Radio review: Sunflowers Behind a Dirty Fence; The Fisherman

No one writes for radio for the money. Or for the notoriety. You’ll never make mega-bucks or see your name in lights. Yet still they write — because it’s challenging and yet also so much fun. There are no restrictions on the air, no boundaries of time or space, no limits on what a character can do or where they can go, in the space of 30, 45, 60 minutes. The only rules are to speak clearly as the writer, taking your listeners with you, and for the cast to have distinct voices, with immediately identifiable differences in tone and personality. If you have to struggle at any point with working out who’s speaking, the spell is broken, the play won’t work.

The playwright Tom Stoppard began his career by writing for radio. You could say it’s where he learnt his craft. Now he’s announced that his latest big project is for wireless listeners only (to be broadcast on the August bank holiday).