You Must Listen

In 1952, the year before he terrified the nation with the first Quatermass TV serial, Nigel Kneale wrote 'You Must Listen' for BBC Radio a play exploring themes that he would return to again and again throughout the years, namely the intersecton between the supernatural and the scientific.  The original broadcast is lost but luckily Kneale retained the script and it was remade for BBC Radio 4 in 2023.

In 'You Must Listen' the installation of a phone line at the new offices of solicitor, Mr. Paley (Reece Shearsmith), is beset by problems when the voice a woman, nicknamed Passion Fruit (Caroline Catz), keeps being heard on the line.  As the problem continues and as Passion Fruit's monologue takes on a darker hue maintenance engineer Frank Wilson (Toby Jones) is called in to fix the problem.  

It's beautifully made and, like the best of the Kneale's work addresses timeless themes beyond the literal ghosts in the machine and it's wonderful to see this lost chapter in the work of one of the pillars of, what we humbly call, Wyrd Britain brought back to life.

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