One Chord Wonders - Parallel Lines Ep 1/5
Friday 11 July
9.00-10.00pm BBC RADIO 4
One Chord Wonders is a series of five plays by top British novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/cottrell_boyce.shtml)
The series looks at the punk generation three decades on, with each play telling a different, but connected, story. Featured actors include Pauline Quirke, Doon Mackichan, Sian Reeves, Richard Ridings, Danny Webb, Manjinder Virk and Fenella Woolgar. The plays will be broadcast each Friday over the next five weeks.
The series is based on the fictional premise that in March 1977, punk band The Adverts performed a gig in Camberley to an audience of 27 people. Thirty-one years later, someone is trying to bring those 27 people back together again for a reunion.
Parallel Lines, the first play in the series, stars Doon Mackichan as Julie, Sian Reeves as Thing and Rosie Cavaliero as Margaret. Julie, a singer in an ageing Blondie tribute band, receives her invitation to the reunion but while deciding whether or not she should attend, she finds herself facing some uncomfortable truths.
Producer/Toby Swift
Don't know if any of you have caught either of the first two of these? If not, you can still listen again to the 2nd on Radio 4 online. It's worth listening to for the snippets of music throughout the plays
There's also a memory share thing on the beeb message board if you fancy putting any of your punk memories online.
I'll be tuning in for the 3rd episode this Friday, which is fittingly called "Damned, Damned, Damned" ... The author says it's his favourite of the series.
OK, that's it for now, I seem to be hanging round this message board far too often lately





