne Music by Gavin Marwick
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Eileen McCallum, Louise Ludgate and Billy Riddoch
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BBC Radio Scotland Drama[38]
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19 July 2006
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"Rumpole and the Teenage Werewolf"[39]
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John Mortimer
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Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Felicity Montague, Nicholas Le Prevost, Philip Jackson, Matt Smith, Karl Johnson, Sean Baker and Ellie Beaven
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Rumpole leaves London to defend a case in the Home Counties, where he meets up with Ben, a teenager accused of sending emails deemed to be sexually harassing, and of an actual physical attack on a girl.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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26 July 2006
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"Rumpole and the Right to Privacy"[40]
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John Mortimer
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Timothy West, Prunella Scales, David Shaw-Parker, Nigel Anthony, Elaine Claxton, Anton Rodgers, Stephen Critchlow, Kim Durham and Joanna David
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Rumpole leaves the Old Bailey to defend an editor of a local newspaper who is accused of breaching a successful businessman's right to privacy.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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28 July 2006
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Baggage: "Midsummer Lovesick and Sickening"[41]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen and Stuart McQuarrie
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It's Edinburgh. It's February and it's freezing outside. Inside, the temperature is rising. Caroline and Simeon are loved-up; Fiona and Ruth are fed-up; three's company but four is definitely a crowd.
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BBC Radio 4
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30 July 2006 – 13 August 2006
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Great Expectations
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Charles Dickens adapted by Martyn Wade
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Oliver Milburn, Angus Imrie, Jim Carter, Pam Ferris, Robin Weaver, Ken Campbell, Janet Suzman, Ellie Beaven, Milo Clare, Roger Allam, Christopher Benjamin, Ben Crowe, Harry Myers, David Thorpe, Sam Beazley, Anna Maxwell Martin, Adrian Scarborough, Stephen Critchlow and Maggie McCarthy
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Young Pip is an orphan living with his shrewish sister and her kindly blacksmith husband. One Christmas Eve, he is surprised by a convict and forced to steal for him. This single good deed of Pip's leads him to the pursuit of expectations of wealth, a better position in life, and happiness; but he has many hard lessons to learn before he achieves that.
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BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
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4 August 2006
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Baggage: "Procreation and Procrastination"[42]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Stuart McQuarrie, Hilary MacLean and Natasha Lawrence
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It's Edinburgh. It's almost spring and there are armies of babies everywhere. Caroline grapples with incipient broodiness, her sister's colicky newborn and a major revelation from Simeon.
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BBC Radio 4
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11 August 2006
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Baggage: "And So to Bath"[43][44]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Stuart McQuarrie, Carolyn Bonnyman, Nicola Grier and Jack Docherty
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It's Edinburgh, it's springtime and life is supposedly moving on. But with relocation in the air and a school reunion to be negotiated with Fiona and Ruth, Caroline doesn't know whether she is coming or going.
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BBC Radio 4
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18 August 2006
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Baggage: "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Lover"[45]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Stuart McQuarrie, Robin Cameron, Moray Hunter, June Watson and Peter Capaldi
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Caroline's ex-husband finds himself a new husband, Fiona's mother finds herself lost and Ruth gets lost trying to find herself.
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BBC Radio 4
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25 August 2006
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Baggage: "Highland Fling"[46]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Stuart McQuarrie and Robin Cameron
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Caroline's birthday in the wilds of the Highlands finds a newly sober Ruth reinventing herself, Fiona having a Highland fling and Caroline finding that her fling is well and truly flung.
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BBC Radio 4
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1 September 2006
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Baggage: "Perpetual Emotion"[47][48]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Stuart McQuarrie, Robin Cameron, June Watson, Peter Capaldi and Roger May
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At the Edinburgh Festival, the trio deal with a pair of pleading ex-lovers, a disconcertingly charming stranger and a life-and-death bedside vigil. Who needs drama on the Fringe?
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BBC Radio 4
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23 September 2006 – 30 September 2006
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Lady Chatterley's Lover
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D H Lawrence dramatised by Michelene Wandor
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Lia Williams, Roger Allam, Robert Glenister, Lynn Farleigh, Jasmine Hyde, David Rintoul and Julian Rhind-Tutt
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In Lawrence's classic exploration of the nature of sexual love, young beautiful Constance is married to Lord Clifford, wounded in the First World War and now wheelchair-bound. Her life at Wragby Hall is bleak and lonely, until an encounter with Oliver Mellors changes everything.
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BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
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12 August 2007 – 19 August 2007
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The Card[49]
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Arnold Bennett dramatised by Jennifer Howarth
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Ron Cook, William Ash, Philip Jackson, David Shaw-Parker, Jasmine Hyde, Matthew Morgan, Daniel Weyman, Linda Broughton, Elizabeth Spriggs, Robin Weaver and Tilly Gaunt
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Charting the rise and rise of Denry Machin in 19th century Bursley.
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BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
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15 August 2007 – 22 August 2007
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"Rumpole and the Reign of Terror"[50]
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John Mortimer
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Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Christopher Benjamin, Lily Bevan, Michael Cochrane, Bruce Alexander, Shiv Grewal, Geoffrey Whitehead, Ben Crowe, Christopher Scott, Joanna David, Kim Durham and Nigel Anthony
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If one man can be counted on to fight injustice and insist on a fair and decent trial for everyone, whatever their circumstances, Horace Rumpole is he. So when beautiful Tiffany Khan learns that her husband has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism, she calls on him right away.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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5 December 2007
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Baggage: "The Homecoming"[51]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Robin Cameron and Roger May
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Ruth may be in love, Fiona may be in labour and Caroline may wish she hadn't bothered coming home at all.
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BBC Radio 4
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12 December 2007
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Baggage: "Family Matters"[52]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Stuart McQuarrie, John Docherty and Moray Hunter
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Families and flats are being reconstructed all round. Caroline has a thoroughly modern dinner with her ex-husband and his new husband. She has to tackle an astonishing request.
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BBC Radio 4
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19 December 2007
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Baggage: "The Regeneration Game"[53]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Robin Cameron, June Watson, Moray Hunter and Nicola Grier
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Caroline's adoption journey stalls when both her social worker Miriam and Fiona's baby April insist on arriving early.
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BBC Radio 4
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26 December 2007
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Baggage: "Not Quite Part of the Plan"[54]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Robin Cameron and Moray Hunter
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In summertime, the living is far from easy. Caroline and Ruth struggle with Fiona's post-natal aggression, unaware that the worst is yet to come.
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BBC Radio 4
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2 January 2008
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Baggage: "Human Doings"[55]
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Hilary Lyon
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Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Roger May and Nicola Grier
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Ruth jumps off the wagon when her boyfriend's past catches up with him. Caroline falls at the final adoption hurdle. Fiona tries to get everyone to just stand still.
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BBC Radio 4
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7 January 2008
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "The King's Kilt"[56]
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Rona Munro
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Stanley Baxter, John Guerrasio, Alison Peebles and Gordon Kennedy
|
A recalcitrant Highland kilt maker is faced with the task of producing a garment for George IV to wear on his first visit to Edinburgh in 1822.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
9 January 2008
|
Baggage: "Keep Right on to the End of the Road"[57]
|
Hilary Lyon
|
Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Stuart McQuarrie, Robin Cameron and June Watson
|
Caroline, Fiona and Ruth climb their biggest mountain yet, terrified that they may all fall over the edge.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
14 January 2008
|
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "Pasta Alfreddo at Cafe Alessandro"[58]
|
Rona Munro
|
Stanley Baxter, Luisa Pretolani, Tracy Wiles, John Kazek, John Guerrasio and Gordon Kennedy
|
An Italian café owner in Glasgow employs a little guile and cunning to defend the honour and the environment of his beloved native land.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
21 January 2008
|
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "Flying Down to Greenock"[59]
|
Michael Chaplin
|
Stanley Baxter and Patricia Kerrigan
|
A centenarian Glaswegian, making his first ever flight, remembers life during the Blitz over Clydeside.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
30 January 2008
|
Life: An Audio Tour[Note 4][60]
|
Jules Horne
|
Sandy McDade, Edith MacArthur, Lewis Howden and Alex Elliott
|
Jenny is trying to win Joe back after her disastrous affair. Her unusual strategy is to offer him an audio tour of the small Scottish town of Kelso.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
28 May 2008 – 29 May 2008
|
"The Antisocial Behaviour of Horace Rumpole"[61]
|
John Mortimer
|
Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Michael Cochrane, Nicholas le Prevost, Roger May, Jillie Mears, David Holt, Matthew Morgan, David Shaw-Parker and Geoffrey Whitehead
|
ASBOs may be the pride and joy of new Labour, but they don't cut much ice with Horace Rumpole; he takes the old fashioned view that if anyone is going to be threatened with a restriction of their liberty then some form of meaningful legal procedure ought to be put in place.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
11 August 2008
|
Two Pipe Problems: "A Streetcar Named Revenge"[62]
|
Michael Chaplin
|
Stanley Baxter, Richard Briers, Edna Doré, Linda Broughton, Jillie Meers, David Shaw-Parker, Tracy Wiles, Nickolas Grace, Susan Wooldridge and Rad Lazar
|
Inmates of the Old Beeches, a retirement home for elderly thespians, William and Sandy still nurse a certain affectionate animosity towards one another since they starred as Holmes and Watson in a 1960s television series.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
12 August 2008
|
Two Pipe Problems: "The Trusty Valet and the Crusty Butler"[63]
|
Michael Chaplin
|
Stanley Baxter, Richard Briers, David Shaw-Parker, Tracy Wiles, Ellie Beaven, Lloyd Hutchinson and Geoffrey Whitehead
|
William and Sandy venture outside the Old Beeches to a movie set, accompanied by the intrepid care assistant Karen, as they take on the world of celluloid.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
31 August 2008
|
Your Only Man[64]
|
Annie Caulfield
|
Ardal O'Hanlon, Dermot Crowley, Dara Ó Briain, Pauline McLynn and Lloyd Hutchinson
|
Brian O'Nolan was an Irish writer, columnist and civil servant who wrote novels such as The Third Policeman under the pen name of Flann O'Brien and popular satirical newspaper columns as Myles na gCopaleen, while at the same time working as a civil servant in Dublin under his real name. This play imagines what might have happened had the three of them got together on the day when O'Nolan was asked to leave his civil service post.
|
BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3[65]
|
27 March 2009
|
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "Astonishing Archie"[66]
|
Bill Paterson
|
Stanley Baxter, Bill Paterson and Maureen Beattie
|
When two brothers get together to plan the funeral of an old friend, the choice of music is a bone of contention – will it be Sinatra or Presley? A generation and a whole philosophy of popular music separate the brothers, and the choice they finally make is a heartwarming musical compromise.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
3 April 2009
|
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "Fife Circle"[67]
|
Michael Chaplin
|
Stanley Baxter
|
Two elderly brothers meet at Waverley station and set out on a journey of discovery involving lost mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, and learn just whom they really belong to.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
3 April 2009
|
The Bones Boys[68]
|
Colin MacDonald
|
Mark McDonnell and Angus King
|
Poignant and funny drama following two 8th century monks trying to save holy relics from Viking marauders.
|
BBC Radio Scotland Drama
|
10 April 2009
|
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "The Man in the Garden"[69]
|
Rona Munro
|
Stanley Baxter, Penelope Wilton and Bill Paterson
|
A lonely lady on a holiday in the remote West Highlands of Scotland finds herself falling in love with two members of the same family, born 60 years apart.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
27 April 2009
|
Two Pipe Problems[70]
|
Michael Chaplin
|
Stanley Baxter, Richard Briers, Julia McKenzie, John Rowe, Joseph Mydell, Jillie Meers, Susan Wooldridge and Stephen Critchlow
|
Our two elderly thespian residents of the Old Beeches home for retired members of the acting profession must solve a mystery when a bridegroom inexplicably calls off a wedding.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
28 April 2009
|
Two Pipe Problems: "Have You Come Far?"[71]
|
Michael Chaplin
|
Stanley Baxter, Richard Briers, Tracy Wiles, David Shaw-Parker, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Geoffrey Whitehead, Stephen Critchlow and Linda Broughton
|
Sandy appears in the honours list but a trip to Buckingham Palace to collect his award provides another mystery for the veteran sleuths to solve.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
19 May 2009 – 26 May 2009
|
"Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders"[72]
|
John Mortimer adapted by Richard Stoneman
|
Timothy West, Benedict Cumberbatch, Geoffrey Whitehead, Andy de la Tour, Ewan Bailey, Emma Fielding, Jasmine Hyde, Stephen Critchlow, Matthew Morgan, Karl Johnson and David Shaw-Parker
|
It is the 1950s, a short decade after the end of the war, and two war heroes have been shot dead. The only suspect is Simon Jerrold, the son of one of the victims, and he faces the death penalty. Defending him is deemed hopeless, so the case is handed to a novice. But the novice's superiors did not count on the tenacity and wit of the young and hungry Horace Rumpole.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
4 July 2009
|
Utz[73]
|
Bruce Chatwin dramatised by Gregory Norminton
|
Jack Klaff, Pam Ferris, Sam Kelly, Daniel Weyman, Gregory Norminton, Michaela Stonisova and Dolya Gavanski
|
A British academic travels to 1960s Prague to research the art collection of Rudolf II and meets the eccentric and dogged porcelain collector, Kaspar Joachim Utz. From this encounter an extraordinary story of obsession and survival emerges. For years, Utz has protected his vast collection of Meissen figurines from Nazis, Stalinist ideologues and the demands of communist museum curators.
|
BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play
|
8 July 2009
|
Baggage: "Ashes to Auld Reekie"[74]
|
Hilary Lyon
|
Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Robin Cameron, June Watson and Moray Hunter
|
It is a year since Caroline's best friend, Fiona, died, but an unexpected visitor, a skinny dip in a Highland loch and an illicit kiss mean that scattering her ashes doesn't quite go according to plan.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
15 July 2009
|
Baggage: "Carping Diem"[75]
|
Hilary Lyon
|
Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Robin Cameron, David Rintoul and Nicola Grier
|
It's Festival time and Caroline is in love: great timing for her best friend Ruth to habitually invade her privacy, her toddler daughter April to be teething and her larger-than-life dad Hector to turn up unannounced.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
22 July 2009
|
Baggage: "The Father, the Mother, the Dead Friend and Her Lover"[76]
|
Hilary Lyon
|
Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Robin Cameron, David Rintoul and June Watson
|
It's autumn, but life in the flat is still hotting up. An unplanned dinner party sets the scene for some serious seduction tactics, Hector's secret is finally revealed and there is nothing cool about Caroline's temper.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
29 July 2009
|
Baggage: "Tales of the Unexpected"[77]
|
Hilary Lyon
|
Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Robin Cameron, David Rintoul, Moray Hunter and Nicola Grier
|
It's December in Edinburgh and the Christmas spirit is in short supply. The spirit of whisky, however, features heavily, as Ruth decides whether or not to risk falling off the wagon and Caroline and Roddy risk seriously falling out.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
5 August 2009
|
Baggage: "For a' that and a' that"[78]
|
Hilary Lyon
|
Hilary Lyon, Phyllis Logan, Adie Allen, Robin Cameron, David Rintoul and Moray Hunter
|
It's Burns' night and passion and politics are to the fore. Tensions abound at the prospect of baby April spending the weekend with her birth father and Caroline frets over why her own father isn't spending the night at home.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
12 August 2009
|
Baggage: "You're a Long Time Dead"[79]
|
Hilary Lyon
|
Hilary Lyon, David Rintoul, Adie Allen, Moray Hunter, Robin Cameron and June Watson
|
It's summer and all change all-round. Caroline struggles to come to terms with Ruth now being her dad's lover, and agonises over Roddy's shock proposal – the end of an era beckons.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
14 March 2010 – 4 April 2010
|
Clarissa: The History of a Young Lady[80]
|
Samuel Richardson dramatised by Hattie Naylor
|
Zoe Waites, Richard Armitage, Oliver Milburn, Stephen Critchlow, Sophie Thompson, Alison Steadman, John Rowe, Deborah Findlay, Cathy Sara, Miriam Margolyes, Lisa Hammond, Adrian Scarborough, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Ellie Beaven and Linda Broughton
|
The beautiful young heiress Clarissa Harlowe is dangerously attracted by the wiles of the notorious libertine Robert Lovelace. Threatened by an imminent marriage arranged with the odious suitor her family have found for her, Lovelace persuades Clarissa to flee with him.
|
BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
|
15 May 2010
|
The Jubilee Singers[81]
|
Adrian Mitchell
|
Adjoa Andoh, Felix Dexter, Nadine Marshall, Tanya Moodie, Alibe Parsons, Clive Rowe, Ray Shell, Jonathan Pryce and Nitrovox
|
Drama about the extraordinary Jubilee Singers of Fisk University, Tennessee, who in the years immediately after slavery brought their great 'Sorrow Songs' from the plantations to Europe.
|
BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play
|
22 June 2010
|
Two Pipe Problem 2010: "Right Old Charlie"[82]
|
Michael Chaplin
|
Richard Briers, Stanley Baxter, Barry Cryer, Teresa Gallagher, Edna Doré, Jillie Meers, David Shaw-Parker and Joe Caffrey
|
Ageing, once-famous stand-up comic Charlie Fisher regales the inmates of The Old Beeches retirement home for members of the theatrical profession with a few too many very old gags, but when his joke book and a large sum of money go missing, resident sleuths Sandy and William have a few tough questions to ask of the inmates, the new odd job man, and Charlie himself.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
23 June 2010
|
Two Pipe Problem 2010: "The Memory Man Forgets"[83]
|
Michael Chaplin
|
Richard Briers, Stanley Baxter, David Holt, Teresa Gallagher, Geoffrey Whitehead, Julia Ford and Anne Reid
|
Billy Small is a rare talent; one of the few surviving "Memory Men" Music Hall variety acts who had total recall of a huge range of entertaining facts. Billy is 85, and after a trip home to his native Yorkshire, he returns to The Old Beeches totally devoid of any memory of who he is or of any of the amazing facts he used to be so proud to display.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
9 August 2010
|
"Rumpole and the Family Pride"[84]
|
John Mortimer dramatised by Richard Stoneman
|
Timothy West, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cathy Sara, Elaine Claxton, Julian Wadham, Sophie Thompson, Joshua McGuire, Stephen Critchlow, Susan Wooldridge, Geoffrey Whitehead and Adrian Scarborough
|
We rejoin Rumpole and Hilda in the late 1950s, when they have been married for a year or two. Rumpole mingles with a branch of Yorkshire aristocracy remotely connected to Hilda's family when he represents a Lord in the Coroner's Court.
Hilda's first cousin (once removed), Rosemary, lives with her husband, Richard, the 17th Baron Sackbut, in Sackbut Castle and Hilda and Rumpole are invited to Yorkshire when a body is found in the grounds of the castle.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
10 August 2010
|
"Rumpole and the Eternal Triangle"[85]
|
John Mortimer dramatised by Richard Stoneman
|
Timothy West, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cathy Sara, Faye Castelow, Adrian Scarborough, Matthew Morgan, Nigel Anthony, Michael Cochrane, Geoffrey Whitehead and Stephen Critchlow
|
When Rumpole and Hilda attend a concert performed by The Casterini Trio, Rumpole is surprised to be approached by Elizabeth Casterini – the trio's beautiful violinist. Rumpole falls for her charms. But then, the Trio's cellist, Tom Randall is murdered.
Elizabeth's husband Desmond was supposedly suspicious of Randall's feelings for Elizabeth. And, since he owned the gun that was found by the body, Desmond is arrested. Flattered by Elizabeth's seductive pleas, Rumpole agrees to defend Desmond at the Old Bailey. But there, Rumpole's admiration for Elizabeth rapidly begins to wane.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
17 September 2010
|
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "The Porter's Story"[86][87]
|
Rona Munro
|
Stanley Baxter, Gordon Kennedy, Siobhan Redmond and Stuart McQuarrie
|
Comedy based on Shakespeare's Macbeth. A porter tells his version of events that led to the murder of King Duncan, and reveals how his plans to help his master were foiled in a series of mishaps.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
24 September 2010
|
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "The German Pilot"[88]
|
Rona Munro
|
Stanley Baxter, Sam Peter Jackson, Vicki Liddelle and John Ramage
|
Friedrich is a German pilot whose plane is shot down over a remote rural area in the west of Scotland. He is a prisoner of war, and initially local feelings against him are vitriolic; but he, like everyone in the community in which he finds himself, is a cattle farmer, and as his English improves, he forms strong bonds with his captors, and forges an unlikely friendship which, many years later, brings him back to Scotland.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
1 October 2010
|
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "In the Name of the Wee Man"[89]
|
David Holt
|
Stanley Baxter, John Sessions, John Ramage, Gabriel Quigley and David Holt
|
Tommy Lorne, one of Scotland's greatest early twentieth century comedians – how he became a star, touring sometimes to twelve venues a week, but pushed himself too hard, and in 1935 he collapsed before a show. At his funeral three thousand people turned out to say farewell – the biggest audience he'd ever played.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
29 October 2010 – 3 December 2010
|
The Bob Servant Emails[Note 5][90]
|
Neil Forsyth
|
Brian Cox, Felix Dexter, Laura Solon, Lewis Macleod and Sanjeev Kohli
|
Bob Servant is retired and a little bit bored. When he starts getting spam emails, he decides to play the fraudsters at their own game and soon has them in the palm of his hand.
|
BBC Radio Scotland Comedy[91]
|
20 March 2011 – 27 March 2011
|
The Lost World[92]
|
Arthur Conan Doyle dramatised by Chris Harrald
|
David Robb, Jasmine Hyde, Jamie Glover, Jonathan Forbes, Milton Lopes, Sam Dale, Sean Baker, Nyasha Hatendi, Brian Bowles, Jane Whittenshaw, Vinicius Salles and Milton Lopes
|
The hot-headed Professor Challenger claims that extinct species of animals are still to be found living on an isolated Amazonian plateau. Dr Summerlee, Lord John Roxton and the intrepid reporter, Edward Malone, find themselves committed to a journey of a lifetime.
|
BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
|
6 May 2011
|
The Gobetweenies: "Meet The Millers"[Note 6][93]
|
Marcella Evaristi
|
David Tennant, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott and Stuart Milligan
|
A candid look at contemporary family through the prism of two North London siblings Lucy and Tom as they schlep between their determinedly hands-on divorced parents.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
13 May 2011
|
The Gobetweenies: "Sniffing Stevie and the Gym Horse"[Note 6][94]
|
Marcella Evaristi
|
David Tennant, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Stephen Critchlow, Ben Baker, Morwenna Banks and Gordon Kennedy
|
Tom feels guilty about not wanting to be mates with a boy with a permanent snot bubble. His divorced parents confuse him about the morality of befriending losers. Meanwhile, a visit to a tattoo parlour gives Lucy a great idea about getting some attention.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
13 May 2011 – 3 June 2011
|
Sybil Unrest[95]
|
Charlie Dore
|
Una McLean, Gabriel Quigley, Gavin Mitchell, Sanjeev Kohli, Stanley Baxter, Stirling Moss, Clare Waugh and Scott Hoatson
|
Octogenarian Sybil Law's comedy radio show celebrates canny, feisty, funny older people.
|
BBC Radio Scotland Comedy
|
19 May 2011
|
Macmillan's Marvellous Motion Machine[Note 7][96][97]
|
Jules Horne
|
Scott Hoatson, John Kazek, Gabriel Quigley, Gavin Mitchell, Isabella Jarrett and Leo MacNeill
|
Young Scots country blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan is a man of ideas, like the velocipede – a clanking, pedalled contraption that's the ancestor of the modern bicycle. He cycled from Penpont to Glasgow and committed the world's first cycle crime in 1842.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
20 May 2011
|
The Gobetweenies: "Commendation and Competition"[Note 6][98]
|
Marcella Evaristi
|
David Tennant, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Ophelia Davidson and Tracy-Ann Oberman
|
Lucy gets inspired by art and creates her own Angel of the North London – but she is confused by Joe's refusal to take her to an exhibition of his own work.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
27 May 2011
|
The Gobetweenies: "Befriending Freddie"[Note 6][99]
|
Marcella Evaristi
|
David Tennant, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Emily Bruni, Oliver Dillon and Stuart Milligan
|
Lucy needs compensation for moving house every week...
|
BBC Radio 4
|
11 August 2011
|
Two Pipe Problems: "Here Doggie"[100]
|
Michael Chaplin
|
Richard Briers, Stanley Baxter, Tracy Wiles, Sam Dale, Jillie Meers, Honor Blackman and Anne Reid
|
The Old Beeches care-worker Karen has a new pet; Poppet, a rambunctiously badly behaved Scottie dog. Manager Mary issues an ultimatum – the pet goes, or you both go, and Sandy persuades another resident, a retired variety artiste called Norman Naylor who once had a dog-novelty act, to start training the dog on the nearby common. His wife Nelly, who also lives in the home, sees this as yet another opportunity for her husband to return to his old philandering ways. And one day, he doesn't return, and neither does Poppet.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
12 August 2011
|
Two Pipe Problems: "The Case of the Missing Meerschaum"[Note 8][101]
|
Michael Chaplin
|
Richard Briers, Stanley Baxter, Geoffrey Palmer, James Fleet, Joanna David, Matt Simandl and James McGregor
|
William and Sandy are to appear at a Sherlock Holmes Convention, held at a hotel just around the corner from Baker Street. Sandy isn't keen but succumbs to William's desperate need to be in the spotlight once more. Sandy finds the display of 'fandom' absurd – the packed memorabilia stalls and one fan's observation that he thought he'd died years before. He also finds the political infighting threatening to tear the Society apart faintly ridiculous. But William is in his bombastic element, to such an extent that he has a very public and painful row with Sandy, who quits the convention and catches the Metropolitan Line back to the Old Beeches.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
18 September 2011
|
Glass Chair Chair Glass[Note 6][102]
|
Annie Caulfield
|
Russ Abbot, Harriet Walter, Allan Corduner, Emily Bruni and Hugh Ross
|
A play that imagines a day when Tommy Cooper met absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco. It could have happened.
|
BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3
|
31 October 2011 – 6 November 2011
|
The Heat of the Day[Note 9][103]
|
Elizabeth Bowen adapted from the Harold Pinter screenplay by Tristram Powell and Honor Borwick
|
Henry Goodman, Matthew Marsh, Anna Chancellor, Tom Goodman-Hill, Teresa Gallagher, Daniel Weyman, Honeysuckle Weeks, Tina Gray, Nigel Anthony, Gemma Jones and Ben Baker
|
Stella is an intelligent widowed woman, living in London during the Second World War and working for a government agency. Although no longer in the flush of youth – she has a son in the army – she is still a sensuous, attractive woman and it soon becomes clear that she is the pawn in a macho battle between her existing lover Robert (who is possibly a spy and whose identity is in constant flux) and a creepy man called Harrison (an emotionally stunted counterspy).
|
BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
|
1 March 2012
|
"Rumpole and the Man of God"[104]
|
John Mortimer adapted by Richard Stoneman
|
Timothy West, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jasmine Hyde, Stephen Critchlow, Adrian Scarborough, Cathy Sara and Nigel Anthony
|
It's 1959, and Rumpole is faced with defending a clergyman accused of shoplifting who although he clearly did not commit the crime, is curiously reluctant to be cross examined under oath, where he would have to tell the truth, but save himself from being be defrocked.
Meanwhile, Rumpole's fellow barrister and friend Frobisher, a confirmed bachelor, announces his engagement to a very merry widow, whom Rumpole seems to remember he has met somewhere before...
And finally, Hilda, she who must be obeyed, drops a bomb of information which will have a profound effect on their marriage.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
2 March 2012
|
"Rumpole and the Explosive Evidence"[105]
|
John Mortimer adapted by Richard Stoneman
|
Timothy West, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jasmine Hyde, Alison Pettitt, Michael Cochrane, John Ramm, Geoffrey Whitehead, Nigel Anthony and Adrian Scarborough
|
It's 1960. Hilda's had a baby son, Nicholas. Rumpole, awash with flu, defends a safe-blower, and exposes the dubious dealings of a senior police officer. In so doing however, Rumpole breaches one of the codes of procedure in court, and finds himself in danger of losing his right to work in court. However, help arrives from the intervention of a gentleman of the press.
Meanwhile, at Froxbury mansions, Rumpole forms a strong bond with his infant son in the watches of the night, when he talks over the intricacies of the case with him, and discovers that Hilda really does care about his career, and their future together.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
21 May 2012 – 25 May 2012
|
In the Van[106]
|
Clare Bayley
|
Amber Agar, Matt Rawle, Nitzan Sharron, Sirine Saba and Felix Dexter
|
Recently promoted MI5 agent, Yasmin Zafiri is on her first stake out facing weeks, rather unglamorously, in a van, and with an unexpected supervisor. On Yasmin's first day in the MI5 surveillance van, she discovers her lover Jonathan is also on the case. They begin to eavesdrop on secret lives and test their own relationship.
|
BBC Radio 4 15 Minute Drama
|
6 July 2012
|
The Gobetweenies: "The Break-Up"[Note 6][107]
|
Marcella Evaristi
|
Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Ophelia Davidson
|
A sly take on contemporary parenting looks at a divorced North London family through the prism of two go-betweening siblings. Lucy prepares to dazzle the world with her Rihanna-influenced take on the part of Nancy in the school production of Oliver! – but her mum, armed with a new parenting manual, prepares to do battle with her daughter's impermeable belief in her own genius. Meanwhile, son Tom is appalled by his hated fictional alter ego, cutesy Georgie. Maybe if he garrottes his mother's puppet version of himself, she'll get the hint? Dad is determined to steer him away from the merchandise and takes him to see a wrestling match instead.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
13 July 2012
|
The Gobetweenies: Series 2 Episode 2[Note 6][108]
|
Marcella Evaristi
|
Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott and Nicky Henson
|
Lucy has noticed the difference between her affluent mum, a children's fiction writer, and her broke dad who has just started a new job with Your Pets Painted in the Afterlife.com. She figures her dad he needs a proper Father's Day present, and her tuba has served its purpose of getting her into that good state school where she doesn't get bricks thrown at her head. So why not take a visit to the pawn shop?
|
BBC Radio 4
|
20 July 2012
|
The Gobetweenies: Series 2 Episode 3[Note 6][109]
|
Marcella Evaristi
|
Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Emily Bruni and Oli Dillon
|
Mimi and Joe are determined to be the best kind of divorced parents, supportive and as good as any traditional set up. Mimi has even salvaged her ex's best suit from the charity shop where it was meanly dumped by Joe's most recent ex-wife. But Joe keeps getting misdirected post from the fetish shop across the road and Mimi cannot keep her prying fingers away from a big fat intriguing parcel.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
27 July 2012
|
The Gobetweenies: "Under the Same Night Stars"[Note 6][110]
|
Marcella Evaristi
|
Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Emily Bruni, Oli Dillon, Stephen Critchlow and Daniel Boyd
|
Lucy is despairing about the future of the planet – until she meets a cute boy with a moped. But Tom is in a huff with his family and inventing imaginary parents because he is not allowed to see his best friend Freddy. When Freddy runs away it's left to Lucy to save the day. Thank goodness her mum never uses that porcini filled writing shed.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
3 August 2012
|
The Gobetweenies: "Sex, Guns and Frida Kahlo"[Note 6][111]
|
Marcella Evaristi
|
Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott and Juliet Cadzow
|
Mimi and Joe are in a state of conflicted liberal anguish because Lucy is growing up too fast. She wants a sexy Halloween costume to dazzle her boyfriend, but Joe talks her into going to a party dressed as Frida Kahlo. Meanwhile, Joe's wily mother sorts out her son's vindictive and most recent ex-wife, the radical rug designer.
|
BBC Radio 4
|
10 August 2012
|
The Gobetweenies: "The Next Story"[Note 6][112]
|
Marcella Evaristi
|
Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Stephen Critchlow, Doon Mackichan and Guy Paul
|
Tom and Lucy are furious they are not allowed a dog. Their parents say that when kids go between two households it's too complicated. But their mum and dad's love lives are even more tangled. After all, Tom has seen his parents kissing. So where does that leave their mum's new third husband, and the unstable pet shop owner their dad has been secretly dating?
|
BBC Radio 4
|
18 December 2012
|
"Rumpole and the Gentle Art of Blackmail"[113]
|
John Mortimer adapted by Richard Stoneman
|
Timothy West, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jasmine Hyde, Louis Tafler-Hyde, Stephen Critchlow, Faye Castelow, Adam Gillen, Adrian Scarborough and Nigel Anthony
|
In 1964, Rumpole returns to Oxford, where he studied law, to defend a young gardener, Peter Vernon, accused of blackmailing the Master of St Joseph's College, Sir Michael Tuffnell. Peter and Sir Michael had enjoyed a friendship that provoked rumours of homosexuality – still illegal in those days. Sir Michael has gone to the police alleging Peter was about to accuse him publicly of sodomy. Peter denies the charge and, indeed, is engaged to be married to his solicitor – a young woman by the name of Sue Galton. Rumpole sees through a plot to depose the Master and, sensing Peter's underlying honesty, he defends his client. But, in doing so, he's forced to re-assess the choices he's made in his career and his marriage to She Who Must Be Obeyed.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|
25 December 2012
|
"Rumpole and the Expert Witness"[114]
|
John Mortimer adapted by Richard Stoneman
|
Timothy West, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jasmine Hyde, Louis Tafler-Hyde, Adrian Scarborough, Nigel Anthony, Daniel Weyman, Ewan Bailey and Claire Skinner
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It's 1964. Rumpole is asked to defend a GP, Dr Ned Dacre, who is accused of murdering his wife, Sally. Dr Ned Dacre's father is also a GP, Dr Henry Dacre, and it is he who asks Rumpole to take on the case. Dr Henry met Rumpole during the Penge Bungalow Murder trial and believes Rumpole's the man to get his son off this trumped-up charge. The plot thickens when the local pathologist, Pamela Gall, turns out to be an old flame of Dr Ned's. It seems that Pamela never forgave Dr Ned for dumping her and marrying Sally instead.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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13 January 2013
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "Hector's House of Windsor"[Note 8][115]
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Colin Hough
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Stanley Baxter, Phyllida Law, Pip Torrens and David Holt
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The Queen's Scots gillie aids her in a cunning plan to put her unruly prime minister and deputy firmly in their place when they visit her at Windsor and she invites them to join her on a canter round the park.
Her own superior wisdom, cunning and diplomatic skills are revealed while Her Majesty's wise and wily old Scots gillie looks on and enters into the fun.
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BBC Radio 4
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20 January 2013
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "The Hat"[Note 8][116]
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Colin MacDonald
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Stanley Baxter, Thelma Barlow and David Holt
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Sheriff Finlay travels from Scotland to York for the funeral and cremation of his older brother William, with whom he didn't get on. When he gets there he is greeted with barely disguised hostility by William's widow.
She tells him arrangements for the funeral are all made: it is going to be a Humanist service and the family heirloom fireman's hat, which was worn with pride by the brothers' grandfather, is in the coffin and is going to be incinerated along with William.
Alistair decides to get the hat before the coffin makes its final journey into the flames. This will take him into dangerous territory, breaking into a funeral parlour at night and braving the criminal underworld to retrieve Grandad's hat and make a final peace with his brother.
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BBC Radio 4
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27 January 2013
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "The Spider"[Note 8][117]
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Rona Munro
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Stanley Baxter and Hugh Ross
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At last, the true story can be told of Robert the Bruce and his encounter with that spider on the eve of battle with the English.
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BBC Radio 4
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12 February 2013
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Dusty Won't Play[Note 6][118]
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Annie Caulfield
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Charlie Brooks, Jack Klaff, Vincent Ebrahim, Jonny Freeman, Danny Lee Wynter and Rasmus Hardiker
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Dusty Won't Play is a reminder of the tangled paranoia of apartheid and the true story of Dusty Springfield's refusal to play segregated audiences in South Africa.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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15 March 2013
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Mr Bridger's Orphan[119]
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Marcy Kahan
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Malcolm Sinclair, Eleanor Bron, Tam Williams, Finlay Christie, Lizzy Watts, Will Howard, Ben Crowe, Rick Warden, Nicholas Murchie and Joanna Brookes
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Commissioned to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of Noël Coward, Mr Bridger's Orphan tells a surprising and little-known story from his life. It's 1968 and Coward is in Dublin to play the chief gangster in the film The Italian Job. But why has the urbane actor and playwright, in failing health, accepted the role?
The play tells the story of how his involvement in the movie emerged from a significant encounter during Coward's dynamic and humane twenty-year Presidency of the Actors' Orphanage, revealing the down-to-earth man behind the sometimes waspish and rarefied public persona.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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18 October 2013
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The Gobetweenies: Series 3 Episode 1[Note 6][120]
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Marcella Evaristi
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Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Valerie Cutko and David Troughton
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Mimi has decided to branch into teenage fiction but, when the kids discover they are being used as copy, they mutiny. Lucy pretends to have an eating disorder and lies that Tom is now bed-wetting. But Mimi is set on her new writing venture. She's calling it The Gobetweenies and it's all about urban puberty.
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BBC Radio 4
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25 October 2013
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The Gobetweenies: Series 3 Episode 2[Note 6][121]
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Marcella Evaristi
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Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Charlotte Ritchie, Emily Bruni and Harry Nowell
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Mimi is having a hard time. She's freshly divorced and scared of her eggs going stale so she's decided to freeze them. But she didn't realise she had to give herself hormone injections. What's the divorced etiquette of asking an ex-husband to inject your torso? And how come she's not the favourite parent? Could it be because she was a complete failure trying to convince the mother of Tom's best friend that skateboarding was safe?
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BBC Radio 4
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1 November 2013
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The Gobetweenies: Series 3 Episode 3[Note 6][122]
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Marcella Evaristi
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Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott and Dave Lamb
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Lucy is driving rational science-loving Tom crazy with her passion for astrology. She tries to convince him by swishing her magnificent Leo hair at him. With her brother mercilessly mocking her gullibility, Lucy decides to read Tom's book, Exploring the Night Sky. When she discovers that starlight comes from extinct stars she has an existential crisis made worse by a recent visit to a ghoulish exhibition about grave robbers and dissectionists. Now she knows the awful truth – the sky is haunted and worse, she herself is actually mortal.
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BBC Radio 4
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8 November 2013
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The Gobetweenies: Series 3 Episode 4[Note 6][123]
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Marcella Evaristi
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Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Charlotte Ritchie, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Jenna Cook and Harry Nowell
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Joe had wanted to keep his new affair secret. His new girlfriend is twenty four and he now wishes he hadn't called Mimi's most recent ex-husband the Decrepit from Connecticut. Mimi is being badgered about bringing a 'plus one' to a wedding. She's in a state of post divorce fragility and begins to wonder if Joe still secretly longs for her. After all, he brought her lilacs on their wedding anniversary.
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BBC Radio 4
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15 November 2013
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The Gobetweenies: Series 3 Episode 5[Note 6][124]
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Marcella Evaristi
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Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott and Stephen Critchlow
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Joe has had to cancel a holiday with his girlfriend and it's Mimi's fault. So Mimi gets no back up when she wants to get the dog fixed and stop Lucy wearing latex. Their friend Bobby is fed up listening to them squabble because he has a real problem – his son Stevie is stonewalling him.
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BBC Radio 4
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22 November 2013
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The Gobetweenies: Series 3 Episode 6[Note 6][125]
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Marcella Evaristi
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Mark Bonnar, Sarah Alexander, Finlay Christie, Phoebe Abbott, Charlotte Ritchie, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Jenna Cook and Harry Nowell
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Tom's girlfriend Poppy has left him for Stevie – once a friendless snotball but now fit and much-fancied – but Tom is channelling Einstein to get his girl back, because Albert proved that linear time is a delusion and that everything that happens is still happening. And if that's true, Tom has no reason to move on.
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BBC Radio 4
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20 March 2014
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"Rumpole and the Old Boy Net"[126]
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John Mortimer adapted by Richard Stoneman
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Benedict Cumberbatch, Jasmine Hyde, Nigel Anthony, Ewan Bailey, Cathy Sara and Stephen Critchlow
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We rejoin Rumpole and Hilda in 1964. Hilda is worried about the choice of school for their son, Nicholas. Hilda wants Rumpole to become a Q.C. to afford a decent education for Nicholas. Claude Erskine-Brown is also trying to take silk but he's distracted by the arrival in chambers of Rumpole's new pupil, Miss Phillida Trant.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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21 March 2014
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"Rumpole and the Sleeping Partners"[Note 8][127]
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John Mortimer adapted by Richard Stoneman
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Benedict Cumberbatch, Jasmine Hyde, Nigel Anthony, Cathy Sara and Stephen Critchlow
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After a legal ball in the Savoy Hotel, Rumpole and Hilda argue about Rumpole's drunken behaviour in front of Mr Justice Gwent-Evans. Rumpole can take no more of his wife and jumps out of their taxi. He intends to spend the night in chambers but finds Erskine-Brown in Equity Court, with Phillida Trant, "working late". Rumpole asks Phillida to help him with the defence of Hugo Lutterworth, who's accused of trying to kill the husband of his lover.
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BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
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4 July 2014
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "A Dish of Neapolitan" [Note 8][128]
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Michael Chaplin
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Stanley Baxter and Geoffrey Palmer
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An old Army colonel and his one time batman reunite after many years at the scene of their greatest glories on the Italian front in World War Two.
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BBC Radio 4
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11 July 2014
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "The Showman" [Note 8][129]
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Rona Munro
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Stanley Baxter, Stuart McQuarrie and Tracy Wiles
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In the year of our lord 1561, Mary Queen of Scots and the Protestant reformer John Knox clash in Edinburgh's old town over a harmless entertainment involving a wayward troupe of Scots comedians and song and dance acts.
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BBC Radio 4
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18 July 2014
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "Meg's Tale"[Note 8][130]
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Rona Munro
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Stanley Baxter, Maureen Beattie and Tracy Wiles
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We hear how Robert Burns discovered the real story of Tam O'Shanter's big night out at Alloway Kirk - from the point of view of a young barmaid called Norah and her Aunty Meg, who finds herself the victim of a spell malfunction, becoming the horse whom Burns made famous in "Tam O'Shanter".
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BBC Radio 4
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9 December 2015
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "The Leaving of Barra"[Note 8][131]
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Michael Chaplin
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Stanley Baxter, June Watson and Scott Hoatson
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In 1949, a young man, an assistant director on Whisky Galore, falls in love with a local girl on the Hebridean island of Barra where filming is taking place. Sixty six years later, his memories of that golden time come flooding back.
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BBC Radio 4
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16 December 2015
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: The Flying Scotsman[Note 8][132]
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Rona Munro
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Stanley Baxter, David Mara and Beth Marshall
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A whodunnit set on the great Flying Scotsman in the days of steam. A rookie Detective Constable and a world weary Detective Inspector combine forces with a recalcitrant train guard to solve a murder.
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BBC Radio 4
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23 December 2015
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: Two Desperate Men[Note 8][133]
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Colin MacDonald
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Stanley Baxter, Joe Caffrey and Tom Borley
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Two 1930s tricksters get their just deserts when they attempt to kidnap and hold to ransom a young lad who's learned a thing or two from the Wild West. Inspired by O. Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief".
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BBC Radio 4
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6 January 2016
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The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: "The Pool" [Note 8][134]
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Michael Chaplin
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Stanley Baxter and Geoffrey Palmer
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Two old men with a shared love of the art of fishing have a shared past which haunts them both.
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BBC Radio 4
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