2010 BBC Productions
BBC Radio 2
"The Elvis Trail" - Jan/Feb - 6x30mins
Presented by Michael Freedland / Produced by Neil Rosser
Following his journey along the trails of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Judy Garland, Michael Freedland takes to the road again to mark the 75th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth.
BBC Radio 3
"A Robert Schumann Album" - 5x15mins
Presented by Various / Produced by Richard Bannerman
Complementing the anniversary concerts, five essays reveal different aspects of the man. Featuring essays by John Worthen, Steven Isserlis, Eric Frederick Jensen, John Eliot Gardiner and Lucy Parham.
"Coleridge In Gottingen" - 1x45mins
Presented by John Worthen / Produced by Richard Bannerman
Coleridge's time in Gottingen connected the English Romantic poets to the German movement, as he discovered the works of Goethe, Schiller, and Kant.
"Theatre At The Front Line" - 1x45mins
Presented by Zeniab Badawi / Produced by Richard Bannerman/Faynia Williams
The programme explores how theatre, through innovative International Theatre Institute projects in the Sudan, is an active force in regenerating and healing communities disrupted by violence, conflict and war.
BBC Radio 4
"Deep Cut" - January - 1x60mins
Written by Philip Ralph / Directed by Mick Gordon
2011 NEW YORK FESTIVAL AWARD WINNER
In November 1995 Private Cheryl James was found shot dead at Deepcut barracks. Her death and that of three other Deepcut recruits led to a judicial review in 2006. This award-winning stage production has been adapted for radio by its writer Philip Ralph, who drew his play from public documents and verbatim records. The words and memories of Cheryl’s parents, and those associated with her, are interwoven with those of Nicholas Blake QC who led the review, and some of the people who independently investigated her death.
"Grace" - January (Rpt) - 1x45mins
Starring Paola Dionisotti & Trevor Peacock / Written by Mick Gordon & AC Grayling / Directed by Mick Gordon & Andy Jordan
Issues of faith, love, and humanity are at the core of this intimate family drama in which Grace, a scientist and champion of atheism, is faced with the decision of her son Tom to become a priest. A collaboration between philosopher A.C.Grayling and theatre writer and director Mick Gordon, the characters offer solutions to their deeply opposed ways of looking at the world even as they rage.
"Sud-U-Like" - 1x30mins
Presented by Yasmeen Khan / Produced by Yasmeen Khan & Neil Gardner
As the daughter of a man who owned a chain of laundrettes in the North, broadcaster Yasmeen Khan grew up around the whir of the washers and the chatter of the (mainly) women that used them. In this wry and sentimental look at washerterias, Yasmeen visits laundrettes around the country to find out just who is using them, what their stories are and why they don't just leave their dirty laundry there and have a service wash. She also delves into the 'trendification' of laundrettes, which have in recent years been used for everything from venues for singles' nights to polling stations.
"In Search Of A Shtetl" - 1x30mins
Presented by Michael & Jonathan Freedland / Produced by Neil Rosser
Broadcaster Michael Freedland and his journalist son Jonathan, who also presents The Long View, set off to find the East European places - the shtetls - where their forebears came from.
"Football Fights Back" - 1x30mins
Presented by Hardeep Singh Kohli / Produced by Richard Bannerman
Football is fighting back the racism in Europe and beyond. Hardeep Singh Kohli investigates the beautiful game's work with race relations.
"Sidelined...Our Asian Footballers Are Missing!" - 1x30mins
Presented by Yasmeen Khan / Produced by Yasmeen Khan & Neil Gardner
In the 70's it was rare to see an Asian face on the terraces, but a gradual shift in the last twenty years has seen increasing number of British Asian faces in the crowd at Premier League football games. But this change is not mirrored by a change on the pitch; British Asian footballers are rare. Continuing her 'get-out-there-and-ask' style of investigative radio journalism, Yasmeen Khan sets out to discover why, when there are many Asians who love football and many who play in amateur leagues, they are not breaking through at the professional level.
"How The Mighty Have Fallen" - 5x14mins
Presented by Dr Hilary Jones / Produced by Susan Kenyon
Obesity, though very much a 21st century preoccupation, is as old as the scriptures. Dr Hilary Jones investigates the history of obesity, and asks what we can learn today from the treatment, perception and portrayal of our overweight forefathers.
"Smash Hit of 1453" - April 2010 - 1x30mins
Presented by Rainer Hersch/Produced by Merilyn Harris/Richard Bannerman
The Armed Man, or L'Homme Arme, was a popular song in 1453 and has inspired composers ever since. Early Music expert and broadcaster Catherine Bott unravels its influence.
"Painting The Loneliness" - June 2010 - 1x30mins
Presented by Judith Kampfner / Produced by Judith Kampfner/Dean Olsher
2011 NEW YORK FESTIVAL AWARD NOMINEE
A riff for radio on Edward Hopper's famous painting of the scene in the Greenwich Village bar.
"A Strange Enchanted Boy" - July 2010 - 1x30mins
Presented by Clarke Peters / Produced by Neil Rosser
An eccentric early hippy who requested that his name, eden ahbez, be written in lower case. He was a one song composer, but it was a song that went round the world.
BBC Radio 7
"At The Mountains Of Madness" - 5x30mins
Written by HP Lovecraft - Read by Richard Coyle - Music by Jon Nicholls - Produced/Directed by Neil Gardner
HP Lovecraft's final Cthulhu mythos novel, and probably the most famous. Richard Coyle tells the tale of Antarctic terror as a team of scientists discover the ancient secrets of the Great Olds Ones buried under the ice and snow. With full music score by Jon Nicholls.
AVAILABLE TO BUY as an extended audiobook edition from Spokenworld Audio - CLICK HERE
"The Brightonomicon" - July 2010 - 13x30mins
Starring David Warner & Andy Serkis / Written by Elliott Stein & Neil Gardner / Music by Jeremy Paul Carroll / Produced & Directed by Neil Gardner
Just in time to coincide with the release of the paperback edition of the sequel "Retromancer", and the worldwide release of the "Retromancer" audio series, "The Brightonomicon" comes to BBC Radio 7 for the 3rd and final time. Brighton, 1960, and a young man suffering amnesia is resuced from the sea by the enigmatic and overwhelming Hugo Rune, Guru's Guru and Logos of the Aeons! They embark on 12 surreal, bizarre and far-fetched adventures in order to recover the Chronovision device and stop the evil Count Otto Black from taking over the world! Featuring magic and mayhem, naked witches and dead rock stars, backseat zombies and spaniel involvement. Starring David Warner, Rupert Degas, Andy Serkis, Jason Isaacs, Martin Jarvis, Sarah Douglas, Katherine Parkinson, Kevin Eldon, Michael Fenton-Stevens, Mark Wing-Davey and a host of acting and comedy legends. Adapted from the best-selling novel by Robert Rankin, the father of far-fetched fiction!
(Also available to purchase as a full-length 13 episode CD boxset and digital download from AudioGo - CLICK HERE)
BBC World Service
"Marching Into History" - 2x23mins
Presented by TBC / Produced by Richard Bannerman
The march as a manifesto and force for change is now bigger than ever.