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Drama on 4

Drama

Drama from BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra.

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Alun Armstrong

Deborah Findlay

Geoffrey Palmer

Anne Reid

Jonathan Keeble

Tracy Gillman

Michael Chaplin

Marilyn Imrie

Drama on 4: The Ferryhill Philosophers: Filial Duties and Special Goods

Filial Duties and Special Goods

The Ferryhill Philosophers

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, The Ferryhill Philosophers, Filial Duties and Special Goods

Joe’s elderly mother is frail, going blind. Her security and happiness are at stake.

Joe’s elderly mother is frail, going blind. Her security and happiness are at stake. Joe has to decide what’s best for her.
Starring Alun Armstrong and Deborah Findlay.

Joe’s aged mother’s a strong character - but now frail, going blind, and incapable of looking after herself properly. The solution is for her to leave her home of 50 years and move into care, but in truth she wants to die now, with dignity - and she wants Joe to help her do this. 
 
Joe is wracked by indecision. What's more important - Bella’s security and happiness, or doing what is the morally right thing? Meanwhile Hermione faces a challenge in the care of her elderly demanding Dad.
 
The Ferryhill Philosophers is about how we live our lives. A rather unlikely duo, Joe Snowball and the Hon. Hermione Pink inhabit two very different worlds, albeit only seven miles apart. He's an unemployed ex-miner living in Ferryhill, a small town forgotten by the world, and she's a slightly disenchanted philosophy lecturer at Durham University. Between them they wrestle with the collision between moral philosophy and the vexing dilemmas encountered by the not-always-good people of Ferryhill, deprived of jobs, opportunities and the kind of ethical guidance once offered by the Church and the Miners Unions.
 
The series stars Alun Armstrong (of TV’s popular series New Tricks) and Deborah Findlay, currently starring in Caryl Churchill’s new play at The Royal Court. Award winning writer Michael Chaplin works in consultation with philosopher and presenter of R4’s The Philosopher’s Arms, David Edmonds. 
 
Cast:
Joe Snowball..................Alun Armstrong
Hermione Pink................Deborah Findlay
George ..........................Geoffrey Palmer
Bella...............................Anne Reid
Dr. Dainty.......................Jonathan Keeble
Mrs Cornish....................Tracy Gillman
 
Written by Michael Chaplin
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
 
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4

Drama on 4: The Ferryhill Philosophers

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.

By Michael Chaplin. An ex-miner and a senior lecturer wrestle with philosophical dilemmas.

By Michael Chaplin. An unlikely duo, an ex-miner and a senior philosophy lecturer, wrestle with the collision between moral philosophy and the sundry dilemmas of a small village by

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