Puckoon

BBC Radio 4, December 2019

Ed Byrne, Pauline McLynn and Barry Cryer star in Spike Milligan's classic madcap satire. An Irish town falls victim to bureaucratic stupidity when divided by a new border.

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Adapted by Ian Billings
Directed by Dirk Maggs
Produced by David Morley

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I'm a Slave

BBC Radio 4, June 2019

Modern slavery is all around us in the UK - in nail bars, car washes, brothels and on farms. This drama series is inspired by real stories, getting under the skin of a cruel trade that has grown enormously across the world in the the past decade.

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Written by David Morley

Directed and produced by Richard Clemmow

Sound design by Wilfredo Acosta

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Vive la Republique

BBC Radio 4, 28th April 2018

The true story behind General De Gaulle's secret flight from Paris at the height of the civil unrest of 1968. A drama that uncovers the panic at the centre of France's government and the fractured relationship between De Gaulle and his Prime Minister Georges Pompidou.

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Written by Mike Walker

Directed and produced by David Morley

Sound design by Paul Weir

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The Final Take: Bowie in the Studio

BBC World Service, 30th January 2018, 27 mins

Impressionist Jon Culshaw plays David Bowie. It is 2015, and music star David Bowie is secretly working in New York’s The Magic Shop studio, with his long-time producer Tony Visconti. The resulting tracks will become David Bowie's final album, Blackstar, which was released in January 2016, just two days before his death. The dialogue in this drama is partly constructed from Bowie’s own words, taken from the many hundreds of interviews he gave since the 1960s.

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Written by David Morley

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley

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Michael And Boris: The Two Brexiteers

BBC Radio 4, November 2016, 45 mins

The story of one of the greatest political dramas of the age, staring Alistair McGowan as Boris Johnson and Luke Kempner as Michael Gove.

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David Morley's play is a lively tale of hubris, ambition and betrayal between two old friends. Very different characters who are driven apart by events and their own weaknesses.

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"The last thing I want," David Cameron said, "is for this to become some kind of Tory psycho-drama..."

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Written by David Morley

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley

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Burn Baby Burn

BBC Radio 4, March 2016, 45 mins

Jon Culshaw starred with Ronni Ancona in this satirical telling of the Momart Warehouse fire, which destroyed works by Damien Hirst and other BritArt icons.

“Sean Grundy’s entertaining, cheekily postmodern romp…”  - Stephanie Billen, The Observer

Written by Sean Grundy

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley

Heading to Paradise

BBC Radio 4, July 2015, 43 mins

The stories of some of the victims of Flight MH17, shot down over the Ukraine in 2014.  The drama portrays actual events, with some imagined scenes, based on discussion with victims' relatives, eyewitness accounts, texts and emails. Joe Caffrey, Philip Franks and Tracy Wiles star in David Morley's factual drama.

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Written & Produced by David Morley

Directed by Dirk Maggs

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Death And Taxis: The Andy Warhol Diaries

BBC Radio 4, 2015, 4 x 15 mins

Sean Grundy adapts the outrageous and compelling diaries of Warhol. A snapshot of New York nightlife and celebrity culture,  starring Scott Capurro as Andy.

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Based on The Andy Warhol Diaries, edited by Pat Hackett

Written by Sean Grundy

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley

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Far Side of the Moore

BBC Radio 4, March 2015, 45 mins

Starring Tom Hollander, this is the story of how the self taught astronomer, whose Moon maps were later used by the Apollo missions, became the presenter of The Sky At Night. But it's also the story of a mysterious love affair, and a window into the mind of one of the nation's favourite broadcasters.

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Written by Sean Grundy

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley

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The Iraq Dossier

BBC Radio 4, March 2013, 60 mins

How Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell concocted the case for invading Iraq.

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“David Morley’s dramatisation of the lead-up to war from inside the corridors of

power stars Richard E Grant…” - Mail On Sunday

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“Morley’s dramatic juxtaposition of verifiable fact against political will was

irresistible…” - Gillian Reynolds

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Written by David Morley

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by Richard Clemmow

Out of the Blue

BBC Radio 4, September 2013, 2 x 45 mins

Set in contemporary Britain, Michael Eaton's fictional drama imagines that a rogue element in the Association of Chief Police Officers is meddling in politics. Producer David Morley says the Andrew Mitchell "Plebgate" affair was the inspiration for the drama. "When a Cabinet Minister was forced to resign, despite denying any wrongdoing, on allegations backed up only by the verbal evidence of a few policemen, it made me wonder what the UK's police could do if they really were politically motivated."

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Written by Michael Eaton

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by Richard Clemmow

Ebola

BBC Radio 4, December 2014, 45 mins

The true story of the 1976 discovery of the deadly Ebola virus, in the jungle of Zaire. The arrival in Antwerp of a thermos flask containing the blood of a dead Belgian nun was the first step on a path that led a small group of virologists to discover the deadly disease Ebola.

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Written by Mike Walker

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley

By a Young Officer: Churchill on the North West Frontier

BBC Radio 4, December 2014, 45 mins

Douglas Booth stars as the young Winston Churchill. The year is 1897 and news is just reaching London that Islamic insurgents are causing havoc in the mountainous border between British India and Afghanistan.

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“...a thundering dramatisation starring Douglas Booth as our hero, which manages to combine Flashheart appeal with sage observations of how little actually changes in the world” - David Hepworth, The Guardian

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Written by Michael Eaton

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley

A Cold Supper Behind Harrods

BBC Radio 4, September 2012, 45 mins

50 years after the end of the war that first brought them together, three Special Operations Executive agents meet once again to record interviews for a TV documentary investigating the murder of their colleague Patricia at the hands of the Gestapo.

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Written by David Morley

Directed by Philip Franks

Produced by Richard Clemmow

The Death of Tom Inglis

BBC Radio 4, May 2011, 45 mins

When 22 year old Tom Inglis falls out of the back of a moving ambulance and suffers terrible head injuries he is brain damaged and unable to communicate. His family struggle to cope with his disablement, and his mother believes he is in constant pain. Set against the doctors, she becomes increasingly desperate to relieve his suffering. She begins a journey that leads her to action no mother would ever want to contemplate.

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Lesley Manville stars in the true story of Frances Inglis. This modern tragedy also stars Phil Daniels and William Gaminara.

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Written by David Morley

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley

Beyond Borders

BBC Radio 4, December 2011, 45 mins

Jean Monnet is charged with planning the reconstruction of France.  Appalled by the devastation of two world wars, he is a highly efficient technocrat and a thinker who knows how to influence politicians.  For years he has believed in European collaboration to secure a peaceful and prosperous future. Monnet’s vision is for a radical realignment of Europe, not by one nation asserting itself over another, but by negotiation, integration and ultimately, through political and economic unification.

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“A pacy and well-told tale of Britain’s first wary steps towards closer ties to Europe” - Elisabeth Mahoney, Guardian

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Written by Mike Walker

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by Richard Clemmow

Washington, 9/11

BBC Radio 4, September 2011, 45 mins

Michael Eaton's drama reconstructs a chaotic day, when communications failed, protocols were abandoned; radar signals were misinterpreted and rescue aircraft came close to being shot down. It was a day that united America and saw tremendous acts of personal sacrifice and courage, but alongside the immediate response to the crisis there was also a hidden tussle for power and control, with some of Bush's key lieutenants moving swiftly to press an agenda that would determine US foreign policy for the remainder of the Bush presidency and put in place -'The War on Terror'.

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“Tense and vivid…The casting is excellent…Dirk Maggs directs tautly.” - The Guardian

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Written by Michael Eaton

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by Richard Clemmow

Mugsborough 1917 & Mugsborough 1926

BBC Radio 4, May 2009, 2 x 1hr

The residents of Mugsborough hold wildly differing views of the Great War. The politically aware favour peaceful solutions, others are determined to avoid being sent to the Western Front. One returns from Flanders terribly injured and cannot find work and one child is still unaware of the tragic circumstances of her parentage.

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Written by Andrew Lynch

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley & Johnny Vegas

Co-produced with Woolyback Productions

My Mad Grandad

BBC Radio 4, December 2009, 5 x 15 mins

Touching and funny tale of family quarrels and misspent old age, drawing on Scott's own childhood in Lancashire.

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Gil takes his first trip in a car and Grandad finds something to laugh at in the crematorium.

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Written by Mike Scott

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley

The Johnny Cash Hi-Jack Roadshow

BBC Radio 4, November 2008, 58 mins

When a couple of Sheffield lorry drivers steal a petrol tanker and aim is south at the House of Commons, they start to question their lives and past events set them against each other. As they speed south, pursued by the police, their increasingly desperate protest at fuel prices careers to a dangerous climax.

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Written by Michael Butt

Directed by Dirk Maggs

Produced by David Morley