Radio Plays
Various award-winning comedies and dramas for both BBC Radio Four and Audible
Alfred Molina recording “There Used To Be a Me”
Behind the Author’s Desk
BBC Radio 4
My BBC Radio 4 play “Spike and the Elfin Oak” – a comic fantasy inspired by Spike Milligan’s madcap attempts in the mid-1960s to preserve a curious sculpture in Kensington Gardens – features in this stunning anthology of dramas taking a behind-the-scenes look at some of our best-loved authors, mingling fact and fantasy to explore their extraordinary hidden lives.
No Alternative
BBC Radio 4
I’ve always had an interest in writing about comedy and I noticed no one had yet explored the Alternative Comedy movement of the eighties. It’s now forty years since it erupted and yet (as far as I could see) no one had dramatised any part of it. So I took up the challenge. The project was enhanced by weaving in archiving footage of voices form the period and engaging the brilliant Andy de la Tour who was there from the beginning. It was great piece to write and I hope evoke the mood and the politics of the period. Plus you get to hear me playing a Marxist juggler!
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
Puckoon
BBC Radio 4
This was my adaptation of the classic Spike Milligan novel Puckoon. It’s a satirical take on the 1920’s partition of Ireland, where due to bureaucratic incompetence, a border is being created slap-bang through the centre of the titular rural town, separating married couples, churches from graveyards, and patrons from pubs.
My adaption aired on BBC Radio 4 and is also available on BBC Sounds. In this version, comedian Ed Byrne takes the role of Dan Milligan and the Narrator is Comedy Legend, Barry Cryer.
Directed by Dirk Maggs
Happiness!
BBC Radio 4
This is a comedy drama I wrote about the veteran entertainer Ken Dodd. Set in 1988, the story follows Ken as he faces charges of tax evasion. Originally aired on BBC Radio 4, David Threlfall won BBC Audio Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Ken Dodd.
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
Spike And The Elfin Oak
BBC Radio 4
This is a comic fantasy inspired by the true story of Spike Milligan’s madcap adventures in the mid-1960’s to preserve the Elfin Oak in Kensington Gardens whilst also performing in the West End run of his play, The Bedsitting Room. First aired on BBC Radio 4.
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
There Used To Be a Me
Audible
There Used To Be A Me – takes its title from a Sellers quote, “There used to be a me, but, I had it surgically removed.” It was directed and produced by Barnaby Eaton-Jones of Spiteful Puppet Productions.
In There Used To Be A Me, I’ve attempted to examine the man and his work and peer into the mechanisms of his thinking, which, if contemporary reports are accurate, was sometimes wildly awry.
Directed by Barnaby Eaton-Jones
New York Festivals Radio Award Gold Best Digital
Starship Titanic
BBC Radio 4
The first ever radio play to be based a computer game, was devised by Douglas Adams, novelised by Terry Jones and rebooted for audio by me. It tells the tale of a beautiful new intergalactic spaceship which, on launch, suddenly ceases to exist then reappears unexpectedly above rural Oxfordshire. Michael Palin plays the Encyclopedia Galactica with a special appearance from Simon Jones (Arthur Dent from “The Hitch HIker’s Guide to the Galaxy”). Plus you can hear me playing a Door, a Loss Adjustor and an Elevator.
Directed by Dirk Maggs
