Speechification

In quiet corners of the BBC remarkable things happen. Here's an example from Radio 3. It's a play, written by Stephen Phelps (a veteran of investigative TV) about the Piper Alpha disaster that tells the story of the critical ninety minutes from the first failure to the final explosion, in real time, twenty years after the disaster—to the second. As an experiment I think it's a total success. Tense, moving and terrifying: high octane stuff, structured like a movie. It's genuinely spine-tingling and left me thinking about it for a long time after it had finished (MP3).

And thanks to the people who offered copies of the programme from their archives in response to my appeal.

Two New York gems. A really lovely afternoon play (you don't hear that very often round her do you?) called Imagining Them from Judith Kampfner and a glorious RadioLab. Kampfner is an unusual creature: transatlantic radio talent. She makes programmes for the BBC and for Public Radio via an independent production company grandly called The Corporation for Independent Media.

The play, which is in three parts—written and performed by Wendy Spero, Meg Wolitzer and David Cale—is so New York it hurts. It really stood out from the schedule this afternoon (it originally went out in February last year). The short RadioLab is an aural treat recorded by Ben Rubin on the open outcry trading floor at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Now, pay attention: here's an MP3 of Imagining Them and here's one for the RadioLab show. Only Imagining Them will show up in the podcast and the RadioLab might go away at some point because I've linked to the MP3 at the WNYC web site. You could get an MP3 of your own by subscribing to RadioLab's podcast, which I would recommend. And while you're at it you could make a donation to WNYC funds here. And while I'm going on and on: the credits below are for Imagining Them.

I was very excited to hear - on Radio 4 -that the weekend past was going to be a Paul Scofield tribute weekend over on Radio 7. BBC Radio 7, graveyard of the forgotten sitcom and the deservedly banished panel game, might actually be worth listening to.

Paul Scofield was one of our greatest Shakespearean actors until his death in March, noted for his distinctive voice and delivery, and most famous for his generation-defining Lear, and his Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons. Personally, my favourite role of his is the droll, slightly camp narrator of Patrick Keillor's peerless London, and its follow-up Robinson In Space.

Unfortunately, this tribute turned out to be simple rebroadcasts of just three plays, which are all a bit long for Speechification, but if you have an hour and a half to spare, this is a heads-up that they're all available on Listen Again for the next week:

• Anton in Eastbourne, Peter Tinniswood's last play, written as a tribute to Scofield and his great love of Chekhov (Listen Again).
• Macbeth, with Peggy Ashcroft (Listen Again).
• Dionysus, with Diana Rigg and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Listen Again).

My wife put me on to this one. She's one of those people who likes to have the World Service on all night. Consequently we dream about Congolese politics and tense UN general assembly sessions... Anyway, it's a play (you don't get many plays round here do you?) and it's a good one. Part of the World Service's World Drama series.

It's quite cinematic: the passage of a hundred years, an ironic voiceover, a clever narrative structure and a genuinely engaging story, knitting together the adoption of Morse code in 1906 and a turbulent family history up to the present day (which I kind of think must be based in fact: haven't done my research on that yet). Don't ask me why it's presented by Robin Lustig. (MP3, Real).

Pic by thparkth.