GILBERT HARDING

On 11th January between 9 and 12 Radio 4 Extra is devoted to the life of Gilbert Harding, televsion's first ever "personality". It features extracts from his appearances as quizmaster and panellist on Round Britain Quiz, Twenty Questions and What's My Line? as well as the whole of his Face to Face interview with John Freeman. Accompanying interviews include one with Roger Storey, his secretary, and one with me. The programme ends with a repeat of my Afternoon Drama about Gilbert Harding, Dr Brighton and Mr Harding, directed by Martin Jenkins with Roger Allam as Harding. The programme will be repeated in the evening and will also be available on the BBC's iPlayer.

SCRIPT DOCTOR

A revised version of Andrew Cartmel's Script Doctor has just been published. Still the best account of the McCoy years as they happened. And I should know as I was there! The new edition has a perceptive and supportive preface by Steven Moffat and lots of extra photos, some of them from my own archives.

WRITERS GUILD NEWSLETTER TRIBUTE TO CLAIRE

Just published online in the Writers Guild Newsletter a couple of extracts written by Claire for our book and a short article by me about working with her.

DEBUSSY PREMIERE

The Devil in the Belfry (Le Diable au Beffroi) receives its staged world premiere in Gottingen on 10th and 11th December. The Gottinger Symphonie Orchester is conducted by Christoph-Mathias Mueller with video-installations by Lyoudmila Milanova.

My libretto is based on Debussy's original scenario for a one act comic opera inspired by the E.A.Poe short story. The music has been completed and orchestrated by Robert Orledge, one of the world's leading Debussy experts. It plays in a double bill with Robert's completion of Debussy's other Poe opera, The Fall of the House of Usher.

The talk Rob Orledge and I gave at Gresham College last year on our reconstruction is available via You Tube

Update on Saturday, December 14, 2013 at 2:39PM by Stephen Wyatt

Standing ovations and packed houses apparently for the two performances of the Debussy double bill. Sorry I wasn't able to be there!

"An outstanding and significant opera event". Goettinger Tageblatt

BROADCASTING INDUSTRY DAY

Stephen will be talking about So You Want to Write Radio Drama? which he co-wrote with Claire Grove at New Writing South's Broadcasting Industry Day on Saturday 30th November. Copies of the book will be on sale!

CLAIRE GROVE

Claire Grove, co-author of our radio drama book, died yesterday afternoon after a long and courageous battle with cancer. She was a wonderful collaborator and such a warm, vibrant, energetic and funny woman that it's hard to believe she's no longer with us.

Dear Claire, you will be much missed.

Here's what she wrote in the introduction to the book:

I love radio drama. I am a shamelessly enthusiastic listener and I’ve had the enormous pleasure of working in it for many years as a producer and director. Why do I love it?  Because it can take me anywhere the writer wants to take me. It gives me the freedom to imagine complete worlds.  It can take me to places where I could never actually go in life. I love the vast range of subjects that it embraces and the sheer volume of it splurging out of the radio on a daily basis. Thrillers, romances, fantasy, gritty urban; there’s something for everyone here. I love the fact that the word is king, that I can imagine complete characters from the timbre of an actor’s voice and that a sudden silence can stop me in my tracks because I simply have to discover what happens next.   And it fits in with a busy life. I can listen to it on my iPod while I’m walking, in the car while I’m driving or at home while I’m doing other things.

TOLD LOOK YOUNGER AT JERMYN STREET THEATRE

Many thanks to my talented cast (Jonathan Coy, Philip Franks, Jordan Mifsud and Jeff Rawle) and my director (Sue Dunderdale) for all their hard work on the reading of Told Look Younger at the Jermyn Street Theatre on Thursday 14th. The script really came alive in their hands.

Thanks also to Sara Moore at Valerie Hoskins Associates and the Arts Council of England for their support.

Very favourable reactions from the audience and it looks as if there's a good chance the play will now proceed to production at a later date. Fingers crossed!

THE ORGANIST'S DAUGHTER

A nice review from Gillian Reynolds in The Daily Telegraph:

Radio drama has its own voice, of course, one with the power to take you anywhere. Monday’s Afternoon Drama last week, The Organist’s Daughter by Stephen Wyatt, was just such a play. Simon Russell Beale, the National’s most-daringly versatile actor, played Buxtehude, the great German Baroque organist. Emma Fielding, who began her distinguished career with the BBC Radio Drama Company, played his clever daughter. Would he succeed in marrying her to one of the candidates to succeed him, Bach (Karl Davies) or Handel (Joseph Kloska)? I won’t say. It’s bound to be repeated, a piece that will catch your ear, your inner eye and, unexpectedly, your heart.

ARTS COUNCIL GRANT FOR TOLD LOOK YOUNGER

I was delighted to learn that we have been given an Arts Council of England grant for the workshops and rehearsed reading of my comedy, TOLD LOOK YOUNGER (see below) on 14th November at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Sue Dunderdale will direct with Jonathan Coy, Philip Franks and Jeff Rawle in the cast. There will also be an opportunity for two young theatre writers to be involved in the process as part of my continuing collaboration with Chris Taylor and New Writing South.

TOLD LOOK YOUNGER by Stephen Wyatt

A provocative and perceptive comedy about sex, love and growing old.

Three encounters between three gay men in their early sixties in a restaurant where the menu is never the same.

Colin plans to marry his nineteen year old Turkish boyfriend and his two oldest friends are determined to stop him. This is the starting point for an emotional rollercoaster which turns all their lives upside down as they bitch, argue, confide, laugh and cry their way through the changing dishes of the day.

 Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England - See more at: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/information-funded-organisations/grant-award-logo-and-guidelines/logo-guidelines-new/#verbal

14th October 2013 AFTERNOON DRAMA

Monday 14^th October 2013 at 2.15 pm

BBC Radio 4

THE ORGANIST’S DAUGHTER

By

Stephen Wyatt

 Directed by Martin Jenkins

with

Emma Fielding and Simon Russell Beale

Dieterich Buxtehude was famous throughout Europe for his skill as an organist. Many musicians coveted the post he held in Lübeck, including Georg Friedrich Händel and Johann Sebastian Bach, both then in their early twenties. But there was a condition – the successful applicant had to marry Buxtehude’s thirty-year old daughter, Anna Margreta.