BBC Productions - Dramas
BBC Radio 3
"Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" - March 2008 - 1x120mins
Starring Joss Ackland / Directed by Andy Jordan
Hypocrisy, greed and secret passions threaten to tear apart a wealthy but dysfunctional Mississippi family in Tennessee Williams' explosive American masterpiece set in the plantations of the Deep South. The play, produced here in its original version, portrays the larger-than-life characters of Maggie "the Cat," her alcoholic husband, Brick, and the dominating family patriarch, Big Daddy. A hot-house of corruption and lies, the drama is played out against a backdrop of rampant 1950’s Cold War anti-communism, white domination, racial segregation, and intense homophobia.
"Drama on 3 - Don Carlos" - 2005 - 1x120mins
Starring Sir Derek Jacobi / Directed by MIchael Grandage & Andy Jordan
A transfer of the critically acclaimed West End production of Schiller's 'Don Carlos' - starring Sir Derek Jacobi, Richard Coyle, Elliot Cowan, Claire Price, Peter Eyre, Charlotte Randle, Una Stubbs, Ian Hogg and Andrew MacDonald among others. Directed by award-winning theatre director Michael Grandage and Andy Jordan, with music by Adam Cork. Recorded in Studio 2 at Abbey Road studios.
"Drama on 3 - In The Company of Men" - May 2003 - 1x120mins
Written by Edward Bond / Directed by Andy Jordan
A two-hour ensemble cast performance of Edward Bond's critically acclaimed play. Adapted for radio by Bond himself! Starring Kenneth Cranham.
BBC Radio 4
"On Ego" - June 2009 - 1x45mins
Written by Mick Gordon & Paul Broks / Music by Jon Frankel / Directed by Mick Gordon
On Ego is a co-operation between a non-playwright, in this case the neuropsychologist Paul Broks, and the theatre director and writer, Mick Gordon. Mick has taken the argument about the existence of the ego from the book Into The Silent Land by Paul Broks, and fashioned a dramatic scenario through which the arguments are explored. The play is a contemplation on love, identity and what it is to be human, and the narrative grapples with, and is driven by, questions about self, ego and consciousness. The play peers into the human mind and suggests that, no matter how science is able to analyse existence, the construction of feelings of love and pain remain unfathomable.
"Cancer Tales" - January 2009 - 1x45mins
Starring Dona Kroll / Written by Nell Dunn / Directed by Merilyn Harris
Nell Dunn’s powerful play based on real-life experiences of cancer patients and those close to them. By talking to those involved and through the act of writing this play, she says ’I began to fathom out what it is people can do for one another.’ Three separate stories unfold through the play, authentic voices of people learning ‘how to be’ with someone with a life-threatening illness.
"Cry Babies" - March 2009 - 1x45mins
Starring Alex Jennings & Natasha Little / Written by Kim Newman / Music by Jeremy Paul Carroll / Directed by Neil Gardner
Angela & Barty Flitcroft are busy, successful people. They want a child but don’t have the time to look after it. The solution is a genetically enhanced daughter, Joy, birthed by a surrogate mother and reared to adulthood in a cryogenic chamber. Joy experiences brief moments ‘out of the machine’, and as time passes each opening brings shocks and surprises as her parents and their society undergo incredible changes. And for Joy, stuffed with education by the machine but denied everyday experiences, life is not just a strange new country, but a frightening, confusing and often funny one too.
"Mayflies" - March - 2009 - 1x45mins
Starring Sir Derek Jacobi, Catherine McCormack & Jason Isaacs / Written by Mike Maddox / Music by Jeremy Paul Carroll / Directed by Neil Gardner
Douglas Scofield has retired from the world of astronomy and, following the death of his wife, now runs a fish farm with his daughter, who is expecting her first child. All Douglas wants is peace and quiet and a chance to write his book about fishing. However, a visit from an old colleague, Stephen Mole, brings news of a message from a distant world, the very sign of life Douglas spent his career searching for. Is it safe to reply? Indeed, should they reply at all - and to what purpose?
"Grace" - April 2008 - 1x45mins
Starring Paola Dionisotti & Trevor Peacock / Written by Mick Gordon & AC Grayling / Directed by Mick Gordon & Andy Jordan
Issues of faith, love, and humanity are at the core of this intimate family drama in which Grace, a scientist and champion of atheism, is faced with the decision of her son Tom to become a priest. A collaboration between philosopher A.C.Grayling and theatre writer and director Mick Gordon, the characters offer solutions to their deeply opposed ways of looking at the world even as they rage.
"Devices & Desires" - 1997 - 6x30mins
Written by PD James / Adapted by Neville Teller /Produced by Matthew Walters
A serial killer has claimed four victims and created a climate of mounting fear in the small community of Larksoken on the Norfolk coast. Staying nearby in a newly-inherited cottage, Adam Dalgliesh is drawn into contact not just with the local population, but also, inevitably, with the investigating team.
ALSO released as a BBC Radio Collection Audio Cassette.
"Berkoff's Macbeth" - 1995
Directed by and starring Steven Berkoff / Produced by David Benedictus
No programme information at this time - bear with us, it's on its way!
BBC Radio 7 & BBC Audiobooks
"The Brightonomicon" - Sept-Nov 2008 & March & April 2009 - 13x30mins
Starring David Warner & Andy Serkis / Written by Elliott Stein & Neil Gardner / Music by Jeremy Paul Carroll / Produced & Directed by Neil Gardner
Brighton, 1960, and a young man suffering amnesia is resuced from the sea by the enigmatic and overwhelming Hugo Rune, Guru's Guru and Logos of the Aeons! They embark on 12 surreal, bizarre and far-fetched adventures in order to recover the Chronovision device and stop the evil Count Otto Black from taking over the world! Featuring magic and mayhem, naked witches and dead rock stars, backseat zombies and spaniel involvement. Starring David Warner, Rupert Degas, Andy Serkis, Jason Isaacs, Martin Jarvis, Sarah Douglas, Katherine Parkinson, Kevin Eldon, Michael Fenton-Stevens, Mark Wing-Davey and a host of acting and comedy legends. Adapted from the best-selling novel by Robert Rankin, the father of far-fetched fiction!
BBC World Service
"Sitting In Limbo" - September 2000 - 1x60mins
Directed by Andy Jordan
A one hour drama inspired by the events of October 1983 in Grenada. The only independently produced drama on World Service in 2000!