The City Speaks (2008)

The series of six short radio plays has been inspired by a scenario produced by writer Peter Ackroyd. Six artist film-maker and writer teams have collaborated to create the 14-minute films from Ackroyd's narrative, to be heard in Radio 4's Afternoon Play slot between 2.15 and 3.00pm on Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 March 2008. On both days, listeners can also watch the stories unfold with a simultaneous "red button" screening of each of the tales, or watch on-demand on the BBC Film Network website. The City Speaks is a visual and narrative feast celebrating London as a great cosmopolitan city. Ackroyd's opening introduces Virgin Day, in which an old parchment is discovered in the ancient church of Saint Mildred in Bread Street. It describes an apparition in the church of the Virgin Mary who had given a promise to appear again in a thousand years if the people of London retain their faith in her and follow the teachings of her son. The stories developed by the creative teams range from humorous to highly emotional, from heart-warming to the frankly bizarre, including a depiction of Canary Wharf which resembles the Emerald City in the Wizard Of Oz, voodoo goddesses who wander the streets of East London casting evil before them as they go, and a tube station that exists beneath the capital, but does not appear on any map.