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Front Row: The Courier, Deceit, 2.22 A Ghost Story review

12/08/2021

The Courier, Deceit, 2.22 A Ghost Story review

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, The Courier, Deceit, 2.22 A Ghost Story review

Director Dominic Cooke talks about creating the new film, The Courier.

Director Dominic Cooke on the new film, The Courier. Emilia di Girolamo joins us to discuss his new four part drama, Deceit. Susannah Clapp reviews 2.22 A Ghost Story.

In 1962 the USA and USSR engaged in one of the most terrifying acts of brinksmanship the world has seen. But few people know of the role played by an ordinary British businessman in bringing the Cuban Missile Crisis to an end. New film The Courier, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, tells the true story of Greville Wynne, recruited by MI6 to penetrate the Soviet nuclear programme. Director Dominic Cooke talks to Tom about creating this Cold War spy thriller.

Deceit is a new four-part drama on Channel 4 documenting the investigation launched by the police in the wake of the Rachel Nickell murder on Wimbledon Common in 1992. It stars Niamh Algar as an undercover officer who tried to reel in the man the police believed was guilty, Colin Stagg.  The writer and creator, Emilia di Girolamo, joins Front Row to talk about sexism, classism and how access to hours of original interview recordings helped her craft the script.

Lily Allen is making her West End debut in 2.22 A Ghost Story, in which she plays Jenny, a mother convinced a ghost is haunting her baby daughter’s room. But her cocky husband, Sam, is resolute in his refusal to believe her. An old friend of Sam’s and her far less dismissive boyfriend come to dinner. They drink – encountering a lot of spirits there - and debate, until 2.22 in the morning, the hour when, Jenny says, the ghost walks. The play is by Danny Robins, creator of the hit podcast The Battersea Poltergeist. Susannah Clapp, reviews the show and she and Tom Sutcliffe discuss the way ghosts are manifest in plays.

And actress Una Stubbs has died aged 84. Matthew Sweet pays tribute to a career which spanned six decades from Rita in Til Death Do Us Part to Mrs Hudson in Sherlock

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Hilary Dunn

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