Rigor Mortis: BBC Radio Full-Cast Black Comedy
BBC Radio 4
Meet Dr Anthony Webster and Dr Ruth Anderson, two pathologists attempting to live normal lives in an atmosphere of death, decay and seriously unpleasant smells. Anthony loves his chosen profession, finding every cadaver exciting and surprising: 'they're like Kinder eggs that have died'. Ruth, however, longs for a juicy murder mystery, instead of one routine autopsy after another. Together, they perform post-mortems under the watchful eye of their enthusiastic head of department, Professor Donaldson, a man who's never short of a new initiative or NHS directive to implement. Also keeping the mortuary alive are hard-drinking lab assistant Gordon, no-nonsense secretary Chloe and ineffectual police sergeant Simon, who unfortunately gets queasy around corpses. Throughout three series, the team tackle a 'live' radio autopsy, a dearth of dead bodies and a health scare in the lab; find themselves forced to work on Christmas Day due to a department store drama, and witness a retirement, a leaving party, an overdue baby - and a death.... Scripted by Laurence Howarth, one of the lead writers on Dead Ringers and co-star of Radio 4's Laurence & Gus, this delightfully dark comedy is like Silent Witness, only slightly less ridiculous. Dr Anthony Webster ..... Peter Davison Dr Ruth Anderson ..... Tracy-Ann Oberman/Matilda Ziegler Professor Donaldson ..... Geoffrey Whitehead Gordon ..... Tom Price Chloe ..... Marianne Levy Simon ..... Gus Brown David/Patient ..... Stephen Critchlow Elaine/Mrs. Fitzherbert/Alison/Mrs. Wealands/Mrs. Dance ..... Beth Chalmers Mrs. Renfield ..... Rachel Atkins Daniel Kasper ..... Laurence Howarth Margaret ..... Lauren Bird Prof. Van den Hoogenband ..... Chris Pavlo Mr. Reeve ..... Nicholas Boulton Mrs. Anderson ..... Paula Wilcox Norman ..... Lewis Aaltonen Dr Betzatzoglu ..... Alex Lowe Matthew ..... Steven Kynman Mrs. Wantage ..... Felicity Montagu Mr. Wantage ..... Kim Wall Dorothy ..... Joanna Brookes Interviewer/Mr. Dance ..... Gerard McDermott
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.