Radio
Radio Productions
CBL is one of the main independent suppliers of drama for BBC Radio 3 and 4 and has won five Sony Radio Academy Awards, including: The Gold (Laughter in the Dark by Nabakov); Silver (The Permanent Way by David Hare and Breakfast with Mugabe by Fraser Grace) and Bronze (Sea Urchins, by Sharman Macdonald).
Stop Press January 2012! CBL has also been shortlisted for two BBC Audio Drama awards for Flare Path – Rory Kinnear for Best Actor and Rupert Penry-Jones for Best Supporting Actor.
PLAYS TO BE BROADCAST:
Rumpole and the Learned Friends Starring Benedict Cumberbatch – Radio 4 - 1st March 2012
The Royal Court’s production of Chicken Soup With Barley by Arnold Wesker and directed by Simon Godwin due to transmit at 8pm on Radio 3 in April 2012.
South Downs a new play by David Hare for Radio 4. Directed by Jeremy Herrin and starring Anna Chancellor and Nicholas Farrell. Due to TX in Autumn 2012.
PLAYS PREVIOUSLY BROADCAST:
The Heat of the Day
Elizabeth Bowen’s wartime novel adapted from the Harold Pinter screenplay by Tristram Powell and Honor Borwick. This two part Classic Serial for Radio 4 was directed by Tristram Powell and produced by Marilyn Imrie.
Episode 1 aired at 3pm on Sunday 31st October 2011.
Episode 2 aired at 3pm on Sunday 6th Nov 2011.
Duplicitous relationships and divided allegiances lie at the heart of this dramatisation. Stella, played by Anna Chancellor, is an intelligent widowed woman, living in London during the Second World War and working for a government agency. It soon becomes clear tht she is the pawn in a macho battle between her existing lover Robert (who is possibly a spy and whose identitiy is in constant flux) and a creepy man called Harrison (an emotionally stunted counterspy). There’s a brooding sense of deceit and menace that grows subtly across each neat, short scene.
A Two Pipe Problem
Radio 4 – 11 August 2011
Drama by Michael Chaplin. Episode One: Two inmates in a retirement home for members of the entertainment industry tackle a mystery involving a lost ventriloquist’s dummy. With Stanley Baxter and Richard Briers. Directed by Marilyn Imrie.
A Two Pipe Problem
Radio 4 -12 August 2011
Drama by Michael Chaplin. Episode Two: featuring William and Sandy, residents of The Old Beeches retirement home for elderly thespians and former co-stars of a 1960s TV series. With Stanley Baxter and Richard Briers. Directed by Marilyn Imrie.
Flare Path by Terence Rattigan
Sunday 5th June on Radio 3 at 8pm.
Flare Path is a play by Terence Rattigan, written in 1941 and first staged in 1942. Set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command airbase during the Second World War, the story involves a love triangle between a pilot, his actress wife and a famous film star.
The title of the play refers to the flares that were used to light runways to allow planes to take off and land but the flare paths were also used by the Germans to target the RAF planes. In writing the play, Terence Rattigan drew on his experiences as a tail gunner in the RAF Coastal Command.
This production stars Rupert Penry Jones (Nominated for a BBC Audio Drama Award) as Peter Kyle, Ruth Wilson as Patricia Graham and Rory Kinnear (Nominated for a BBC Audio Drama Award) as Teddy Graham. With Monica Dolan, Una Stubbs, Tom Goodman-Hill, Justin Salinger, Julian Wadham, David Hartley and Kelly Shirley.
Directed by Jeremy Herrin (Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Court) For Catherine Bailey Ltd.
Sybil Law by Charlie Dore
Friday 13th May-Friday 3rd June. Radio Scotland.
Octogenarian Sybil Law’s comedy radio show celebrates all canny, feisty, funny older people. Starring Scotland’s leading comedy actress Una Maclean, each episode features Sybil’s comically unpredictable weekly exploits and confrontations with neighbourhood friends and foes.
Cameo appearances include Sir Stirling Moss and Stanley Baxter. Directed by Marilyn Imrie.
Macmillan’s Marvellous Motion Machine by Jules Horne
BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play May 2011
The true story of Scots blacksmith Macmillan, who invented the pedal bicycle in 1840.
Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson adapted for radio by Mike Kenny. Starring Roger Allam and directed by Annie Castledine. 12th December 2010 at 20.00 on BBC Radio 3
“Boniface and Me”
November 2010
“Gracey and Me”
November 2010 Sequel to the very popular ‘Boniface and Me’ both written by Gillian Plowman. Starring Harriet Walter, Jenny Jules, Henry Goodman, Lauren Mote, Lakechia Jeanne, Hannah Boyde and Denton Chikura. Directed by Annie Castledine.
“Rumpole”
Starring Timothy West and Benedict Cumberbatch, star of the new TV series Sherlock as the young Rumpole.
In two parts -
‘Rumpole and the Family Pride’
Rumpole mingles with a branch of Yorkshire aristocracy remotely connected to Hilda when he represents a Lord in the Coroner’s court.
9th August 2010 at 2.15pm – Radio 4.
‘Rumpole and the Eternal Triangle’
We rejoin Rumpole and Hilda in the late 1950s. Rumpole is seduced into defending an attractive woman violinist accused of murder.
10th August 2010 at 2.15pm – Radio 4.
“Stanley Baxter Playhouse”
17th September 2010 and 24th October at 11.30am – Radio 4.
CLARISSA by Samuel Richardson
Adapted in four parts for the Radio 4 Classic Serial by Hattie Naylor.
14th, 21st, 28th March and 4th April 2010 at 3pm – Radio 4.
Clarissa is a heartbreaking, compulsive piece of epistolary storytelling in a new dramatisation of one of the world’s greatest novels. Published in 1747, it was the precursor to and inspiration of many of the great European novels which followed in its wake. Cast:
* Robert Lovelace played by Richard Armitage
* Clarissa Harlowe played by Zoe Waites
* The company: Alison Steadman, Deborah Findlay, Miriam Margolyes, Oliver Milburn, John Rowe, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Adrian Scarborough, Stephen Critchlow, Cathy Sara, Sophie Thompson, Ellie Beaven, Lisa Hammond and Linda Broughton.
The Lady From The Sea by Henrik Ibsen
1st November 2009 – Radio 3.
Before her marriage to Dr. Wangel, Ellida, had promised herself to a sailor who then disappeared. Ellida is consumed by her longing for the sea. And the return of the stranger forces her to confront both the past and a desire for freedom. At last she has the chance to choose her own destiny….
With Lia Williams as Ellida and Hugh Bonneville as Dr Wangel.
ALSO:
The Song Thief by Michael Chaplin.
Trumbo by Christopher Trumbo played by Corin Redgrave, directed by Roger Michell.
A Two Pipe Problem by Michael Chaplin. Directed by Marilyn Imrie with Stanley Baxter and Richard Briers.
Life After Scandal by Robin Soans. Directed by Hilary Norrish with Helen McCrory, Ron Cook and Corin Redgrave.
Classic Serial: The Card by Arnold Bennett, dramatised by Jennifer Howarth with Ron Cook, Elizabeth Spriggs and William Ash.Directed by Marilyn Imrie.
Rumpole and the Reign of Terror by John Mortimer with Timothy West and Prunella Scales. Directed by Marilyn Imrie.
The Stanley Baxter Playhouse. Directed by Marilyn Imrie.
Cold Call by David Holt.
First Impressions by Rona Munro.
Mortal Memories by Liz Lochhead.
Wheeling Them In by Rona Munro.
Boniface and Me by Gillian Plowman. Directed by Annie Castledine with Harriet Walter and Jude Akuwudike.
The King’s Kilt by Rona Munro.
Pasta Alfredo at Café Alessandro by Rona Munro.
Flying Down to Greenock by Michael Chaplin.
Life: An Audio Tour by Jules Horne. Directed by Philip Howard.
The Vertical Hour by David Hare. Directed by Jeremy Herrin with Anton Lesser and Indira Varma.
The Antisocial Behaviour of Horace Rumpole by John Mortimer. Directed by Marilyn Imrie with Timothy West and Prunella Scales.
A Streetcar Named Revenge & The Trusty Valet and the Crusty Butler with Stanley Baxter and Richard Briers.
A DISAPPEARING NUMBER
Winner for Best New Play of the 2007 Critics Circle Award, The Evening Standard Award and Olivier Award Disappearing Number was conceived and Directed by Simon McBurney with Original Music by Nitin Sawhney. A Disappearing Number is a provocative meditation on the beauty of mathematics and the nature of creativity, inspired by the true story of the collaboration between two of the 20th century’s most remarkable pure mathematicians, Srinivasa Ramanujan, a poor Brahmin from South India and Cambridge Professor GH Hardy. Sound Design is by Christopher Shutt. A Disappearing Number was a co-production with Complicite. Directed by Simon McBurney with Saskia Reeves.
Woman’s Hour Serial: To The North by Elizabeth Bowen. Dramatised and directed by Deborah Paige with Margaret Tyzack and Catherine McCormack.
Radio 4 – The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: The Man in the Garden by Rona Munro. Directed by Marilyn Imrie.
Astonishing Archieby Bill Paterson.
Fife Circle by Michael Chaplin.
The Man in the Garden by Rona Munro.
Have You Come Far?
‘RUMPOLE AND THE PENGE BUNGALOW MURDERS’
2 x 45 minute episodes
DRAMATISED BY RICHARD STONEMAN and Starring Timothy West and Benedict Cumberbatch as the young Rumpole.
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders by John Mortimer. Directed by Marilyn Imrie with Timothy West and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Trumbo by Christopher Trumbo. Directed by Roger Michell with Corin Redgrave.
‘QUARTERMAINE’S TERMS’ by the late great British playwright Simon Gray.
Michael Palin stars as St John Quartermaine, a teacher whose life lived vicariously in the confines of a staffroom is dwindling away.
‘Quartermaine’s Terms’ is a funny and moving play set in a school for teaching English to foreigners in the 1960s. It deals with the concerns of seven teachers over several years and in particular the progress of Quartermaine, a lonely man and ineffective teacher.
‘Plenty’ by David Hare, starring Miranda Richardson, Ben Miles and Geoffrey Palmer.
PLAYS BROADCAST AND ON CD INCLUDE:
Man and Superman by Bernard Shaw directed by Peter Hall; with Ralph Fiennes, Juliet Stevenson, Paul Merton and Judi Dench.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte directed by Catherine Bailey with Catherine McCormack and Joseph Fiennes and Keira Knightly.
The Airman Who Would Not Die by Michael Crompton directed by John Dove with David Tennant and Miranda Richardson.
Sea Urchins, by Sharman Macdonald, a new play commissioned by CBL (Sony Radio Award, Best Drama) directed by Richard Wilson.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde directed by Howard Davies with Simon Russell Beale, Celia Imrie, Geraldine McEwan and Geoffrey Palmer.
Mortimer at the Millennium directed by Marilyn Imrie with John Mortimer, Richard Briers, Sinead Cusack, Joanna David. (Sony Award).
The Story of Tracey Beaker and The Dare Game by Jacqueline Wilson dramatised by Amanda Swift and Georgia Pritchett. Directed by Marilyn Imrie.
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome dramatised by David Wood. Directed by Catherine Bailey.
Scenes from Shakespeare directed by Phillyda Lloyd; with Simon Callow, Lindsay Duncan, Paul Rhys and Harriet Walter.
Maria Aitken’s The Best of Noel Coward with Jane Horrocks and Belinda Lang.
Maria Aitken’s The Best of Oscar Wilde’s Prose and Poetry.
Geraldine McEwan’s Jane Austen
Alec McCowen’s Kipling
Terre Haute by Edmund White. Directed by Maria Aitken with Ian McKellen.
Wild Things (2 Series) by Georgia Pritchett, directed by Beeban Kidron with Miranda Richardson, Doon Mackichan, Ronni Ancona, Celia Imrie, Stephen Mangan, Imelda Staunton, Robert Webb and David Morrissey.
Rumpole and the Primrose Path, Rumpole and the Scales of Justice. (Silver Broadcast Award) Rumpole and the Vanishing Juror, Rumpole Redeemed by John Mortimer. Directed by Marilyn Imrie
Laughter in the Dark by Vladamir Nabakov. Dramatised by Craig Higginson. Directed by Maria Aitken (Sony Radio Academy Award – Gold)
The Permanent Way by David Hare. Directed by Max Stafford-Clark (Sony Radio Academy Award – Silver)
Quartemaine’s Terms by Simon Gray. Directed by Maria Aitken with Michael Palin, Andrew Lincoln and Harriet Walter.
Breakfast with Mugabe by Fraser Grace. Directed by Anthony Sher. (Sony Radio Academy Award – Silver)
Plenty by David Hare. Directed by John Dove with Miranda Richardson, Geoffrey Palmer and Ben Miles.
Insignificance by Terry Johnson. With Damien Lewis and Megan Dodds. Directed by Roxana Silbert.
The Vertical Hour by David Hare, directed by Jeremy Herrin.
A Two Pipe Problem stars Stanley Baxter and Richard Briers.
A Disappearing Number conceived and Directed by Simon McBurney with Complicite.