Sally Hawkins in BBC Radio 4 Friday Play ‘Greed All About It’

It’s been a while since Sally Hawkins has been part of a radio comedy or drama, so I am very happy to share the news that she recently played the lead, Alice, in the BBC Radio 4 Friday Play Greed All About It!

Greed All About It

Set in 1986, the play – written by the wonderful Ian Hislop and Nick Newman – is ‘a sharp, satirical look at the Wapping dispute‘. The official BBC press release has this introductory blurb:

In the hard drinking, straight talking, misogynistic inner workings of a daily newspaper office on Fleet Street, it is the inkies in their overmanned, union protected print room who hold all the power.

Written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, this satirical look at the lead up to the Wapping dispute in the Eighties sees journalists with their copy as just an interruption to the inkies’ daily routine of smoking endless cigarettes, playing cards and throwing the occasional sandwich into the machine – after all they are only there in case it breaks down.

Alice longs to be taken seriously as a proper journalist, and when Greg “from management” takes a shine to her and mentions that he is involved in setting up a new newspaper in a high tech office in Wapping, she senses an opportunity.

But Alice soon finds out that Greg has bent the truth a bit and this high-fangled Wapping office with its computer-powered printers and journalist-driven printworks is not for a new newspaper at all, but for the existing one. For her it is an opportunity, but for her father Ted, a senior inkie on the paper and a very active and vocal member of the printer’s union, it means something quite different.

Ted will not take this lying down. He hits on a direct plan of action – a strike, although it is soon clear that nothing, not even the force of a strong union, can stop the progress of technology.

The hour long drama is both funny and poignant, and is interspersed with classic Eighties music, such as “You Spin Me Around” playing in the background, and even iconic Eighties techie terms, notably the Sinclair C5.

Sally Hawkins plays her role of Alice to perfection, and is supported by a (mostly) delightful family: Eileen (Marion Bailey) as her Eastenders-loving ‘mum’; Ted (Ron Cook) as her straight talking union-man ‘dad’; Harry (Clive Russell) as her geeky Amstrad-loving brother who shows her how to use the new computers.

The Eighties was a time of massive change with the advent of new technology and the shift of power away from the unions, and Alice is somewhat caught between the old and the new. There is a wonderful moment in the middle of the play, where Alice immerses herself in her utopian world: where she can be a true journalist and have the liberty to write articles that matter to her that will be printed. The reality, however, is the broom cupboard and as we find out later, editorial management.

By the end of the play, it’s really quite difficult to like Alice’s slimy beau Greg (Richard Dillane) anymore, yet as the play fast-forwards to modern day Britain, Alice is surprisingly insightful as she recounts the events that followed the Wapping dispute.

I think it was definitely an hour well spent and as Greed All About It is sadly no longer available on the BBC iPlayer (it was originally broadcast on 14th May 2010), with thanks to Douglas103 for the source file, we have decided to make the mp3 available as a download below:

Download ‘Greed All About It’ (53 MB zip file)

p/s: Other credits include: Charles (Nigel Hastings), Andy (Freddie White), Graham (John Biggins), and the Reporter (Keely Beresford). The producer was Gary Brown.

Let us know if you enjoy listening to it too!