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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Book at Bedtime

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Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and world literature

Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and literature from around the world

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Book at Bedtime: A Commonplace Killing

Harriet Walter

Sarah Langan

Sian Busby

Lauris Morgan-Griffiths

Book at Bedtime: A Commonplace Killing: Episode 1

Drama: Thriller

A Commonplace Killing

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, A Commonplace Killing, Episode 1

Stultifying heat and the prospect of a two-hour queue for bread - Lillian dreams of escape

Stultifying heat and the prospect of a two-hour queue for bread - no wonder Lillian dreams of escape.

Harriet Walter reads a dark and mysterious thriller by Sian Busby.
It's a summer's day in 1946 in North London. Lillian is facing the prospect of a two hour queue at Nag's Head for a small, stale loaf. Bread is about to go on the ration. Still, she applies her make up and makes sure her seams are straight; you'd never believe she was 43! She leaves her husband, Walter, lightly snoring in bed. It's not that she wanted him to have been killed when he was away during the war; it's more that she just hadn't wanted him to come back to her. Instead of looking forward, Lillian can't help but hanker for those war days when she 'did her bit' in a more unconventional way than was perhaps expected.

Divisional Detective inspector Cooper is enjoying his first break in weeks when he's called to a bomb site. A woman's body, probably that of a prostitute, has been found. That's all he needs; sex crimes are always difficult to solve. London is in the grip of a crime wave. The number of crimes committed on VE Day was more than double that on the same day in 1939, and the Met is short of thousands of men. Coupons and ration books and queuing for everything had made criminals of everyone. The war may be over but things are struggling to get better. Can things return to how they used to be, before the bombs and the filth?

The abridger is Lauris Morgan Griffiths.
Produced by Sarah Langan.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

By Sian Busby. Dark thriller set in post-war north London, 1946. Read by Harriet Walter

By Sian Busby. Dark and mysterious thriller set in post-war north London, 1946. Read by Harriet Walter

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