Alastair Whatley

Moscow, 1987. As the cold war begins to thaw, an extraordinary reunion takes place between one of the great novelists of the twentieth century,Graham Greene, and his old MI6 boss, the notorious Soviet spy, Kim Philby. It’s taken thirty years and the beginnings of a new world order. As the two men raise their vodka glasses under the watchful eye of Russian memoirist and Philby’s last wife, Rufa, Ben Brown’s compelling political drama asks whether Philby betrayed his friend as well as his country, and how much the writer of The Third Man knew about Philby’s secret life.

Janet and Liam are happily married until she stops talking to him. And everybody else. In an attempt to diagnose her loss of speech she begins seeing a psychiatrist who starts to probe at a secret buried in the depths of Janet's psyche, the revelation of which has profound and lasting implications not just for her but the entire family. Drew Hewitt's masterful play examines with wit, humour and searing honesty the complex ideas surrounding free will, love and the painful truths of existence.

Birdsong tells a mesmerising story of love and courage, before and during the war. In pre-war France, a young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, embarks on a passionate and dangerous affair with the beautiful Isabelle Azaire that turns their worlds upside down. As the war breaks out, Stephen must lead his men through the carnage of the Battle of the Somme and through the sprawling tunnels that lie deep underground beneath the battle fields. Faced with the unprecedented horror of the war, Stephen clings to the memory of Isabelle and the idyll of his former life as his world explodes around him.

On Saturday 19 December 1981, the Penlee lifeboat ‘Solomon Browne’, was launched in hurricane conditions to go to the aid of the coaster ‘Union Star’ which was being swept towards the southern coast of Cornwall. What followed ranks not only with the greatest acts of courage in the history of the RNLI, but with any human achievement.