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The History Plays

The History Plays

  • Radio comedy
  • BBC Radio 4
  • 2012
  • 5 episodes (1 series)

Series of two-hander plays by Nigel Smith that imagine conversations at key moments in recent history.

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Series 1, Episode 2 - Stonehouse In Alice

An imagined confrontation between the fugitive MP John Stonehouse and a young journalist Ed who seems to be after more than just a good story. With Blackadder star Tim McInnerny and Eric & Ernie actor Daniel Rigby.

Further details

It's 1974 and Ed Jennings, a cub reporter from a local paper has stumbled upon the scoop of a lifetime while on holiday in Australia. Because Leonard has found missing maverick MP, John Stonehouse.

Stonehouse recently faked his death to escape from a sea of debt, the fraud squad, his wife, and a series of misadventures back home in the UK. A charmer, a snob, an aesthete, a writer and a con man, the Walsall North MP, once one of the greatest loose cannons of his political generation, is now in hiding, shacked up with his mistress in one of the loneliest places on earth. What will be kept secret for decades, however, is that he's also a communist spy.

Ed is bright enough to know this story will make his name. It has all the ingredients; celebrity, notoriety, sex, politics and sleaze. But what it's fundamentally about is greed. And that is still seen as shocking in an MP. Chisholm knows no post-war English politician will have had such a fall from grace. Profumo only erred for lust. This is something new... and thrilling. And it turns out Stonehouse has an offer for the young reporter. One that will change both their lives.

Broadcast details

Date
Tuesday 28th February 2012
Time
11pm
Channel
BBC Radio 4
Length
30 minutes

Cast & crew

Guest cast
Tim McInnerny John Stonehouse
Daniel Rigby Ed Jennings
Writing team
Nigel Smith Writer
Production team
Nigel Smith Director
Gareth Edwards Producer

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