Mugsborough 1917 & Mugsborough 1926

24th and 31st May 2009, 3-4pm, BBC Radio 4

Summary

In “Mugsborough 1917” the residents of Mugsborough have wildly differing views of the barbaric Great War. The politically aware FRANKIE OWEN is anti war, forecasting the deaths of many naive young men swept up in the jingoism of the press and mood of the ill informed. He campaigns against mobilisation and for peaceful solutions but is condemned as a traitor by many of his peers.

CHARLIE LINDEN, his close friend, is determined to avoid the draft and make himself a career at Rushton’s factory. Can they both avoid being sent to the Western Front? Fate gives CHARLIE a hand when he sees something he wasn’t supposed to.

Meanwhile poor BERT has come back from Flanders terribly injured and cannot find work and the young ELIZABETH is still unaware that she is RUTH’S child, the product of a rape.

TX MAY 31ST

In “Mugsborough 1926” the threat of civil unrest is gripping the country. Socialist ideas and talk of revolution are in the air, as workers and managers come to blows. Old friends FRANKIE OWEN and CHARLIE LINDEN are set on a collision course when they take opposite sides in a dispute at local firm Rushton’s. Shell shocked EASTON cannot forget the Great War, while his wife RUTH struggles with the knowledge that her secret daughter ELIZABETH is being brought up by another family. Soon the child is being used as a pawn in a bigger game.

Production Credits

Johnny Vegas....Easton
Paul Whitehouse....Old Misery/Hunter
Shirley Henderson....Ruth
Raquel Cassidy....Nora
Iain McKee....Frankie
Des O'Malley....Bert White
Tony Pitts....Bundy
Tom Goodman-Hill....Barrington
Carl Rice....Charlie Linden
Nicola Stephenson....Elsie
Rupert Degas....Sweater
Kevin Eldon....Slyme
Arthur Smith....Crass
Bill Bailey....Rushton
Yasmin Garrid....Young Elizabeth
Jody Latham....Freddie
Joanne Neary....Older Elizabeth
Anne Waggott....Mrs Meadows

Writer....Andrew Lynch
Director....Dirk Maggs
Producer....Johnny Vegas & David Morley
Co-Produced with Woolyback Productions

The Johnny Cash Hi-Jack Roadshow

14th November 2008, BBC Radio 4, The Friday Play

Summary

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.

Ray Fearon, Philip Jackson and Des O’Malley star in the compelling story of a hi-jacked petrol tanker, headed for the Houses of Parliament. As the fuel crisis bites, Sheffield-based Paul and Vic lose their driving jobs. When Paul steals a lorry full of petrol and turns up at Vic’s house in the small hours, with ideas of making a statement to the world, it’s the beginning of “the best day of our sorry lives”. Vic leaves his wife in bed and they head down the M1 with thousands of gallons of highly flammable fuel on board. It’s “a hundred grand bomb”, says the increasingly disturbed and frightening Paul, played by Ray Fearon.

Production Credits

Ray Fearon....Paul
Philip Jackson....Vic
Des O'Malley....Dougie
Rupert Degas....Robert and Andy
DeNica Fairman....Susan and Mandy
Rosalyn Wright....Marie and Iris

Writer....Michael Butt

Director....Dirk Maggs

Producer....David Morley