Don’t forget there’s an Ayckbourn treat on BBC Radio 4 this New Year weekend with a new production of Bedroom Farce.

The two-part adaptation begins today at 3pm on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds with part 2 tomorrow, also at 3pm. The play can then be heard on BBC Sounds for the next month. Click here to listen.

This marks the first time that Bedroom Farce has been adapted for the radio since it premiered at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, in 1975. Stephen Mangan and Susannah Fielding star in the adaptation, which has been directed by Martin Jarvis.

It will be the first BBC Radio adaptation of an Ayckbourn play since The Norman Conquests in 2015 – although since 1975, there have been 28 different productions of Alan Ayckbourn’s plays on BBC Radio.

Bedroom Farce follows as highly-strung couple who wreak havoc in the bedrooms of three other couples during a single night in the mid-1970s.

The production stars Stephen Mangan, Susannah Fielding, George Blagden, Laura Pitt-Pulford, Lisa Dillon, Edward Bennett, Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres. It is produced for BBC Radio 4 by Jarvis & Ayres Productions.

The play will be broadcast in two parts on BBC Radio 4 and on BBC Sounds with Part 1 at 3pm on 31 December 2022 with part 2 on 1 January 2023 at 3pm. They will be also available on BBC Sounds for 30 days from 1 January. More details can be found here.

You can find out more about Bedroom Farce at Alan Ayckbourn’s Official Website by clicking here.