Vacant Possession AND London Terminal

Location: BBC Radio 4
Publication date is that of the broadcast of the first piece 'Vacant Possession'. The second piece 'London Terminal' was broadcast on 05/04/2006.

These two stories were broadcast as the result of BBC commissions. Their originality lies in the reconciling of literary values and popular appeal. Both stories take a human predicament, give it comic treatment, and ultimately distil from it a psychological perception. Their significance lies in the way issues like the fear of the supernatural, resentment of intrusion, anxiety about illness, are explored within a short format; in particular, both stories have in common an encounter with otherness. Their rigour is the result of writing to a brief (a particularised voice in the first case; a specific setting in the second), producing highly structured fictions within a limited compass, and achieving a certain depth and intensity within the editorial expectations of a popular programme slot.