Drama of the Week

Anna Christie has spent fifteen years waiting for a father who never came. When she finally arrives on the New York waterfront to find him, she brings with her a past she has told nobody, and a fury at the world that has shaped her whole life. What she doesn't expect is the sea itself, and what it might do to her.

Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is one of the towering works of American theatre: a searingly honest portrait of people trying to outrun their histories, until a shipwrecked Irish stoker arrives out of the fog and gives Anna a reason to stop running.

Adapted for radio by Lucy Catherine.

Story of America is a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.

Anna . . . . . Julianna Jennings
Chris . . . . . David Threlfall
Mat . . . . . Ciarán Owens
Marthy . . . . . Heather Craney
Johnny . . . . . Parker Sawyers
Larry . . . . . Kenndrick Horton

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
Technical producers: Keith Graham & Sam Dickinson
Editor: Peter Ringrose
Production co-ordinator: Ben Hollands

A BBC Studios production.

David Almond reimagines The Little Mermaid.

Set on Holy Island in Northumberland, the story is written and read by the author.

When Joseph was a boy, fishermen on the island found a mermaid in their net. But no one believes those old stories, do they? Except his grandfather, who keeps a mysterious jar of jewels in a glass case on the wall.

This magical, evocative story encompasses the degradation of the seas; the small attention spans of modern lives; the pressure on young people to leave the place they call home; the beauty and history of the island. It is also a love story.

David Almond is 'A writer of visionary Blakean intensity.' The Times. He is also winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, The Carnegie Medal, the Michael L Printz Award, the Nonino International Prize.

This series of modern fairy tales reimagined by leading writers has been specially commissioned to celebrate a major new exhibition at The British Library dedicated to fairy tales, as well as the National Year of Reading.

Producer, Mary Ward-Lowery