Gavin Fowler

A zealous cognitive psychologist stumbles across an unbelievable discovery – a way of communicating with the other side. His joy is short-lived, however, as his daughter is put into potentially grave danger and when all leads go cold, he takes matters into his own hands to find out the truth.

Neville Rumble is a man who struggles to fit into society, but sees it more as the world's problem than his own. His life takes a very strange turn when he meets Lucy Springer at a people skills training course.

Echo goes looking for her one-time lover and comrade-in-arms, only to fall into a passionate relationship with his son. But sexual abandon triggers the unravelling of a trauma she has long buried for the sake of her children, which now threatens to tear their lives apart. Can eros bring a healing of trauma, or merely its repetition?

A BBC schools programme broadcast about Tom Stoppard’s abridged version of the play which was performed by the National Youth Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London. The televised recording of the performance is preceded by comments on the work in progress from stage director Paul Roseby and writer Tom Stoppard. Jeremy Irons, who played Antonio in the film version of The Merchant of Venice (2004), comments on the merits of producing a play with young actors.

Troilus and Cressida swear they will always be true to one another. But in the seventh year of the siege of Troy, their innocence is tested and exposed to the savage corrupting influence of war with tragic consequences.

There's more to this local delicacy than it seems.