The Saturday Play - The Believers - (2010) [BBC Radio (MP3 160kbps)] - dearleuk

The Believers 10-04-2010

Ray Quinn stars as James in The Believers by Frank Cottrell Boyce, a comedy drama that follows a Merseybeat Christian pop band.

Set in the early Sixties, the band, The Believers, grapple with life and love as they seek to spread "The Word". But it would help if they were all singing from the same hymn sheet.

James and Billy are nice lads but they don't really get things together until they meet Debbie in a club. She might not be a "believer" but she's in love with music and has enough drive and ambition for all three of them. Managed by the pastor at their local mission hall, The Believers start to make an impression, not least because they have a female drummer. Then The Beatles have their first hit and the world goes crazy for the Merseybeat sound.

The Believers find themselves as the house band in a gambling dive in Leeds; a gambling dive that employs attractive young women dressed as rabbits to distract the punters from their inevitable losses. Can the band survive this eye-opening plunge into the seamy side of life at a time when the two boys discover a new passion beyond their faith in God? For James and Billy are both falling in love with Debbie.

Review From The Radio Times

 

Faith and family ties are tested to the limits in Frank Cottrell Boyce's light-hearted comedy drama about an evangelical Christian Merseybeat group - a sub-genre that surely deserves it own documentary series on Radio 2. Billy and James are good lads who play in the band at their local mission, but who find themselves on a journey into temptation when they meet the ambitious Debbie. Ray Quinn and Kieran Lynn display a suitable innocence as James and Billy, while Samantha Robinson is sparky as Debbie and John Biggins oozes sleaze as casino owner Warren, under whose spell they all fall.

-- David Crawford

James ............................................ Ray Quinn

Debbie ................................... Samantha Robinson

Billy .......................................... Kieran Lynn

Warren ........................................ John Biggins

Reverend Michaels ............................. Rufus Wright

Elder Wardle ................................ Gary Bleasdale

Jenny ....................................... Alison Pettitt

Other parts played by Joanna Monro, David Seddon, Laura Molyneux, Jill Cardo and Keely Beresford.

The original music is by Carl Hunter, ex-bass player of The Farm, and Mel Bowen.

Producer Toby Swift

Frank Cottrell Boyce is probably best known for films like '24 Hour Party People', 'A Cock & Bull Story', 'Hilary & Jackie', 'Welcome to Sarajevo' and 'Butterfly Kiss'. He won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2004 for 'Millions', his first novel, which was subsequently filmed by British director Danny Boyle. Another novel, 'Framed', was shortlisted for the Whitbread Book of the Year, the Carnegie Medal and then adapted by Frank for BBC Television. His first theatre play, 'Proper Clever', was written for the Liverpool Playhouse as part of the 2008 European Capital of Culture Year. That year Frank also wrote a series of 5 radio dramas, 'One Chord Wonders', about the punk generation 30 years on.

The music for the production was written by Carl Hunter (ex-bass player of The Farm) and Mel Bowen. It was performed by Dave Lovelady (drums/backing vocals), Billy Kinsley (bass/backing vocals), Dave Morgan (lead guitar/backing vocals), Chay Heney (rhythm guitar) and Beverley Keenan (backing vocals) with additional guitars from Carl Hunter and Mel Bowen. BIlly and Dave were in The Merseybeats and The Fourmost respectively, two of the most significant bands that emerged as part of the Merseybeat scene.

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Type                : mpeg 1 layer III

Bitrate             : 160

Mode                : joint stereo

Frequency           : 44100 Hz

Length              : 00:57:02

Encoder             : Lame 3.97

Source              : iPlayer