Niamh Cusack

In the Ireland of the early 1950s Eilis Lacey cannot find work, so when a job is offered in America, she decides to go and try her luck there. Homesickness is a problem at first but gradually she settles in and starts to find happiness. A family crisis forces her to return to Ireland where she is faced with a conflict of loyalties. X rated, contains offensive language and explicit sex.

When Tess agrees to move into her aged mother-in-law’s idyllic country cottage, she sees it as the perfect opportunity to escape the distractions of the city and start work on a novel. However, life in the Gingerbread House is no fairy tale, as she struggles with the reality of caring for Eleanor, who suffers from dementia.

10 dramas focusing on women's untold stories from history.

This diverse, eclectic collection of plays explores an array of social, political and historical events from a female point of view. In these captivating dramas, we see the world through their eyes, giving us a fresh perspective on a female history that is too often unrecorded, misrepresented or misunderstood.

Featuring a multiplicity of styles and genres, and written by a wide variety of authors, they range from comedy dramas themed around the Bayeux Tapestry and the 1962 Cheltenham Literary Festival, to award-winning, thought-provoking tales of Nigerian teenagers kidnapped by Boko Haram. A contemporary version of the heroines from Greek mythology, Persephone and Demeter; Profumo affair from a female perspective, Britain's last witch (Helen Duncan); a legendary ballerina (Margot Fonteyn); a little sister (Dious, sibling of St Anthony) and a youngest daughter (Judith Shakespeare).

Embroidering the Truth
Queen Edith - Katy Brand
Bishop Odo - Charlie Anson
Other cast, Katy Sobey, Lisa Zahra, Jonny Holden, Rosie Cavaliero, Tracy Wiles. Written by Abigail Youngman. Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 17 October 2019

Girls
Tisana - Amaka Okafor
Ruhab - Faith Alabi
Haleema - Joan Iyiola
Written by Theresa Ikoko. Directed by Abigail Gonda. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 14 July 2017

The Bulbul Was Singing
Laura - Rebecca Humphries
Ariman - Shaniaz Hama Ali
Other Cast: Paul Hickey, Jonny Holden, Saya Zahawi, Catherine Cusack, Shaun Mason, Debbie Korley, Chris Pavlo
Written by Judy Upton. Directed by Emma Harding. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 19 August 2019

Seven Pomegranate Seeds
Performed by Niamh Cusack, Ruth Bradley and Leah McNamara
Written by Colin Teevan. Produced and directed by Allegra McIlroy. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 7 January 2020

Festival
Elizabeth Jane Howard - Melody Grove
John Moore - Tony Gardner
Kingsley Amis - Jonathan Forbes
Other cast: Will Howard, Emma Handy, John Lightbody. Written by Sarah Wooley. Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 31 July 2018

Well, He Would, Wouldn't He?
Mandy (younger) - Aimee-Ffion Edwards
Christine Keeler - Lyndsey Marshal
'Pops' Murray - Stephen Marzella
Stephen Ward/Peter Rachman - Ewan Bailey
Other cast: Adrian Schiller, Alex Dower, Anthony Courier. Written by Charlotte Williams. Directed by Kate McAll. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 23 February 2013

Tony's Little Sister and the Paradox of Monasticism
Anthony - Duncan Preston
Dious - Samantha Spiro
Satan - Tim McMullan
Other cast Ben Crowe, Rachel Bavidge. Written by David and Caroline Stafford. Produced by Marc Beeby. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 6 August 2007

Judith Shakespeare
Judith Shakespeare - Amanda Root
William Shakespeare - Michael Pennington
Henry, Earl of Southampton - Anton Lesser
Other Cast, Andrew Wincott, Melinda Walker, Thomas Connor, Stephen Critchlow, Ann Beach, Colleen Prendergast, Jillie Meers
Written by Nan Woodhouse. Directed byTracey Neale. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 25 April 1996

An Unchoreographed World
Margot Fonteyn - Sophie Jerrold
Constant Lambert - Richard McCabe
Other cast Oliver Millingham, Kate Littlewood
Chorus - Anne-Marie Piazza, Maria Askew, Ffion Jolly, Ben Ashton & Coen de Groot
Written by Frances Byrne. Produced and directed by Mark Smalley. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 22 May 2008

The Last Witch Trial
Lucy - Indira Varma
Margo - Lyndsey Marshal
Other Cast: Joanna Monro, Vineeta Rishi Sam Dale, Michael Shelford, Keely Beresford
Written by Melissa Murray. Directed by Marc Beeby. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 4 June 2010
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Rosaleen is still a teenager, in the early Sixties, when she meets the famous sculptor Felix Lichtman. Felix is dangerous, bohemian, everything she dreamed of in the cold nights at her Catholic boarding school. And at first their life together is glitteringly romantic but it's not long before Rosaleen finds herself fearfully, unexpectedly alone.

Kate lives in Nineties London, stumbling through her unhappy marriage. Close to breaking point, she sets off on a journey of her own, not knowing what she hopes to find.

Aoife sits at her husband's bedside as he lies dying and tells him the story of their marriage. But there is a crucial part of the story missing.

Spanning three generations of women, I Couldn't Love You More is an unforgettable novel about love, motherhood, secrets and betrayal - and how only the truth can set us free.

The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past. But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes? Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did - and did not do. Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all.