Most of the Forest Radio audience who know me (David) will also know that I write short stories and have been doing so for most of my adult life, and even earlier.

A friend asked me why I had never put any of them on Forest Radio, and, modesty apart, I don't think it's very often that somebody reading out a story makes entertaining radio. There are of course exceptions (did somebody say "Alan Bennett?). Usually what the industry calls a "talking head" is one of the worst and least engaging ways to present material in sound, a "reading head" being the worst of all. To keep your audience awake, unless you are an absolutely inspired story teller, you really need to dramatise it.

I thought it might be fun to give it a go so I went through my back catalogue to find a couple of stories that would be reasonably easy to adapt as short plays. These are the two I came up with, and several of my friends; Sue Furby, Arthur Russell and my long suffering partner Jean Duggleby, were kind enough to play the various parts. In some cases voices have been electronically disguised to protect the innocent.

I don't think the results are too bad, although The Royal Shakespeare Company probably doesn't have too much to worry about.

If you would like more of this kind of stuff, or if you would like to record a play of your own, please email me at sirat@davidgardiner.net.