Episodes
| Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Spinkej by Clare Wigfall | 20161002 | Three short stories on the theme of sleep and rest specially commissioned for Radio 4.
Spinkej by young British writer Clare Wigfall: An exhausted mother contemplates her sleeping newborn baby in a clinic in Czechoslovakia in 1945. Ludmila, a young girl falls unwittingly pregnant after a brief relationship with a German soldier. She is sent to a mother and baby unit where she is kept until the baby is born. In her naivety, she is totally unprepared for motherhood, but as she watches the sleeping child a bond begins to form. It is a bond that the staff at the clinic and her mother do not wish to support. When Ludmila, now exhausted, herself falls sleeps what will happen?
Clare Wigfall is a young British writer living in Prague and Berlin. Her first collection The Loudest Sound and Nothing was published by Faber and Faber in 2007 to critical acclaim.
The reader is Sian Thomas and the producer is Julian Wilkinson.
An exhausted mother contemplates her sleeping newborn baby in Czechoslovakia in 1945. Three commissioned short stories on the theme of sleep and rest. |
| 02 | Waves, By Niven Govinden | 20161009 | Niven Govinden's tale of dwindling machismo and the uncertain benefits of rest. Part of a specially commissioned series of stories about sleep and rest for Radio 4. Waves is read by Nicky Henson. Niven Govinden (born 1973) is an English novelist. He was born in East Sussex and then educated at Goldsmiths College where he studied film. He has written four novels: We Are The New Romantics (2004), Graffiti My Soul (2007), Black Bread White Beer (2013), and All the Days and Nights (2014). He has also written a number of short stories. Author: Niven Govinden Reader: Nicky Henson Procucer: Simon Richardson Niven Govinden's tale of the uncertain benefits of rest. Read by Nicky Henson Three commissioned short stories on the theme of sleep and rest. |
| 03 | Even in Good Men by MJ Hyland | 20161016 | The last of our commissioned short stories on the theme of rest and sleep for the series Balm of Hurt Minds. The writer M J Hyland, who is herself an ex lawyer, tells the story of a young policeman who is himself awaiting trial in prison. Can his defence of sleepwalking convince a court that he was in fact not in charge of his faculties? M J Hyland has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and twice for the National Short Story Award.
Even In Good Men is read by Trystan Gravelle - a Welsh actor who has recently appeared in the ITV drama Mr Selfridge as Victor Colleano.
The producer is Julian Wilkinson.
MJ Hyland's story of a case of sleepwalking. Trystan Gravelle reads Even in Good Men. Three commissioned short stories on the theme of sleep and rest. |