Episodes
| Episode | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 20191222 | 20230617 (R4) | When retired bank manager Harold Pye arrives on the island of Sark in the Channel Islands, he finds a society riven by feuds and squabbles -and he is delighted. The small, round evangelist brings nothing but love to this microcosm of the wider world and seems determined to spread that love as far as is humanly possible. However, there are unearthly forces also approaching the island -f rom the divinity Pye talks to on the cliff tops to a an ominous shadow that one of the islanders has seen in the water. Are battle lines being drawn for a momentous struggle between good and evil? Artist poet and novelist Mervyn Peake, perhaps best known for his Gormenghast trilogy, wrote this darkly comic modern fable in the 1950s and set it on Sark, a place he knew well. He peopled his island home with a regiment of eccentrics, angels and monsters - Miss Dredger, the redoubtable landlady who has never known love; the amoral Tanty who has known too much of it; the local painter Thorpe who has never sold a painting; and the monstrous busby-hatted Miss George. This modern tale about an island divided against itself has been dramatised by New Generation poet and playwright, Glyn Maxwell (The Gambler, Cyrano de Bergerac, Shakespeare's Fire). Cast: Adrian Scarborough........................Mr. Pye Deborah Findlay..............................Miss Dredger Christopher Harper.........................Thorpe/ Major Overshot Emily Bowker...................................Tintagieu Jane Whittenshaw............................Miss George Emma Noakes...................................Kiki, Mrs. Porter Alex Blake...........................................Pawgy Thomas Delacourt..............................Pepe, Cragg, Outcrop From the novel by Mervyn Peake dramatised by Glyn Maxwell Directed by Frank Stirling A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4 Adrian Scarborough stars in Mervyn Peake's satire in a battle of good and evil. Mervyn Peake's charming, dramatic and troubling satire on the nature of good and evil. |
| 02 | 20191229 | 20230624 (R4) | `There is no problem on earth that cannot be solved by love!` announced the little evangelist, Harold Pye, as he arrived on the tiny Channel Island of Sark. He certainly started to spread love around, galvanising a community rife with disputes, grudges and feuds. His good deeds seemingly knew no bounds. He even appeared to be developing certain actual angelic qualities, as he invited all the islanders to a grand midnight picnic at Derrible Bay. But now there's a literal whiff of disaster in the air and his schemes begin to unravel. There's all to play for as Mr. Pye (Adrian Scarborough) fights with the voices of his conscience, the monstrous Miss George (Jane Whittenshaw) plots against him and Miss Dredger (Deborah Findlay) finds love taking her in unexpected directions. Artist poet and novelist Mervyn Peake, perhaps best known for his Gormenghast trilogy, wrote this darkly comic modern fable in the 1950s and set it on Sark, a place he knew well. This modern tale about an island divided against itself has been dramatised by New Generation poet and playwright, Glyn Maxwell (The Gambler, Cyrano de Bergerac, Shakespeare's Fire). Cast: Adrian Scarborough........................Mr. Pye Deborah Findlay..............................Miss Dredger Christopher Harper.........................Thorpe/ Major Overshot Emily Bowker...................................Tintagieu Jane Whittenshaw............................Miss George, Dr. Moraine Emma Noakes...................................Kiki, Mrs. Porter Alex Blake..........................................Pawgy Thomas Delacourt..............................Pepe From the novel by Mervyn Peake dramatised by Glyn Maxwell Directed by Frank Stirling A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4 ~Mr Pye's on the horns of a diabolic dilemma in Mervyn Peake's classic. Mervyn Peake's charming, dramatic and troubling satire on the nature of good and evil. |