Curious Under the Stars - BBC Radio Drama - Meic Povey, Alan Harris, Annamaria Murphy

Written by Meic Povey, Alan Harris, Annamaria Murphy
Read by Full Cast
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 160 Kbps
Dramatization

Curious Under the Stars - Created by Meic Povey

When Gareth finds his wife, Diane, in bed with another man, the couple attempt to save their marriage by uprooting from London to the West Wales village where Gareth grew up and buying the local pub.

It’s a bit of a dive - the wallpaper’s peeling, there are squirrels in the saloon bar and something’s growing out of the pool table. But it’s got potential and they’re determined to make a go of it.

Soon, the locals are flocking to The Druid’s Rest - and as Diane discovers, her husband’s old friends are an eccentric bunch.

There’s ex-soldier Gwyn, who carries a machine gun everywhere; garrulous waitress Megan; cook Matty, whose dishes cast a spell over everyone who eats them and enigmatic Potman (and narrator) Emlyn, who seems built into the fabric of Glan Don. And then there’s Bethan - beautiful, bewitching Bethan, Gareth’s teenage sweetheart, who may still have a hold on his heart….

If the villagers are strange, Glan Don itself is even stranger. Steeped in ancient folklore, it is both eerie and enchanting. The sea is an all-pervading presence, magical and menacing in turn, home to mermaids and submerged forests. On land are haunted caves, dark woods, ruined castles, old lead mines - and legendary beings including ghosts, dragons, witches and the King under the Hill.

As Gareth and Diane struggle to cope with the dual challenges of running a pub and dealing with the supernatural, will Glan Don bring them closer together - or tear them apart?

Curious Under the Stars takes us deep into a Welsh landscape of myth, magic and mayhem.

Gareth - Elis James/Sion Pritchard/Richard Elis
Diane - Louise Ford/Amy Hoggart/Emma Sidi
Emlyn - Ifan Huw Dafydd
Bethan - Eiry Hughes/Hannah Daniel
Gwyn - Matthew Gravelle
Matty - Siw Hughes
Megan - Aimee-Ffion Edwards/Gwyneth Keyworth
Pierre - Lee Mengo
Gwyneth/Customer - Kath Weare
Charlie - Donal Gallery
Magda - Wanda Opalinska
Gregor - Marc Danbury
Guto - John Weldon
Referee/Doctor - Mike Bubbins
Gertrude - Joanna Scanlan
Fluffy - Sion Pritchard
Hadrian - Paul Rhys
Geraint - John Pierce-Jones
Fleur - Catrin Stewart
The Ghost - Owain Gwynn
Anwen - Juno Robinson

Written by Meic Povey, Annamaria Murphy and Alan Harris.
Directed by James Robinson and Nigel Lewis.

Music: “Knee-Deep in the North Sea” by Portico Quartet.

A BBC Cymru Wales Production.

My recordings from BBC Sounds at 160kbps VBR.