Serious Money [Drama On 3]

Caryl Churchill is one of the most celebrated playwrights of her generation and a major force in British theatre. Her plays include 'Cloud Nine', 'Top Girls' and 'A Number'. In the week of Caryl Churchill's 75th birthday, this is another chance to hear Radio 3's new production of her dramatic satire of the financial excesses and corporate venality that followed the 1986 Big Bang, 'Serious Money' which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1987.

The City has changed since the Big Bang of 1986 and the sudden deregulation of the financial markets. The Square Mile has been invaded by white knights and corporate raiders. And ambitious young traders, like sister and brother Scilla and Jake Todd, are living the high life.

Hot-shot dealer Billy Corman is plotting to take over the unsuspecting company Albion, aided and abetted by this new breed of yuppie traders. But his plans go awry when trader Jake Todd is found dead and the Department of Trade and Industry is brought in to investigate. Could Jake's death be linked to his insider dealing?

Serious Money conveys the feverish, amoral addictiveness of speculation, and brings to life the swaggering, foul-mouthed cacophony of the Eighties' stockmarket.

This new version of Serious Money is adapted for radio and directed by Emma Harding

CAST

Scilla Todd - Hattie Morahan

Jake Todd - Bertie Carvel

Zak Zackerman - Tobias Menzies

Corman - David Horovitch

Greville Todd - Brian Bowles

Jacinta Condor - Melanie Bond

Marylou Baines - Jane Whittenshaw

Grimes/ Frosby - Daniel Rabin

TK/ Nigel Ajibala - Nyasha Hatendi

All other parts played by members of the company.

With musical accompaniment from Colin Sell.

Original songs by Ian Dury, Micky Gallacher and Chas Jankel

First broadcast in June 2011.

Caryl Churchill's dramatic satire of financial excess and corporate greed in 1980s London.