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15 Minute Drama

The Power of Life and Death

Episode 4: Nice Distinctions

Duration: 15 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

When a number of distinguished members of government committees are found dead in suspicious circumstances, it falls to DCI Kate Duncan to discover what the connecting factor is.

Two elderly female patients of Dr Tom Cready - a GP - have been found to have died from experimental drugs which they had not been prescribed. The doctor was a critic of the NHS's prescription policy and it has emerged that the two dead women served on drug-licensing committees. DCI Kate Duncan is urgently returning to interview Dr Cready.

Mark Lawson's deftly plotted murder-mystery gets to grips with a major concern at the heart of our cash-strapped NHS: the post code lottery and exactly who is to be considered deserving of the most expensive life saving drugs on the market.

Kate Duncan - Haydn Gwynne
Lorenzo - Lloyd Thomas
Briggs - Chris McHallem
Hermione Sharp - Abigail McKern
Dame Imelda Sharp - Honor Blackman
Sue Wells - Abigail McGibbon
Dr Tom Cready - Nick Dunning
Dee Mortimer - Stella McCusker
Jeremy Vine - Himself

Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan.
Written by Mark Lawson. Show less

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