Poet's
Corner is a six-part sitcom for radio, aimed at slots
such as weekdays at 6.30 p.m. on BBC Radio 4.
This web site features click-to-play audio clips (below) from
a demo recording of the pilot episode, Hard
Times, by Actors
& Writers London in November 2006. The episode
was professionally acted and directed by Martin
Cort. The recording includes a full radio soundtrack
and live audience response.
PETER is an impecunious poet
who lives with his daughter HELEN,
24, and son TOM, 17. His
two ex-wives, ANN (Helen's
mother) and JANE (Tom's mother),
though absent from the scene, continue to speak to Peter inside
his head, taunting him about his lack of success: He never
seems to stick at any project for long enough to bring it to fruition.
Peter is determined to find a new girlfriend. His main source
of opportunity is the writing class that he attends each week:
there are no male participants other than the teacher, DAVID,
and Peter himself. The writing group has a constantly changing
population of seemingly eligible women. The only other regular
participant is FRANCES, definitely
not on Peter's target list, who can always be relied upon to deliver
the latest instalment of her novel based on the Industrial Revolution.
The recurrent themes of the series are Peter's domestic situation,
his financial problems and his visits to the writing group. Each
week, he is at work on a new project and chasing a new woman. Each
week, we here some of the voices inside Peter's head, including
those of his two ex-wives. Each
episode also includes a poetic dream sequence in which Peter recalls
the jumbled events of the story.
Hard Times
In the pilot episode, Peter begins work on a verse "translation"
of Dickens' Hard Times. The
day's distractions include a cash crisis, a technical computer
error, and the nagging voices of his ex-wives. An imaginary
plumber (inside Peter's head) offers advice on the computer failure.
Peter visits the supermarket, where he sees HELENA,
his latest writing group idol. He loads his shopping basket
with cuts of meat, hoping to impress her but, when he looks up,
she is gone.
Returning from school, Tom fixes the computer in a matter of seconds,
unfortunately too late for Peter to make any significant progress
with his writing.
Helena attends the writing group. Peter persuades her to
join him for a drink in the pub, where the insurmountable obstacle
to their relationship is revealed. He withdraws, defeated,
into the land of dreams. Next morning, Dickens gets the sack.
