Afternoon Play - Two Pipe Problem 2010 - The Memory Man Forgets

Written by Michael Chaplin. Billy Small (played by David Holt) is a rare talent; one of the few surviving "Memory Men" Music Hall variety acts who had total recall of a huge range of entertaining facts. Billy is 85, and after a trip home to his native Yorkshire, he returns to The Old Beeches totally devoid of any memory of who he is or of any of the amazing facts he used to be so proud to display. Our resident sleuths William and Sandy fancy a mini break away from the Home, and take Billy back to Little Fell, the old mining town where he grew up. There they meet his daughter and his granddaughter, but discover that Billy not only alienated the whole mining community during the last miners' strike by supporting his pitman son in returning to work, but appears now to have lost the love and support of his daughter. Can William and Sandy solve the problem? Cast William Parnes ..... Richard Briers Sandy Boyle ..... Stanley Baxter Billy Small ..... David Holt Karen/Shelley ..... Teresa Gallagher Railway Man/Harry ..... Geoffrey Whitehead Myra ..... Julia Ford Rose ..... Anne Reid Director: Marilyn Imrie A Catherine Bailey Production for BBC Radio 4.