When the Pips Stop

Oliver Emanuel interrupted The Archers on BBC Radio 4 with his play "When the Pips Stop" on Thursday 11 October - catch up on the BBC iPlayer

Oliver says: "I heard a story that in the event of a nuclear attack on the UK, BBC Radio 4 will go off air. I thought this was a fun start to a radio play. So did BBC Radio 4. I imagined a story of two sisters living on a remote Scottish island who did not talk to each other but only listened to BBC Radio 4. What happens when BBC Radio 4 goes off air? Is it the end of the world? Or the beginning of a conversation? Together with my long-time director, Kirsty Williams, I hatched a plan to write a radio play that appears to take place when BBC Radio 4 goes off air. We cut into the end of The Archers (the first time in 65 years - eek!) and there are no credits and no information on the BBC Radio 4 website. (I've even gone so far as to write a dummypage for the BBC Radio 4 website, based on a real radio play of 1924 but with the previous controllers of BBC Radio 4 as the cast members).The real play is called When The Pips Stop and is performed by the brilliant Shauna MacDonald and Jessica Hardwick. It is on at 2.13pm on BBC Radio4 on Thursday 11 October. It's about anxiety, the apocalypse and Desert Island Discs."