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Afonica is an award-winning sound production company specialising in fiction and documentary in English and Spanish.

Mercè Rodoreda

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Works with Afonica
In Diamond Square – Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 – 22/05/22
Mercè Rodoreda was born in Barcelona in 1908. Her father was an accountant and a great lover of Catalan literature. She was devoted to her grandfather and when he fell ill, she had to leave school to look after him. When her uncle, Joan Gurgui, returned from Argentina, she soon married him and they had a child but the marriage was not a happy one. When the Spanish Republic was declared in 1931, she became more involved in cultural activities and started writing, though she later rejected her writings of this period as juvenile. She continued writing when the Civil war broke out but when it ended, she went into exile in France. She started an affair with the poet Joan Prat, which lasted till his death in 1971. The couple stayed in France during the German occupation but not without difficulty. Rodoreda was writing poetry and painting at this time, but not writing fiction. She made some short visits to Barcelona to see her husband and son, but remained with Prat and accompanied him to Geneva, where he was working as a translator for UNESCO. At this time she again started writing prose fiction, and produced novels and short stories. When Prat moved to Vienna, she stayed in Geneva and it was there that she wrote In Diamond Square, her best-known work. In 1979 she returned to live in Barcelona and died in 1983.
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Sayaka Murata

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Works with Afonica
Convenience Store Woman – broadcast on  BBC Radio 4  11/12/22
One of the most celebrated of the new generation of Japanese writers, Sayaka Murata has won not only the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, but the Gunzo, Noma, and Mishima Yukio Prizes as well. Her story, ‘A Clean Marriage’, was featured in Granta 127 Japan. She is 36-years-old and works part-time in a convenience store.
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Reykjavik

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What really matters is the king’s safety.
By Juan Mayorga
First broadcast BBC Radio 3 05/02/23
Other Afonica works by Juan Mayorga – The Boy at the Back, The Art of the Interview, Le Brun Method for Happiness
An award-winning drama about chess, an art which, like life itself, is based on memory and imagination. A play about the Cold War. And the story of people who re-enact the lives of others.
Bailén and Waterloo are united and separated by a chessboard. But it isn’t chess they’re playing, it’s Reykjavik. They’re playing at being Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, the German arbiter, the Icelandic bodyguard, Bobby’s mother, Boris’s second wife, the girlfriends Bobby never had, a hundred children bidding Boris farewell with their fists raised at Moscow airport, Henry Kissinger, the ghost of Stalin, the Supreme Soviet, the black knight threatening the white bishop, the missing fathers, the dead champions. It’s not the first time they’ve done this, but it is the first time they’ve done it in front of someone else: a stray boy. And they’ve never done it with so much passion. Because today they’re not just trying to understand what really happened at Reykjavik, what was really at stake. Today, Waterloo and Bailén are looking for an heir.
Juan Mayorga is one of Spain’s leading playwrights, member of the Royal Spanish Academy and winner of the 2022 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, the Spanish National Theatre Award and the European Prize for Theatre.
Waterloo ….. Robert Emms
Spassky ….. Gunnar Cauthery
Boy ….. Samantha Dakin
Russian voices ….. Oleg Tsiplakov and Ilia Golitsyn
Japanese voice ….. Nao Nakazawa
Other voices are played by the cast
Translated by Nicolas Jackson and Bill Murphy
Production ….. Sarah Tombling
Executive producer .…. Sara Davies
Sound design ….. Jon Nicholls
Adapted for radio and directed by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 3

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Richard Monks

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Works with Afonica – Rare Earth
Richard Monks is an award-winning writer and director working in television and radio. He studied Film Direction and Scriptwriting at the Royal College of Art and was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing by Lancaster University. His radio work includes Hearing Sense, which won a Sony Award, One Church, which won an IVCA award for best radio drama in 2005, and a number of critically acclaimed series, including Donor Trail, Shattered and Belgrano. Recently he was one of the core writers on Radio 4’s landmark WW1 drama serial, Home Front and was also part of the writing team behind Radio 4’s popular detective series, Stone, starring Hugo Speer. In addition to his writing, he is the Programme Leader for MA Screenwriting at Liverpool John Moore’s University. 
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Rare Earth

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by Richard Monks
First broadcast – BBC Radio 4 – 07/01/23
A trade-war thriller and family saga rooted in dark colonial secrets from Greenland’s past.
‘An audio triumph’ – The Radio Times
Neodymium, turbium, dysprosium… Cerium, samarium, lanthanum.
Inside every electronic gadget – from electric cars and fighter jets to wind turbines, smart phones and missiles – are 17 metallic elements known as Rare Earths. China produces around 84% of them, and reserves are fast running out. The race to find new deposits has become ever more desperate, pitting global superpowers against each other in a 21st century “gold rush” for control of these elusive metals.
In Nuuk, the US and China court the favour of Energy & Environment Minister Seria Lyberth to secure an exclusive mining contract on Greenland. Fiercely opposed to the mine, local activist Rusa Pederson finds herself caught between her recidivist father and ailing grandmother.
When news comes in of a suspicious plane crash, family and politicians are set on a collision course by secrets buried deep in the ice.
Manok ….. Christopher Dane
Rusa ….. Christina Wolfe
Magda ….. Pamela Miles
Lyberth ….. Samantha Dakin
Olsen ….. David Menkin
Fulton ….. Ryan Ellsworth
Harris ….. Liz Sutherland-Lim
Kalina ….. Anastasia Hille
Other voices played by the cast
Sound design ….. Jon Nicholls
Producer ….. Sarah Tombling
Executive producer ….. Sara Davies
Directed by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4

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Convenience Store Woman

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By Sayaka Murata
Adapted for radio by April De Angelis from the translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 – 11/12/22
Keiko is 36 years old. She’s never had a boyfriend and has worked in the same Tokyo convenience store for eighteen years.
Keiko’s family wishes she’d get a proper job. Her friends wonder why she won’t get married. But Keiko knows what makes her happy, and she won’t let anyone come between her and her convenience store.
Adapted by April De Angelis from the international bestseller by Sayaka Murata – one of the most celebrated of a new generation of Japanese writers who spent 18 years working part-time in a convenience store.
The novel has been translated into over 30 languages with more than a million copies sold in Japanese alone, winning all of Japan’s major literary prizes.
An ode to non-conformity that subverts the status quo in modern work culture and parodies the plight of the thirty-something single woman.
Cast
Keiko ….. Yuriri Naka
Shiraha …..Will Howard
Manager ….. Luke Jerdy
Mrs Izumi ….. Clare Corbett
Sister ….. Lara Sawalha
Miho ….. Jeany Spark
Other voices played by the cast
Photocredit ….. Kentaro Takahashi
Sound design ….. Adam Woodhams & Steve Bond
Producer ….. Sarah Tombling
Executive producer ….. Sara Davies
Directed by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4

 
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Eno Mfon

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Works with Afonica – One Five Seven Years – Episode 2: Uche
Eno Mfon is a screenwriter, playwright and performer. Her writing is political, unwaveringly honest, and resolutely human. Following the success of her one-woman show CHECK THE LABEL, which she wrote and performed at the Bristol Old Vic, Eno adapted and directed the play for the television as part of Channel 4’s Random Acts (it won an RTS award). Her second play SHIPPED, which was supported by Theatre West and directed by Jesse Jones, was staged in Bristol.  Set within the tense political climate in Nigeria, it explores the cultural differences between a Nigerian uncle and his Londoner-niece when she’s sent to stay with him for the holidays. She has also worked with Talawa theatre company as a writer and performer on their Talawa Firsts programme. She is currently under commission at the Almeida. Eno was part of the BBC Writersroom 2018, and her work on the new audio drama series ‘One Five Seven Years’ by Marietta Kirkbride for BBC Radio 4 is now available on BBC Sounds. She has also contributed to and performed in the Royal British Legion remembrance campaign ‘Pause’ for the past two years. Eno is currently in the writers room for Devils S3 and has been commissioned to write one episode for Big Light/Lux Vida.
 
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One Five Seven Years – Episode 5: Selwyn

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By Marietta Kirkbride
First broadcast – BBC Sounds – 23/09/22
Imagine you could live for two lifetimes. Would you want to? How would it change you and those you love? What would you do with all those extra years? What second chances might you get? Would this be a blessing or a curse?
This world is an alternative version of our own. Except in this world, a minority of people are discovered to have Extended Life Syndrome (ELS). The condition might give an “Elser” two decades in their thirties, two in their forties, double the time in their fifties, and so on. Little is understood of the biological factors that govern ELS except that it affects a random selection of people. It is the ultimate lottery of genetics, crossing class, race, culture and gender.
And if a simple test existed to check your DNA for this double life, would you take it? Would you want to know?
Now think again. Would you?
100 years old, a telegram from the Queen. 110 years old, a feature in the paper. 120 years, the doctors. 130 years, the scientists, the global research projects. 140 years, TV features, a documentary. 150 years… 157 years…
A time-travelling, tragic exploration of memory and loss, and of a new and incomprehensible form of human isolation.
Written by Marietta Kirkbride
Cast:
Selwyn ….. Anton Lesser
Anya ….. Rose Wardlaw
Younger Helen ….. Jessica Murrain
Older Helen ….. Pamela Miles
Mary ….. Raquel Cassidy
Chris ….. Jonathan McGuinness
Duncan ….. Asif Khan
Other voices played by the cast
Sound Design ….. Adam Woodhams and Steve Bond
Theme Music ….. Ioana Selaru and Axel Kacoutié
Academic Consultants ….. Tamas David-Barrett & James Fasham
Executive Producer ….. Sara Davies
Series created by Marietta Kirkbride
Directed and Produced by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4

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One Five Seven Years – Episode 4: Saul

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By Vanessa Montfort
First broadcast on BBC Sounds – 23/09/22
Imagine you could live for two lifetimes. Would you want to? How would it change you and those you love? What would you do with all those extra years? What second chances might you get? Would this be a blessing or a curse?
This world is an alternative version of our own. Except in this world, a minority of people are discovered to have Extended Life Syndrome (ELS). The condition might give an “Elser” two decades in their thirties, two in their forties, double the time in their fifties, and so on. Little is understood of the biological factors that govern ELS except that it affects a random selection of people. It is the ultimate lottery of genetics, crossing class, race, culture and gender.
And if a simple test existed to check your DNA for this double life, would you take it? Would you want to know?
Now think again. Would you?
Retired couple Elia and Mark are celebrating their pearl wedding anniversary when they discover one of them has ELS. The bond between them is tested as they deal with the fallout and face up to a momentous decision.
Written by Vanessa Montfort
Cast:
Elia ….. Raquel Cassidy
Mark ….. James Wilby
Simon ….. Ben Crowe
Anne ….. Clare Corbett
Keith ….. Jonathan McGuinness
Carol ….. Rosie Cavaliero
Saul ….. Joel MacCormack
Other voices played by the cast
Sound Design ….. Adam Woodhams and Steve Bond
Theme Music ….. Ioana Selaru and Axel Kacoutié
Academic Consultants ….. Tamas David-Barrett & James Fasham
Executive Producer ….. Sara Davies
Series created by Marietta Kirkbride
Directed and Produced by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4

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One Five Seven Years – Episode 3: Jacob

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By Marietta Kirkbride
First broadcast on BBC Sounds – 23/09/22
Imagine you could live for two lifetimes. Would you want to? How would it change you and those you love? What would you do with all those extra years? What second chances might you get? Would this be a blessing or a curse?
This world is an alternative version of our own. Except in this world, a minority of people are discovered to have Extended Life Syndrome (ELS). The condition might give an “Elser” two decades in their thirties, two in their forties, double the time in their fifties, and so on. Little is understood of the biological factors that govern ELS except that it affects a random selection of people. It is the ultimate lottery of genetics, crossing class, race, culture and gender.
And if a simple test existed to check your DNA for this double life, would you take it? Would you want to know?
Now think again. Would you?
Jacob has ELS and is serving life for a murder he committed when he was nineteen. But how many years are enough years for justice to be served?
Written by Marietta Kirkbride
Cast:
Jacob ….. Robert Emms
Miles ….. Ben Crowe
Mum …..Sirine Saba
Psychiatrist ….. Asif Khan
Lawyer ….. Jessica Murrain
Inmate ….. Simon Darwen
Other voices played by the cast
Sound Design ….. Adam Woodhams and Steve Bond
Theme Music ….. Ioana Selaru and Axel Kacoutié
Academic Consultants ….. Tamas David-Barrett & James Fasham
Executive Producer ….. Sara Davies
Series created by Marietta Kirkbride
Directed and Produced by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4

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One Five Seven Years – Episode 2: Uche

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Written by Eno Mfon & Marietta Kirkbride
First broadcast – BBC Sounds 23/09/22
Imagine you could live for two lifetimes. Would you want to? How would it change you and those you love? What would you do with all those extra years? What second chances might you get? Would this be a blessing or a curse?
This world is an alternative version of our own. Except in this world, a minority of people are discovered to have Extended Life Syndrome (ELS). The condition might give an “Elser” two decades in their thirties, two in their forties, double the time in their fifties, and so on. Little is understood of the biological factors that govern ELS except that it affects a random selection of people. It is the ultimate lottery of genetics, crossing class, race, culture and gender.
And if a simple test existed to check your DNA for this double life, would you take it? Would you want to know?
Now think again. Would you?
As ELS testing spreads across the globe, a small village in eastern Nigeria rejects the science in favour of “traditional” methods of detection leaving 16-year-old Uche in fear for her life.
Cast:
Uche ….. Faith Omole
Halima ….. Emmanuella Cole
Nkechi ….. Juliet Agnes
Big Sister ….. Jolade Obasola
Gloria ….. Yetunde Oduwole
Mother ….. Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo
Henry ….. Valentine Olukoga
Other voices played by the cast
Sound Design ….. Adam Woodhams and Steve Bond
Theme Music ….. Ioana Selaru and Axel Kacoutié
Academic Consultants ….. Tamas David-Barrett & James Fasham
Executive Producer ….. Sara Davies
Series created by Marietta Kirkbride
Directed and Produced by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4

 
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One Five Seven Years – Episode 1: Anya

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By Marietta Kirkbride
First broadcast – BBC Sounds & BBC Radio 4 – 23/09/22
Imagine you could live for two lifetimes. Would you want to? How would it change you and those you love? What would you do with all those extra years? What second chances might you get? Would this be a blessing or a curse?
This world is an alternative version of our own. Except in this world, a minority of people are discovered to have Extended Life Syndrome (ELS). The condition might give an “Elser” two decades in their thirties, two in their forties, double the time in their fifties, and so on. Little is understood of the biological factors that govern ELS except that it affects a random selection of people. It is the ultimate lottery of genetics, crossing class, race, culture and gender.
And if a simple test existed to check your DNA for this double life, would you take it? Would you want to know?
Now think again. Would you?
Anya works in an ELS diagnostics laboratory. When she and boyfriend Luke – a semi-professional athlete – disagree about testing, their world is turned inside out.
Written by Marietta Kirkbride
Cast:
Anya ….. Rose Wardlaw
Luke ….. Ragevan Vasan
Esther ….. Jessica Murrain
Tarik ….. Asif Khan
Lucy ….. Clare Corbett
Pete …. Jacob Tombling
Caller ….. Pamela Miles
Selwyn ….. Anton Lesser
Other voices played by the cast
Sound Design ….. Adam Woodhams and Steve Bond
Theme Music ….. Ioana Selaru and Axel Kacoutié
Academic Consultants ….. Tamas David-Barrett & James Fasham
Executive Producer ….. Sara Davies
Series created by Marietta Kirkbride
Directed and Produced by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4 & BBC Sounds

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In Diamond Square

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By Mercè Rodoreda
Adapted for radio by Hattie Naylor from the translation by Peter Bush
First broadcast BBC Radio 4 22/05/22
A story of love in a time of war starring Maxine Peake.
Barcelona, 1930s: Natalia, a pretty, naive shop girl from the working-class quarter of Gracia, is hesitant when a stranger asks her to dance at the fiesta in Diamond Square. But Quimet is charming and forceful and she takes his hand. They marry and have two children although Quimet proves an unpredictable husband. He gives her the nickname of Colometa, meaning Little Pigeon, and breeds the birds in their apartment.
Set against the backdrop of the turbulent years of the Spanish Republic and Civil War, Natalia experiences the conflict from a city in turmoil as she fights for her and her children’s survival.
Written in exile from Franco’s dictatorship, the novel has been translated into 28 languages, been produced in Spain as a film and TV series, and is taught as part of the school curriculum. Gabriel García Márquez learnt Catalan just to be able to read it in its original language.
Hattie Naylor is a multi-award-winning scriptwriter and audio dramatist. Her gothic thriller ‘Dead Weather’ won Best Drama, Best Actress & Best Supporting Performance at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2022. She won the Tinniswood Award for Best Radio Script for ‘Ivan and the Dogs’ which also picked up an Olivier nomination and has been adapted as a film.
Cast
Natalia (Colometa) ….. Maxine Peake
Quimet ….. Will Howard
Mateu ….. Luke Jerdy
Cintet ….. Liam Garrigan
Mrs Enriqueta ….. Jane Slavin
Julieta ….. Faye Marsay
Other voices played by the cast
Executive producer ….. Sara Davies
Sound design ….. Adam Woodhams
Mix ….. Steve Bond
Directed & produced by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4

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An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love

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By Hannah Silva
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 12/02/22
Experimental drama as writer Hannah Silva collaborates with a machine-learning algorithm to create an audio guide to love.
The algorithm produces poems and stories in response to the writer’s poems and stories. It answers the writer’s questions and it asks her questions.
What is love? Is it an emotion? Is it an action? How does it work? What do we feel? What do we do?
Hannah tells the algorithm that she wants to think about love because in the past she didn’t think about it, she just fell in it.
The algorithm and the writer explore the theme of love in all its forms: parental love, romantic love, friendship and loss of love. The algorithm’s often absurdist and poetic texts frame and comment on the writer’s personal story of love and loss as a queer single mum.
“An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love” was developed through OKRE Experimental Stories. The consultant was Dr James Carney. The script was written using texts generated by the GPT-J algorithm, a language prediction model trained and maintained by EleutherAI, a grassroots collective of researchers working to open source AI research.
Algorithm .…. Fiona Shaw
Writer ….. Yusra Warsama
Woman ….. Jane Slavin
Man ….. Neil Bell
Executive producer ….. Sara Davies
Production manager ….. Anna de Wolff Evans
Sound design ….. Adam Woodhams
Mix …… Steve Bond
Music …… Ioana Selaru
Director/producer ….. Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4
 

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Alex Straker

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Works with Afonica – Poster Girl
Alex Straker has written episodes of BBC/Netflix’s The Last Kingdom as well as for Eastenders and Holby City. He is currently co-writing Charlie Covell’s new series Kaos for Netflix.
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Marietta Kirkbride

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Works with Afonica
The Teachings of Smart Town
One Five Seven Years
Spores
Marietta Kirkbride is a writer and theatre-make. Her work often explores faith, belief and the fault lines between evidence and experience. For radio she has written The Teachings of Smart Town for Afonica (the second episode of our 5 x 28 series Angst!) as well as One Five Series Years and Spores – 5 x 28 series for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. Her theatre work has toured nationally and been produced by Watermill Theatre, Theatre Royal Bath, Bristol Old Vic, Pentabus Theatre and the award-winning company Bucket Club. Marietta’s play Our Church, explores the rehabilitation of a sex offender by a dwindling rural community. The drama was developed from lived experience as a volunteer working with police and probation services to provide specialist support and accountability for sex offenders.
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Angst! Gaia

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By Martin Jameson
First broadcast – BBC Radio 4 – 20/08/21
In today’s ‘zeit’ the ‘geist’ is everywhere: environmental catastrophe; conspiracy theories; populism; fake news; the age of the algorithm; nationalism; racism; social exclusion. Not to mention pandemics.
As the world teeters on the edge of various self-made apocalypses, Angst! takes a satirical sideways look at our own naked fears. Five separate but connected half-hour ‘what if?’ stories all told under the watchful eye of the enigmatic Timor Greer.
What if the planet were, in reality, a single sentient organism, intent on ridding itself of the poisonous human parasites living on its surface? And what if a way were found to communicate with this ‘intelligence’? And what if the person put in charge of negotiations were a refugee cleaner from Darfur?
Gaia ….. Kerry Shale
Nemat ….. Yusra Warsama
Timor Greer ….. Cyril Nri
Other voices are played by the cast
Sound design ….. Adam Woodhams & Steve Bond
Production manager ….. Anna de Wolff Evans
Executive producer ….. Sara Davies
Series creator ….. Martin Jameson
Produced & directed by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4

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Angst! Poster Girl

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By Alex Straker
First broadcast – BBC Radio 4 – 19/08/21
Nominated for Best Fictional Storytelling – Arias 2022
In today’s ‘zeit’ the ‘geist’ is everywhere: environmental catastrophe; conspiracy theories; populism; fake news; the age of the algorithm; nationalism; racism; social exclusion. Not to mention pandemics.
As the world teeters on the edge of various self-made apocalypses, Angst! takes a satirical sideways look at our own naked fears. Five separate but connected half-hour ‘what if?’ stories all told under the watchful eye of the enigmatic Timor Greer.
“Poster Girl/Poster Boy”. Noun.
Name for post-1945 migrants to the U.K. and their offspring. Popularised in the wake of the passing of ‘The Belonging Act’.
A third-generation Londoner of Caribbean heritage is forced to take part in a virtual reality game in order to win British citizenship.
A third-generation Londoner of Caribbean heritage is forced to take part in a virtual reality game in order to win the ultimate prize: British citizenship. Victory lies within her grasp – all she has to do is complete the levels. Simple, right? Unless there’s more to the game than meets the eye.
Boudica ….. Jade Anouka
Abe55 ….. Asmara Gabrielle
Shakespeare ….. Jonathan Forbes
Pearl ….. Michelle Greenidge
Salina ….. Sudha Bhuchar
Jeremy …. Joshua Akehurst
Timor Greer ….. Cyril Nri
Other voices are played by the cast
Sound design ….. Adam Woodhams & Steve Bond
Production manager ….. Anna de Wolff Evans
Executive producer ….. Sara Davies
Series creator ….. Martin Jameson
Produced & directed by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4

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