Drama of the Week

Anna Christie has spent fifteen years waiting for a father who never came. When she finally arrives on the New York waterfront to find him, she brings with her a past she has told nobody, and a fury at the world that has shaped her whole life. What she doesn't expect is the sea itself, and what it might do to her.
Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is one of the towering works of American theatre: a searingly honest portrait of people trying to outrun their histories, until a shipwrecked Irish stoker arrives out of the fog and gives Anna a reason to stop running.
Adapted for radio by Lucy Catherine.
Story of America is a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.
Anna . . . . . Julianna Jennings
Chris . . . . . David Threlfall
Mat . . . . . Ciarán Owens
Marthy . . . . . Heather Craney
Johnny . . . . . Parker Sawyers
Larry . . . . . Kenndrick Horton
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
Technical producers: Keith Graham & Sam Dickinson
Editor: Peter Ringrose
Production co-ordinator: Ben Hollands
A BBC Studios production.

Anna Christie has spent fifteen years waiting for a father who never came. When she finally arrives on the New York waterfront to find him, she brings with her a past she has told nobody, and a fury at the world that has shaped her whole life. What she doesn't expect is the sea itself, and what it might do to her.
Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is one of the towering works of American theatre: a searingly honest portrait of people trying to outrun their histories, until a shipwrecked Irish stoker arrives out of the fog and gives Anna a reason to stop running.
Adapted for radio by Lucy Catherine.
Story of America is a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.
Anna . . . . . Julianna Jennings
Chris . . . . . David Threlfall
Mat . . . . . Ciarán Owens
Marthy . . . . . Heather Craney
Johnny . . . . . Parker Sawyers
Larry . . . . . Kenndrick Horton
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
Technical producers: Keith Graham & Sam Dickinson
Editor: Peter Ringrose
Production co-ordinator: Ben Hollands
A BBC Studios production.

David Almond reimagines The Little Mermaid.
Set on Holy Island in Northumberland, the story is written and read by the author.
When Joseph was a boy, fishermen on the island found a mermaid in their net. But no one believes those old stories, do they? Except his grandfather, who keeps a mysterious jar of jewels in a glass case on the wall.
This magical, evocative story encompasses the degradation of the seas; the small attention spans of modern lives; the pressure on young people to leave the place they call home; the beauty and history of the island. It is also a love story.
David Almond is 'A writer of visionary Blakean intensity.' The Times. He is also winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, The Carnegie Medal, the Michael L Printz Award, the Nonino International Prize.
This series of modern fairy tales reimagined by leading writers has been specially commissioned to celebrate a major new exhibition at The British Library dedicated to fairy tales, as well as the National Year of Reading.
Producer, Mary Ward-Lowery

An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the writer Bernie McGill. Read by Amy Molloy.
The Author.
Bernie McGill is the winner of the 2023 Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her collection ‘This Train is For’. She is the author of the novels ‘The Butterfly Cabinet’, ‘The Watch House’ and one previous short story collection ‘Sleepwalkers’. She has written audio scripts for heritage projects and stage scripts for theatre. She is a Writing for Life Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund and an honorary member of The Linen Hall Library in which building her writing archive is held.
Writer: Bernie McGill
Reader: Amy Molloy
Producer: Michael Shannon
A BBC Audio Northern Ireland Production for BBC Radio 4.

James Fritz's award-winning drama about the UK prison system returns with two contrasting stories of release, told from the perspective of prisoners and staff alike.
In this first episode, a prisoner (who listeners met in Series 1) leaves with his paperwork signed and a discharge grant in his pocket, convinced his prayers have been answered. What he doesn't know is that a single clerical error, buried for years in a box of court paperwork, means he should never have been let out at all. As an overstretched prison scrambles to find him, the press whips up a manhunt and ministers demand a name, one question echoes from the courtroom to Whitehall: how could something like this happen?
Written by James Fritz
Lee ..... Carl Prekopp
Yas ..... Yasmin Mwanza
Clare ..... Maddy Lenny
Jenny ..... Emma Handy
Carly ..... Laura Dos Santos
Rihanna ..... Rebekah Murrell
Prison Director ..... Ben Crowe
The Box Officer ..... Harry Myers
Toby/Reverend ..... Joe Jameson
Minister ..... Ian Dunnett Jnr
Production Team:
Producer and Director, Tracey Neale
Sound Design, Keith Graham, Sam Dickinson and Andrew Garrett
Production Co-Ordinator, Ben Hollands
A BBC Studios production.
James Fritz has won the Imison and Tinniswood Awards, Best Single and Best Series at the Audio Drama Awards, and Gold and Bronze at the ARIAs. For his theatre work he has won the Critics' Circle Award and the Bruntwood Prize, and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. He is under commission to the RSC, on attachment to the National Theatre, and is currently writing a TV drama and adapting his play The Flea into a feature film.