Radio Review: Just Dance / Sargasso

”They called a horse after a dancer?”

Just a quickie for these two Afternoon Dramas as it has turned into one of those weeks… I tweeted about Just Dance as its main star – John Heffernan – has quite the following amongst my followers and beyond and the prospect of hearing his voice when his next stage appearance is as yet unconfirmed was not one to pass up lightly. In Frances Byrnes’ Just Dance, he played Luke, the best dancer of his generation but one now crippled with doubt, psychologically unable to dance. Through a chance meeting with Afro-Caribbean Guy, he explores the driving forces behind both his talent and his torment, his luxuriously deep tones bringing the perfect amount of dancer’s elegance to the part.

Simon Bovey’s Sargasso is a much more earthy affair, set in the elver season on the Severn, where hundreds descend trying to catch the eels and sell them on at huge profit. Newcomer Kevin reckons he can get away with poaching without a license, and he’s not the only one, but when his father-in-law is the one who patrols the waters, it makes for a difficult and dangerous time. Robert Lonsdale as the younger man and Ian Gelder as the elder made it an enjoyable listen, though it never quite managed the level of gripping tension it could have done with. 

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