Amazing Grace is a radio serial by Michelle Lipton. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2010, as a five, 15-minute installments of Woman's Hour Drama[1].
The play won the Richard Imison Memorial Award in 2012.
Plot[]
Inspired by a true story.
When Grace's Sudanese village is attacked, she scoops up her four young children and they flee, running for their lives. Safety is within reach, and a truck full of displaced villagers lets her on board. She loads her two daughters on to the truck and turns to lift the boys up - but they aren't there. And the truck must go. Grace must make any parent's most feared decision. A choice that is no choice - to save the children she has with her or abandon them to look for the two who are left behind.
This is the story of Grace - now living in the UK - and her battle to find and bring back her missing children.
Cast[]
- Grace - Wunmi Mosaku
- Bonnie - Patricia Routledge
- Leo - Greg Wise
- Jacob/Elijah - Beru Tessema
- Kyla - Yusra Wasrama
- Frankie/Red Cross Man - Bijan Daneshmand
- HOPO/ECO - Bea Comins
- Solomon - Darren Hart
- Truck Driver/Male Villager - Ali Rahman
- Composer: Stephen Kilpatrick
- Sound designer: Eloise Whitmore
- Children's Choir: Dobcross Holy Trinity Primary School
- Adult Choir: Leeds University Liturgical Choir
- Executive Producer: Nicola Shindler
- Directed by Justine Potter
A Red production for BBC Radio 4.
Critical Reception[]
"subtly directed by Justine Potter...it threw a brilliant and humbling light on the cultural gap between how family is defined in Africa compared to the developed world." - Moira Petty, The Stage[2]