BBC Audio Dramas

Written by Timothy X Atack
2012 - present

Forest 404

Sci-fi eco thriller

Writers Guild of Great Britain Award, best radio drama 2020
Radio Academy ARIA, best fictional storytelling 2020
Finalist: BBC Audio Drama Awards, best podcast / online series 2020.
Special commendation: Prix Europa, Best European Digital Audio Project 2019

On a future Earth, Pan is an archivist living in a global mega-city which has wiped out every last part of the planet's natural ecosystem.

Tasked with deleting useless remnants of the old world, Pan stumbles upon an audio recording of a rainforest... and is immediately entranced, compelled to know more about the sounds she hears.

This quest leads her deep into the undercity beneath her feet, pursued by forces who absolutely do not want the past uncovered.

PAN Pearl Mackie
DARIA Tanya Moodie
THEIA Pippa Haywood

Theme Music by Bonobo Produced and Directed by Becky Ripley

The Morpeth Carol

A Christmas fable with a perturbing, criminal Santa Claus

Radio Academy Award, best drama 2014

Nine-year-old Harry is a serious and intelligent lad with a troubled mum and dad. Late on Christmas Eve he escapes his rowing parents, and on a snow-covered precinct in between high-rises he finds what looks like a crashed sled, burning presents scattered in its wake, and mortally wounded reindeer all around. There's also a very scary looking man – gaunt, unshaven and hooded – who skulks around the crash site, finishing off the dying animals with a shotgun...

HARRY Paul Copley
YOUNG HARRY Ellis Hollins
THE MAN Alun Raglan
YVONNE Rachel Davies
MUM Phillipa Stanton
DAD Paul Stonehouse
POLICEMAN 1 Matthew Watson
POLICEMAN 2 David Seddon

Sound design by Caleb Knightley Produced and Directed by Marc Beeby

The Stroma Sessions

A 'found audio' supernatural tale

Five years after the disappearance of the Blackletter Quartet, the 'Stroma Sessions' appeared on the internet – a trove of audio files charting the musicians' time on the island of Stroma, and the music they created there.

Stroma was abandoned in the early 1960s; its few remaining buildings stand dilapidated, battered by the North Sea. The Blackletter Quartet sought inspiration in the ruined houses and unforgiving weather. They wanted to make music in a ghost town. The evidence suggests: they found what they were looking for.

Finalist for the Tinniswood Award 2017

RILEY Rebekah Staton
HILDE Valene Kane BBC Audio Drama award, best supporting performance 2017
SAM Jade Matthew
NICO David Carlyle
NARRATOR Colin Salmon
TELEPHONE MAN Timothy X Atack

Music composed by Danny Norbury Music performed by Danny Norbury, Hazel Correa, Patricia Ramirez and Timothy X Atack Sound Design by Steve Bond Executive Producer Sara Davies Produced and Directed by Nicolas Jackson

Beethoven Can Hear You

A duet for fiction and fact

Ludwig van Beethoven (Peter Capaldi) is visited by a deaf traveller from another time. The Visitor (Sophie Stone) is shocked to discover that Beethoven can hear; it seems that in this reality the composer never lost his hearing. Beethoven is haunted by the idea his ears could fail him. But the Visitor must make him understand his importance as history’s first deaf composer.

BEETHOVEN Peter Capaldi
THE VISITOR Sophie Stone

Original Music by Lloyd Coleman Script Consultant Sophie Stone Sound Design Catherine Robinson Directed by James Robinson

Vidya Wade

A Book at Bedtime

Maya and Ben think they have a ghost in their home. Vidya Wade is an extranatural mediator, the last left in the country. But the unidentified spirit in Ben and Maya's house seems to have nothing to do with them... and finding out what their visitor is, or what it wants, could take more than either Vidya or her clients are able to give.

Read by Amanda Lawrence Music by Timothy X Atack Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery

The Beard

Afternoon play. The life of one of the most famous film stars in the world implodes when a beard suddenly starts to grow on her face and won't go away.

Starring Amara Karan, Amelia Bulmore and Mandeep Dhillon Music by Timothy X Atack Produced and Directed by Alison Crawford

Vox Humana

A short story. A neuroscientist attempts to replicate the long-lost voice of a loved one.

Read by Neve McIntosh Original Sound by Timothy X Atack Produced by Mair Bosworth

Fire In The Bookshop

Afternoon play. A documentary-maker investigates a school which employs a bully to keep pupils in line, leading to tragic results.

Starring Tom Meeten, Pippa Haywood, Tom Edward-Kane, Ayesha Antoine and Evlyne Oyedokun Produced and Directed by Alison Crawford

The Last Order

A binaural drama short. A pub regular annoys the staff by making a staggeringly long order, every night.

Starring Alice Lowe and David Hargreaves Produced and directed by Mair Bosworth

Phonophone

Afternoon Play. DCI Nabilah Danton investigates a death resulting from a feud between two musicians, racing to claim a dangerous and near-mythical musical instrument.

Starring Priyanga Burford, Erich Redman, Mamoru Iriguchi, Tracy Wiles, Souad Faress, Shaun Mason, Sam Dale and Jane Slavin Original music by Timothy X Atack Sound Design by Caleb Knightley Produced and Directed by Marc Beeby

Birdsong Man

Short story. Every morning, out in the forest, an hour before dawn, Birdsong Man fixes microphones to the trees and in between the rocks. And every night, in the lonely hours, he gets a phone call asking for his progress. Who are the recordings for, and why has he been asked to make them?

Read by Paul Mundell Sound Design by Timothy X Atack Produced by Sara Davies

Tracks: Chimera

Ep 7 of the Radio 4 conspiracy thriller's third series – in which Dr Helen Ash discovers she’s pregnant, but she hasn’t had sex since her husband died 18 months ago... and things are about to get stranger.

(My episode featured animal rights activists, a pig farm which wasn't what it seemed, and the music of Gnod and Refused.)

Starring Hattie Morahan, Jonathan Forbes, Lea Mornar, Francois Pandolfo and Simon Armstrong Series Creator and Lead Writer Matthew Broughton Produced by James Robinson