BBC Radio 4 1987-1994

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Wednesday
15 July 
1987
15.00

The Afternoon Play

A comedy of marriage by MICHAEL JUDGE 

Adultery is a mortal sin, but killing your spouse might - under certain circumstances - be a different matter. When the Irish Referendum votes against divorce, Maeve, being a good Catholic, prepares for action. 

Marcus O'Sullivan: T P McKenna
Maeve O'Sullivan: Stella McCusker
Danny: Dermot Crowley
Imelda: Ena May
TV announcer: Roisin Donaghy
Fr Benedictus/Radio announcer: Kevin Flood
Brother Deasy: Eamon Kelly

Directed by JEREMY HOWE 

BBC Northern Ireland

Broadcasting House, London

Monday
4 May 
1987
15.00

The Afternoon Play

The Miser by MOULIÈRE translated by MILES MALLESON
 
Moliere's enduring and hilarious comedy about a greedy old skinflint who tries to dash his children's wedding plans and increase the content of that moneybox he keeps hidden at the bottom of the garden.... 

Harpagon: Michael Hordem
Frosine: Eleanor Bron
Seigneur Anselm: T P McKenna
Elise: Julia Switt
Valere: Nicholas Farrell
Cléante: Jonathan Tafler
LaFleche: Shaun Prendergast
Jacques: Christopher Godwin
Manane: Elaine Claxton
Justice: Peter Woodthorpe
Monsieur Simon: Ronald Herdman

Directed by PETER KAVANAGH

Saturday
24 June 
1989
22.15

The Saturday Feature

Revolution by Correspondence 

'The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded.' 

Edmund Burke 's reaction to the French Revolution sparked off one of the most important political debates ever to be conducted in English. 
A debate that polarised British politics, and goaded his opponent, the 'infamous incendiary' Tom Paine, into writing one of the classic statements of radical political belief, The Rights of Man. 

Edmund Burke: T P McKenna
Thomas Paine: Kenneth Cranham

Wednesday
29 August 
1990
15.47

Time for Verse

Matthew Sweeney talks to Carol Ann Duffy. 

Reader: T.P. McKenna

Producer Alec Reid

Carol Ann Duffy

Monday
12 February 
1990
15.00

Man Appeal

by JAMES DOUGLAS. 

The umbilical jealousy between mother and daughter reaches tragicomic proportions.... 

Stella: Stella McCusker
Fiona: Jill Doyle
Bill Bates: T P McKenna
Womble: Harry Towb
Tom Maddox: Noel Magee

Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan

Wednesday
15 August 
1990
15.47

Time for Verse

The second of five programmes in which Matthew Sweeney is interviewed by Carol Ann Duffy.

Reader: T.P. McKenna

Producer Alec Reid

Wednesday
22 August 
1990
15.47

Time for Verse

The third of five programmes in which Matthew Sweeney is interviewed by Carol Ann Duffy. 

Reader: T.P. McKenna

Producer Alec Reid

Wednesday
8 August 
1990
15.47

Time for Verse

In the first of five programmes, Matthew Sweeney is interviewed by Carol Ann Duffy. 

Reader: T.P. McKenna

Producer Alec Reid

Wednesday
5 September 
1990
15.47

Time for Verse

The final programme in which Matthew Sweeney talks to Carol Ann Duffy. 

Reader: T.P. McKenna

Producer Alec Reid

Saturday
30 March 
1991
19.45

Classic Serial

The Absentee 

A two-part adaptation of Maria Edgeworth 's epic saga of an Anglo-Irish family, published in 1812. 

1: Lady Clonbrony, determined to be accepted by fashionable London society, has sunk her family into debt to the moneylender Mordecai. She wants her son to make a good marriage, but his affections are not to be bought. 

Lord Colambre: Stephen Rea
Grace Nugent: Anna Healy
Lord Clonbrony: T P McKenna
Lady Clonbrony: Franchine Mulrooney
Whipp: Ben Onwukwe
Paddy/Larry: Billy Boyle
Sir Terence O'Fay: James Berwick
Mordecai: Terence Edmond
Sir James Brooke: David Bannerman

Producer Claire Grove

Stephen Rea

Monday
6 May 
1991
19.45

The Monday Play

The Words are Strange Tom is a radical teacher in a reactionary school, where the entrepreneurial spirit would consign poetry to the dustbin. 

Written by Robin Glendinning. 

Tom Fairfax: John Hewitt
The Principal: T P McKenna
Sally Fairfar: Eleanor Methven
Alison: Heather McIlwaine
Jonathan: Damian O'Hare
Gary: Mark Lamb
Vice Principal: John Keyes
Jim: Wesley Murphy
Arthur: Anthony Finnigan
Stuart: Bj Hogg
Sir Richard: Patrick Duncan
Black: Robert Taylor
Ursula: Galina Tanney
Schoolboy: Mark Phelan
Schoolgirl: Helen Nelson

Director Eoin O'Callaghan. Stereo

Saturday
6 April 
1991
19.45

Classic Serial

The Absentee 

The second half of Maria Edgeworth 's saga of an Anglo-Irish family, published in 1812. Lord Colambre has travelled to Ireland for the first time to visit the Clonbrony estates but, unknown to him, Lady Dashfort is determined to trap him into marriage with her daughter Isabel. 

With Fraser Kerr , Danielle Allan , Emma Gregory , Jenny Howe , Elizabeth Kelly , Auriol Smith , 
Ian Lindsay , Andrew Wincott and Terence Edmond. 
Music played and arranged by Andrew Dodge. 
Adapted by Nick McCarty 

Producer Claire Grove

Wednesday
27 May 
1992
14.00

Introducing Fagan

When Fagan , "just Fagan", finishes his night's work as a club entertainer and goes home with two women, the results are hardly what he expects. 

Written by Maurice Leitch. 

Fagan: T P McKenna
Alma: Anita Dobson
Sharon: Robin Weaver

M C: Gordon Reid

Director Ned Chaillet

Sunday
20 June 
1993
14.30

Classic Serial: The Sea, The Sea: 1: Vanished Pantomimes

Iris Murdoch's Booker Prize-winning novel, dramatised in four parts

Dramatised by Richard Crane 

Charles Arrowby, celebrated actor, writer and director, has retired from his London world and come to the sea to become a hermit and draft his memoirs. But the past will not let him rest...

Charles: John Wood
Hartley: Joyce Redman
Landlord: Jonathan Adams
Local 1: John Evitts
Local 2: Steve Hodson
Local 3: John Baddeley
Rosina: Sian Phillips
Lizzie: Tamara Ustinov
Peregrine: T.P. McKenna
Gilbert: Peter Kelly
dement: Jill Graham
Young Charles: David Holt
Young James: Sam Crane
James: Terrence Hardiman
Young Hartley: Rachel Atkins

Director Faynia Williams

John Wood

Sunday
27 June 
1993
14.30

Classic Serial: The Sea, The Sea

Iris Murdoch 's Booker Prize-winning novel, dramatised in four parts, with John Wood as Charles and Joyce Redman as Hartley.

Dramatised by Richard Crane 

2: The Light and Fire of My Life. By the wildest coincidence, Charles has discovered that Hartley, his "first and only true love", is now living in the village. Forty-five years on, love burns more strongly than ever. Is this to be a doomed brief encounter, or absolute happiness at last? 

Director Faynia Williams

Wednesday
8 June 
1994
12.25

Ballylenon

by Christopher Fitz-Simon 

First of a six-part series set in the sleepy town of Ballylenon, Co Donegal, in 1953, before the days of mass tourism. Trouble brews when the McConkey sisters join forces with hotel owner Phonsie Doherty and campaign to have the town's Georgian courthouse demolished to make way for a car park. 

Phonsie Doherty: T P McKenna
Muriel McConkey: Margaret D'Arcy
Vera McConkey: Stella McCusker
Vivienne Boal: Aine McCartney
Guard Gallagher: John Hewitt
Rev Samuel Hawthorne: Gerard Murphy
RL Watson: Roma Tomelty
O'Brollochain: Kevin Flood

Director Eoin O'Callaghan

Wednesday
15 June 
1994
12.25

Ballylenon

by Christopher Fitz-Simon

Second of six episodes set in Ballylenon, Co Donegal, in 1953. Thwarted in their efforts to have the Georgian Courthouse demolished, Phonsie Doherty and the McConkey sisters prepare for a bitter war against the liberal press.

 
Music arranged and performed by Stephanie Hughes Director Eoin O'Callaghan

Wednesday
22 June 
1994
12.25

Ballylenon

by Christopher Fitz-Simon 

Third of sixepisodes set in Ballylenon, Co Donegal, in 1953. Vera's value as an eavesdropper for Phonsie Doherty is threatened when Dublin informs her that her exchange must go automatic.

 
Music by Stephanie Hughes. Director Eoin O'Callaghan