Gilbert without Sullivan: A BBC Radio 4 drama collection

Stephen Wyatt · William Schwenck Gilbert

Jun 2021 · BBC Digital Audio · Narrated by Sarah Hadland, Jonathan Coy, Full Cast, Bertie Carvel, Alison Steadman, Stephen Moore, and Chris Emmett

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4 hr 38 min

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Ten comic dramatisations based on the stories and plays of WS Gilbert

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert is best known for his operatic collaborations with Sir Arthur Sullivan, which captivated 19th-century audiences and continue to delight today. But he also created numerous solo works, among them these ten pieces, dramatised for radio by Stephen Wyatt and featuring Jonathan Coy as WS Gilbert.

The Finger of Fate - Confirmed bachelor Foggerty yearns for peace - but Fate has other plans, in the form of large, lively Dolly Fortescue.
Starring Stephen Moore, Alison Steadman, Martin Hyder, Ian Masters.
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 25 December 2002

An Elixir of Love - The inspiration for the Gilbert & Sullivan opera The Sorcerer, this humorous tale finds the Rev Stanley Gay secretly administering a love potion to his parishioners - with unexpected results.
Starring Paul Downing, Cathy Sara, Gillian Goodman, Christopher Scott, John Fleming.
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 14 May 2003

The Burglar's Story- Housebreaker's son Theodore Belvawney learns the hard way that there is no honour amongst thieves.
Starring Michael Onslow, John Webb, Anny Tobin, Stephen Boswell, Kim Durham, Alexandra Lilley
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 21 May 2003

Wide Awake - Rich, unworldly Harold Symperson learns that he must stay alert when looking for his soulmate.
Starring Richard Derrington, Chris Emmett, Julia Hills, Joanna Wake, Jamie Chapman, Tom George.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 28 May 2003

Mr Foster's Good Fairy - Confectioner Cyril Foster fears his chequered past will be exposed, until he's offered an unlikely escape.
Starring Ian Brooker, Sara Coward, Lennox Greaves and David Bannerman
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 4 June 2003

The Wedding March - Woodpecker Tapping's wedding day goes from bad to worse in this farcical drama.
Starring Jason Chan, Paul Clarkson, Amy Shindler, John Rowe, Alex Tregear, Sion Probert, Charlotte West-Oram
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 15 December 2004

A Sensation Novel - Author Ebenezer Fudge is most perturbed when his characters come to life and criticise his melodramatic plots.
Starring John Rowe, Nicholas Boulton, Hugh Dickson, Julia Hills, Jason Chan and Wendy Baxter
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 22 December 2004

A Colossal Idea - Holidaying with his wife in Margate, grocer Mr Yellowboy claims to be writing an encyclopaedia - but his real activities are less innocent.
Starring Tim Hudson, Sarah Hadland, Tina Gray, Bella Merlin, James Howard.
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 29 December 2004

Tom Cobb or Fortune's Toy - In need of money to marry his fiancee, Matilda O'Fipp, Tom Cobb decides to 'die'.
Starring Bertie Carvel, Sarah Corbet, Stephen Hogan, James Howard, Bella Merlin, Jason Chan.
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 5 January 2005

The Realm of Joy - A West End play proves so scandalous that Victorian society can't stay away. Starring Alexander Delamere, Jeffrey Harmer, Tim Hudson, Jilly Bond, Stephen Hogan, Bella Merlin, Charlotte West-Oram.
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 12 January 2005

Cast and credits
Written by WS Gilbert
Dramatised by Stephen Wyatt
Directed by Sally Avens, Sue Wilson and Jenny Stephen

Copyright © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. ? 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

About the author

Stephen Wyatt was born in Beckenham, Kent and brought up in Ealing in West London. He was educated at Latymer Upper School and then went on to Clare College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, he directed the 1973 Footlights Revue, Every Packet Carries a Government Health Warning, as well as productions of The Mikado, Handel’s Semele and Verdi’s I Due Foscari. His first full-length comedy, Exit, Pursued by a Bear, was produced at the Edinburgh Festival in 1973. After a brief spell as Lecturer in Drama at Glasgow University, he began his career as a playwright in 1975 as writer/researcher with the Belgrade Coventry Theatre in Education team. In 1982 and 1983 he was Resident Writer with the London Bubble Theatre. Stephen has worked widely as a freelance playwright in theatre, radio and television ever since. He also has considerable experience as a teacher, workshop leader and script reader and in the creation of audio guides. The first piece he wrote for television was a play called Claws which led to his being commissioned to write Paradise Towers and then The Greatest Show in the Galaxy for Doctor Who. In 2008, his play, Memorials to the Missing, won the Tinniswood Award for best original radio script of 2007 as well as Silver in the Best Drama category of the 2008 Sony Radio Awards. He spent two years as Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at the University of Sussex and in the autumn of 2011 he took up a post as RLF Writing Fellow on Greenwich University’s Maritime campus. Author biography by David J. Howe, author of The Target Book, the complete illustrated guide to the Target Doctor Who novelisations. Chris Emmett is an actor, comedian and writer. His many credits include appearing in The Burkiss Way and he was a regular on The News Huddlines and Week Ending.

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