#bbcdrama — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #bbcdrama, aggregated by home.social.
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Episode 1
Drama on 4
Libra Episode 1 of 2Don DeLillo’s fictionalised reimagining of the events surrounding the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, adapted for audio by Ben Lewis.
Starring Fisher Stevens and Tucker St. Ivany.A CIA analyst is tasked with pulling together all the facts, theories and suppositions surrounding this founding moment in recent American history. Drawing them together, he tries to imagine how and why JFK was killed. Cutting between the story of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life and two men conspiring to assassinate the president, it builds a picture of a fractured America during the cold war era.
This is a work of fiction inspired by fact. Don DeLillo’s novel - and this adaptation - draw on real events and on some real people. But characters, incidents and dialogue are predominantly works of fiction. Real people have been placed in imagined situations whilst other characters have been created entirely for the purposes of storytelling.
Part of Radio 4’s Story of America - a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.
Cast:
The Analyst… Fisher Stevens
Lee Harvey Oswald…Tucker St. Ivany
The conspirators…Tyler Collins and Michael Nardone
Marguerite Oswald…Nicole Cooper
The Marine…Michael Guest
Bobby Dupard…Reuben Joseph
Marina Oswald…Holly Howden Gilchrist
George de Mohrenschildt…Grant O’Rourke
David Ferrie…Robin LaingAll other parts were played by the company
BBC Audio Scotland Production
Production Co-ordinators: Bethany Woodhead and Minnie Harrop
Studio Production and sound editing: Andrew Hay and Gav Murchie
Sound Design and original scoring: Danny KrassAdapted by Ben Lewis
Directed by Kirsty WilliamsArchive: CBS Evening News, November 22nd 1963
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Release date:09 August 2026
57 minutes
On radioToday
15:00
BBC Radio 4#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4 #BBCDramaOn4
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Libra - Episode One
Opening Lines
For the 100th title to be explored in Opening Lines, John Yorke picks up the 1998 novel Libra by the heavyweight American writer, Don DeLillo. The book centres around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the event DeLillo says marked ‘a turning point in consciousness’ for Americans. He presents a fragmented portrait of the country at the height of the Cold War, following the misfortunes of disaffected loner Lee Harvey Oswald - as well as the large cast of rogue operators planning to use him to bring the President down.
In the first of two-parts, John looks to find what makes this widely acclaimed novel stand out from the hundreds of other books and films spawned by the world-shaking events in Dealey Plaza back in November 1963. He speaks with, among others, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jennifer Egan, a self-proclaimed DeLillo acolyte, who says of Libra that the “sense of the chaos and the noise of contemporary life invading the narrative I was very drawn to, and, you know, have tried to emulate, frankly.”
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.
Libra by Don de Lillo is the 100th title covered by Opening Lines. The series began in January 2023 with Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Since then John Yorke has explored novels from Anna Karenina to Gone with the Wind, plays from Shakespeare to Eugene O’Neill and ground-breaking non-fiction like John Hersey’s Hiroshima. Each episode provides background, context and some expert discussion in advance of Radio 4’s Sunday afternoon drama, and all 100 titles can be heard on BBC Sounds.
Contributors: Pullitzer Prize winning author Jennifer Egan & Professor Jesse Kavadlo.
Sound:
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Producer: Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Sara DaviesA Pier production for BBC Radio 4
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Available now14 minutes
On airToday
14:45
BBC Radio 4#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4
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They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Los Angeles, 1935. With nowhere to go and nothing to lose, Robert and Gloria enter a marathon dance on the Santa Monica pier, one of hundreds of couples competing to stay on their feet for weeks at a time for a prize of a thousand dollars. As the days blur into nights and the competition grows merciless, their unlikely bond deepens into something neither of them can name, and a reckoning neither can avoid.
George MacKay (1917, Rose of Nevada) stars as Robert alongside Leah Brotherhead (Hullraisers, RSC's Wolf Hall) as Gloria.
Horace McCoy's 1935 novel is one of the founding texts of American noir, previously adapted as Sydney Pollack's acclaimed 1969 film with Jane Fonda. This is its first ever audio adaptation, brought to radio by adaptor Kerry Shale.
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.
Robert . . . . . George MacKay
Gloria . . . . . Leah Brotherhead
Rocky . . . . . Kerry Shale
Mrs Layden . . . . . Laurel Lefkow
Pedro . . . . . Joseph Balderama
Rollo . . . . . Ben Crowe
Jim . . . . . David Menkin
Ruby . . . . . Laura Dos SantosAdapted by Kerry Shale.
Production co-ordinators: Sara Benaim, Jonathan Powell
Technical producers: Keith Graham, Neva Missirian, Kira Golightly
Sound design: Sharon Hughes
Director: Sasha YevtushenkoA BBC Studios production.
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The Performance of Penalty: James Graham’s Dear England and the Construction of National Identity
James Graham's play Dear England about Gareth Southgate and the England football team is now a BBC show. Find out how it shows national identity.
#DearEngland, #GarethSouthgate, #BBCDrama, #Football, #NationalIdentity
https://newsletter.tf/dear-england-bbc-show-southgate-football-identity/
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The play Dear England, starring Joseph Fiennes as Gareth Southgate, is now a BBC show. It explores the England football team's journey and national identity.
#DearEngland, #GarethSouthgate, #BBCDrama, #Football, #NationalIdentity
https://newsletter.tf/dear-england-bbc-show-southgate-football-identity/ -
(very good)
(also *drama takes a huge bite out of "Weekend Woman's Hour" and laughs triumphantly)The Bacchae
Drama on 4Euripides’ Greek tragedy reimagined by Katherine Soper. In this new version, myth entwines with modernity to explore the root causes of rebellion.
When a group of young women discover the mysterious and charming Bacchus online, they instantly form an unshakeable devotion to him and to each other. It has awakened something inside of them that cannot be contained. Is this a supportive sisterhood or something more dangerous?
Bacchus ….. Colin Morgan
Joy ….. Francesca Amewudah-Rivers
Song ….. Ella Bruccoleri
Love ….. Matilda Tucker
Freedom ….. Tia Bannon
Agave ….. Clare Corbett
Pentheus ….. Sam Swann
Tiresias ….. Sam Dale
Semele ….. Yasmin Mwanza
Libation ….. Madeleine ClarkeDirected by Gemma Jenkins
Production Co-ordinator: Sara Benaim
Casting Manager: Alex Curran
Sound Design: Keith Graham, Sam Dickinson and Andrew GarrattThe Bacchae by Katherine Soper after Euripides was commissioned and first performed as part of the Springboard Trainee Programme at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in July 2023.
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26 days left to listen1 hour, 27 minutes
#BBCRadio4 #BBCRadioDrama #BBCDrama #Bacchanalia #BBCDramaOn4
(... Cordwainer Smith did similar but in a more entertaining sci-fi way with Krishna as the central figure (or was it another Vedic?) in "Under Old Earth" ...)
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(Absolute Shite. I need to find out what source this #mi6 / #mi5 craphead / group-of-crapheads ripped-off for this episode of this series of appalling art thefts. Though, I think I already know ...)
Fire Ready
Fire Ready by Jane Rogers
Episode 5 of 5The stories in Jane Rogers' second collection shine an unflinching light on the future health of the planet, and the prospects for its greediest tenants - us. With stories spanning hundreds of years – from the far side of the 22nd century all the way back to the darkest days of lockdown – they pose questions about personal responsibility that cannot be easily answered.
Read by Phoebe-Loveday Raymond
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4Show less
21 days left to listen14 minutes
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I usually quite like a bit of weird in my TV dramas but #DopeGirls is totally fucking batshit mental.
Nice music and excellent sets though.
#BBC #BBCDrama #TV #BadWolf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m0028c6h/dope-girls -
Starz Brings Rebecca Hall Thriller The Listeners to U.S. Audiences in 2026
Starz has secured the exclusive U.S. rights to the BBC adaptation The Listeners series. The five‑part drama will debut in 2026 and stars Rebecca Hall as Claire, a teacher who hears a mysterious hum no one else can detect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl1PgVl2kXc
Claire lives a routine life until a low humming sound invades her world....
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Starz Brings Rebecca Hall Thriller The Listeners to U.S. Audiences in 2026
Starz has secured the exclusive U.S. rights to the BBC adaptation The Listeners series. The five‑part drama will debut in 2026 and stars Rebecca Hall as Claire, a teacher who hears a mysterious hum no one else can detect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl1PgVl2kXc
Claire lives a routine life until a low humming sound invades her world....
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Starz Brings Rebecca Hall Thriller The Listeners to U.S. Audiences in 2026
Starz has secured the exclusive U.S. rights to the BBC adaptation The Listeners series. The five‑part drama will debut in 2026 and stars Rebecca Hall as Claire, a teacher who hears a mysterious hum no one else can detect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl1PgVl2kXc
Claire lives a routine life until a low humming sound invades her world....
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I'm watching the old #BBCDrama Smiley's People and in episode 2 he goes into a K2 #RedTelephoneBox but in the next shot he is clearly in a K6
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Just watched the first episode of BBC's new drama 'This Town'.
The drama looks like it's going play out well. The music is great too.The stand out track played for me was:
I Think it's Going to Rain Today by UB40timeless!
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"It’s a tale of civil war and family strife, a series that installs a militarised hard border between England and Wales and effectively turns all the Celts into outlaws. It used to be that people visited border town Hay-on-Wye to buy books. Now they come seeking shelter and a secret route into England."