"Perelandra" continues the sometimes thrilling, sometimes mystical, but always sublimely evocative adventures of Dr.Ransom first explored in “Out of the Silent Planet”. In this second volume of C.S.Lewis’ acclaimed Cosmic Trilogy, Ransom is called to the beautiful paradise planet of Perelandra, or Venus, which is in grave peril from his old adversary Dr.Weston. Ransom encounters floating islands and bubble trees as well as an all-powerful female ruler, an Eve figure who undergoes temptation at the hands of a Satan figure in the form of Weston. Ransom must engage with Weston in a desperate struggle to save the purity of Perelandra. Find out more about Perelanda's cast, charachters and reader.

BALDI SERIES IV
Thursday 17th February to 24th March at 14.15
Producer : Lawrence Jackson
David Threlfall returns in the title role of ‘Baldi’, the popular and acclaimed Radio 4 murder-mystery series revolving around the adventures of Paolo Baldi, Franciscan priest-turned-sleuth, in modern-day Dublin. Although Baldi’s job, as a priest on sabbatical from the Franciscan order, is supposedly as university lecturer in semiotics, he prefers to apply his eccentric imagination and analytical skills, wherever possible, to solving murders. He is welcomed in this by his friend and accomplice in the Dublin gardai, DI Tina Mahon (Tina Kellegher), to the exasperation of her senior officer, DS Rynne (Owen Roe). Rynne’s view is shared by Baldi’s spiritual superior, Father Troy (T P McKenna), who wants Baldi to end his sabbatical, stop meddling in police affairs and return to his original calling in life, the Franciscan order. More information on the production, actors and writers and pics from behind the scenes

LOSSES AT SEA
Sunday 20th February at 20:00 on BBC R3
Producer: Stephen Wright
Graham Reid’s moving dramatisation of the sinking of The Princess Victoria. On the 31st of January, 1953 during the great storm that devastated coastal areas around the UK, the ferry between Stranraer and Larne sank off the County Down coast. Up to 130 souls were lost, a few remain unaccounted for. Losses at Sea is an imagined journey of two of those lives told in tandem with the real stories of those who lost their lives that day.

The story of the sinking of the Princess Victoria still has a strong hold on the imagination of the public in Northern Ireland and it is the perfect material to inspire the imagination of Graham Reid. Graham is one of Northern Ireland’s leading dramatists with an impressive track record that includes work for the stage, radio and television. He is best known for his television work that includes The Billy Plays, You Me and Marley, Life after Life and The Precious Blood. His work has the ability to capture drama from the minutiae of ordinary people’s lives and to project their loves, lives and losses with great compassion.

Cast includes: Richard Dormer, Valerie Lilley, Walter McMonagle, Ian McIlhinney, Julia Dearden, Stuart Graham, Nuala O’Neill, Cathy Sara, Tara Lynne O’Neill, David Bannerman, Mark Claney, Carol Moore and Mark O’Shea

IMMIGRANTS
By John Rooney
Afternoon Play on R4
Monday 28th February 2005 at 2.15pm
Producer: Pam Brighton
Three unemployed Belfast lads take advantage of the £10 passage to Australia in the 1960’s to seek their fortunes.

It’s a cold, wet day in Belfast, in the late 1960s when three unemployed Belfast lads view the future there with dismay. As their employment prospects look bleak the offer of a £10 passage to Australia looks extremely tempting and they decide to seek their fortunes there. On the boat over they fantasise about the weather, the bikini clad girls, the jobs and the money.

Photo L to R: Joe rea (Tony), Gerard Jordan (Jonty) and Andy Moore (Fergie)

When they get there they find that Australia is going through a financial depression and jobs are in short supply, the only work they can find is miles away from the city in the outback, where a new road is being built. The work they are given, involves using explosives to blast through rock. It’s dangerous and should be done by experienced men, but they realise that, like all immigrants, when it comes to jobs they are at the bottom of the heap.

They each react to their circumstances differently, one enters into the spirit of entrepreneurial Australia, one is injured and one, lonely and disillusioned, returns to Belfast.In this bitter sweet, sometimes amusing, play John Rooney explores the harshness of the new world often experienced by immigrants.

John P Rooney – The writer himself has experienced immigration first hand – in 1962 he travelled to Australia under the £10 Assisted Passage Scheme run by the Australian Government. He has written extensively for radio and has been a Giles Cooper Award winner (THE DEAD IMAGE). His debut novel BOTTLING IT UP (Blackstaff Press) - male mid-life crisis meets racketeering on Belfast building sites - was published recently.

The cast includes local actors Andy Moore (Film and TV credits include Breakfast on Pluto, Omagh and Mickybo and Me and theatre Scenes from the Big Picture), and Gerard Jordan (Film and TV credits include Pulling Moves, Boxed, Accelerator and Divorcing Jack) as well as Australian actress Sarah Kants. Other cast are Joseph Rea, Julia Dearden, Susie Kelly, Alan McKee and Peter Ballance.

HUNGER AGAIN
Friday 25 March at 21:00 on BBC R4
Written by Dermot Bolger
Produced by Gemma McMullan
HUNGER AGAIN is set in Ireland in the near future, when both Ireland and Britain have been thrown into turmoil by a major accident at a British nuclear power plant. Irish meat and crops are not longer sellable in a Europe that quickly shrinks itself for protection.

Multinational companies pull out to non-contaminated countries and Dublin is swamped with displaced and scared British people fleeing from the worst affected parts of Britain. There is chaos and the spectre of famine everywhere. That chaos forms the backdrop of the search by HELEN CURTAYNE for her young daughter MILLIE across a dangerous and altered country.

DERMOT BOLGER:
Award winning writer, Dermot Bolger, has been at the heart of the new wave of Irish writers. His novels include Temptation, The Valparaiso Voyage, The Former People, The Journey Home, Father’s Music, Night Shift, The Woman’s Daughter. His plays include The Lament of Arthur Clearly and In High Germany. Dermot devised and edited the highly acclaimed Irish novel Finbar’s Hotel and it’s sequel Ladies Night at Finbar’s Hotel (which he adapted for Radio 4 and 10 May 2000 and repeated last year). His play Temptation (adapted from his novel) was broadcast in June 2003 and received great critical acclaim. Author of various volumes of poetry, Dermot has received, among others, The Samuel Beckett Award, The A. E. Memorial Prize, The Stewart Parker BBC Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First, The Macaulay Fellowship, A Hennessy Literary Award and the O.Z. Whitehead Prize.