... Rich pickings to be found in Harvest BY MORIA PETTY A future in which the rich live on forever, preying on the body parts of the Third World poor, who are shackled financially to their Western counterparts, was the nightmarishly topical theme of an absorbing play. Manjula Padmanabhan's Harvest (BBC World Service, Saturday, July 10) opened with a confrontation between Jaya (Nina Wadja) and her ...

... The silly season strikes again By MOIRA PETTY As a fledgling reporter I knew this as the silly season. News was slow, and life seemed to repeat itself in front of you--as did the TV schedules. Radio drama (or at least what might be inferred to be the pick of the crop, in that publicists have pushed it forward for review) has, with some exceptions, done a turn worthy of the silly season. They ...

... Going on a surreal holiday BY MOIRA PETTY John Hegley is the man of the moment in radio drama--his jaunty jingles are everywhere. Fresh from his zany children's play last month, September saw his first comedy series, The Adventures of John and Tony (R4, from Tuesday, September 7). Hegley played John, with Simon Munnery (alias Alan Parker, Urban Warrior), in his first acting role as the bossy ...

... Beckett's sound of silence The most exciting radio drama of recent months was the disinterred recording of Samuel Beckett's pioneering plays, transmitted between ten and 30 years ago, in a Radio 3 tribute to the writer. In his work specifically writ ten for radio, Beckett defined his themes of isolation, the tragedy and farce of the human condi tion, and his expose of the inner workings of the ...

... Shake up for the millennium BY MOIRA PETTY As the millennium bandwagon rolls towards its premature climax, some pleasures are meted out more slowly. BBC Radio's Shakespeare for the Millennium season is a four-year project, bringing 17 productions both to the radio and retail outlets. although the puzzling habit of scooping yourself by selling the cassettes before they are broad cast continues. ...

... Satirical slant on vicar's woes By Moira Petty Irony won out over sentiment in a rumbustious production of Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefleld (BBC Birmingham for R4, from Sunday, October 3). There is evidence that Goldsmith intended his story to be seen as more than a moral fable in which the virtuous win out over the unscrupulous. This classic serial adaptation, directed by Sue ...

... Two is admirable company BY MOIRA PETTY Don Haworth's comedy on the writing of the ten commandments was the kind which has them rolling in the aisles, or would if it were staged at a church or repertory theatre. i we i wo (K4, i-naay, ucio- ber 22), suitably adapted and lengthened, would make admirable fare for a regional theatre company, while few congregations would argue with the twinkly, ...

... Jealous tale that rings a bell BY MOIRA PETTY The novelist Iris Murdoch is in many ways the quintessential author of radio prose. Her books embrace cerebral themes within a strong narrative and her characters are quirky: not a bad recipe for radio drama. The magical The Sea, the Sea was a radio play a tew years ago; now, in ihe Classic Serial slot, comes a grip ping and highly entertaining ...

... Social division merits derision By MOIRA PETTY Larita Whittaker is a heroine after my own heart. The catalyst of Noel Coward's Easy Virtue (Catherine Bailey Ltd for R3, Sunday, December 26) preferred to read Marcel Proust than practise her tennis, proclaiming: I don't think the ends will justify the means. I wish I had wriggled out of school sports lessons with such elegance. Coward was ...

... Foetal attraction had me rapt BY MOIRA PETTY Describing this radio production of Sylvia Plath's poem Three Women (BBC Manchester for R3. Saturday, January 8) as a drama raised the wrong kinds of expectations. I was relieved that it had not become an anachronistic hymn to the epidural but tained the spiritual intensity of Plath's poem to childbearing, each woman telling her story in lyrical ...

... Elegant shifts of perspective By Moira Petty One of the most difficult effects to achieve in radio drama, I have decided, after hearing Gordon House's ravishing production of Amy's View (R3, Sunday, January 23), must be that of time moving on. Without the visual nudges - greying hair, changing fashions, what is there to indicate temporal movement? David Hare's four-act play was set between ...

... Reflective rock solid drama By Moira Petty Anything which jolts the critics out of their preconceptions is good. The Bellringer and the Bi-Valve (BBC Birmingham for R4, Thursday, January 20) caused me to abandon knee-jerk classifications and analyses. The first of three plays, jointly entitled The Trinity, about the past, present and future, Sarah Woods' entwining of drama and documentary ...