Drama of the Week

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 Santos
Adapted by Kerry Shale.
Production co-ordinators: Sara Benaim, Jonathan Powell
Technical producers: Keith Graham, Neva Missirian, Kira Golightly
Sound design: Sharon Hughes
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
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.

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.