The Audio Drama Show

"The Story of the Iceberg Shipwreck" (discovered in His Dressing Case) is an exciting and ironic tale of disaster and derring-do on the high seas. Its narrator Monkhouse tells of the sinking of the good ship Golden Dream around Cape Horn after colliding with a massive iceberg.  Cast onto the iceberg, Monkhouse discovers a group of other passengers as they battle to survive, led by quirky Able Seaman Tom White.  How they interact and finally reach land makes for an entertaining exploration of Victorian class issues.

The tale was written by Arthur Locker (1828-1893), an English novelist and journalist. His other fictional works include Sweet Seventeen (1866), Stephen Scudamore the Younger (1871) and notable translations of the works of Victor Hugo.  

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Discovered by head waiter Mr Christopher in His Boots, “The Story of Mr The Englishman Abroad” tells of Langley, a buttoned-up, hypercritical Englishman living alone in a French town. Estranged from his daughter in England, he takes a journey of self-discovery and reconciliation as he learns what it means to be French.

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Mister Christopher is a Victorian waiter who has many OPINIONS - on what is (and is not) a waiter, good and bad waitering, customers and their foibles, coffee houses, and much more. In this first part of the Somebody's Luggage series, he acquires a set of luggage left behind by an unknown guest ("Somebody")  six years previously: in this is secreted a set of stories written by him.

Somebody's Luggage is the creation of Charles Dickens in collaboration with several other writers of the period. These short stories were all published as part of the 1862 Christmas edition of Dickens' weekly publication "All The Year Round". Ours is a collection of selected tales from Somebody's writings that are all different and distinctive: an entertaining  portmanteau of styles and subject matter. To round off this portmanteau, Mister Christopher (and the eponymous Somebody) will finally meet.

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A bonus story from the life and times of Geoffrey Banks - British teacher, writer, broadcaster, and soap opera actor. Geoffrey goes up to Cambridge University in 1940 - just as World War 2 starts.  Working  as a navigator in a Swordfish spotter airplane over the Atlantic, "Monty" Banks and his two fellow crew members crash land over Ireland in 1944 and encounter some interesting local hosts.

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In the French town of Sens, the mystery of Emma Lirriper’s dying benefactor is revealed as, on his deathbed, he opens his eyes. The dastardly Mr Edson is given Christian care by our heroine, and the chance to meet before he dies the unknowing son, Master Jemmy, whom he abandoned with his mother many years before. 

Emma, Major Jackman, and Master Jemmy remain in Sens after his death and warm to the friendliness and joie de vivre of their French holiday hosts. But there is a problem: has Jemmy guessed who his father was?

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Mrs Emma Lirriper again encounters her arch lodging house rival Miss Wozenham - but in very different circumstances and with a surprisingly new outcome. After an intriguing  visit from the French Consul, Emma learns of an unknown dying man in the town of Sens who has left her a legacy in his will. She, Major Jackman and Master Jemmy set off for France, arriving in Sens via Paris. There she and the Major finally meet, on his death-bed, her strange bequeather: will she find out who he is before it is too late?

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Our favourite Victorian London landlady returns for another series of events and escapades, centred around a legacy that has been left to Emma Lirriper by an unknown person. But before the mystery of this legacy begins, we hear about and witness the strange behaviour of her reprobate brother-in-law Joshua Lirriper, the conflict between Major Jackman and Mr Buffle the tax collector, and excited happenings surrounding a house fire rescue in Norfolk Street, the Strand.

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For this last episode, the meaning of The Longer Road is finally revealed, beginning with a "Fab Four" truth-telling game. In this is the fraught love and child-complex relationship between Rebecca and Dan, and the real importance of a group of disparate outsiders to the closeted, claustrophobic society of 1970s Northern Ireland. Jimmy makes a decision about his future, before fraught psyches bring the melting pot of relationships to an explosive climax.  

But instead of fall-out, different forms of resolution in their lives are achieved by Rebecca, Dan, Jimmy and Elle - their longer roads.

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Dan describes his epiphany of near drowning in the Ballycastle rock pool as Jimmy and American Elle play a sad guessing game around the details of the fraught and tragic relationship with her fiancé.  Rebecca gives Jimmy a potential way out of Belfast and the deafening sound of an army helicopter forces Dan (as Donal) to relive his watery trauma: the secret and potential danger of his double identity is revealed to all.

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Off to Antrim for a music festival final day-out, the “fab four” divert to Ballycastle by the sea amid disagreements about the future of the community centre, openness between group members…and then a fatal collision with a dog. 

Against a backdrop of serious and deadly events in the province, more of their letters reveal Jimmy’s inner conflict about his sexuality, Dan (or is it Donal?) and his plans for the future, and American Elle’s personal Belfast tragedy. 

At the beach, Dan goes swimming – perhaps for the last time?

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