Afternoon Play
Thu 8 Dec 2005, 14:15 - 15:00 45 mins
Unimaginable
by Ray Connolly
An unusual and highly personal look at a murder that shocked the world.
When John Lennon was shot outside his New York apartment the world's press were desperate for interviews in order to feed the world's insatiable demand for anything related to the dead singer. This presented Ray Connolly with something of a dilemma. The very day Lennon was murdered, Connolly was scheduled to fly out to interview him. This would have been Lennon's first interview with a British journalist for something like 10 years. Although a journalist, Connolly was also Lennon's friend and this is why Lennon had agreed to be interviewed after such a long silence. It would have provided Connolly with a major coup. Instead he finds himself besieged by his fellow journalists. The play focuses on Connolly's reaction to the singers death and the conflict within his own mind between the Lennon's public image and his private lifestyle. He could clearly sense the creation of the many myths and legends that have subsequently come to surround the former Beatle.
Ray Connolly ............ Robert Glenister
Plum ........................... Jenny Funnell
Louise ........................ Clare Corbett
Dominic ........................ Nicholas Carter
Keiron ........................ Thomas Helm
Sociologist .................. Ian Masters
Musicologist .................. Alan Leith
US DJ .............................. Tim Flavin
Taxi driver ........................ Richard Tate
Reporter ........................ Sidney Sloane
Director Martin Jenkins.