Toby_Swift
Toby Swift
British radio director (active 1999–2011)
Toby Swift is a radio drama director and producer for BBC Radio. His numerous credits, from 1999 to 2011, include the crime dramas The Recall Man and Trueman and Riley. He also directs contemporary and periodic radio dramas.
He won the Prix Italia for Adapted Drama in 2004 for M, and again in 2005 for My Arm and for a third time in 2007 for Metropolis.[1] The Loop won a Bronze Sony Radio Academy Award for Best Drama Production in 2010.
More information Radio Plays Directed or Produced by Toby Swift, Date first broadcast ...
| Radio Plays Directed or Produced by Toby Swift | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date first broadcast | Play | Author | Cast | Synopsis Awards |
Station Series |
| 20 January 1999 | Goodbye Moses | Jennie Buckman | Andrew Rajan, Dominic Carter, Angela Wynter, Giles Fagan and Elizabeth Conboy | As London swelters in a heatwave, Moses Perkes, a Trinidadian ghost, embarks on a quest to find his killers. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play[2] |
| 12 July 1999 | For The Love Of Strangers | Susan Stern | Kathryn Hunt, Robin Bowerman and Brigit Forsyth | Amidst the chaos of a family weekend, Jayne stumbles upon a dark and little-known episode in York's rich history – the 12th-century massacre of the city's Jewish population. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 13 September 1999 – 8 October 1999 | Vital Signs[Note 1] | Sarah Woods and Peter Straughan | Rachel Davies, Gillian Hanna, Derek Walmsley and Keith Drinkel | Carol Weaver, chief executive of the Nightingale NHS Trust, balances a difficult home life with complex issues of millennium planning. | BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama[3] |
| 30 June 2000 | Gin and Rum | Philip Palmer | Caroline Catz and Philip Whitchurch | Every weekday Judy and Bob meet on the roof of a London office block for their lunch break.
This romantic ghost story scratches beneath the surface of two lonely lives, offering a tantalising glimpse of the secrets of the city. |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 8 September 2000 | The Salt March | Nasser Memarzia | Paul Bhattacharjee, Josephine Welcome and Kulvinder Ghir | On 12 March 1930, Gandhi and 78 volunteers set out from Sabarmati Ashram to walk the 240 miles to Dandi in protest at the British-imposed salt laws. This bid to unite the Indian independence movement meant some difficult decisions for those in the villages en route. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 14 September 2000 | Pot Shot | Jennie Buckman | Katy Cavanagh and Jonathan Coy | Hannah and Martin are trying for a baby. Unfortunately Hannah is trying rather harder than Martin whose behaviour becomes ever more strange the further down the road to fertility treatment the couple goes. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 8 December 2000 | Soap Gets In Your Eyes | Brian B Thompson | Michelle Holmes, Peter-Hugo Daly and Duncan Preston | Danny is the chief storyliner on the nation's best-loved soap. It is his life, and he is even engaged to its wholesome leading lady. But when a new, hard-nosed, ratings-chasing producer arrives, his cosy life is turned upside down. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play[4] |
| 29 December 2000 | The League of Gentlemen | John Boland adapted for radio by Mike Walker | Jonathan Coy, Raymond Coulthard and Adam Kotz | A decade after the end of the Second World War, ex-major Gregory Hemmings recruits a team of disgraced former army officers to undertake a daring raid on a central London bank. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 23 January 2001 | Fallen | Philip Palmer | Owen Teale, Francine Morgan, Robert Pugh and Steven Meo | Raymond Thomas quickly rose to become the youngest bank manager in South Wales. But then he had an affair, stole money, lost his job and went to jail. Can his family and the town accept him back, after he has so betrayed their trust? | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 16 March 2001 | Ecce Homo – Behold The Man! | David Napthine | Paul Bown, Helen Atkinson Wood, Philip Whitchurch and Rachel Atkins | Comedy in which Birmingham decides to appoint a philosopher-in-residence in a bid to improve its intellectual standing. From the moment when free thinker Diogenes Walker steps through the door, chaos envelops City Hall. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 28 April 2001 | City of Spades | Colin MacInnes adapted by Biyi Bandele | Chiwetel Ejiofor, Raymond Coulthard, Ray Fearon and Clare Corbett | Nigerian immigrant Johnny finds himself caught up in the new ethnic subculture in 50s London. | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play[5] |
| 17 June 2001 | The Conquest of the South | Manfred Karge adapted by Anthony Vivis, from the translation by Anthony Vivis and Tinch Minter Music by Simon Fraser |
Matthew Dunster, James Weaver, Ralf Little, Andrew Lancel, Katy Cavanagh, Nicholas Gleaves, Lucy Akhurst and John Lightbody | Four of society's rejects seek to escape the depressing emptiness of their lives by acting out Amundsen's famous expedition to the South Pole. | BBC Radio 4 |
| 8 August 2001 – 12 September 2001[Note 2] | Steven Appleby's Normal Life[6] (Six episodes) |
Steven Appleby | Paul McCrink, Rachel Atkins, Nigel Betts and Rosalind Paul | Cartoonist Steven Appleby takes an abnormal look at everyday life. | BBC Radio 4 |
| 30 September 2001 – 7 October 2001 | The Faerie Queene | Edmund Spenser dramatised by Philip Palmer | Simon Russell Beale and Holly Aird | Inventive dramatisation of Edmund Spenser's towering Elizabethan epic poem. | BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial[7] |
| 27 November 2001 | The Present | Jackie Pavlenko | Kathryn Hunt, Alice Gardiner, Christine Brennan, Jim Millea, James Swanton | Eva's life is a chaotic whirl of missed appointments and mad dashes as she tries to keep up with the demands of her children, her work and her withering social life.
But only when she starts to keep a diary does the real problem emerge. |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 7 December 2001 | Doctor Joe Aston Investigates[8] | David Napthine | Jeremy Swift, Rosie Cavaliero, Carolyn Pickles, Colin MacLachlan, Paul Brennen and Sue Scott Davison | Scientist Grace Hayle and her boss were working alone in the laboratory. Now he's dead and she's the only suspect in a murder case. She claims to have no memory of what happened and there's little evidence to go on. Forensic psychologist Dr Joe Aston, an expert in "recovered memory", attempts to uncover the truth.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 4 January 2002 | The Condition of the Virgin | Boothby Graffoe | Jason Isaacs and Nicholas McGaughey | Theological satire about a statue which shows some odd changes. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 17 April 2002 | Trueman | Brian B Thompson | Robert Daws, Duncan Preston, Polly Hemingway, Katy Cavanagh, Richard Lintern and Sandra Clark | Was the murder of a student a drug wars killing, or are more sinister forces at work? The investigation falls to Trueman, a former high-flying detective.
|
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 23 April 2002 | The King's Coiner[9] | Philip Palmer | Ian McDiarmid, Katy Cavanagh, Barnaby Kay, Jeremy Swift, Freddie Annobil-Dodoo, Peter Marinker and Colin Adrian | True life detective drama about Isaac Newton. By the 1690s Isaac Newton, already the world's greatest mathematician, was hungry for a new challenge and became Warden of the Royal Mint. His pursuit of London's most notorious counterfeiter, William Chaloner, confirmed him as a man prepared to go to any lengths to solve a problem. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 13 September 2002 | Man with Travel Hairdryer[10] | Katie Hims | The lives of many people are changed forever after an unarmed man is mistakenly shot dead by a police officer. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play | |
| 7 November 2002 | Tricycles | Colin Teevan | Laura Hughes, Conleth Hill, Cathy White, Abigail McGibbon, Nikki Doherty, Darran Williams, Packy Lee, Hannah R Gordon, Dario Angelone, Richard Dormer, Roger Jennings, Stella McCusker and Oisin Teevan | Colin Teevan's impressionistic and fast-moving drama dips in and out of everyday lives in Belfast to create a picture of a city and its people as they seek to make their modest dreams a reality.
A suspected meningitis outbreak turns lives and routines on their head, perhaps for years to come. |
BBC Radio 3 The Wire[11] |
| 19 December 2002 | Full English | Brian B Thompson | Ray Burdis, Sheyla Shehovich, Bruce Byron, Sharon Duce and Ewan Bailey | Terry and Inna meet through a Russian internet dating agency. When she visits him in London, they are both in for some surprises. She's expecting opportunity and prosperity, but it doesn't always work out like that. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 2 February 2003 | M[12] | Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang adapted by Peter Straughan | John Lightbody, Kevin McKidd, Nicholas Woodeson, Mark Lewis Jones, Jonathan Tafler, Gilly Tompkins, Ewan Bailey, Peter Marinker, Michael Wildman, Clare Corbett, Ben Crowe, Rebecca Manley, Cressida Whyte, Emily Button, Gregg Prentice, Ruby Stokes and Jack Durrant | Berlin is gripped with fear as a murderer preys on the city's children against a backdrop of political turbulence and rising criminality. Fritz Lang's cinema classic has been voted the most important German film of all time in its home country. Peter Straughan's kaleidoscopic adaptation exploits the emphasis Lang placed on sound in his first steps beyond the silent movie era. Won the Prix Italia for Adapted Drama in 2004.[1] |
BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3[13] |
| 19 February 2003 – 26 March 2003 | Steven Appleby's Normal Life (Series 2)[14] (Six episodes) |
Steven Appleby | Paul McCrink, Rachel Atkins, Nigel Betts and Rosalind Paul | Cartoonist Steven Appleby takes an abnormal look at everyday life. | BBC Radio 4 |
| 1 May 2003 | Creamie[15] | Luke Sutherland | Clive Russell, Sophie Okonedo, Matthew Dunster, Indira Varma, Nicola Stapleton and Derek Ezenagu | As Glasgow cop Tony finds a surveillance operation unravelling spectacularly, his thoughts return to last summer and a turbulent reunion with the daughter he'd only seen once since her birth. | BBC Radio 3 The Wire |
| 11 July 2003 | At the Beach | Tom Kelly | Gerard Horan, Glyn Grimstead, Ben Tibber, Joseph Tremain and Ray Lonnen | Thirty years after they were last there, childhood friends Roy and Danny journey back to the remote beach where they shared an experience, and a secret, that has shaped their lives ever since. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 9 September 2003 | Madonna's Plumber | Christopher Matthew | Robert Daws and Ted Robbins | Nigel Breezer, the self-styled plumber to the stars and star among plumbers, takes a tortuous trip to a film premiere in a courtesy limo giving him ample opportunity to give us the benefit of an insider's view of the famous and not-so-famous, as well as a few tricks of the trade. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 15 September 2003 | A Fire in the West | Michael Butt | Ken Sharrock, Kate Fitzgerald, Lucy Akhurst and David K S Tse | Ciera Thomas set herself alight outside the Ministry of Defence, apparently in protest at a recent arms deal.
There were no warnings, no final farewells. Three years later those left behind, her father, mother, sister, and a former boyfriend, bear witness to a shocking event, as they continue to try to make sense of what happened. |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 31 October 2003 | Making Waves[16] | David Napthine | Jeremy Swift, Paul Brennen, Andrew Harrison, James Gaddas and Elizabeth Carling | A diver suddenly remembers what he thinks was a murder. Forensic psychologist Dr Joe Aston must try to make sense of his confused memory of that night. When the case reaches court, they both face tough sessions in the witness box. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 25 November 2003 | Wild Lunch | Katie Hims | Claudia Harrison, Ben Miles, Richenda Carey, Ian Masters, Stephen Critchlow, Tracey Wiles and Kenny Blyth | A terribly civilised English lunch party gradually disintegrates on the day a man is hanged by an unspecified government. Even when the world is falling apart around them, there are those who will cling to the reality which suits them. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 14 December 2003 | Serjeant Musgrave's Dance | John Arden Original music by Simon Fraser |
Iain Glen, Shaun Dooley, Paul Copley, Edward Hogg, Carolyn Pickles, James Weaver, Roger Walker, Katy Cavanagh, John Banks, Paul Rider, Jeremy Swift, John Davitt and Nick Malinowski | Four soldiers arrive in a strike-bound mining town intent on convincing its inhabitants that the violence and killing being perpetrated across the colonies in their name is wrong. | BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 |
| 17 January 2004 | The IPCRESS File[17][18] | Len Deighton dramatised by Mike Walker | Ian Hart, James Laurenson, Jonathan Coy, Fenella Woolgar, Peter Marinker, Jamie Bamber, Kerry Shale, Adam Tedder, Rachel Atkins, John Sharian, Raad Rawi and Declan Wilson | Len Deighton's gripping cold war thriller became a popular icon of British cinema.
Mike Walker's dramatisation re-discovers the novel and its unnamed and defiantly non-establishment narrator as his new job in the intelligence service ensnares him in a plot to brainwash scientists and trade them across the iron curtain. |
BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play |
| 18 February 2004 | The Travels of Marco Polo | Philip Palmer | Conleth Hill and Paul Rhys | Marco Polo's famous and controversial book was written in a prison in Genoa at the end of the 13th century. It became one of the most popular in Europe, despite the common view that it was full of extravagant invention. Perhaps this account of Marco's relationship with the sceptical cellmate who wrote it all down involves a little invention too? | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 23 April 2004 | The Lights | Mark Tuohy | Luke Hamill, Cal MacAninch, Clare Cathcart, Marion Bailey, John Banks, Becky Hindley and Narinder Samra | Paul and Liam used to be best mates.
Perhaps by the end of their weekend in Blackpool they'll have learnt to have a laugh together again. But it won't be easy not least because they've barely seen each other since the accident that changed their lives. |
BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 5 June 2004 | The Long Wait[19] | Sarah Daniels, based on a story by Mike Walker | In Normandy on 5 June 1944, Nicole is getting ready to go out with her German boyfriend, despite the nightly air raids. A German army band is throwing a jazz concert in a hall in Caen when the singer, Mitzi, is called away on urgent business by Father Pierre. He is the blind, elderly padre who realises that his cover as a double agent has been blown, just as coded messages are coming through to the French resistance that the invasion is about to happen. | BBC Radio 4 | |
| 1 July 2004 | My Arm[20] | Tim Crouch soundscape by Chris Dorley-Brown |
Tim Crouch and Owen Crouch | 'At the age of ten, for want of anything more meaningful to do, I put my arm above my head and kept it there. Now thirty years on, I'm so full of meaning, it's killing me.' This is a study of bloody-mindedness, modern art and how the things we do when we're ten stick with us for life. Won the Prix Italia for Adapted Drama in 2005.[1] |
BBC Radio 3 The Wire |
| 11 July 2004 | How Many Miles to Basra?[21][22][23] | Colin Teevan | Michelle Fairley and Cal MacAninch | Set in Iraq in April 2003, a new drama exploring the aftermath of a fictional incident at a checkpoint near Basra. | BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 |
| 6 December 2004 | Lifestyles of the Trapped and Cabbaged | Roy Boulter | Paul Bown, Jeff Rawle and Wai-Keat Lau | Two holidaying accountants leave their wives in the lurch when they manage to get trapped in a Shanghai warehouse for days. Never have the social lives of the Cheshire set seemed so important. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 23 December 2004 | Steven Appleby's Normal Christmas[24] | Steven Appleby | Paul McCrink, Rosalind Paul, Nigel Betts, Ewan Bailey and Rachel Atkins | A Christmas special of Steven Appleby's Normal Life, in which Steven meets Father Christmas and his unfaithful wife, and finds out about legal problems regarding the toys the elves make. | BBC Radio 4 |
| 27 December 2004 | Boxing Clever | Mike Yeaman | Thelma Barlow, Jeremy Swift, Edward Hogg, Helen Longworth and Paul McCrink | Wily pensioner Amy may be at the front of the queue for the Boxing Day sales, but she's going to have to work hard to get the better of the rival bargain hunters camping overnight outside Marshall's department store. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 16 March 2005 – 6 April 2005 | The Great Pursuit (Four episodes) |
Tom Sharpe dramatised by Ryan Craig | Mark Heap, Laurel Lefkow, Adam Godley, John Guerrasio, Sandra Dickinson, Nicholas Boulton, Susan Engel, Susan Jameson, Emily Wachter, Kerry Shale, Hugh Dickson, Robert Hastie and Alex Tregear | Anarchic satire about literary agent Frederick Frensic. | BBC Radio 4 |
| 8 April 2005 | Family Cover | Jonathan Holloway | Polly Walker, Martin Wenner, Katia Linden, Jonas Finlay, Kim Romer, Jon Glover, Leagh Conwell and Thomas Brown-Lowe | A family holiday to Sweden goes tragically wrong when Alisdair McNair is found dead at a remote beauty spot.
In shock, miles from home and with her two young sons in tow, Emma is alarmed to find herself the subject of the police investigation that follows. |
BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 5 May 2005 | Stone Baby[25] | Sean Buckley | Louis Dunsford, Edna Doré, Carl Prekopp, Chenade la Roy John, Alex Matten, Joseph Tremain, Richard Katz, Susan Jameson, Nicholas Boulton and Hugh Dickson | Xavier has no brothers or sisters or mates at school. But he's got a bump. Something inside. Someone. He feels it move; hears its tiny heart beat in tandem with his.
It's true and real and mine and... stop blowing smoke in my face! It's very bad for his health. |
BBC Radio 3 The Wire |
| 15 July 2005 | Angel Heights | Brian B Thompson | Robert Daws, Duncan Preston, Michael Cochrane, Gerard McDermott and Sammy Dobson | A young stable jockey has been killed by a horse in what appears to have been an accident.
When Trueman and Riley come sniffing round, they discover a corner of the horse racing world riddled with double-dealing: a trainer who deliberately runs horses over the wrong distance to bring down their handicap before landing a betting coup when they go over the right trip; a telephone tipster who gives one tip on his recorded message and a different one to his special clients; stable lads prepared to give inside information in return for favours. Can Trueman penetrate this closed world and discover the truth behind Emma Slater's death? |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 12 August 2005 | Blame | Philip Palmer | Caroline Catz, Ann Mitchell, Tanya Franks, Gerard Horan, Mark Lewis Jones and Harry Myers | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play | |
| 11 September 2005 | The Orchid Grower[26] | Sebastian Baczkiewicz based on an idea by Tom Mangold | Kenneth Welsh, John Cleland, Michael Murphy, Leo Vernik, Emma Campbell, Greg Ellwand, Rod Wilson, John Robinson, Tara Samuels, Chuck Shamata, Michael Caruana, Patrick McManus, Barry Flatman, Jonathan Higgins and Gerry Mendicino | In 1964, KGB officer Yuri Nosenko defected to the US in what should have been a major coup for the CIA.
Sebastian Baczkiewicz tells the incredible story of Nosenko's four years of torture and imprisonment without trial as civil war raged within the CIA over his bona fides. |
BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 |
| 26 September 2005 | Taken By Surprise | David Napthine | Jeremy Swift, Paul Brennen, Andrew Harrison, James Gaddas and Elizabeth Carling | A financial adviser is abducted and only released when his employer pays the ransom. Forensic psychologist Dr Joe Aston resorts to unorthodox methods to secure a positive identification of the main suspect. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 23 November 2005 | The Waterbucks | Adrian Penketh | Geoffrey Streatfeild, Tracy Wiles, Mike Sengelow, Hannah Storey, Chooi Beh and Matthew Paris | Hong Kong, 1997. Justin has been riding out the last few months of British rule before the handover to China. This is not the only change he is forced to confront over the course of a tense 24 hours that will turn his life upside down forever. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 29 November 2005 | French Sex at the Wilmslow Rex | Peter Vickers | Jason Done, Helen Longworth, Scarlett Perdereau, Pearce Quigley, Colleen Prendergast, Gerard McDermott, Harry Myers and John Cummins | In 1962, Bernard's innocent attempt to have the French new wave film 'Jules et Jim' shown at the local cinema leads to him being branded a pervert and an adulterer. The ensuing row also puts a strain on his marriage to Helen.
A comic love story that captures a moment just before the 'swinging sixties' had begun to 'swing'. |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 2 December 2005 | Comeback | Luke Sutherland | Richard Ridings, Desmond McNamara, Stephanie Fearon, Tanya Franks, Richard Katz, Harry Myers and Everal A Walsh | Wrestling man-mountain King Magnitude is on the comeback trail at the age of 60. It may be 20 years since his glory days but he's determined to show the world he's still got what it takes. What he doesn't expect is to be floored by a 15-year-old girl. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 17 January 2006 | Once a Friend[27] | Stephen Phelps | Jamie Foreman, Gerard McDermott, Joseph Tremain, Steven Williams and Ella Smith | John and Leo, inseparable in childhood, meet for the first time in 30 years. Will Leo's need to rake over the past prevent them from rekindling their friendship? | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 10 March 2006 | After the Affair | Michael Butt | Claire Rushbrook, Daniela Denby-Ashe, Simon Grover and Christopher Fox | In the complex and messy world of an extra marital affair with all its exaggerated highs and lows, two couples are left facing a future they hadn't anticipated, and since Sarah and Janey are sisters, the sense of betrayal runs deep. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 24 March 2006 | Metropolis[28] | Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang adapted by Peter Straughan | Edward Hogg, Tracy Wiles, Damian Lynch and Peter Marinker | Thea von Harbou's novel became husband Fritz Lang's 1927 silent movie classic. Its terrifying vision of the future was born in an age of booming heavy industry. Peter Straughan's new version finds its hero, F T Fredersen, caught up in a nightmarish world all too recognisably drawn from the one we find ourselves in today. Won the Prix Italia for Adapted Drama in 2007.[1] |
BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 13 June 2006 | Headwrecked, Shanghaied and Shipless | Roy Boulter | Gabrielle Glaister, Katherine Dow Blyton, Liz Sutherland and Wai-Keat Lau | Two holidaying Cheshire housewives hit Shanghai and come off second best. Will they ever be reunited with their husbands? And where are they anyway? | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 30 June 2006 | The Conversation[29] | Harry Towb and Jonathan Tafler | Dramatic reconstruction of a conversation between Trevor Friedman and Roman Halter, whose fathers were Jewish slave labourers in Poland and then Germany.
Trevor knew almost nothing of his father's extraordinary story until 24 years after his death. |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play | |
| 13 October 2006 | Walking the Line[30] | Stephen Phelps | Andy Nyman, Ralph Ineson, Saikat Ahamed and Sam Dale | A prison officer finds himself caught between a vulnerable young prisoner and a senior colleague who believes that his job is to discipline and control and no more. Then the separate worlds of home and work start to overlap. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 21 October 2006 | Cry Hungary[31] | Paul Viragh | Lee Ingleby, Naomi Frederick, Christopher Fox, Larry Lamb, Mark Straker, Joseph Kloska, Sam Dale, Paul Richard Biggin and Emma Noakes | In October 1956, thousands of Hungarians rise up against the oppressive Soviet-backed government. Peter, a chosen son of the working classes, arrives in Budapest to study at the university. He falls in love with Eva, a committed communist. When Peter becomes involved in the demonstrations, Eva finds her loyalties severely tested. | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play |
| 18 December 2006 | This Is My Car Park | Mark Tuohy | Adam Kotz, Pippa Haywood, Emma Noakes and Steve Edwards | Luke's brush with the big time has left him bruised and sleeping rough in a scruffy London car park.
But why does he refuse to set foot outside it? Two locals strike up a friendship with him, but is it enough to restore his faith in humanity? |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 18 February 2007 | Hooligan Nights[32] | Mike Walker Music by Mike Woolmans |
James Daley, Pamela Banks, Stephen Greif, Carl Prekopp, Gerard Horan, Freddy White, Gerard McDermott, Jamie Borthwick, David O'Dell, Sam Dale, Bethan Walker, Paul Richard Biggin, Joseph Kloska, Emma Noakes and Saikat Ahamed | The brutal world of London gangland in the 1890s is brought vividly to life in an innovative new musical created by writer Mike Walker and composer Mike Woolmans.
Loosely based on the book by Clarence Rook, it recounts the criminal career of Alf, a self-styled Lambeth hooligan. |
BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 |
| 12 March 2007 – 15 March 2007 | Trueman and Riley[33] | Brian B Thompson | Robert Daws and Duncan Preston | Drama series about two bickering detectives. The stories are set in Leeds where Trueman and Riley solve a case in each episode. | BBC Radio 7 |
| 28 March 2007 | Going for Broke[34] | Mike Yeaman | Les Dennis, Felicity Montagu, Sam Dale, Christine Kavanagh and Jasmine Callan | With debts rising and their pension scheme in meltdown, Colin and Marion set out to milk the system for all it's worth. But will the price they pay be more than they bargained for? | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 5 June 2007 | Clear Air Turbulence[35] | Dana Fainaru | Tara Fitzgerald, Aidan McArdle, David Thorpe, Ashley Madekwe, Ian Masters, Sandra James-Young, Rachel Bavidge, John Dougall, Jasmine Callan and Anthony Glennon | Mel's idyllic existence is turned upside-down when she suddenly stops sleeping.
As the sprawling nights become filled in increasingly risky fashion, a would-be accomplice demands to join in the nocturnal adventures. |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 13 June 2007 | A Man Cut in Slices[36] | Adrian Penketh | Raymond Coulthard, John Guerrasio, John Dougall, Colin Stinton, Tom Clarke-Hill, Walter Lewis, Bonnie Engstrom, Jasmine Callan, Anthony Glennon and Rachel Bavidge | Paul Tate goes for a job interview and finds himself on front pages and TV screens across the world. He is unwittingly cast as the symbol of Londoners' defiance in the face of terrorism after an office block is blown up. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 7 July 2007 | Eye Witness[37][38] | Tom Kelly | Michael Smiley, Michael Colgan, JonJo O'Neill and Ciarán McMenamin | This powerful and intensely personal piece digs deep into the author's brutalising experiences growing up on the streets of Belfast. Will life continue to be seen through the prism of that time, or can he find a future without the burden of the past? | BBC Radio 3 The Wire |
| 2 August 2007 | Is He Still Breathing? | Howard Belgard, co-written with Nick Drake | Zita Sattar, Geoffrey Whitehead, Andrew Frame and Rosalind Paul | Sunita loves her job at the ambulance call centre, the camaraderie, the humour and the satisfaction of helping people when they need it most. So why is she leaving? | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 10 August 2007 | Breaking Point[39][40] | Philip Palmer | Elliot Cowan, Naomi Frederick, Bertie Carvel, Simon Treves and John Dougall | The effect of a man's recruitment to military intelligence rub off as his married life becomes a brutal game of cat and mouse. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 10 September 2007 – 14 September 2007 | Nightingale Sang in Fernhurst Road[41] | Christopher Matthew | Christopher Matthew, John Dougall, Ifan Meredith, Sam Pamphilon, Liza Sadovy, Kim Romer, Martin Hyder and Piers Stubbs | Christopher Matthew's gently comic tale of life in postwar suburban Surrey. | BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama |
| 1 December 2007 | Gulf[42] | Mark Kotting | Steven Hartley, Ann Mitchell, Ben Onwukwe, Emma Noakes, Tilly Vosburgh, Simon Treves and Peter Marinker | Crazy golf takes on a whole new meaning in this fiery portrait of a family in meltdown, as 30 years of smouldering tensions finally reach their flashpoint. | BBC Radio 3 The Wire |
| 3 February 2008 | The Devil Was Here Yesterday[43] | Colin Teevan Original music by Nikola Kodjabashia |
Owen Teale, Haydn Gwynne, Greg Hicks, Stephen Greif, Clare Higgins, Rufus Wright, Alex Lanipekun, Nadine Marshall, Martin Hyder, Nancy Crane and Laura Molyneux | Will civil servant Simon deliver the report the evidence appears to support or the report the minister seems to want the evidence to support? | BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 |
| 19 March 2008 | The City Speaks: Broken Chain[44][45] | Mark Norfolk | Jeffery Kissoon, Jimmy Akingbola, Sheri-An Davis and Troy Glasgow | Short radio drama based on Peter Ackroyd's specially commissioned short story in which the Virgin Mary makes an appearance in the City of London.
On the day Bert is released from prison, Leon takes him to see the Virgin. |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 10 June 2008 | Dropping Bombs[46] | Paul Cotter | Rosemary Leach, Nigel Anthony, Ivan Kaye, Susan Engel, Kenneth Collard and Dan Starkey | Sixty five years after a bungled bombing raid, a former RAF pilot, with wife and son in tow, makes the long drive to Germany to deliver an apology.
The trip turns out to be explosive for all concerned. |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 6 July 2008 | Piper Alpha[47] | Stephen Phelps | Ewan Bailey, Nigel Betts, Kenny Blyth, Mark Bonnar, Liam Brennan, Stephen Critchlow, Ben Crowe, Nyasha Hatendi, Chris Pavlo, Roshan R Rohatgi, John Rowe, Dan Starkey, John Kay Steel and Joan Walker | On 6 July 1988, a North Sea oil rig was destroyed by a series of explosions and a massive fire, resulting in the death of 167 men.
Based on Lord Cullen's Public Inquiry, the play chronicles the disaster minute-by-minute as it happened 20 years ago. |
BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 |
| 11 July 2008 | One Chord Wonders: Parallel Lines[48] | Frank Cottrell Boyce | Doon Mackichan, Siân Reeves, Rosie Cavaliero, Ivan Kaye, Paul Viragh, Joseph Tremain, Sarah Bedi, John Rowe and Ben Crowe | Frank Cottrell Boyce's series of plays about the punk generation 30 years on begins with the story of Julie, the singer in an ageing Blondie tribute band. An invitation to the reunion of the audience at an Adverts gig in 1977 brings some skeletons dancing from the cupboard. |
BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 18 July 2008 | One Chord Wonders: Blitzkrieg Bop[49] | Frank Cottrell Boyce | Pauline Quirke, Adam Kotz, Manjinder Virk, Ivan Kaye, Ben Crowe, Harry Myers, Sanjay Shelat, Stephen Critchlow and Amy Enticknap | In 1977, self-styled Mo Motormouth was writing a punk fanzine. She now presents the travel news for a radio station. An attempt to relaunch her ailing career brings some unwelcome attention from her livelier listeners. |
BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 25 July 2008 | One Chord Wonders: Damned, Damned, Damned[50][51] | Frank Cottrell Boyce | Richard Ridings, Lloyd Thomas, Chris Pavlo, Richie Campbell, Paul Richard Biggin, John Rowe and Ben Crowe | Hard man Mick's career in the music business imploded after a brush with an over-enthusiastic fan.
Now in prison, can he find salvation in his treasured memories of 'that night' in 1977? |
BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 1 August 2008 | One Chord Wonders: This is the Modern World[52] | Frank Cottrell Boyce | Danny Webb, Stephanie Leonidas, Ann Beach, Carl Prekopp, John Biggins, Alex Tregear, John Cummins, Sam Dale and Liz Sutherland | Earth toilet pioneer and former 'anarcho-punk' Muttley is living in an eco-commune in Wales with his teenage daughter, Lineel, when an invitation to the reunion turns up. Lineel is desperate to find out more about her late mother's previous life in Camberley. Muttley reluctantly agrees to accompany her on a pilgrimage back to his home town...on foot. There Lineel learns the unlikely truth about her parents' past, as well as getting an abrupt introduction to life in the 'real world' beyond the confines of the commune. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 8 August 2008 | One Chord Wonders: Television's Over[53] | Frank Cottrell Boyce | Kristopher Milnes, Freddy White, Gerard Horan, Fenella Woolgar, Leanne Rowe, James Daley, Ben Crowe, John Hasler, Amy Enticknap, John Rowe, Dan Starkey, Nyasha Hatendi, Sarah Bedi, Joan Walker and Tim James | March, 1977. Punk rock is rumoured to be arriving in suburban Surrey. Is anarchy about to overwhelm civilized society or is this salvation for the bored teenagers of Camberley? | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 1 September 2008 | Peter Lorre vs Peter Lorre[54] | Michael Butt | Stephen Greif, Peter Marinker, Helen Longworth, Kenneth Collard, Nathan Osgood, John Rowe, Kerry Shale and John Chancer | Towards the end of his unique career, movie star Peter Lorre found himself at the centre of a strange legal case. Incorporating verbatim extracts from the court transcripts, Michael Butt's play wonders what was going through Lorre's troubled mind as he fought to protect his name. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 2 November 2008 – 9 November 2008 | On The Beach[55] | Nevil Shute dramatised by Mike Walker | Richard Dillane, Claudia Harrison, William Hope, Indira Varma, James Gordon-Mitchell, Jonathan Tafler, Inam Mirza, Stephen Critchlow, Chris Pavlo, Dan Starkey, Jill Cardo, Robert Lonsdale and Gunnar Cauthery | In the aftermath of a nuclear war, a deadly radioactive cloud is moving slowly towards Australia, one of few places on Earth where life still exists. | BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial |
| 25 November 2008 | Flaw in the Motor, Dust in the Blood[56] | Trevor Preston | Rory Kinnear, Susan Engel, Fenella Woolgar, Janice Acquah, Paul Rider, Jonathan Tafler, Manjeet Mann and Inam Mirza | Exploration of life with bipolar disorder.
When Thomas dreams, he's in the world of the crime thriller; his daily life is rather less glamorous. |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 6 March 2009 | Success Story[57] | Brett Goldstein | Geoffrey Streatfeild, Caroline Catz, Sasha Pick and Laurel Lefkow | When Ray's low-budget film is picked up by a major studio his dreams of Hollywood start to become a reality. Then, holed up in a hotel room doing endless publicity interviews, he finds the past coming back to bite him. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 16 March 2009 – 20 March 2009 | Trueman and Riley (Series 2)[58] | Brian B Thompson | Robert Daws and Duncan Preston | Drama series about two bickering detectives. The stories are set in Leeds where Trueman and Riley solve a case in each episode. | BBC Radio 7 |
| 1 June 2009 | The Tent[59] | Tom Green | Siân Reeves, Jeremy Swift, Joanna Scanlan and Janice Acquah | Gavin and Fay bravely attempt to plan their long-overdue wedding. It could be in a 19th-century 'medieval' castle or it could be the zoo, but it definitely won't be the church. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 22 June 2009 – 26 June 2009 | The Art of Deception[60] | Philip Palmer | David Schofield, Indira Varma, Matt Addis, Jonathan Keeble, Belinda Lang, John Biggins, Malcolm Tierney, Philip Fox and Benjamin Askew | Notorious art forger Daniel Ballantyne, newly released from prison but now dying, agrees to help art critic Jessica Brown to write a book about forgery.
So begins a game of cat-and-mouse that will have deadly consequences. |
BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama |
| 29 June 2009 | Accomplices[61] | Simon Passmore | Claudia Harrison, Emily Joyce, Stephen Hogan, Lizzy Watts and Paul Rider | What would you be prepared to do to escape the grind of a life going relentlessly downhill? For former City lawyer Alice, the price is getting higher by the minute. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 11 August 2009 | The Mouse House[62] | Adrian Penketh | Adam Kotz, Raquel Cassidy, Nicholas Gleaves, Giles Fagan and Stephen Hogan | Wannabe cultural terrorist Mike is determined to make a splash; make a statement; make more of his life. But has he got what it takes to pull it off and light up the skies above London? | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 18 September 2009 | The Milk Race[63] | Mark Tuohy | Ivan Kaye, Amarjit Bassan, Kate Binchy, Mairead Conneely, Melissa Advani, Stephen Hogan, David Hargreaves, Kate Layden, Piers Wehner, Rhys Jennings, Tessa Nicholson and Emerald O'Hanrahan | Two west London milkmen race each other to Bognor Pier in their milk floats to decide which of them wins exclusive rights to their local round. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 21 October 2009 | Those Hard to Reach Places[64] | Daniel Thurman | Geoffrey Whitehead, Anne Reid, Janet Dibley, Piers Wehner and Emerald O'Hanrahan | 'Cleaner...only dirtier' is a slogan unlikely to be used by your average domestic cleaner. But Rita is anything but your average domestic cleaner; as an unfortunate former mayor is about to discover. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 16 November 2009 | Forty-Three Fifty-Nine - Wake[65][66] | Katie Hims | Claire Rushbrook, Rachel Davies, John Lightbody, Emily Beecham, Tom Meredith, Kate Fitzgerald and David Webber | The story of Jess' day trip to kiss her dead first love, Danny, goodbye. One lie leads to another and, before they know it, Jess and her mother Avril are in a real pickle. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 18 November 2009 | The Loop[67] | Nick Perry | Ivan Kaye, Edward Hogg, Peter Marinker, Rhys Jennings, Emerald O'Hanrahan and Melissa Advani | When a young boy toys with his dad's mobile phone, middle-aged Englishman Nick Perry finds himself speaking to a young stranger called Jim in New York - in 1959. As they talk, they discover that they are both writers: Nick is struggling with his first radio play and Jim's just started on an ambitious new TV show, The Twilight Zone. Bronze Sony Award – Best Drama Production 2010 |
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 6 December 2009 | The Hairy Ape[68] | Eugene O'Neill | Dominic West, Shaun Dingwall, Jim Norton, Sasha Pick, Annabelle Dowler, John Guerrasio, John Kay Steel, Joe Montana, Matt Addis, David Hargreaves, Stephen Hogan, Benjamin Askew and Philip Fox | Classic American expressionist drama from 1921. The play tells the tragic tale of Yank, a stoker whose whole world is turned upside down when a young heiress ventures into the engine room of a transatlantic ocean liner. | BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 |
| 10 April 2010 | The Believers[69] | Frank Cottrell Boyce Original music by Carl Hunter and Mel Bowen |
Ray Quinn, Samantha Robinson, Kieran Lynn, John Biggins, Rufus Wright, Gary Bleasdale, Alison Pettitt, Joanna Monro, David Seddon, Laura Molyneux, Jill Cardo and Keely Beresford | Liverpool, 1963. The Merseybeat boom is about to take off. And with it, The Believers, a Christian pop band determined to spread the Word. If only they were all singing from the same hymn sheet. | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play |
| 30 April 2010 | The Weighing Room[70] | Justin Hopper | Lloyd Hutchinson, Michael Legge, James Weaver, Paul Rider, David Seddon, Alison Pettitt, Nigel Hastings, Joanna Monro, Bruce Alexander, Michael Shelford and Keely Beresford | Noel is a jump jockey anxious to get his career back on track after a spell on the sidelines. Just what does it take to survive in the demanding and dangerous world of National Hunt racing? | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 10 July 2010 | Going to Ground[71] | Simon Passmore | Ivan Kaye, Anthony Flanagan, Rupert Evans, Guy Henry, Joshua Jenkin, Alison Pettitt, Christine Kavanagh and Sam Dale | 1940, Kent. England is on full alert in anticipation of a German invasion. As church bells sound the alarm, a secret resistance unit springs into action. Whatever happens, none of them expects to see their families again. | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play |
| 22 August 2010 – 29 August 2010 | No Highway[72] | Nevil Shute dramatised by Mike Walker | William Beck, Alison Pettitt, Paul Ritter, Naomi Frederick, Fenella Woolgar, Lauren Mote, Tony Bell, William Hope, Jude Akuwudike, Sean Baker, Sam Dale, Michael Shelford, David Seddon and Christine Kavanagh | 1948. The future of Britain's transatlantic aviation industry rests on the success of a new plane - the Rutland Reindeer. One has crashed already and an eccentric government scientist believes more will follow. The race is on to prove his theory before Reindeers start to fell from the sky. | BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial |
| 22 September 2010 | For Ever England[73] | Tom Green | Gerard Horan, Claire Harry, Tracie Bennett, Alison Pettitt and Carl Rice | Now living abroad, Steve discovers his estranged son Matt has been killed serving in Afghanistan. He returns to England anxious to do the right thing. But how do you begin to grieve for a child you never really knew? | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 20 December 2010 – 24 December 2010 | The Art of Deception[74] | Philip Palmer | David Schofield, Hattie Morahan, Matt Addis, Harry Myers, Stephen Greif, Pandora Colin, Jude Akuwudike, Sally Orrock and Iain Batchelor | Two years after faking his own death, notorious art forger and conman Daniel Ballantyne re-emerges to resume his cat and mouse game with biographer Jessica Brown. | BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama |
| 21 January 2011 | The Wild Ass's Skin Reloaded[75] | Honoré de Balzac adapted by Adrian Penketh | Elliot Cowan, Naomi Frederick, Don Gilet, Chris Porter, Inam Mirza, Lloyd Thomas, Sally Orrock, Jude Akuwudike and Christine Kavanagh | Balzac's classic novel is relocated to contemporary London. Rupert, an unemployed investment banker, is distracted from his suicidal despair by a magic skin which can grant his every wish. Inevitably, there is a price to pay. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 6 February 2011 | Massistonia[76] | Colin Teevan Original music by Nikola Kodjabashia |
Darren Boyd, Nikola Kodjabashia, Ewan Bailey, Sasha C. Damjanovski, Dolya Gavanski, Ivan Marevich, Iain Batchelor and Leah Brotherhead | A tale of Western hubris and Eastern European manipulation of the system, 'Massistonia' follows an English theatre director and his creative team as they try to mount an international touring production of 'Alcmaeon in Corinth'. He embarks on the project with little idea of the forces about to be unleashed against him. | BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 |
| 15 March 2011 | Small Acts of Kindness[77] | Trevor Preston | Stephen Greif, Ann Beach, Susan Penhaligon, Joanna Monro, Sean Baker, Gethin Anthony, Sally Orrock and Christine Kavanagh | In the late 1950s Charlie was a violent and uncontrollable entrant to art school. His teacher changed the course of his life. In his late sixties his mentor's death shifts everything once more. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 8 June 2011 | The 40 Year Twitch[78][79] | Daniel Thurman | Paula Wilcox, Philip Jackson, Anne Reid and Brian Bowles | When Yvonne loses her job at the age of 64, she starts to fear that husband Neil's devotion to birding - birdwatching to the uninitiated - is actually all about escaping her and their humdrum life together. Thus begins a somewhat overenthusiastic pursuit of the truth as she trains her binoculars firmly on Neil's every move. Can best friend Wendy bring her back to earth? | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 27 August 2011 | Life After Life[80] | Frank Cottrell Boyce | Gbemi Ikumelo, Don Gilèt, Damian Lynch, Elaine Claxton, Susie Riddell, Alex Tregear, Carl Prekopp and Gerard McDermott | Miranda was undergoing what should have been a routine operation. Now she finds herself 'on the other side', but whatever notions of what the future might hold beyond her life on Earth Miranda may have had, they were certainly not like this. It's not even her afterlife, it's Toby's and he's in control. Inspired by the ways that internet users are increasingly responding to death online, Frank Cottrell Boyce's comic drama follows Miranda as she tries to make sense of the strange cyberworld she has been sucked into. |
BBC World Service BBC World Drama[81] |
| 3 September 2011 | September in the Rain[82][83][84] | John Godber | John Godber and Jane Godber | Jack and Liz are in Blackpool for one last time. John Godber's classic stage play tells the touching and funny story of a marriage through a lifetime of holidays together. | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play |
| 15 October 2011 | The Last Executioner[85] | Peter-Jakob Kelting | Paul Copley, Ralph Ineson, Bryan Dick, Simon Bubb and Kenneth Collard | Switzerland, 1938. Triple murderer Paul Irniger has been sentenced to death. Over 120 men have spontaneously applied to be his executioner. Based on research by a psychiatrist at the time, Peter-Jakob Kelting's play imagines 5 of the applicants competing for the job. | BBC Radio 3 The Wire |
Close
Notes:
- Episodes 1–10 directed by Kate Rowland, 11–20 directed by Toby Swift
- Although episode 6 was scheduled for 12 September 2001 its first broadcast may have been pre-empted by news coverage of world events and postponed until 31 July 2002
Sources:
- Prix Italia, Winners 1949 - 2010, RAI Archived 2013-10-22 at the Wayback Machine