BBC Radio 4 FM

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

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Friday Drama

Drama

The home of thrillers, mysteries, romance and detective stories

The home of thrillers, mysteries, romance and detective stories. A real treat for lovers of a good story well told

Clive Barker

Doug MacMillan

Nadine Marshall

Michael Begley

Fenella Woolgar

Danny Lee Wynter

Adam Rojko

David Judge

Annie Ackermann

John Coxon

Polly Thomas

Friday Drama: The Forbidden

The Forbidden

28/06/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Friday Drama, The Forbidden

A run-down housing estate fizzes with supernatural forces. The original Candyman.

Duncan MacMillan dramatises Clive Barker's novella, the inspiration for cult 1992 horror film Candyman. A run-down housing estate fizzes with supernatural forces.

A run down housing estate fizzes with supernatural forces. 

The Forbidden is a chilling, urban horror dramatised for radio by Duncan MacMillan. It's adapted from 
Clive Barker's original novella, first published in 1985 and the inspiration for the cult 1992 horror film, Candyman.

The film was set in America, but the original short story was located in Britain, on a dilapidated council estate. This radio dramatisation takes it back to its roots: the story has been modernised, but set in a post-riot Britain, where materialism and greed are increasingly prevalent in all spheres of society.

Helen and her husband Trevor have recently moved into a gated community in the area where she originally grew up. She is becoming more and more disturbed by a nightmare, where she finds herself in a basement on her old estate and knows someone else is there. But who? And what do they want from her? 

As Helen insists on exploring the old estate, meeting an old friend and encountering mysterious, frightened teenagers, her home life is affected badly. As she grows increasingly suspicious that Trevor is being unfaithful, she returns to the basement which now haunts her sleep. What she discovers there is both a horrific shock and a sense of coming home, at last.

Recorded on location in London, with an original score from composer John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack, Spiritualized).

Music composed by John Coxon, recorded and mixed by Rupert Clervaux and John Coxon.
Sound design by Eloise Whitmore.


Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.

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

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Friday Drama

The Forbidden

Contributors

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4