I had a bit of a radio plays catchup at the weekend and was hunting around for a good site that regularly reviews radio plays. To be honest I was pretty unsuccessful. I regularly visit Off the Telly which has some excellent TV reviews and features, but I can’t find anything similar for radio.
I did stumble across this site which has a few radio reviews published every few months. And through that I discovered that Radio 4 had broadcast a play back in May called Einstein in Cromer. This caught my attention because Cromer’s a town on the North Norfolk coast near where my parents live and I’ve known the town for as long as I can remember – but I never knew that Einstein had visited. It turns out that he visited in 1933 when he was fleeing Germany. He stayed there for a month or so before heading off to a new life in America where his fame would increase even more so.
My radio recording regime, and the fact that I rarely delete stuff, meant that even though this play was broadcast back in May, I still had it sitting, unlistened to on my hard drive. It’s quite an entertaining fictionalised account of what Einstein might have been doing as he stayed in his small hut/chalet, with David ‘Poirot’ Suchet playing Einstein.
And in case you don’t believe me about radio plays, read this article by Adam Thorpe published a year or so ago, and then revel in the fact that Radio 3 has just recorded Neil Gaiman’s Mr Punch for broadcast next March.