Radio

Short Stories broadcast on BBC Radio Four

Matilda and One of the Twelve Dancing Princes
read by Anne Reid 15th March 2000, repeated on Book at Bedtime, July 19th 2000.

Treatment Room
read by Stephanie Cole at the Bath Literature Festival, transmitted 5th March 2001.

Family Connections
read by Penelope Wilton 19th January 2004.

Between Here and Knitwear
in a week of Christmas stories with a twist, read by the author 22nd December 2005.

Just One of the Girls
In a week '21st Century Family Life' stories, read by Phyllida Nash, 6th May 2009. Repeated Sunday 6th February 2011.

Plays broadcast on BBC Radio Four

Poles Apart
June 14th and 31st July 1994, was a Radio Times Radio Choice and received ‘an early and deserved repeat,’ Anne Karpf, The Guardian. ‘A richly rewarding account of the friendship that developed between a wealthy Conservative ex-Minister and a working class Socialist, after the latter, Bill Wheeler, livened up an otherwise exclusively Tory meeting that the former, Sir Anthony Nutting, was addressing as parliamentary candidate for Oldham. With Bernard Cribbins as Wheeler and Peter Jeffrey as Nutting,’ The Observer. Directed by Martin Jenkins.

Starved for Love
45 minute afternoon play 25th October 2002 starred Patricia Routledge and Emma Cunniffe. Radio Times Radio Choice. ‘A striking play … deftly written,’ Kate Kellaway, The Observer. ‘Newlyweds Lillian and Frank know precisely what hunger is. They are already living in hard times – Chrissie Gittins’ play is set partly in 1934 – but to win £250 they become part of a matrimonial freak show in Blackpool, lying in glass coffins for 30 days without food on display to the gawping public. Only married a few hours, they began the strangest, cruellest honeymoon. Based on a news item from the Blackpool Gazette, this was a likeable tale of desperate things done in dire poverty.’ Elisabeth Mahoney, The Guardian. ‘Such a good piece of writing and a wonderful radio piece. She is a gifted writer,’ Patricia Routledge. Directed by Kate McAll.

Life Assurance
60 minute Saturday afternoon play 19th February, 2005. Best Drama and Pick of the Day in the Daily Mail Weekend’s preview of the week’s best radio, chosen by Susan Jeffreys. She wrote ‘This is what you want in a radio play – dark deeds in Victorian slums, a spate of suspicious deaths and, eventually, an inspector on the trail. The fact that the play is based on a true story makes it all the more horribly thrilling. Sorcha Cusack stars in this account of murderous women, dodgy insurance claims and the deadly power of ‘flypaper water’. Not to be missed.’ Also starred Gillian Kearney and Jan Ravens. Radio Choice, Daily Telegraph: ‘a horrific tale of mass murders,’ Gillian Reynolds. Directed by Claire Grove.

Dinner in the Iguanodon
45 minute afternoon play 11th January 2006. A Radio Choice in The Independent and Pick of the Day in The Guardian, and selected as the main Radio Choice in the Radio Times. ‘As flamboyant settings for dinner parties go you’d be hard pushed to beat eating seven courses inside the mould of a life-sized iguanodon. This drama is based on real events and captures the excitement and the exuberance of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins as he sees his superscaled work take shape. It also conveys the frustration and fury of a working class woman from Dorset called Mary Anning. Without her years spent scouring the coast for fossils, Hawkins and his fellow palaeontologists, professional fossil collectors and scientists (like Darwin) would never have seen the material that helped in the birth of evolutionary theory, or, indeed, these beautiful plaster-cast dinosaurs.’ Jane Anderson, Radio Times. Starred Suzanna Hamilton, Philip Franks and Tina Gray. Directed by Viv Beeby.