Drama of the Week

Hamburg, 1992. A pipe-bomb goes off in a department store at one in the morning, and a ransom note arrives shortly after, demanding a million marks and signed "Uncle Scrooge". The police are baffled. The press are delighted. And a nation starts rooting for the wrong side.

A cat-and-mouse thriller based on an extraordinary true story, about a lone eccentric who seems to be running his criminal campaign straight from the pages of a Donald Duck comic book, and the police team who realise the only way to catch him is to make him feel understood.

Warm, witty and surprisingly tender, it might just be unlike any true-crime story you've heard before. Based on real events with imagined scenes.

Narrator . . . . . Clare Corbett
Funke . . . . . Blake Harrison
Daleki . . . . . Ben Crowe
Brockmann . . . . . Amaka Okafor
Springborn . . . . . John Macmillan
Blashke . . . . . Sam Swann
Weber . . . . . Sam Dale

Writer: Simon Scardifield

Sound design: Sharon Hughes
Technical producers: Keith Graham & Jenni Burnett
Casting Manager: Alex Curran
Production co-ordinator: Luke MacGregor
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko

Set in 2016, Joy, a 70-year-old grandmother, is plunged into crisis when the state declares it has no record of her existence. As the Hostile Environment tightens its grip, her daughter Glory seeks help from Serena Hope, a lawyer whose return reopens old tensions. At the same time, Joy’s half sister Jean uncovers buried evidence that could decide Joy’s fate.

Faith, Hope and Glory is an ambitious Radio 4 drama series telling intimate domestic stories that together illuminate the emergence of modern Britain. The story began in 1946, when Hope and Jim’s baby was entrusted to Eunice, later known as Faith, to take home to Antigua, but never made that journey and was taken in by Gloria and Clement. Named Joy, the child becomes the emotional centre of the series, her life unfolding across decades as personal lives intersect with social change.

Joy . . . . . Doreene Blackstock
Glory . . . . . Cat Simmons
Serena Hope . . . . . Rakie Ayola
Jean . . . . . Nadine Marshall
Keeley . . . . . Clare Corbett
Receptionist . . . . . Yasmin Mwanza

Writer: Carol Russell
Director: Jade Williams
Producer: Jessica Dromgoole
Sound design: Keith Graham, Sam Dickinson, Sharon Hughes

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.