The Unfortunates, By Bs Johnson [Drama On 3]

by B.S. Johnson

adapted by Graham White

Cast:

Bryan - Martin Freeman

Tony - Patrick Kennedy

Wendy - Claire Rushbrook

June - Jacqueline Defferary

Tony's Father - Sean Baker

First Aid Woman/Tony's Mother - Christine Kavanagh

Sation Announcer/Reporter - Tony Bell

Landlady/Clerk - Sally Orrock

Guest House owner/Reporter - Jude Akuwudike

Clerk/Newspaper Voice - Lloyd Thomas

Grocer/Clerk - Sam Dale

Passing Child - Joseph Dudgeon

Tony's son - Greta Dudgeon

directed by Mary Peate

'But I know this city...Tony. This town. His town. Their town.'

Adaptation of B.S. Johnson's 1969 novel in which a sports journalist travels to a strange city to cover a football match, only to discover it was the city where he first met his friend Tony who has died young of cancer. We follow the journalist from his arrival at the train station, through lunch, to the match and on the journey home, as different memories of his friend are triggered.

Originally published in 27 unbound pamphlets in a box, The Unfortunates was intended to be read in a random order. The lack of a fixed order is suggestive of the way memories occur, and the book becomes a meditation not just on friendship and loss, but also on the nature of memory and writing as our hero struggles to recall everything in order to 'get it all down' as he promised his dying friend.

B.S. Johnson is not a household name, but his novels are beloved by a growing number of people who have discovered him and he has something of a cult status. Renewed interest in B.S. Johnson came partly from the publication of Jonathan Coe's celebrated biography of Johnson, Like a Fiery Elephant.

Adaptation of BS Johnson's novel about a journalist's memories of his dear, dead friend.