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Drama of the Week: Daily Summaries Delivered
by BBC Radio 4
Every Friday we bring you a new drama from BBC Radio 4 or Radio 3. Exercise your imagination with some of the best writers and actors on radio. Storytelling at its very best.
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- Yesterday44 min
THE 5000, Episode 1
By Sebastian Baczkiewicz. Three plays about the feeding of the five thousand and the personal and political fallout from this extraordinary event.
- 1 weeks ago44 min
Storm Yma, Episode 1
Rhiannon Parry is the council’s Emergency Planning and Resilience Manager. As one of the worst storms Wales has ever seen is about to hit her town, she leads a team fighting to keep people safe. But she’ll soon find she can’t keep her own past separate from the crisis that is approaching.Meanwhile, teenage storm chaser and youtuber, Dale, is thrilled to be finally at the centre of things and desperate to get the word out there. How far will he go to capture the footage he needs?New drama from Siân Owen (previously, Balls and Land of My Father for Radio 4).Rhiannon… Remy BeasleyEira… Sharon MorganLouise…. Yasemin ÖzdemirDale… Iwan DaviesDale’s Mum/ Control/ Liz… Sara GregoryTony/ Osian… Jonathan HawkinsElis… Jack HammettSuperintendent Matt Richards… Ben AddisBob… Ioan HefinSound design by Rhys Morris and Catherine RobinsonProduction Co-ordinator… Lindsay ReesContent Consultant… Jon Owen QPMResearch Assistant... Olly BirchDirected by Fay Lomas, BBC Audio Drama Wales
- 2 weeks ago58 min
Gulliver's Travels
A new two-part adaptation by Ian Billings, celebrating the 300th anniversary of Jonathan Swift’s satire.Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon with a sensible English mind and an ambition for greatness, is shipwrecked and wakes on a strange shore, pinned to the ground by a crowd of people no bigger than his hand. In Lilliput he is a marvel and a potential weapon, taken up by a court that treats its own quarrels with enormous seriousness. But his travels are only beginning, and the further he goes, the harder it becomes to see home in quite the same way.Published in 1726, Swift's book has spent three centuries being read both as a children's adventure and as one of the sharpest satires on human vanity in English.Swift was writing about the politicians and courtiers of Georgian England. Three hundred years later, the joke still lands.Lemuel Gulliver.....Graham Dickson General Clefen-Marsi/ King of Brobdingnag.....David Holt King of Lilliput/ Jester.....Jack Nuttall Glumdalclitch.....Lucie Shorthouse Limtoc/ Queen of Brobdingnag.....Joanna Neary Flimnap/ Farmer.....Sunil Patel Queen of Lilliput/ Mother.....Debbie Korley King's Father/ Yokel.....Ian BillingsWritten by Jonathan Swift Adapted by Ian Billings Directed by Lorna Newman Sound design by Sharon Hughes Production Coordinator: Sara Benaim Studio Production Coordinator: Jonathan Powell Technical Producers: Andy Garratt, Neva Missirian and Kira GolightlyA BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.
- 3 weeks ago28 min
Out Of Time: Episode 1 Pan-pan
Following an Arctic storm, the crew of the research vessel Coralith Epsilon find themselves stranded in thick pack ice. Cut off from the outside world and running low on supplies, hope arrives in the form of a mysterious Morse code message.But the ship that comes to the rescue is not what they expected. Trapped together in a frozen limbo, two crews separated by a century must survive starvation, the elements, and paranoia to get home.A chilling five-part supernatural thriller that blends claustrophobic survivalism, cosmic sci-fi and environmental geopolitics, set in one of the most hostile places on Earth - the Arctic tundra. Written by the writers of the award-winning drama podcast 'Up In Smoke', Cambria Bailey-Jones and Guy Larsen.MARIA.....Raffey Cassidy TIMOTHY.....Sacha Dhawan FRED.....Tanya Moodie LAURA.....Tiffany SmithWriters: Cambria Bailey-Jones and Guy Larsen Director: Nadia Molinari Sound Designer and Technical Producer: Sharon Hughes Technical Producer: Sam Dickinson Production Co-ordinator : Pippa Day Series Script Editor: Lorna Newman Casting Manager: Alex CurranSeries Scientific Consultant: Prof. James Lea from the University of Liverpool Weather Consultant: Andy Cutcher Arctic Historian Consultant: Peter Martin Army Consultant: Alec Heron Ship Navigation Consultants: Martha Armitage & James ButtersA BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.
- 4 weeks ago44 min
Celtic Christie: Hidden Treasures
By Jan Carson.In 1930, Agatha Christie was commissioned to write a new mystery story. However, this story was to contain clues to a real-life treasure-hunt to take place on the Isle of Man. The story would then be serialised in a newspaper to encourage tourists to visit and find the hidden treasure.This drama imagines what could have taken place during her visit to the island.Starring Jeany Spark as Agatha Christie.Author Jan Carson is a writer based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel ‘The Fire Starters’ won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019 and her subsequent novel ‘The Raptures’ was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year in 2022. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was the Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast 2025. Her latest novel ‘Few and Far Between’ was published in 2026.Cast: Agatha Christie ... Jeany Spark Arthur Binns Crookall ... David Holt Alice Crookall ... Jane Slavin Photographer ... Tom Kiteley Colonel Westerly ... Jon GloverAll other parts were played by the company.Production Co-ordinators: Sylvie Conway and Caoilfhinn McFadden. Sound Design: Keith GrahamWritten by Jan Carson Directed by Michael ShannonA BBC Audio Northern Ireland Production for BBC Radio 4.
- Oct 9, 202644 min
A Place Called Home: Mates' Rates
Set inside Britain's housing crisis, six stand-alone but interconnected dramas follow ambition, resilience and the search for belonging.After mum Suze and teenage daughter Livvy’s home is repossessed, their relationship is tested by secrets, schoolyard gossip and the strings attached to a 'mates' rates' accommodation offer.New drama by Chrissy Jamieson Jones as part of A Place Called Home, a series of standalone but interlinked dramas taking inspiration from the housing crisis.Suze ..... Katherine Kelly Livvy ..... Matilda Freeman Simon ..... Matthew McNulty Chantelle ..... Chloe Lea Geoff ..... Ian Puleston-DaviesWriter .... Chrissy Jamieson Jones Producer/Director ..... Pippa Day Production co-ordinator ..... Ben Hollands Technical Producers ..... Sharon Hughes, Kelly Young, Amy Brennan and Elijah WaddingtonA BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4
- Oct 2, 202644 min
A Place Called Home: Riverbourne Rising
Set inside Britain's housing crisis, six stand-alone but interconnected dramas follow ambition, resilience and the search for belonging.Tanika Gupta's drama tells the story of the tenants in the crumbling Riverbourne tower block in west London, where damp walls, broken lifts, mould, unsafe wiring and heating failures have been ignored for years while rents continue to climb. The Housing Association claims its mission is to provide homes for “vulnerable tenants” - those unable to sustain a tenancy without support due to age, disability, health conditions, or exceptional circumstances - But in reality the Association neglects repairs and intimidates the very people it's meant to protect.There is fear and anger for the tenants but as they get to know one another their solidarity and defiance grows: housing is a human right, not a commodity. All of them have personal histories but these difficulties they have all faced individually give them strength to stand together and the number of voices calling for change is a powerful force. Is victory within their grasp.Shazia ….. Avita Jay Aisha ….. Yasemin Ozdemir Amara ….. Alaa Taha Eustace ….. David Webber Dylan ….. Max Hastings David ….. Ian Dunnett Jnr Arthur ….. Ben CroweDirected by Tracey NealeSound ..... Sharon Hughes, Keith Graham and Andy Garratt Production co-ordinators ..... Sara Benaim and Jonathan Powell Director ..... Tracey Neale Writer .... Tanika GuptaA BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4Tanika Gupta is an award winning writer. Her original theatre work includes Sugar Mummies,The Empress, Lions and Tigers and A Tupperware of Ashes. Her stage adaptations include Anita and Me, Hobson's Choice A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Doll's House and Hedda. Tanika has written numerous audio dramas and adapted classics like A Passage to India and Brick Lane. In 2008, Tanika was awarded an MBE for her services to drama and she has been awarded honorary doctorates from Chichester and University of West London. She was a writer in residence at the National Theatre and at Soho Theatre.
- Sep 25, 202644 min
End Terrace
By Philip Catherwood.After twenty years living in the same end terrace house in North Belfast, Maggie is now being pressured into having a divisive mural painted on her gable wall. Rather than give in to intimidation, she enlists the help of teenage street artist Kyle – a Dubliner trying to find his feet in the city – to create a different kind of mural. However, not everyone in the community is ready to embrace change. Starring Abigail McGibbon and Daniel Mick Ryan.Author Philip Catherwood is a writer from Northern Ireland. His audio drama podcast ‘The Dial-Up' won a British Podcast Award and an Independent Podcast Award for Best Fiction in 2024. His play ‘The Pitch’ was recently staged at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast and finished a run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer. Philip was selected for BBC Writers Belfast Voices 2026 scheme and The Royal Court Theatre Writers Group 2026.Cast: Maggie ... Abigail McGibbon Kyle ... Daniel Mick Ryan Carl ... Paul Mallon Sammy ... Shaun Kearns Zuzanna .... Katarina KokenyovaAll other parts were played by the company.Production Co-ordinators: Sylvie Conway and Caoilfhinn McFadden. Studio Production: David Sproule, Bill Maul and Michael Davidson.Written by Philip Catherwood Directed by Michael ShannonA BBC Audio Northern Ireland Production for BBC Radio 4.
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