Maura and her family are thrilled when nineteen year old Ryan wins a recording contract as a singer in the latest television talent show. The family are now local celebrities in their small town in Northern Ireland. Ryan’s three younger sisters delight in his success and the press attention it brings the whole family. However, unknown to them all, Maura receives an unexpected phone call from Mick, a man she met on holiday twenty years ago and who she hasn’t seen since. When Mick insinuates he could be Ryan’s father, Maura realises that their happiness could be shattered.

The play follows Maura’s journey as she sets about protecting her family. She tells her sister Bronagh that she and Mick only ever kissed but then agonises that there could be some truth in his claim. With Bronagh’s help they discover that Mick has a dark secret of his own but can they keep Mick at bay before he ruins their world?

The Writer: Annie McCartney has written eight afternoon plays and the comedy drama series Two Doors Down for Radio 4 which all proved very popular. Currently she is developing a two part television drama for BBC NI Drama and working on her second novel, Your Cheatin’ Heart. Her debut novel, Desire Lines was re-issued in paperback in May 2002.

Cast: Brid Brennan plays Maura (Any Time Now BBC1, Dancing At Lughnasa dir. Pat O’Connor, Felicia’s Journey, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth forRSC, The Billy Plays, BBC1)

Orla Charlton plays her sister, Bronagh. (Memory of Water by Shelagh Stevenson, Lyric Theatre Beflast, On Home Ground, RTE and Valerie in The Weir, Royal Court, dir Ian Rickson

Malachi Cush a finalist from the first Fame Academy is to play Ryan Devine and sing one of his own songs.

A CANDLE FOR CASEY
TX Date: Tuesday 23rd December 2003 at 1415 on R4
Writer: Harry Towb
Producer/Director: Tanya Nash

See the photos from behind the scenes

A delicious comic ghost story, set in New York on Christmas Eve, about Casey (David Kelly) an Irish rogue who haunts his old Jewish friend, Israelovitch (Henry Goodman) to help him get to Heaven. All Israelovitch has to do is light a candle for him on the first anniversary of Casey’s death at St Michael’s church. Israelovitch isn’t keen because Casey died owing him money and its cold and very snowy outside. So Casey enlists the help of Israelovitch’s wife, Bessie (Suzanne Bertish) who is already there and will get her wings if she helps Casey. Then the race is on to light the candle before 12 noon.

The writer is the veteran Northern Irish actor, Harry Towb who also has a cameo role as Mr Price in the play. Harry’s extensive career spans early years in radio drama and British films Above The Waves, 39 Steps, numerous TV appearances including The Camomile Lawn, Minder and Holby City, later films Patten, Moll Flanders, a rich stage career Guys & Dolls with Bob Hoskins, Schweyk in the Second World War plus many others with the National Theatre. Roles with the RSC include - Bernard Shaw’s Man & Superman, Tom Stoppard’s Travesties and Sherlock Holmes.

As a writer, Harry has written over twenty short stories for both the BBC and RTE. He has written four radio plays; two for Radio 4 - The Debt Collector and The Righteous Gentile and two for RTE. He has also written regularly for the children’s TV series You and Me.

Henry Goodman is currently playing a critically acclaimed Richard III for the RSC. Other recent appearances include the stage version of Mel Brook’s film The Producers, Stephen Sondheim’s musical Follies and Shylock in Trevor Nunn’s last production of The Merchant of Venice at the National Theatre.

David Kelly is familiar face for fans of Ballykissangel and the TV sit-com Robin’s Nest. Recent appearances include a US stage tour of Krappes Last Tape and feature films Waking Ned and Ordinary Decent Criminal.

Suzanne Bertish works mostly in theatre with leading directors such as Stephen Daldry on Inspector Calls and Peter Hall’s production of The Oedipus Plays. Recent work includes a guest appearance on Silent Witness, Gertrude in Laurence Boswell’s production of Hamlet and the New York production of Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson.

Other cast members are Joyce Springer and John Guerrasio.

‘I have nothing in this world but to dare and to attempt!’
Thomas Ashe in ‘Poor Tom Thy Horn Is Dry.’

John Arden’s new play written for BBC Radio 3 is based on the three volumes of the ‘Memoirs and Confessions of Captain Ashe’.

It tells the extraordinary story of Thomas Ashe - the Tipperary born Protestant - from his early days, brought up among the impoverished Irish gentry in 1787, up to his exile in France in 1815 and stretches across three continents.

Thomas Ashe was more than just a soldier, much more. He was a clerk, tradesman, teacher, sailor, murderer, embezzler, explorer, impersonator, political propagandist, ‘hack’ journalist, plagiarist, blackmailer, lover and writer!
Find out more information about the drama and the writer. John Arden.

First published in 1897, the novel Dracula by Irish author Bram Stoker has never been out of print. The popularity of the world’s most notorious vampire, Count Dracula, has ensured that it has remained a timeless classic.

In this new reading, Michael Fassbender, Gillian Kearney, James D’Arcy and James Greene read the various diary accounts of the four main characters of Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray, Dr. Seward and Dr. Van Helsing to relate the epic legend of the Transylvanian Count.

More photos from behind the scenes of Dracula
Read the comments you have e-mailed about Dracula

Michael Fassbender Jonathan Harker (Gunpowder, Treason and Plot, Carla)
Gillian Kearney Mina Murray (Sweet Medicine, Forsyte Sage, Murder in Mind)
James D’Arcy Dr Seward (Wilde, Edward II, Nicholas Nickleby, Rebel Heart and P.O.W)
James Greene Dr Van Helsing (The Prince and the Pauper, Kavanagh QC, As Time Goes By, William and Mary)

At 33, Emma Donoghue, is already an award-winning Irish writer with an international reputation. Best known for her fiction which has been translated into six languages, her most recent publications are a novel Slammerkin and a collection of historical short stories The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits. She is also a successful playwright for the theatre and radio. Her latest BBC radio drama was Humans & Other Animals; a five part series of witty contemporary comedies looking at our lives in relation to the animals we share them with.
Her next novel Life Mask is published in Spring 2004.

Katie Davis makes her acting debut with this leading role.

Sony Award-winning actress Marcella Riordan (Two Doors Down, Faithful Departed on Radio 4) plays Clare, Teresa’s Mum, Dan Gordan (Give my Head Peace, Pulling Moves) plays Fintan and Doreen Keogh (Cold Feet, The Royle Family) is Gran. Other cast members are Neal McWilliams, Rebecca McKinty, Raman Goyal, Maria Connolly, Roger Jennings.

COLOURS OF THE WORLD: STORIES FROM THE BELFAST FESTIVAL

Writers: Peter Sheridan, Martina Devlin, Colin Carberry, Lana Citron and Ronan Bennett
TX Date: Monday 3 November to Friday 7 November at 15:30 on Radio 4
Producer : Heather Brennon, Sarah Stack, Deirdre Cartmill, Heather Larmour, Miriam Lehman

Photo from left to right: Ronan Bennett, Colin Carberry, Lana Citron, Peter Sheridan and Martina Devlin

BBC Radio 4 has commissioned five short stories from these acclaimed writers, who will also read them at this year’s Belfast Arts festival from Queen’s University. The stories will be recorded before an audience during the first week of the festival and then broadcast daily on Radio 4 during its second week.

The writers were asked to write on the theme for the whole festival: Colours of the World. This has produced a wonderfully diverse mix of stories from childhood reminiscences to restaurant critiquing and the very contemporary subject of IVF. Three of the writers hail from Northern Ireland; Colin Carberry, Ronan Bennett and Martina Devlin, while Peter Sheridan and Lana Citron are both from Dublin.

In Peter Sheridan’s story we meet Nuala Ahern, a young girl teased about her freckles until her father comes up with an ingenious plan. Martina Devlin’s story takes us into the world of Alice, a woman unable to have children, and her husband Leo who is determined to father a child of his own. Colin Carberry tells the story of a married couple’s encounter with a psychic medium, while Lana Citron’s touching story focuses on the relationship between a grand-daughter and grandmother. In Ronan Bennett’s story a writer, who knows nothing about food, is invited to write a restaurant review, with disastrous results.

TWO DOORS DOWN SERIES 3
Writer: Annie McCartney
Director: Tanya Nash
TX Date: For four weeks every Friday from 19 September

The comedy drama Two Doors Down by Annie McCartney and starring Frances Tomelty as cleaning lady, Sally O’Neill, returns to Radio 4 this autumn with a third series of four more hilarious stories about the chaotic lives of the bohemian residents of Marlborough Rd, Belfast.
Have a look at our behind the scenes photos

Sorcha Cusack (Casualty, Eureka Street,), Lorcan Cranitch (Ballykissangel, Spooks) and Elaine Symons (Sinners ) head a star cast of this two part dramatisation for Radio 4’s Classic Serial. More information.

PRESSING THE FLESH
Writer: Franics Turnley
You can hear it on: Radio 4 at 2.30 pm on 20 September 2003
Producer: Tanya Nash

Pressing The Flesh, Francis Turnley's radio drama debut, is a tense thriller for Saturday Play. Stars Lloyd Hutchinson. Have a look at our behind the scenes photos from the recording of Pressing the Flesh. More information

At a hotel in Belfast a group of six friends meet for an annual convention to celebrate the one thing they all have in common, their passion for Doctor Who. However, at this year's event, there is going to be trouble...one of them is a traitor!

DUNGANNON
Written by Chris Neil, and adapted for Radio by John P. Rooney.
TX date: Friday 15 August on R4
Producer: Stephen Wright
History has set a starting date for the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland as 1968, but the genesis may be traced back to events in 1963.

Forty years ago in Dungannon, County Tyrone a group of young women banded together to agitate for the fair allocation of housing in their town. People with no experience of politics suddenly became the driving force behind a movement that led to the development of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.

Dungannon is inspired by the true story of Angela McCrystal and the Homeless Citizen’s League. Some of the characters have been fictionalised and events changed for dramatic effect. Nevertheless the drama is set against a historically accurate backdrop.

This story dramatises the struggle a group of young women led, for the fair allocation of housing. Taking inspiration from the civil rights movement in America, they overcame opposition from their local urban council and the Northern Ireland Government to effect change. Their actions stung the consciences of the other citizens including the local Doctor Conn McCluskey and his wife Patricia. Both of whom went on to form the Campaign for Social Justice that led to the formation of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

The cast includes: Susan Lynch (Nora, Anytime Now, Waking Ned and Cracker) plays Angela McCrystal.
Gerard McSorley (Veronica Guerin, Bloody Sunday and Braveheart) plays Conn McCluskey and Stellla McCusker (On Home Ground) plays Patricia McCluskey


THE TUNNEL (REPEAT)
Writer: Tim Loane
Repeat Transmission Date: Sat 16 August at 21:15 on R3
Starring: Lorcan Cranitch as Rex, Annie Farr as Maria and Patrick O’Kane as Buzz and introducing Neal McWilliams as Frankie

From the creator of the successful television series Teachers (C4) comes a fast paced thriller to Radio 3’s innovative drama strand The Wire. Tim Loane’s first radio drama is about a seventeen year old boy, Frankie who is wrongly credited with a violent crime. For Frankie this turns out to be a bonus. He lives in an enclosed macho world, on an estate on the edge of a city where satellite tv is the only sense of the outside world. He is at the bottom of the heap until his new reputation as a hard man brings him rewards in the form of money, drugs and sex because his mother’s new boyfriend Rex offers to protect him from the police. But Frankie is a young man with a conscience and the story forces him to make choices which rip his heart open.

The writer: Tim Loane is the creator and original writer of C4’s successful television series Teachers. In 2002 he also enjoyed UK-wide critical acclaim for his first stage play, Caught Red Handed which toured Northern Ireland in spring and was later revived in Belfast and Dublin in the autumn. Tim is currently working on television series in development for Box TV, BBC Northern Ireland and an Australian company. A man of many talents, he regularly directs drama and still occasionally performs. Most notably he directed the award-winning and Oscar nominated short film Dance Lexie Dance. The Tunnel is Tim’s radio drama debut.

Lorcan Cranitch plays Rex, Frankie’s mother’s new lover. Most recently Lorcan appeared in Spooks on BBC television and also played the title role McCready in BBC 1’s McCready and Daughter, as well as Sean Dillon in Ballykissangel.

Annie Farr plays Maria, Frankie’s mother. Recent TV work includes Sinead in Paradise Heights (BBC 1) and Alice in People Like Us (BBC 2). For Radio 4, Annie played the lead in Pearse Elliot’s play The Calling.

Patrick O’Kane plays Buzz, the good cop. Most recent credits include Scenes from the Big Picture by Owen McCafferty at the RNT, Colin Duggan in BBC1’s drama serial Any Time Now, and in Owen McCafferty’s previous play for the RNT, Closing Time (London & Dublin Theatre Festival).

TWO DOORS DOWN Series 2 (REPEAT)
Writer: Annie McCartney
Producer: Tanya Nash
TX date: Begins on 29 July 2003 at 11pm on R4 then 5 August, 12 August and 19 August

The comedy drama Two Doors Down returns to Radio 4 this summer with another chance to hear the second series. Four stories about the lives of the bohemian residents of Marlborough Road, Belfast, who are saved from their own chaos by Sally, their cleaning lady. More information and behind the scenes photos.

IPH… (REPEAT)
Writer(s): Colin Teevan
Duration/Slot: 75 min Sunday Play
Repeat Date: 10 August '03
Frist Transmission Date: 27.05.01
Producer/Director: Stephen Wright
Key cast: James Ellis, Gerard McSorley, Nuala O’Neill

Iph… is a forceful and resonant version of Euripedes’ Iphigeneia in Aulis. Agamemnon leader of the Greeks faces a dark choice on the brink of the Trojan War. He must choose between his love for his daughter, Iphigeneia and his nation’s ambitions to take revenge on Troy. Should he sacrifice Iphigeneia to the gods for a fair wind for the Greek fleet becalmed at Aulis or should he save his daughter? In the end he sacrifices his daughter.