The first fiction commissions for Channel 4's fledgling 4Radio venture are to debut online later this month when the broadcaster unveils four audio dramas.
The plays are all by new writers and will be directed by TV and theatre directors making their radio debuts. Neil Pearson and Hollyoaks actors Gerard McCarthy and Jennifer Biddall are among the cast.
The scripts were chosen from more than 1,000 submitted to an online competition launched last year off the back of C4 theatre talent search The Play's the Thing.
They were originally intended to be shared with OneWord before C4 pulled
its funding from the station in December.
C4 now plans to use the web to launch the plays ahead of 4Radio's planned start at the end of this year and will also make them available aspodcasts.
The 15-minute plays tackle heavyweight themes. Hospital doctor Andy Prendergast's To the Broad Shore explores euthanasia; DA McIllroy's The Interpreter features a confrontation between a Belfast police officer and a Chinese illegal immigrant; Stephen Todd's Proud Songster looks at the impact of genocide in Rwanda; and Caroline Gilfillan's The Colonel reflects on Chilean torture that took place in the 1970s.
Finally we have heard something about jenny biddall.
Viva Alonso
