A collection of six BBC Radio 4 dramatisations following the political swings of the Republican party

The Republicans

Six BBC radio dramas following the political swings of the Republican Party, through the personal stories of its Presidents

Six BBC radio dramas following the political swings of the Republican Party, through the personal stories of its Presidents 
 
Focussing on three of the best-known Republican Presidents of the 20th Century, Jonathan Myerson’s riveting drama series looks at how their triumphs and disasters drove the party's electoral fortunes.Closely based on accounts by those who were there, this political trilogy reimagines the pivotal moments that changed history, and the part played by these famous and controversial leaders. 
 
Ronald Reagan: Death Valley Days 
1965. Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign against LBJ has crashed and burned, and the Republicans need a fresh, new face –someone with TV appeal. Inspired by his down-home style and easygoing charm, they turn to fading movie star and Western hero Ronnie Reagan, and ask him to play a different kind of role. 
 
Richard Nixon: Searchlight Has Left the Building 
1970. President Nixon has invaded Cambodia, sparking student protests across the US. At Kent State University, the National Guardsmen have shot four dead, and Washington is on high alert. But when the insomniac President wakes at 4am to see rebellious students assembling at the Lincoln Memorial, he goes out to meet them, taking his White House valet with him. As the Secret Service struggles to catch up, the night takes a bizarre turn… 
 
Gerald Ford: Fascist Insect 
1975. Nixon has resigned, and new President Gerald Ford is fighting for his political survival. The country is in chaos, his party is disintegrating, and challenger Ronald Reagan is attacking with weekly radio broadcasts and the catchy slogan ‘Make America Great Again’. Saigon has fallen, the Panama Canal is under threat and political fervour is everywhere – even celebrity rich-girl kidnap victim Patty Hearst seems to have turned terrorist. Then ex-FBI informant Sara Jane Moore decides to trigger the revolution. She buys a gun – and aims it at the President… 
 
Ronald Reagan: Hanging by Our Thumbs 
1987. Hold on tight for a knockabout journey through the crazy stories of the notorious Iran-Contra affair. 
Ronald Reagan’s landslide second term is on the ropes. Congress is investigating evidence that the US has illegally been selling arms to Iran, and secretly diverting the proceeds to fund Contra guerrilla fighters in Nicaragua – all with the President’s knowledge. 
But when NATO Ambassador David Abshire is recalled to try to get the facts straight, he discovers it all depends on what you believe….. 
 
 
George W Bush: A Higher Father 
2000. As George W Bush scrapes into the White House, his surprise journey to the Presidency doesn't just follow in his father's footsteps. 
According to US Marine Gunnery Sergeant Louella Harkrader - a storyteller with her own peculiar angle - Dubya's political steps have been guided all along by a Higher Father, now exerting His influence on US politics. 
 
 
Donald Trump: This Isn't Happening 
2016. At a campaign rally, Donald Trump declares: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” 
But when President Trump loses his temper on his Scottish golf course one day, things work out very differently.... 
 
Among the casts of these entertaining radio plays are Kerry Shale, Madeleine Potter, Jonathan Hyde, Sian Thomas and Nathan Osgood.

A BBC Radio 4 thriller

That Was Then: Series 1 and 2

A tense contemporary thriller, secretly recorded on a phone.

Jonathan Myerson is an author, playwright and screenwriter who has written numerous plays for television and radio. His animated film The Canterbury Tales won the 1999 BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film.

The truth won’t stay hidden forever. 
 
Twenty years after a murder, the convicted man walks free. His supporters claim a victory for justice, but for the murdered man’s friends, life implodes. Old lies re-surface, and new questions haunt them. 
 
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died? 
 
Anna was one of the victim’s housemates, back when they were students. Now she is a vicar, but back then she did media studies. When the case opens up again she finds all her old student films in the loft – films about her housemates – and she watches them with new eyes. Covertly recording on her phone, she starts to unravel what really happened. 
 
Starring Rosie Cavaliero, best known as DS Susan Reinhardt in Prey, and Marion in Unforgotten. 
 
This collection also includes a 10-minute behind-the-scenes feature: ‘The Making of That Was Then’. 
 
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.

Payback (BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play)

A BBC Radio 4 'Saturday Play' investigating how domestic and international politics were about to combine in 1973, to change the Middle East forever.

It is 6th October 1973. Golda Meir has become Prime Minister of Israel in her seventies. Syrian and Egyptian troops are massing on Israel's borders, but despite eleven warnings of impending war in the past month, the Israeli cabinet has not called up the reserve.  In Florida, Richard Nixon awaits the final verdict of the Washington Appeal court on his objections to surrendering the Watergate Tapes.  In New York, Henry Kissinger is about to be woken at his room in the Waldorf Astoria, with news of a new Middle East War.   Stars Henry Goodman as Henry Kissinger, Peter Marinker as Richard Nixon and Sara Kestelman as Golda Meir. Also included in the cast are Kerry Shale, Ewan Bailey, Sam Dale, Sean Baker and Christine Kavanagh. Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting. 'Payback' was originally broadcast on 22 January 2011.

Jonathan Myerson

Alex Kingston

Full Cast

Henry Goodman

Freddie Fox

Natalie Dormer

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama

A 16-part dramatised reconstruction of a landmark moment in history - the groundbreaking trial of the 22 most notorious Nazi war criminals 
 
Summer, 1945. The war is over, and Germany has surrendered. Across Europe, the top surviving Nazis are being tracked down, arrested, and imprisoned in a once-opulent Luxembourg hotel, on 24-hour suicide watch. Now, the Allies must decide what to do with them. After much deliberation, Britain, America, Russia and France agree that Hitler's high command must be formally tried. This will be an entirely new kind of trial, with utterly new charges: those of 'Crimes against Humanity' and 'Genocide'. And before it can even take place, numerous crises and obstacles must be overcome... 
 
As court proceedings finally get underway, the enormity of the Nazis' crimes is revealed via a mountain of documentary evidence: and chilling footage of the concentration camps. Over the next 218 days, the accused - among them Hitler's architect and close ally, Albert Speer, and deputy Hermann Goering - are cross-examined, and forced to admit to the shabby gangsterism of the Nazi war machine. With the judges' verdict imminent, who will be executed, and who acquitted? 
 
Featuring a stellar cast, including Henry Goodman, Freddie Fox, Alex Kingston and Natalie Dormer, Jonathan Myerson's epic series brings the process alive from the ground up. We see the trial - and the events leading up to it - through the eyes of some of the myriad individuals involved: the US Army officer guarding the cells; the Russian interpreter translating the indictments; the psychologist who runs tests on the defendants, hoping to find the mystery of human evil; and the young German girl working in the court cafeteria, who must come to terms with her country's collective guilt. 
 
Drawing on eyewitness testimony, contemporary reports, over 20 volumes of court transcripts and more than 2000 hours of audio and newsreel, this comprehensive drama gives us a fresh understanding of the immense achievement of those who fought for justice in 'the last battle of World War II' - and reveals how that phenomenal historical moment shaped our world today. 
 
Also included is a bonus interview in which Jonathan Myerson discusses the writing of Nuremberg with Kristan McMahon of the Robert H. Jackson Center. 
 
Credits 
Written and directed by Jonathan Myerson 
Produced by Nicholas Newton 
Sound Designer: Adam Woodhams 
Studio Manager: Mark Smith 
Casting Director: Ginny Schiller 
Original Score: Metaphor Music 
A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds 
 
 First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 27 August-15 October 2021 
 
With thanks to Kristan McMahon 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
(p) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Jonathan Myerson

Books by Jonathan Myerson

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