PPP for BBC Scotland
Six plays from lunchtime theatre to be broadcast
The BBC is to broadcast six hour-long plays from Glasgow’s hugely successful lunchtime theatre A Play, A Pie and A Pint, over six Sunday evenings from Sunday September 1 2019.
The television season starts just ahead of this Autumn’s season of lunchtime theatre at the Traverse with six new productions, starting on Tuesday 10 September with Martin McCardie’s From Paisley to Paolo.
Chic Murray, A Funny Place for a Window. Dave Anderson, Maureen Carr Pic: BBC Scotland/BBC Studios Comedy
The six plays to be broadcast on the BBC were recorded live at normal lunchtime performances at the company’s Glasgow base at Oran Mor. They include several which were also part of the Traverse’s regular seasons of PPP productions.
The plays kick off tonight, 1 September at 10pm, with Stuart Hepburn’s Chic Murray: A Funny Place for a Window, starring Dave Anderson, Maureen Carr and Brian James O’Sullivan. Next week’s offering on Sunday 8 is Anita Vettesse’s Ring Road, in which she stars with Gavin Jon Wright.
The season was preceded on Saturday night with a documentary about A Play, A Pie and A Pint recorded by the BBC in 2014 to celebrate the lunchtime theatre’s first decade, which is available to view on BBC iPlayer.
The documentary features interviews with PPP founder David MacLennan, who had previously announced he had been diagnosed with terminal motor neurone disease, and died on the day the programme was first broadcast.
NB: This page will be updated with confirmed broadcast dates and links to the shows on iPlayer as they are broadcast.
Listings:
A Play, A Pie and a Pint
Broadcast Sat 31 Aug. Available on iplayer until Sunday 29 September 2019.
Documentary, celebrating PPP’s 10th anniversary in 2014. Robbie Coltrane, David Hayman, Liz Lochhead and Bill Paterson are among the dazzling cast paying tribute to David MacLennan and celebrating the success and PP’s phenomenal global outreach.
Chic Murray: A Funny Place for a Window by Stuart Hepburn.
Broadcast Sun 1 Sept. Available on iplayer until Monday 30 Sept 2019.
With Dave Anderson, Maureen Carr and Brian James O’Sullivan.
A poignant, but also comic look at the career of renowned comedian Chic Murray through his relationship with his wife Maidie, who was, by far, a bigger star of the Scottish variety scene when they first met.
Æ review: ★★★★☆ Fitting tribute.
Ring Road by Anita Vettesse.
BBC Scotland: Sunday 8 September 2019, 10pm.
With Anita Vettesse and Gavin Jon Wright.
Anita Vettesse in Ring Road. Pic: BBC Scotland/BBC Studios Comedy
Forty year old Lisa, who is in thrall to a mid-life crisis, makes an indecent proposal to her brother in-law, to father a baby for her and end her childlessness.
Æ review: ★★★★☆ Ring of truth
A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity by Douglas Maxwell
BBC Scotland: Sunday 15 September 2019, 10pm (tbc).
With Anne Kidd and Craig McLean.
A recently widowed elderly lady, strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young lad at her husband’s company, and goes on a mission to learn how to give verbal vent to her repressed emotions.
Æ review (of original 2013 production with Joanna Tope and Scott Fletcher): ★★★★☆ What a stoater.
Toy Plastic Chicken by Uma Nada-Rajah
BBC Scotland: Sunday 22 September 2019, 10pm (tbc).
With Neshla Caplan, David James Kirkwood and Anna Russell-Martin.
A toy plastic chicken going through airport checks is suspected of being a bomb, leading to the interrogation and screening of its female owner for domestic radicalisation.
Æ review: ★★☆☆☆ Curate’s egg
Meat Market by Chris Grady
BBC Scotland: Sunday 29 September 2019, 10pm (tbc).
With Julie Duncanson, Robin Laing and Megan Shandley.
A comic tale, fraught with duplicity and dodgy ethics, that sees three strangers meet in a 24 hour gym late at night to negotiate the sale of a human kidney.
Crocodile Rock by Andy McGregor
BBC Scotland: Sunday 29 September 2019, 10pm (tbc).
With Darren Brownlie and musicians Gavin Whitworth and Gary Cameron.
A comic new coming of age musical set in Millport in 1997. Seventeen-year-old Steven feels hemmed in by island life until he meets an outrageous drag queen who opens his eyes to another world.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint Traverse Autumn season 2019
Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED
All shows play Tuesday to Saturday in Traverse 2 at 1pm, with a Friday evening show at 7pm.
From Paisley to Paolo by Martin McCardie
Tuesday 10 – Saturday 14 September 2019.
Tickets and details: Book here.
It’s 2006, Jack is 19 and was born on the same day, in the same hour, in the same hospital as Paolo Nutini. He goes to T in the Park in a stolen hearse with his two best friends Jack and Mavis, and promises that his best pal Paolo will be there to meet them. Nothing will be the same again.
Number One Fan by Kim Millar
Tuesday 17 – Saturday 21 September 2019
Tickets and details: Book here.
Jan McArthur is raging. Her husband just left her for a woman 20 years her junior. She’s lost her job. Her cat just died. And to cap it all, the menopause is on the rampage, leaving her a hot flashing mess. When Jan reads Jack Bonham’s women-hating column, he becomes the embodiment of everything that is wrong in her life. Jan sets out for revenge.
Mack the Knife by Morag Fullarton
Tuesday 24 – Saturday 28 September 2019
Tickets and details: Book here.
Berlin, the late 1920’s… a time of decadence, despair and joie de vivre. A young Jewish composer, Kurt Weill, meets his muse, singer Lotte Lenya, and falls in love. He collaborates with playwright Bertolt Brecht on what they both consider a ‘bit of a potboiler’. As The Threepenny Opera delights audiences across Europe, a new barbarism is erupting which will change everyone’s lives forever.
The Signalman by Peter Arnott
Tuesday 1 – Saturday 5 October 2019
Tickets and details: Book here.
Winter 1919. Thomas Barclay is transported back in time, to the night when he was the Signalman who sent the Edinburgh/Burntisland train onto the Tay Rail Bridge, 40 years before. Who is responsible when accidents occur? Why is there a difference between what we feel and what we know? Why do we need somebody to blame… even if it’s ourselves?
Fly Me to the Moon by Marie Jones
Tue 8 – Sat 12 Oct Daily 1pm; Fri 7pm
Tickets and details: Book here.
Francis and Loretta are broke community care workers. Davy, one of their charges, has had a big win on the horses, and now the women grapple with their conscience. Marie Jones’ black comedy investigates whether we are valued more in life or in death.
The Sweetest Growl by Claire Nicol
Tuesday 15 – Saturday 19 October 2019
Tickets and details: Book here.
In the 1950’s, Gorbals-born Mary McGowan was the sensational singer with cult Scottish jazz band The Clyde Valley Stompers. She was reckoned by Louis Armstrong to have one of the best voices in the business. However, at the height of her fame, she gave it all up to become a Glasgow housewife. But did she have any regrets?
ENDS
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