Synopsis

A week of literary chaos as some of our favourite fictional characters stumble into the pages of the wrong book!

Our favourite books are like old friends: comforting, reassuring, and familiar. We reread them time and time again safe in the knowledge that Elizabeth Bennett will end up with her Mr Darcy and that Sherlock Holmes will, after a pipe or two, solve the baffling mystery and unmask the villain.

But what if there was some huge literary mix up? What if, in a bizarre game of literary musical chairs, some of our favourite characters crept out of the pages of their own book and stumbled into the foreign and anachronistic world of a different book? Would Lizzy still marry Darcy? Would Holmes retain his powers of deduction?

In this week of afternoon readings five writers let their imagination run wild, bringing us stories of all sorts of literary mayhem, as some of literature’s best-loved characters run amok through the pages of the wrong books. The reassuring and familiar worlds of some of our favourite works of fiction become strangely unfamiliar in the hands of Kerry Lee Crabbe, Barry Devlin, Anne Haverty, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and John Morrison.

Will a title be enough to impress Oscar Wilde’s most famous matriarch, Lady Bracknell, when she comes face to face with a certain Count Dracula? When the great Victorian detective and Dr. Watson meet the unassuming Jane Eyre will they be able to solve a most puzzling literary mystery? If Gulliver made one final journey, where would his travels take him? What would Middlemarch’s earnest Dorothea make of the life of the irreverent drunkard Riley? And, when the notorious ‘Butcher Boy’ Francie Brady leaves behind the pigs of Cavan to tend those of a certain Bennett family in Longbourn, will Lizzy and Darcy live happily ever after?

Anything could happen in this week of specially-commissioned stories as we witness some unexpected meetings and curious plot twists in the company of some rather disorientated literary misfits!

The Case of the Scream in the Night by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne
Read by Michael Maloney
Produced by Heather Brennon
When a mysterious Miss Jane Eyre calls at Sherlock Holmes’s Baker Street residence little does he suspect just how mysterious her case will turn out to be.

The Last Voyage of Gulliver by John Morrison
Produced by Heather Brennon
When Gulliver is tempted to make one final journey he inadvertently finds himself washed up on John Bull’s Other Island. What will he make of its inhabitants and, more to the point, what will they make of him!

A Vampire Vaudeville by Kerry Lee Crabbe
Read by Niall Buggy
Produced by Oonagh McMullan
Lady Bracknell is very surprised when an unexpected visitor, Count Dracula, calls to ask for the hand of her daughter, Gwendolen. Will Lady Bracknell refute this preposterous request or, indeed, will she find herself bewitched by the unusual charms of this tall nocturnal stranger?

Casaubon in the Catacombs by Anne Haverty
Produced by Heather Larmour
Leaving the town of Middlemarch the scholarly Mr Casaubon and his wife Dorothea embark on a trip to Dublin, but will they find themselves living the Life of Riley in the Emerald Isle?

Pride and Homicide by Barry Devlin
Read by Killian Donnelly
Produced by Heather Larmour
When the notorious ‘Butcher Boy’, Francie Brady, arrives in Longbourn and takes up a position with a certain Bennett family, it can only be a matter of time before pride leads to something a little more sinister than a fall for one of the local residents.

Writers:

Kerry Lee Crabbe has worked extensively as a writer and producer. His film credits include:
Memoirs of a Survivor (starring Julie Christie), Trick of Light, Inheritance, The Playboys, Runaround and Halcyon Days. Kerry has adapted Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (starring Laurence Olivier and Natalie Wood) and Harold Pinter’s The Dwarfs for BBC 4. He has also written many plays for the West End and National Theatre. His play Flann O’Brien’s Hard Life broke all box office records at the Tricycle Theatre.

Barry Devlin trained at a Franciscan seminary before choosing a career as a rock musician with the hugely successful Irish band Horslips. Since the 1980s Barry’s credits include directing music videos for, among others, U2, and writing and directing ‘Lapsed Catholics’ and ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ for television. Barry was also the creator of the character of Paolo Baldi; the Franciscan priest-turned-sleuth portrayed by David Threlfall and wrote episodes for the first series of the hugely popular Radio 4 series BALDI.

Anne Haverty’s first novel One Day as a Tiger won the Rooney Prize for Literature and was short listed for the Whitbread Prize (1997). Her second novel, Far Side of a Kiss, (pub 2001) is an historical fictional account of the servant girl whom William Hazlett fell in love with. She also contributed to Dermot Bolger’s short story collection Ladies Night at Finbar’s Hotel. Anne also dramatised The Real Charlotte by Somerville and Ross which was broadcast as a Radio 4 Classic Serial in 2003.

Eilis Ni Dhuibne was born in Dublin. She has written collections of short stories and novels, including The Bray House, The Inland Ice, Dúnmharú sa Daingean, and The Dancers Dancing. She has also written plays and novels for children. She has been the recipient of many awards for her work, including the Stewart Parker Award, The Bisto Book of the Year Award, the Butler Award for Prose, and the Oireachtas Award for a novel in Irish. The Dancers Dancing was short-listed for The Orange Prize for Fiction 2000.

John Morrison is from Belfast. His stage play Stranger in Paradise was produced by the Tinderbox Theatre Co, in Northern Ireland. For screen he has had a TV drama Innocent Party produced as well as the short film The Rules of Golf. He regularly writes drama for BBC Education which is broadcast on Radio Ulster and is also the author of the Radio 4 Afternoon Play’s MacMorris, and Dan Quixote.