Recent radio plays.

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  • ardcarp
    Late member
    • Nov 2010
    • 11102
    #1

    Recent radio plays.

    I've had the unusual pleasure of a quiet long weekend which has allowed me to hear 3 radio plays. (As they say, the pictures are so much better than TV.) Yours truly has the temerity to put them in ascending order.

    Today (Monday 1st April) The Ferryhill Philosophers. This afternoon Drama on R4, which I gather is part of a series, was TRULY awful. Wooden script and even more wooden acting. I only carried on listening to confirm to myself that it was really that bad. Oh dear.

    Sunday 31st March Drama on 3 Gogol's The Government Inspector. This is maybe one of those icons of Russian literature that one feels one ought to get round to some day. This certainly brought it to life for me, and even if Gogol's satire is a little heavy-handed by today's standards, the translation and production made it witty and approachable.

    Saturday 30th March R4's Drama Offshore a dramatisation of Penelope Fitzgerald's Booker Prizewinning novel. ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.
    I can't recommend this enough for its humour and poignancy. Superbly produced and acted. I really recommend a listen.

    BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Penelope Fitzgerald - Offshore
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09kpm4s
    Penelope Fitzgerald's Booker Prize-winning novel set amongst 1960s Thames Barge-dwellers.
    Last edited by ardcarp; 01-04-19, 22:22.
    Tags: None
  • DracoM
    Host
    • Mar 2007
    • 12970
    #2
    Yes, I too am a devoted R4 drama listener.
    Ferryhill is a series and has been on before, and was as dreadful as you describe it IMO. Avoided it this time like the plague.

    Prob for me with the Gogol is that it signals what is going on so soon that it seems like an endlessly elongated bit of nothingness on a string. Acting VERY fine, but....

    Totally agree about 'Offshore'.

    Try to catch the 'Investigation' series on R4 this week @ 2.15 p.m.

    Comment

    • ardcarp
      Late member
      • Nov 2010
      • 11102
      #3
      Prob for me with the Gogol is that it signals what is going on so soon that it seems like an endlessly elongated bit of nothingness on a string.
      Yes, agreed. I think my 'heavy-handed' comment was along those lines.

      Comment

      • Conchis
        Banned
        • Jun 2014
        • 2396
        #4
        Originally posted by DracoM View Post
        Yes, I too am a devoted R4 drama listener.
        Ferryhill is a series and has been on before, and was as dreadful as you describe it IMO. Avoided it this time like the plague.

        Prob for me with the Gogol is that it signals what is going on so soon that it seems like an endlessly elongated bit of nothingness on a string. Acting VERY fine, but....

        Totally agree about 'Offshore'.

        Try to catch the 'Investigation' series on R4 this week @ 2.15 p.m.
        He does exactly the same in Dead Souls.

        Comment

        • DracoM
          Host
          • Mar 2007
          • 12970
          #5
          Sorry 'Interrogation' NOT 'Investigation.

          Comment

          • Belgrove
            Full Member
            • Nov 2010
            • 938
            #6
            I've thoroughly enjoyed Tumenbay on R4 which has just completed its 3rd series (this and the previous two are available on Sounds). It's set in a fictional city whose wealth is founded on the slave trade and is inspired by the events surrounding the Mamluk Sultanate. Much intrigue, alliances, betrayals and murder suffuse the story with a teeming cast of characters - a bit like I Claudius crossed with Game of Thrones, sans dragons et al. The silky voiced Anton Lesser as the blind leader of a society of warrior religious zealots is especially chilling. It has very high production values with much care placed on the intricate soundscape, which spirits one off to an imagined Levantine - good on headphones.

            Comment

            • DracoM
              Host
              • Mar 2007
              • 12970
              #7
              Ignore my recommendation to listen to R4 'The Interrogation'.
              New series is a tired, no-jokes, no surprise, oh so funny-not, double act, a formulaic emptiness that has spectacularly and totally run out of road after the first series.
              Kenneth Cranham deserves better than this. So do we.

              Comment

              • gradus
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 5607
                #8
                Hancock's Ashes on 4 Extra was very entertaining today.

                Comment

                • DracoM
                  Host
                  • Mar 2007
                  • 12970
                  #9
                  Just listened to today's 'Interrogation'.
                  Bullying guff - do the police REALLY behave like this on the back of what the two 'detectives' know is no evidence and all is based on a hunch?
                  From literally first three minutes, we know exactly what is to happen. And it does. So why listen?

                  ....................Oh yes, and BTW, so many thanks for the blow by blow football match stuff.

                  I mean, talk about a show that has lost its way and become a complete self-parody..............

                  Comment

                  • Bella Kemp
                    Full Member
                    • Aug 2014
                    • 463
                    #10
                    I greatly enjoy the play on Radio 3 on Sunday evenings, and there is also much that is pleasing on Radio 4 Extra.

                    Comment

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